It has been said, quite correctly, that we write as well as we read. It can also be said that we think as well as we read. Since reading well is so important, it is good to get into the habit of reading good books. The better the book, the better will be our ability to think well and write well.

In Classic Literature Made Simple, literary expert Joseph Pearce takes the reader on a guided tour of fifty great works of literature. The author of over thirty books, Pearce uses his experience of teaching literature at college level for over twenty years to show the reader the moral dimension of each work. He shows how each work presents a mystical mirror to the reader, offering insights into the meaning of life itself.

Christian civilization has given birth to numerous great books as it has given birth to numerous great saints, Joseph Pearce writes. The former should be canonized as are the latter. Great books, like great saints, enrich our faith as they enrich our culture. As such, reading good books should be an integrated part of leading a good life.

Those who read this book will learn how to read the great books well, which will help them to live the good life well.

Edited by Joseph Pearce

Contributors to this volume:
James Bemis
Paul A. Cantor
Robert Carballo, Ph.D.
Scott Crider
Joseph Pearce
Jack Trotter
R.V. Young

One of the most popular of Shakespeare's plays, King Lear is also one of the most thought-provoking. The play turns on the practical ramifications of the words of Christ that we should render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and unto God that which is God's. When confronted with the demand that she should render unto Caesar that which is God's, Cordelia chooses to love and be silent. As the play unfolds each of the principal characters learns wisdom through suffering. This edition includes new critical essays by some of the leading lights in contemporary literary scholarship.

The Ignatius Critical Editions represent a tradition-oriented alternative to popular textbook series such as the Norton Critical Editions or Oxford World Classics, and are designed to concentrate on traditional readings of the Classics of world literature. While many modern critical editions have succumbed to the fads of modernism and post-modernism, this series will concentrate on tradition-oriented criticism of these great works.
Edited by acclaimed literary biographer, Joseph Pearce, the Ignatius Critical Editions will ensure that traditional moral readings of the works are given prominence, instead of the feminist, or deconstructionist readings that often proliferate in other series of 'critical editions'. As such, they represent a genuine extension of consumer-choice, enabling educators, students and lovers of good literature to buy editions of classic literary works without having to 'buy into' the ideologies of secular fundamentalism.
The series is ideal for anyone wishing to understand great works of western civilization, enabling the modern reader to enjoy these classics in the company of some of the finest literature professors alive today.

Christ is the way, and the truth, and the life;, but fallen mankind, although made in Christ's image, is not so pure. Human history--including Church history--is a tapestry woven of three threads: the good, the bad, and the beautiful. This book tells the story of Christendom over two millennia, focusing on what was good, bad, and beautiful in each century.

These three threads run through the heart of every person, revealing the pattern of our individual lives. These very same threads bind together the collective lives of men and make up the fabric of culture and civilization. No one saw this three-dimensional form more clearly than Benedict XVI. For him, the goodness of the saints and the beauty of art are the only antidote to the dark thread of evil that runs through history. Inspired by this insight, Joseph Pearce presents the past twenty centuries to show how goodness and beauty--stemming from God himself--work to conquer the bad.

Though a staple in high school English classes, Julius Caesar is not a simple play. Seemingly irreconcilable forces are at work: fate and free will, the changeableness and stubbornness of ambitious men, the demands of public service and the desire for private gain. Drawn from history as recorded by Plutarch, the major characters-Caesar, Brutus, Cassius, and Mark Antony-are complex, as are the twists and turns of their fortunes. What kind of man rises to power? What price does he pay when he becomes a politician? These questions raised by Shakespeare are relevant in every age, whether ancient Rome, Elizabethan England, or even in our own day.

Carefully curated and beautifully bound. An uplifting gift!

This anthology provides some of the finest Christian verse written during the second millennium of Christianity.

All of the great ones are here: Hildegard of Bingen, Francis of Assisi, Dante and Chaucer from the High Middle Ages; Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross and John Donne from the Reformation; English and American Romantics such as Browning and Whittier; late nineteenth-century mystics like Dickinson and Hopkins, as well the great converts of that period like Newman and Chesterton.

