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Published: Jan. 18, 2022, 6 a.m.

Welcome to this new season of The Literary Life podcast! This week we bring you an introduction both to William Shakespeare and his play A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream. Hosts Angelina, Cindy and Thomas seek to give new Shakespeare readers a place from which to jump into his work and more experienced readers eyes to see more layers in his stories. Cindy begins with some perspective on how to start cultivating a love for Shakespeare. Angelina shares her \u201chot take\u201d on whether you should read the play or watch the play. They suggest some books for further digging into Shakespeare\u2019s works, and Angelina gives an overview of the format of his comedies. Thomas goes into some detail about Roman comedy.

Next week we will be back with a discussion of Acts I and II of the play. Also, if you would like to join the free live read-along over at HouseofHumaneLetters.com.

Join us this spring for our next Literary Life Conference \u201cThe Battle Over Children\u2019s Literature\u201d featuring special guest speaker Vigen Guroian. The live online conference will take place April 7-9, 2022, and you can go to HouseofHumaneLetters.com for more information.

Commonplace Quotes:

If certain tendencies within our civilization were to proceed unchecked, they would rapidly take us towards a society which, like that of a prison, would be both completely introverted and completely without privacy. The last stand of privacy has always been, traditionally, the inner mind\u2026.It is quite possible, however, for communications media, especially the newer electronic ones, to break down the associative structures of the inner mind and replace them by the prefabricated structures of the media . A society entirely controlled by their slogans and exhortations would be introverted because nobody would be saying anything: there would only be echo, and Echo was the mistress of Narcissus\u2026.the triumph of communication is the death of communication: where communication forms a total environment, there is nothing to be communicated.

Northrop Frye

No writer can persist for five hundred pages in being funny at the expense of someone who is dead.

Harold Nicolson

Originality was a new and somewhat ugly idol of the nineteenth century.

Janet Spens

Unwisdom

by Siegfried Sassoon

 To see with different eyes From every day, And find in dream disguise Worlds far away\u2014  To walk in childhood's land With trusting looks, And oldly understand Youth's fairy-books\u2014  Thus our unwisdom brings Release which hears The bird that sings In groves beyond the years. 

Book List:

\u201cThe Practice of Biography\u201d by Harold Nicolson

The Modern Century by Northrop Frye

An Essay on Shakespeare\u2019s Relation to Tradition by Janet Spens

Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare by Edith Nesbit

Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb

Stage Fright on a Summer Night by Mary Pope Osborne

Leon Garfield\u2019s Shakespeare Stories by Leon Garfield

Stories from Shakespeare by Marchette Chute

Asimov\u2019s Guide to Shakespeare by Isaac Asimov

The Meaning of Shakespeare by Harold Goddard

The Elizabethan World Picture by E. M. Tillyard

Shakespeare\u2019s Problem Plays by E. M. Tillyard

Shakespeare\u2019s Early Comedies by E. M. Tillyard

Shakespeare\u2019s History Plays by E. M. Tillyard

Great Stage of Fools by Peter Leithardt

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Connect with Us:

You can find Angelina and Thomas at\xa0HouseofHumaneLetters.com, on Instagram\xa0@angelinastanford,\xa0and on Facebook at\xa0https://www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/

Find Cindy at\xa0morningtimeformoms.com, on Instagram\xa0@cindyordoamoris\xa0and on Facebook at\xa0https://www.facebook.com/cindyrollins.net/. Check out\xa0Cindy\u2019s own Patreon page\xa0also!

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