The Literary Life Podcast

On today's episode of The Literary Life Podcast with Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks, we continue our series on Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. Before jumping into chapters 6-12, Angelina and Thomas re-cap chapter 5 so that they can keep the entire Lowood School storyline together. They discuss the character of Helen and how she mirrors Jane, as well as the images of fire and ice throughout this book. In looking at the character of Miss Temple, they also highlight her as the picture of a well-ordered person. When Jane arrives at Thornfield, we find more fairy tale and Gothic novel elements, specifically the reference to the story of Bluebeard. Finally, when Mr. Rochester is introduced, Angelina shares some thoughts on the medieval understanding of the soul and the passions.
Registration is now open for all year-long classes at The House of Human Letters! You can also check out all the latest offerings of mini-classes and webinars, both upcoming and recorded in the past. Find everything at HouseofHumaneLetters.com.
Please visit our podcast website for the full show notes on this episode: https://theliterary.life/320.

Welcome to The Literary Life Podcast with Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks. This week we begin our much-anticipated series on Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë! After sharing their commonplace quotes, Angelina and Thomas set the stage for this book by covering some of Charlotte Brontë's personal and literary background. Angelina points out some symbolic things that we will be looking for in this book, as well as the important fact that it is a journey story. They also discuss the history and characteristics of the Gothic novel.
In discussing the first five chapters of Jane Eyre, Angelina again highlights repeated scenes that will show Jane's spiritual development throughout the story, while Thomas makes some comparisons of this book to other stories such as Mansfield Park and Pamela.
You can check out all the latest offerings of mini-classes and webinars, both upcoming and recorded in the past, at HouseofHumaneLetters.com.
Click here to find the episodes we published covering Anne Brontë's book Agnes Grey. You can also listen to our series on Mansfield Park here.
For the full show notes on this episode, including book links, today's poem, and commonplace quotes, please visit https://theliterary.life/319.

Today on The Literary Life podcast, Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks are here to offer some helpful ideas for reading Shakespeare plays and how to approach the Bard. They start off sharing their own stories of first being exposed to Shakespeare. Next, Thomas and Angelina address the idea that Shakespeare is too high-brow for the ordinary reader. Angelina also gives her hot take on whether you should watch or read a Shakespeare play first. She also tells some stories about reading the Bard with her children and students. Some other helpful topics they cover are the different types of plays and their forms, the cosmology behind the plays, and potential problems with some modern interpretations of Shakespearean drama. 
Please visit our website to view the full show notes for this episode with links to previous episodes we have done on Shakespeare, as well as the books mentioned as resources in this discussion: https://theliterary.life/318. 
Join us back again here next week when we begin our series covering Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë!
You can check out all the latest offerings of mini-classes and webinars, both upcoming and recorded in the past, at HouseofHumaneLetters.com.

This week on The Literary Life podcast, we are excited to bring back a special episode from the vault: The Literary Life of Charlotte Mason! Along with Angelina, Thomas, and Cindy, we also have Donna-Jean Breckenridge and Karen Glass of the AmblesideOnline Advisory. They start the conversation by sharing who Charlotte Mason was and what her background was. 
Karen also talks about how and why Mason developed her practices and philosophy and her educational foundation, the PNEU. Donna-Jean mentions the interesting ephemera belonging to Charlotte Mason housed at the Armitt Museum in Ambleside. Finally, the talk turns to how widely Miss Mason read and how important books were to her throughout her whole life.
You can check out all the latest offerings of mini-classes and webinars, both upcoming and recorded in the past, at HouseofHumaneLetters.com. Registration is also opening on a rolling basis for Year-Long Classes over the next several weeks, so pop over there now to see what is coming up!
Find the full show notes for this episode at https://theliterary.life/317 for all the book links, poem, and commonplace quotes!

On The Literary Life podcast this week, Angelina and Thomas are back with this second episode on the play Don Juan by Moliere. After sharing their commonplace quotes for this week, Thomas kicks off the discussion of the play with a definition of the farce and how it applies to this play. They share more notable passages of Don Juan as they highlight related literature and stories from across Europe, the archetypes and stock characters represented by Sganarelle, and the value of the comedic form. They also talk about other works that were influenced by this play.
Don't forget to check out the complete show notes for this episode at https://theliterary.life/316.