A conscious attempt was made to meet both the standards of academia and the tastes and sensibilities of the faithful.

The selections are arranged chronologically to serve also as a history of verse.

Brief biographical and anecdotal introductions reveal the varied relationships of the poets with each other and with the trials and tribulations of their day.

This magnificent collection is essential for all poetry lovers for those who respond to the beauty of the written word penned in the service of spiritual truth.

The Catholic Church has been a part of English history since the arrival of Christian missionaries to Roman Britain in the first century after Christ. England was evangelized in these early centuries to such an extent that, by the time the Romans withdrew in the fifth century, the Celtic population was largely Catholic.

Anglo-Saxon England, prior to the Norman Conquest, was a land of saints. From St. Bede, with his history of the early Church, to the holy king St. Edward the Confessor, Saxon England was ablaze with the light of Christ. During the reign of St. Edward, a vision of the Virgin at Walsingham placed the Mother of God on the throne as England's queen, the land being considered her dowry. Even following the Norman Conquest, the Faith continued to flourish and prosper, making its joyful presence felt in what would become known as Merrie England.

Then in the sixteenth century, this Catholic heart was ripped from the people of England, against their will and in spite of their spirited and heroic resistance, by the reign of the Tudors. This made England once again a land of saints--that is, of martyrs, with Catholic priests and laity being put to death for practicing the Faith. The martyrdoms would continue for 150 years, followed by a further 150 years of legal and political persecution.

In the nineteenth century, against all the odds, there was a great Catholic revival, heralded by the conversion of St. John Henry Newman, which would continue into the twentieth century. Much of the greatest literature of the past century has been written by literary converts to the Church, such as G. K. Chesterton, Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene, and J. R. R. Tolkien.

This whole exciting, faith-filled story is told by Joseph Pearce within a single-volume history of true England, the England that remained true to the faith through thick and thin, in times both merrie and perilous. It is a story not only worth telling but worth celebrating.

Series Summary

The new What Every Catholic Should Know series is intended for the average faithful Catholic who wants to know more about Catholic faith and culture. The authors in this series take a panoramic approach to the topic of each book aimed at a non-specialist but enthusiastic readership. Forthcoming titles planned for this series include: literature, salvation, mercy, history, art, music and philosophy.

Book Summary

Learn about everything from the Greek epics to Shakespeare's plays to Tolkien's famous trilogy. Visit Dante's Italy, Cervantes's Spain, Dostoevsky's Russia, and Jane Austen's England along the way.

Part of the What Every Catholic Should Know series, this book is an insightful introduction to the world's rich depository of stories. It directs the reader back to The Story--the Story of Salvation History--because this is what great literature does. Great literature directs us back to the Storyteller, God himself. Allow Joseph Pearce to be your joyful guide on this brief pilgrimage through the literature every Catholic should know.

Arguably the darkest of all Shakespeare's plays, Macbeth is also one of the most challenging. Is it a work of nihilistic despair, a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing, or is it a cautionary tale warning of the dangers of Machiavellianism and relativism? Does it lead to hell and hopelessness, or does it point to a light beyond the darkness? This critical edition of Shakespeare's classic psychological drama contains essays by some of today's leading critics, exploring Macbeth as a morality play, as a history play with contemporary relevance, and as a drama that shows a vision of evil and that grapples with the problem of free will.

Before he was the world's foremost Catholic biographer, Joseph Pearce was a leader of the National Front, a British-nationalist, white-supremacist group. Before he published books highlighting and celebrating the great Catholic cultural tradition, he disseminated literature extolling the virtues of the white race, and calling for the banishment of all non-white from Britain. Pearce and his cohorts were at the center of the racial and nationalist tensions-often violent-that swirled around London in the late-1970s and early 80s. Eventually Pearce became a top member of the National Front, and the editor of its newspaper, The Bulldog. He was a full-time revolutionary. In 1982 he was imprisoned for six months for hate speech, but he came out with more anger, and more resolve. Several years later, he was imprisoned again, this time for a year and it spurred a sea change in his life. In Race with the Devil: My Journey from Racial Hatred to Rational Love, Pearce himself takes the reader through his journey from racist revolutionary to Christian, including: The youthful influences that lead him to embrace the National Front and their racist platform His dark, angry, exhilarating but ultimately empty days as a revolutionary on the front lines His imprisonment and subsequent dark night of the soul The role that Catholic luminaries such as G. K. Chesterton, Hilaire Belloc, and C. S. Lewis played in his conversion from racist radical to joyful Christian And his eventual reception in the Catholic Church Race with the Devil is one man's incredible journey to Christ, but it also much more. It is a testament to God's hand active among us and the infinite grace that Christ pours out on his people, showing that we can all turn-or return-to Christ and his Church.

