One of the most brilliant books ever written. I've read it three times, and each time glean new information. It is the kind of book that grips you from start to finish. Part murder mystery, part philosophy text, there is so much to gain from each reading. Father Zossima is one of my favorite characters of all time. My most frequently used quote comes from his words:
"Hell is not being able to love."
Notice he didn't say "Hell is not BEING loved." "Hell is not being ABLE to love." Think about everybody that has ever hurt you or driven you crazy with frustration. Isn't it always about how you have withdrawn your love from them, and you are waiting for something from them before you will reinstate them in your regard? That is why forgiveness is so powerful. It redeems you from hell. It doesn't matter if the other person accepts, or even knows about your forgiveness. It frees your heart to love again, so that you can leave off torturing your own soul. Such wisdom. Such a book.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Reflections on the Revolution in France, by Edmund Burke
Burke published this book before Napoleon took power, before the bloodbath of the purges, before the French had beheaded their king. Yet, he predicted that all of that would happen. At first blush, I thought that the man must be a prophet. He fortold it all, in the exact order it would occur, and understood exactly why it would happen. Since that first reading, I have read quite a bit of history, and have learned how Burke did it. He was a genius for certain, but his extraordinary insight came from his extensive study of history. Similar events have occured more than once, under similar circumstances. As Santayana said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Burke remembered a broad span of the past.
His genius extends to more than just prediction. His breadth of understanding of political forces is astounding. He was a British Whig, which was the liberal party of the time, yet he has been claimed by Conservatives as their founding father! He understood the full breadth of political philosophy, and explained it all with crystal clerity. Here is a sample from either end:
From the liberal side--"The world on the whole will gain by liberty, without which virtue cannot exist."
From the conservative side--"The effect of liberty to individuals is, that they may do what they please. We ought to see what it will please them to do, before we risk congratulations, which may be soon turned into complaints."
How true that last quote proved, as the British (and Americans) went from fawning admiration of the French Revolution, to appalled repugnance, within very few years. Read him. It doesn't get any better than this.
His genius extends to more than just prediction. His breadth of understanding of political forces is astounding. He was a British Whig, which was the liberal party of the time, yet he has been claimed by Conservatives as their founding father! He understood the full breadth of political philosophy, and explained it all with crystal clerity. Here is a sample from either end:
From the liberal side--"The world on the whole will gain by liberty, without which virtue cannot exist."
From the conservative side--"The effect of liberty to individuals is, that they may do what they please. We ought to see what it will please them to do, before we risk congratulations, which may be soon turned into complaints."
How true that last quote proved, as the British (and Americans) went from fawning admiration of the French Revolution, to appalled repugnance, within very few years. Read him. It doesn't get any better than this.
Middlemarch, by George Eliot
There are few novels with a theme of self-sacrifice and redemption. Most of the great ones seem to fit in this category. Eliot gives us not one, not two, but three redemption stories in one tender novel. Eliot believed that art should serve a purpose. She said: "If art does not enlarge men's sympathies it does nothing morally. I have had heart-cutting experience that opinions are a poor cement between human souls, and the only effect I ardently long to produce by my writings, is that those who read them should be better able to imagine and to feel the pains and the joys of those who differ from themselves in everything but the broad fact of being struggling, erring human creatures." She achieves this by letting us into the heart and soul of each of her characters. We sympathize fully with both saints and sinners, feeling their exaltation and their grief. Few books have moved me as this one has.
The Jeeves Collection, by P. G. Wodehouse
Most of my favorite books are serious in nature, a learning experience. This is one delightful exception. This book is one of the few that have ever made me laugh out loud while reading it alone. It is hysterically funny. It is "humour" with an "u", that is, British style. Jeeves is the character who started all of those stereotyped butlers who are smarter than their employers. You would think that, since we are so familiar with this kind of character now, we would know what to expect, but Jeeves is a constant surprise. He was the first, and he is still the best. As the title of one of Wodehouses novels has it, he is "the Inimitable Jeeves."
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Excellent Women, by Barbara Pym
Warm, witty and wonderful. Pym gives us glimpses of human nature with all its flaws, but with such sympathy that we cannot help but love her characters. The best novels help us to develop our empathy, or what Eliot called "fellow-feeling," toward mankind. Such books teach us to be as forgiving of the flaws of the characters as we are of our own flaws, and so learn empathy toward real people. This is one of those rare books. It give us glimpses of humanity so close to us that we will smile in recognition of the face in the mirror. I have read this book several times, and find that it never gets old. Pym gives us romance with all of its false starts, hesitancies and doubts still intact, yet leaves us feeling happy in the end that all works out for the best. Literature really doesn't get any better than this.
Discourses, by Epictetus
The ideals of Stoicism are not very popular today. Only the military truly appreciates what they have to offer, and for some that alone is enough to turn them away. Yet, there is no wisdom the world needs more than what Epictetus offers. His insights are so startlingly right, his presentation so witty, his life so exemplary that we would be fools to ignore him. He teaches us, not just to be Men (as the military interprets stoicism), but to be fully Human in the best sense. Here is just a taste:
He denounces the claims of so many that we cannot agree on what to value, or call good, in men. He expounds upon how men choose a good horse, and concludes that soundness reveals itself through a horses endurance while running. "Is there nothing in a man such as running in a horse by which it will be known which is superior and inferior? Is there not modesty, fidelity, justice? Show yourself superior in these, that you may be superior as a man."
"Take care then to do nothing like a wild beast; but if you do, you have lost the character of a man; you have not fulfilled your promise."
"What do you think that Hercules would have been if there had not been such a lion, and hydra, and stag, and bear, and certain unjust and bestial men, whom Hercules used to drive away and clear out? And what would he have been doing if there had been nothing of the kind? Is it not plain that he would have wrapped himself up and have slept? In the first place, then, he would not have been a Hercules, when he was dreaming away all his life in such luxery and ease, and even if he had been one what would have been the use of him? And what the use of his arms, and of the strength of the other parts of his body, and his endurance and noble spirit, if such circumstances and occasions had not roused and exercised him?"
And where would we be without Epictetus?
He denounces the claims of so many that we cannot agree on what to value, or call good, in men. He expounds upon how men choose a good horse, and concludes that soundness reveals itself through a horses endurance while running. "Is there nothing in a man such as running in a horse by which it will be known which is superior and inferior? Is there not modesty, fidelity, justice? Show yourself superior in these, that you may be superior as a man."
"Take care then to do nothing like a wild beast; but if you do, you have lost the character of a man; you have not fulfilled your promise."
"What do you think that Hercules would have been if there had not been such a lion, and hydra, and stag, and bear, and certain unjust and bestial men, whom Hercules used to drive away and clear out? And what would he have been doing if there had been nothing of the kind? Is it not plain that he would have wrapped himself up and have slept? In the first place, then, he would not have been a Hercules, when he was dreaming away all his life in such luxery and ease, and even if he had been one what would have been the use of him? And what the use of his arms, and of the strength of the other parts of his body, and his endurance and noble spirit, if such circumstances and occasions had not roused and exercised him?"
And where would we be without Epictetus?
Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens
The primary factor that places a book among my favorites is that it inspires me to be a better person. This is just such a book. Dickens gives us human greed, human envy and human cruelty in full measure, but also human sympathy, human generosity and human charity in full measure too. This is a coming of age story in which the protagonist opens our eyes to what it means to be a great man. The Great Expectations of the title ultimately deal with the yearning in our own heart to live up to the best that is in us.
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