This book, like the house in Bluestone Road, breathes and lives. Like one of the characters, Beloved, it demands that you keep going, haunts you the moment you’re finished. Toni Morrison depicts the psychological effects of slavery by personifying pain and trauma into an unexpected visitor who is nevertheless welcomed by a mother, Seth, and …

Continue reading WEEK 7: Beloved by Toni Morrison

In this book, Jacques Barzun discusses the mechanistic philosophy shared by three men he considered influential in the 19th century. His comparisons of the pre- and post- Darwinism/Marxism/Wagnerism are illuminating, underscoring the impact of the works of men who redefined science, economics, and art. Barzun begins each critique with the three men’s failure to acknowledge …

Continue reading WEEK 6: Darwin, Marx, and Wagner: Critique of a Heritage by Jacques Barzun