In my last post I described how I mark the books I am reading. I think my habits formed years ago when I read How To Read a Book by Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren, but I think it’s time to re-read that classic. How To Read a Book, subtitled “The Classic Guide to … Read more
Browse through the library of any writer or exemplary teacher and you will find the leaves of the book dog-eared and scribbled notations in all the margins. No one interested in what an author is saying should read without pencil in hand. ~ Harry Golden, So What Else Is New (1964) This explains why I … Read more
Monte Cristo releases Danglars from the captivity of the bandit Vampa: “Do you repent?” asked a deep, solemn voice, which caused Danglars’ hair to stand on end. His feeble eyes endeavoured to distinguish objects, and behind the bandit he saw a man enveloped in a cloack, half lost in the shadow of a stone column. … Read more
Monte Cristo tells his former love, Mercédès, about her son: “He possesses a noble heart, madame, . . . and he has acted rightly. . . . He will increase in strength and honour by struggling with adversity, which he will convert into prosperity. Leave him to build up the future for you, and I … Read more
No surprise here! Abraham Lincoln You have a Bible and a library card–what more could you possibly need? You prefer the Charlotte Mason Method of reading living books for everything: historical fiction, biographies, real histories, nature guides, etc. No soon-to-be-outdated textbooks for you. What Type of Homeschooler Are You? brought to you by Quizilla
When Monte Cristo reveals his identity to Villefort and sees Villefort’s dead wife and child… “Monte Cristo became pale at this horrible sight; he felt he had passed beyond the bounds of vengeance, and that he could no longer say, ‘God is for and with me.’” (The Count of Monte Cristo, p. 1403) Wish I’d … Read more
Interesting perspective on parenthood from the bachelor Maximilian Morrel in The Count of Monte Cristo: “Ah, you are playing with me, like those good or rather selfish mothers who soothe their children with honied words, because their screams annoy them.” (p. 1347) Ouch. I’m afraid I have at times been guilty of selfishly soothing screaming … Read more
When Villefort tells Monte Cristo “you have unquestionably some ambition,” Monte Cristo responds, “I, too, as happens to every man once in his life, have been taken by Satan into the highest mountain in the earth, and when there he showed me all the kingdoms of the earth, and as he said before, so said … Read more
“Is not a day divided into twenty-four hours, each hour into sixty minutes, and every minute subdivided into sixty seconds? Now in 86,400 seconds very many things can be done.” ( The Count of Monte Cristo p. 435)
After his escape from the Château d’If, where he has wrongly been held prisoner for fourteen years, Edmond Dantès seeks shelter on a boat operated by a band of smugglers. When the smugglers land at the island of Monte Cristo, where the Abbé Faria had told Dantès a great treasure is concealed, Dantès reflects condescendingly … Read more