J. R. R. Tolkien's magnum opus, The Lord of the Rings has been beloved for generations, selling millions of copies and selling millions more tickets through its award-winning film adaptations. The immense cultural impact of this epic is undeniable, but the deeper meaning of the story often goes unnoticed.

Here, Joseph Pearce, author of Bilbo's Journey uncovers the rich--and distinctly Christian--meaning just beneath the surface of The Lord of the Rings. Make the journey with Frodo as he makes his perilous trek from the Shire to Mordor, while Pearce expertly reveals the deeper, spiritual significance.

Did you know that the events of The Lord of the Rings are deeply intertwined with the Christian calendar? Or what the Ring, with its awesome and terrible power represents? How do the figures of good and evil in the story reflect those forces in our own lives? Find the answers to these questions and much more in Frodo's Journey.

Poetry is meant for everyone.

For you. For your child. But where to start?

Poems Every Child Should Know is here to help.

Selected and accompanied by commentary from bestselling author and literature professor Joseph Pearce, this exciting collection of verse contains classic poems that every child should know to begin a poetic ascent towards God. Not only that, but these poems are chosen so as to help all become as little children, and are ones everyone should know, regardless of age. These timeless treasures form a foundation upon which to build poetic knowledge and to see the world through the eyes of a poet, the way God intended it.

Culled from the rich history of English poetry, these gems of the English language's inheritance are meant to enrich our children's cultural treasure chest. Verse, like virtue, is often most beautiful when it is most simple. A good beginning makes a good end all the more likely, so immersing children in beautiful words--words which so powerfully and continually shape our world, our thoughts, our prayers--and teaching them to take a minute and stop to observe a beautiful sentence is of the utmost importance. Appreciating beauty in even the most ordinary of life's moments is a lesson that will prepare their minds to receive Truth, Beauty, and Goodness Himself.
Throughout the book, readers will find things to think about, inviting them to engage more deeply with individual poems. These should be seen as an invitation to an adventure into unknown territory, an opportunity to go further up and further in. Be fearless, be adventurous, and enjoy this journey into the realm of the good, the true, and the beautiful of our English language.

Further Up & Further In: Understanding Narnia by acclaimed Catholic author Joseph Pearce invites readers to return with the eyes of an adult to C. S. Lewis's magical land entered through that most important wardrobe in literary history.

Beloved by generations of readers, The Chronicles of Narnia are thought erroneously by some to be mere children's stories. In this volume, Pearce thoroughly debunks the error as he skillfully explains why there is nothing mere about such stories.

Rather, the Narnia books contain profound insights concerning the human condition. Pearce, however, goes beyond even that and illuminates the deeper riches and profound truths found therein--the highest truths, in fact: those concerning God.

Join Pearce as he explores the grown-up themes that are so important for a proper understanding of Lewis' magnificent creation, including the deep and profound Christian symbolism, extensive literary allusions, and the constant theme of temptation, sin, and redemption.

The author of numerous literary works and an authority on the writings of Lewis, Chesterton, and Tolkien, Pearce is uniquely qualified to examine the deeper theological, philosophical, and historical dimensions of the Chronicles.

With Pearce as your guide, return to Narnia, and come to understand in new and profound ways that place which has so marked the imaginative landscape of so many. Rediscover your love for Narnia, because wardrobes are for grown-ups too.

