The Inferno (The Divine Comedy Series)
The epic grandeur of Dante’s masterpiece has inspired readers for 700 years, and has entered the human imagination. But the further we move from the late medieval world of Dante, the more a rich understanding and enjoyment of the poem depends on knowledgeable guidance. Robert Hollander, a renowned scholar and master teacher of Dante, and Jean Hollander, an accomplished poet, have written a beautifully accurate and clear verse translation of the first volume of Dante’s epic poem, the Divine Comedy. Featuring the original Italian text opposite the translation, this edition also offers an extensive and accessible introduction and generous commentaries that draw on centuries of scholarship as well as Robert Hollander’s own decades of teaching and research. The Hollander translation is the new standard in English of this essential work of world literature.
More info →Athanasius: On the Incarnation
When I first opened his De Incarnatione I soon discovered by a very simple test that I was reading a masterpiece. I knew very little Christian Greek except that of the New Testament and I had expected difficulties. To my astonishment I found it almost as easy as Xenophon; and only a master mind could, in the fourth century, have written so deeply on such a subject with such classical simplicity. Every page I read confirmed this impression. I do not think the reader will find here any of that sawdusty quality which is so common in modern renderings from the ancient languages. That is as much as the English reader will notice; those who compare the version with the original will be able to estimate how much wit and talent is presupposed in such a choice, for example, as "these wiseacres" on the very first page. C. S. LEWIS
More info →English Literature for Boys and Girls
Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall was a British author, particularly well known for her works of popular national history for children.
More info →Memorize the Reasons!: Defending the Faith with the Catholic Art of Memory
In his bestseller Memorize the Faith!, Kevin Vost rediscovered a memory method invented by the ancient Greeks and perfected by medieval scholars, and showed twenty-first-century Catholics how to use it to recall everything from the Ten Commandments to the Seven Deadly Sins. Now, in Memorize the Reasons!, Dr. Vost shows you how to remember information you need to explain and defend the Catholic Faith. Often when we re challenged by non-Catholics who always seem to be able to quote chapter and verse we stumble, and later think regretfully of what we might have said. The powerful mnemonic techniques found in Memorize the Reasons! will make sure it never happens again. In simple steps that even children can master, Dr. Vost teaches you how to build memory cathedrals inside your mind, and to fill them with vibrant images that will instantly recall reasons for the papacy and Church authority, for Catholic beliefs about the Blessed Virgin Mary, for Sacred Tradition (and against sola scriptura), and more!
More info →Memorize the Mass!
In Memorize the Mass! Dr. Kevin Vost harnesses the powerful memory methods of Sts. Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas to help readers learn and recall all the parts and rites of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, both the New Order and the Traditional Latin Mass. Memorize the Mass! will show you not merely how to memorize facts and repeat them like a parrot, but to come to know the names, the sequence, and the meanings of both forms of the Roman Rite of the Mass like a rational human being made in God's image and likeness with an intellect and a will. This completely guided and illustrated tutorial in the Catholic Art of Memory will enable you to engrave each and every one of those rites upon the tablet of your heart, knowing them literally forward and backward, and loving the Mass all the more for it!
More info →Mere Motherhood: Morning Times, Nursery Rhymes, and My Journey Toward Sanctification
It was back in the 1980's when Cindy Rollins, then a new mom in search of the best ways to teach her baby son, first heard about homeschooling. Thirty years and nine children later, Cindy has become a popular blogger, podcaster, and award-winning teacher. This is her story. It's a story of big families and cross-country moves and small-town living. It's about great books and morning times and nursery rhymes. It's the story of a dedicated mother's journey toward the Truth and the family she brought along with her.
More info →The Elfin Knight
Edmund Spenser (1559-99) has earned the title "the poet's poet" because of the high poetry of his epic and because so many great poets, including Milton, Dryden, Tennyson, and Keats, cut their poetic teeth on The Faerie Queene. The hero of Book II is Sir Guyon, the knight of Temperance. But do not let that throw you. This is not a poem about teetotalism. As C.S. Lewis puts it, The Faerie Queene "demands of us a child's love of marvels and dread of bogies, a boy's thirst for adventures, a young man's passions for physical beauty." Toby Sumpter's modernization follows Roy Maynard's Fierce Wars and Faithful Loves, and includes similar notes that explain obscure vocabulary and references. Eat this book. Devour it. Read it and then reread it. Make its characters and adventures and lessons and images a part of your mental furniture. Be enchanted. Feed your hunger for fantasy. Exercise your faith. Test your judgment. Form your imagination. Enter Faerie Land.
More info →Fierce Wars and Faithful Loves
Edmund Spenser (1552-99) ranks just below Shakespeare, with Chaucer and Milton, in the pantheon of great writers. In The Faerie Queene, he spins a sub-created fantasy universe that would be the model for Tolkien and Lewis. This poet, whom Milton considered to be a better teacher than the medieval theologians, wrote an epic tale of adventure, love, noble deeds, and faith. Despite all his acknowledged greatness, almost no one reads Spenser anymore.
Roy Maynard takes the first book of The Faerie Queene, exploring the concept of Holiness with the character of the Redcross Knight, and makes Spenser accessible again. He does this not by dumbing it down, but by deftly modernizing the spelling, and including notes in the margins explaining the obscurities in clever asides, and cuing the reader towards the right response.
More info →Questing Knights of the Faerie Queen
Edmund Spenser's "The Faerie Queen" was written in 1596 for Queen Elizabeth 1st. Award-winning author Geraldine McCaughrean re-tells this famous romantic text in a gripping and accessible way. Lavishly designed and brilliantly illustrated by Jason Cockcroft, this is a perfect and a wonderful present.
More info →Saint George and the Dragon
A Caldecott Award-winning tale of bravery, perseverance, and peace.
Saint George and the Dragon retells the segment from Spenser's The Faerie Queene, in which George, the Red Cross Knight, slays the dreadful dragon that has been terrorizing the countryside for years and brings joy to the land.
This special new paperback edition of St. George and the Dragon commemorates the 25th Anniversary of the Caldecott Award-winning picture book and is the perfect addition to any collection of folk and fairy tales.
More info →The Faerie Queene
The Faerie Queene was one of the most influential poems in the English language. Dedicating his work to Elizabeth I, Spenser brilliantly united Arthurian romance and Italian renaissance epic to celebrate the glory of the Virgin Queen. Each book of the poem recounts the quest of a knight to achieve a virtue: the Red Crosse Knight of Holinesse, who must slay a dragon and free himself from the witch Duessa; Sir Guyon, Knight of Temperance, who escapes the Cave of Mammon and destroys Acrasia’s Bowre of Bliss; and the lady-knight Britomart’s search for her Sir Artegall, revealed to her in an enchanted mirror. Although composed as a moral and political allegory, The Faerie Queene’s magical atmosphere captivated the imaginations of later poets from Milton to the Victorians.
This edition includes the letter to Raleigh, in which Spenser declares his intentions for his poem, the commendatory verses by Spenser’s contemporaries and his dedicatory sonnets to the Elizabethan court, and is supplemented by a table of dates and a glossary
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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