Paradiso by Dante Alighieri
In Dante’s Paradiso, the journey of the protagonist reaches its culmination in the celestial realms, where he experiences the ultimate redemption by divine grace. As Dante ascends through the various spheres of Heaven, each representing …
Purgatorio by Dante Alighieri
Dante Alighieri’s “Purgatorio,” the second cantica of his monumental epic poem “The Divine Comedy,” continues the journey of the poem’s protagonist—Dante himself—through the afterlife. Having traversed the depths of Hell in “Inferno,” Dante and his …
Inferno by Dante Alighieri
Dante Alighieri’s “Inferno,” the first part of his epic poem “The Divine Comedy,” is one of the seminal works of Western literature. Written in the early 14th century, it provides a detailed account of the …
1984 by George Orwell
After reading George Orwell’s 1984 this week, it fully reinforced my personal views about the evils of socialism and totalitarianism. The novel, set in a dystopian future where the Party, led by Big Brother, exercises …
The Abolition of Man
C.S. Lewis’s “The Abolition of Man” is a defense of objective values against the encroachments of subjectivism and relativism. While Lewis’s arguments are informed by various sources, the classical Greek philosophies of Plato and Aristotle …
The Pilgrim’s Progress
Having read The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan, it is helpful to understand Bunyan’s background as the author of this widely-known book. The Pilgrim’s Progress is a long-time classic about living as a Christian throughout …
Confessions by Saint Augustine
A couple of weeks ago, I finished reading Confessions by Augustine. It was the first written work of Augustine I read as a whole, and it is a classic on a personal reading list of …
The Republic by Plato
The purpose of reading Plato’s Republic is to develop a deeper and richer understanding of Augustine’s The City of God. Before beginning to fully absorb The City of God, Plato’s Republic, written in 375 B.C., …
Biography: Einstein
The biography Einstein: His Life and Universe, written by Walter Isaacson, is about the life story of a morally flawed genius. In some respects, the heights of his genius are matched by the depths of …
Errata to Wormwood
This post is a book review of C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters. To track and understand what Lewis wrote from the perspective of Screwtape in his correspondence to Wormwood, I wrote these summaries in the …
