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From: Caroline Breashears

Date: 5 March, 2022

To: Garth Bond

Cc: OLL

Subject: Dangerous Reading Room Liaisons

In a previous visit to the Reading Room, I made a case for The Arabian Nights as an anti-epic embodying the commercial values of medieval and early modern Islamic silk road merchants. Today, I want to talk a bit about the actual… more

The Scottish Enlightenment is a vital part of the history of liberty. The works of Hutcheson, Carmichael, and Smith are foundational to the discussion of a free society. But the Scottish conversation about liberty did not end in the… more

From: Garth BondDate: Tuesday, February 15, 2022 at 8:06 PMTo: Caroline Breashears 

Cc: OLLSubject: Dangerous Reading Room Liaisons

The adaptation of The Wheel of Time on Amazon Prime is probably one of the best examples of the current media trend of adaptation, and its reception by fans of the original book series is equally indicative of the negatives and… more

Valentine’s Day is all but guaranteed to inspire some kind of case of the feels. Some of us love the hearts, flowers, and the unbridled romance of it. Some of us can’t stand it and flee like a vampire exposed to light. Some of us… more

Sex scandals are rarely just about sex. From the Mary Anne Clarke affair of 1809 to the recent trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, the real issue is power. What are the elite really doing? How do they abuse their position and wealth at the… more

The Law and the Lady is a much neglected Victorian legal gothic novel. Written by one of Charles Dickens's closest friends, Wilkie Collins, the novel is a forerunner of today's popular detective and legal thriller genres. In fact,… more

In the concluding chapters of A Room of One’s Own, Woolf returns her narrator, Mary, to the present. Woolf then, finally, lends her own voice to the piece.

Returning to A Room of One’s Own, we find ourselves in the home—the room—of Woolf’s narrator, Mary. Having made her observations out in the world, she returns here to tease out and develop her thoughts. Disappointed with her trip to… more

Everyone wants to have read Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own. Nowhere near as many have read it. I got to it (finally) in 2021. Read along with me, it’s past time.

I recently had a chance to spend a morning at the Moderna Museet, Stockholm’s museum of modern art. Though I admit to a preference for Medieval and Renaissance art, Stockholm seems to bring out the modernist in me, and I wanted to… more

Amy Willis and Sarah Skwire recently took a little time out of all our behind the scene work at Liberty Fund's websites to have a lively and wide-ranging discussion about  two Christmas stories by Charles Dickens. We hope you… more

Una serie di Reading Room su La Divina Commedia

Proseguendo attraverso il terzo girone dell'Inferno, passiamo con Dante e Virgilio attraverso innumerevoli ombre delle anime dei morti che giacciono nelle pozzanghere sporche,… more

A Reading Room series on the Divine Comedy

Continuing through the third circle of Hell, we pass with Dante and Virgil through countless shades of the souls of the dead that are lying in the filthy puddles, apparently able to tread… more

Una serie di Reading Room su La Divina Commedia

Siamo ora nel terzo girone dell'Inferno con Dante. Ovunque guardi vede nuovi tormenti. Sta piovendo, una pioggia fredda, pesante, senza fine, che si rinnova sempre in forza e… more

After Jane Austen died, her brother Henry penned a "Biographical Notice of the Author" verging on hagiography.  The restrained author he depicts--"as she never deserved disapprobation . . . she never met reproof"--evokes a lady… more

A Reading Room SeriesWe are now in the third circle of Hell with Dante. Everywhere he looks he sees new torments. It is raining—a cold, heavy, non-ending rain, ever-renewing in strength and accursedness. Huge pellets of hail and… more

Una serie di Reading Room su La Divina Commedia

Dante distingue tre singole ombre di <<malfattore carnale>> che vengono verso di lui, lamentandosi e trasportati insieme all'inesorabile uragano. <<Maestro>>,… more

Frankenstein's monster evokes little wonder in the fall when he lurches across our television screens or stands on our front porches demanding candy. We expect Mary Shelley's creature around Halloween. What is startling is to find… more

A Reading Room series on The Divine Comedy

Dante makes out three individual “carnal malefactor” shades coming toward him, lamenting and being born along by the relentless hurricane. “Master,” he asks Virgil. “Who are these people,… more

“Knowledge is, of course, liberty,” said Mattheson.“In compressed tabloids,” said Birkin, looking at the dry, stiff little body of the Baronet. Immediately Gudrun saw the famous sociologist as a flat bottle, containing tabloids of… more

Una serie di Reading Room su La Divina Commedia

Dante e Virgilio lasciano il Limbo e si fanno strada nel secondo girone dell'Inferno. Questo cerchio è di dimensioni più piccole del primo (l'Inferno di Dante ha la forma di un cono… more

A Reading Room series on The Divine Comedy

Dante and Virgil leave Limbo and make their way into the second circle of Hell. This circle is smaller in size than the first (Dante’s Hell is shaped like an upside-down cone, so that… more

Una serie di Reading Room su La Divina Commedia

Dante e Virgilio proseguono attraverso una foresta, una foresta di <<fantasmi folti>>. Non molto lontano in questa foresta Dante vede un fuoco divampare nell'oscurità.… more