Contributors to this Volume:

James Bemis
Crystal Downing
Richard Harp
Andrew J. Harvey
Jill Kriegel
Jonathan Marks
Rebecca Munro
Joseph Pearce
Stephen Zelnick

Star-crossed Romeo and Juliet are Shakespeare's most famous lovers. A staple of high school reading lists, the tragedy especially resonates with young adult readers who, like Romeo and Juliet, have experienced the exhilarating and perilous phenomenon of being in love. Given the tragic ending of the play, what does Shakespeare illustrate about his teen protagonists: Are they the hapless victims of fate, or are they responsible for the poor choices they make? Is their love the real thing, or is it self-indulgent passion run amok? These are some of the ever relevant questions discussed in this critical edition of Romeo and Juliet.

The Ignatius Critical Editions represent a tradition-oriented alternative to popular textbook series such as the Norton Critical Editions or Oxford World Classics, and are designed to concentrate on traditional readings of the Classics of world literature. While many modern critical editions have succumbed to the fads of modernism and post-modernism, this series will concentrate on tradition-oriented criticism of these great works. Edited by acclaimed literary biographer, Joseph Pearce, the Ignatius Critical Editions will ensure that traditional moral readings of the works are given prominence, instead of the feminist, or deconstructionist readings that often proliferate in other series of 'critical editions'. As such, they represent a genuine extension of consumer-choice, enabling educators, students and lovers of good literature to buy editions of classic literary works without having to 'buy into' the ideologies of secular fundamentalism.
The series is ideal for anyone wishing to understand great works of western civilization, enabling the modern reader to enjoy these classics in the company of some of the finest literature professors alive today.

Revised, Expanded Edition

Based on exclusive, personal interviews with Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Joseph Pearce's biography of the renowned Russian dissident provides profound insight into a towering literary and political figure.

From his pro-Communist youth to his imprisonment in forced labor camps, from his exile in America to his return to Russia, Solzhenitsyn struggled with the weightiest questions of human existence: When a person has suffered the most terrible physical and emotional torture, what becomes of his spirit? Can science, politics and economics truly provide all of man's needs?

In his acclaimed literary and historical works, Solzhenitsyn exposed the brutality of the Soviet regime. Most famous for his novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and his three-volume expose of the Russian police state, The Gulag Archipelago, he won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1970.

Solzhenitsyn's Christian faith deeply informed his response to the inhumanity of modern materialism as it took shape in twentieth- century Russia. His critique applies not only to Communism, however, but also to the post-Christian capitalism now dominant in the West. On the spiritual, cultural, and socio-political level, his writings still have much to teach the world.

This book also contains a gallery of rare photographs.

The Merchant of Venice is probably the most controversial of all Shakespeare's plays. It is also one of the least understood. Is it a comedy or a tragedy? What is the meaning behind the test of the caskets? Who is the real villain of the trial scene? Is Shylock simply vicious and venomous, or is he more sinned against than sinning? Can the play be described as anti-semitic? What exactly is the quality of mercy? Is Portia one of the great Christian heroines of western literature? And what of the comedy of the rings with which Shakespeare ends the play? These questions and many others are answered in this critical edition of one of the Bard's liveliest plays.

The Protestant Reformation began five hundred years ago, accompanied by an age of turmoil and secularism we can recognize even in our own time. Rather than shrinking from the crisis, the Catholic Church responded with even deeper, and more genuine, reform. We can do the same today.

This Catholic Reformation was accomplished by many defenders of the Faith whom we now know as saints. Their holiness, courageous deeds, and sacrifices during this renewal of the Catholic Faith demonstrate the true heroism of saintly action and provide models for defending the faith in the modern world.

Diverse as they are inspiring, these heroes and saints stood up to slay the dragons of sin while championing Church teaching. Their sacrifices left the Church -- and the world -- forever changed.

• Bishop John Fisher, Sir Thomas More, and priests Edmund Campion and Robert Southwell refused to submit to England's secular tyranny and chose martyrdom instead. -- Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, and Charles Borromeo, the reforming Archbishop of Milan, spearheaded the Catholic Reformation.
• Pope Pius V brought a spirit of asceticism to the papacy and ardor to the work of reform.
• Teresa of Ávila and John of the Cross, despite enduring terrible suffering, surrendered themselves completely to Christ's great mission of reform within the Church.

The Heroes of the Catholic Reformation is a scholarly and cultured celebration of the saints who responded to the fierce oppositions of their time with courage and an authentic and lasting Catholic Reformation. Author Joseph Pearce invites us look to these heroes for inspiration as we seek to live the fullness of Faith in our fallen world.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Joseph Pearce is Director of the Aquinas Center for Faith and Culture at Aquinas College in Nashville, Tennessee, editor of the St. Austin Review, and the author of biographies of Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, G. K. Chesterton, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and other Christian literary figures.

In Catholic Literary Giants, Joseph Pearce takes the reader on a dazzling tour of the creative landscape of Catholic prose and poetry. Covering the vast and impressive terrain from Dante to Tolkien, from Shakespeare to Waugh, this book is an immersion into the spiritual depths of the Catholic literary tradition with one of today's premier literary biographers as our guide.

Focusing especially on the literary revival of the twentieth century, Pearce explores well-known authors such as G.K. Chesterton, Graham Greene and J.R.R. Tolkien, while introducing lesser-known writers Roy Campbell, Maurice Baring, Owen Barfield and others. He even includes the new saint, Pope John Paul II, who wrote many literary and poetic pieces, among them the story that was made into a feature film, The Jeweler's Shop.

Fulfilling the promise he made in his previous book, The Quest for Shakespeare, bestselling literary writer Joseph Pearce analyzes in this volume three of Shakespeare's immortal plays � The Merchant of Venice, Hamlet and King Lear � in order to uncover the Bard's Catholic beliefs.

In The Quest for Shakespeare, which has been made into an EWTN television series, Pearce delved into the known biographical evidence for Shakespeare's Catholicism. Here the popular and provocative author digs into the plays, which were written and first performed during the English crown's persecution of Catholics. English history and literature were taught for generations through the prism of English Protestantism. Of late both of these fields have been dominated in universities and academic presses by modern scholars with filters and interpretations of their own. Though the evidence for Shakespeare's Catholicism has been studied before now, thanks, in part, to the unique contribution of Joseph Pearce, the Bard's genius is being analyzed in the open air of the public arena, the very place where Shakespeare intended his dramas to entertain and edify.

Discover the Christian meaning in The Hobbit

In Bilbo's Journey go beyond the dragons, dwarves, and elves, and discover the surprisingly deep meaning of J.R.R. Tolkien's classic novel The Hobbit.

Bilbo's quest to find and slay the dragon Smaug is a riveting tale of daring and heroism, but as renowned Tolkien scholar Joseph Pearce shows, it is not simply Bilbo's journey, it is our journey too.

It is the Christian journey of self-sacrifice out of love for others, and abandonment to providence and grace.

In Bilbo's Journey: Discovering the Hidden Meaning of The Hobbit you will relive the excitement of Tolkien's classic tale, while discovering the profound Christian meaning that makes The Hobbit a truly timeless adventure.

C. S. Lewis, the great British novelist and Christian apologist, has been credited by many-including the author-for aiding their journey to the Catholic Church. For this reason, it is often perplexing that Lewis himself never became Catholic.

In C. S. Lewis and the Catholic Church, Joseph Pearce delves into Lewis's life, writings, and spiritual influences to shed light on the matter. Although C. S. Lewis's conversion to Christianity was greatly influenced by J. R. R. Tolkien, a Catholic, and although Lewis embraced many distinctively Catholic teachings, such as purgatory and the sacrament of Confession, he never formally entered the Church.

Meticulously researched and beautifully written, this book digs deep to present the facts of Lewis's life, to illuminate key points in his writings, and to ask the question: Was C. S. Lewis on the path to Rome?

This revised and updated edition-with a new introduction by Father Dwight Longenecker-is a fascinating historical, biographical, theological, and literary account of a man whose writings have led scores to the Catholic Church, despite never having become a Catholic himself.