For This Summer -- The Play’s the Thing!

We have a dramatic reading challenge to offer our bookish friends this summer. And I mean dramatic in its literal sense. For among the novels, histories, theological studies, cultural commentaries, and “pure pleasure reads” that Claire and I tackle, we also enjoy reading plays. And we have included in our reading regimen for the next 2-3 months several of our favorite plays. 

We are inviting friends to go “on stage” with us in this theatrical adventure by selecting 1 or 2 (or more) of the plays in this list to read along with us. Now you know that Claire and I are quite positive about these kinds of reading partnerships because they provide motivation, accountability, and the added bonus of possibly exchanging opinions with like-minded friends. So, for those of you who do choose to read a play or two or more, please use the e-mail or phone to let us know your reactions to the plays. For locals, we could even arrange to get together over coffee. 

And, by the way, as a special incentive, we are offering a sweet reward for everyone who is successful in reading six or more of the plays from our list; namely, Bakers Candies or Claire’s chocolate chip cookies! You can’t beat that kind of deal.

Here are the plays we will be reading:

Our Town by Thornton Wilder

 A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt

Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe

Sentenced to Life by Malcolm Muggeridge

You Can’t Take It with You by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart.

Abortion by Eugene O’Neill

The Doctor and the Devils (a screenplay) by Dylan Thomas. 

In addition to these, we will also be reading 3 of Shakespeare’s history plays (Antony & Cleopatra, Henry V, and Julius Caesar) and 3 plays by James Barrie (Peter Pan, Quality Street, and The Admirable Crichton.)

Yes, Shakespeare's Henry VI Is Worth Your Time -- Even Part One

Henry VI, especially Part One of the trilogy, is often described as one of the weakest plays of William Shakespeare (aka Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford) but I find it full of drama, pathos, and plenty of life lessons. 

Indeed, this play presents the heroic courage and steadfastness of John Talbot (1st Earl of Shrewsbury); the savage, mystic, even eerie, character of Joan of Arc; the very beginning of the conflict between the houses of York and Lancaster that will lead eventually to the War of the Roses; the brave loyalty of John’s son; the utter failure of the seductive trap laid by the Countess of Auvergne for Talbot; the self-serving egos of both York and Somerset which result in the defeat of the English and the noble death of Talbot. 

All this and more are there in Henry VI Part 1 and I always find it a real treat to read.

Along the way this time I collected a few of my favorite quotations from the play:

“Heavens, can you suffer hell so to prevail?”
(Said by Talbot, Act I, Scene V)

“Well, let them practice and converse with spirits.
God is our fortress, in whose conquering name
Let us resolve to scale their flinty bulwarks.”
(Said by Talbot, Act II, Scene I)

“Unbidden guests are often welcomest when they are gone.”
(Said by Bedford, Act II, Scene II)

“Civil dissension is a viperous worm
That gnaws the bowels of the commonwealth.”
(Said by King Henry, Act III, Scene I)

“Care is no cure, but rather corrosive,
For things that are not to be remedied.”
(Said by Joan La Pucelle -- Joan of Arc -- Act III, Scene III)

“Good Lord, what madness rules in brainsick men, 
when for so slight and frivolous a cause

such factious emulations shall arise!”

(Said by King Henry, Act IV, Scene I)

“’Tis much when scepters are in children's hands,
But more when envy breeds unkind division; 
There comes the ruin, there begins confusion.”
(Said by King Henry, Act IV, Scene I)

“The fraud of England, not the force of France,
Hath now entrapped the noble-minded Talbot.
Never to England shall he bear his life, 
But dies betrayed to fortune by your strife.”
(Said by King Henry, Act IV, Scene IV)

“Here on my knee I beg mortality,
Rather than life preserved with infamy.”
(Said by Talbot's son John, Act IV, Scene V)

“Of all base passions, fear is most accursed.”
(Said by Joan La Pucelle -- Joan of Arc -- Act IV, Scene II)

Some Genuine Gems (The Latest Reading Review)

The first 2 1/2 months of 2021 have gone exceptionally well in the reading department. 24 books spread out (as usual) in a variety of genres: history, novels, entertainment reading, drama, Christian life, even some poetry this time around. But the part of this year's reading that is unusual thus far is that there have only been a few re-reads in that pile whereas around 50% of the books I read are normally "old friends" that I've spent time with before.

So, you're wondering if any of those books made my 4-star list or are otherwise worthy of recommendation? 

Sure. Here they are.

* Christmas Stories by Charles Dickens was a special collection of little-known tales from Dickens' magazine, Household Words. Terrific stuff. 

* The Book of King Arthur by Howard Pyle was a special treat for both Claire and I because we listened to an audio version during a trip to Kansas and back. It is connected to a second volume, The Book of Three Worthies, which we finished listening to at home. We liked the first one quite a bit. However, we wouldn't recommend the second one.

* Salt to the Sea by Ruth Sepetys was the January selection of our book club of longstanding, the Notting Hill Napoleons. The novel is a very good one about an unusual group of war refugees fleeing across Germany in the last months of WWII. It is an extremely interesting, inspiring, page-turner.

* Lorna Doone by R.D. Blackmore misses being a 4-star classic by just a half star or so because I find the ending a bit disappointing. Still, this was my third time reading this novel and so you can see I do consider it worth reading.

* Through The Magic Door by Arthur Conan Doyle is a small (but delightful) book about books, writers, and reading that I absolutely loved. It's a rare gem that you probably couldn't afford unless, like me, you read it for free on your Kindle.

* Nathaniel Philbrick's history, Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution, was excellent.

* Our Town by Thornton Wilder is a classic that I probably read (and treasure) every other year or so. And my love for the play isn't only because I acted in it way, way back in high school.

* The five Rush Revere books by Rush & Kathryn Limbaugh. These interesting and fun books are for modern kids...and for those adults who are interested in providing effective ways to pass along the true history and ideals of America to the next generation.

* The Singer Trilogy by Calvin Miller. Yes, it's poetry but easily do-able even for those who wouldn't normally bother with verse. I found it very moving and memorable.

* He Came Unto His Own But... by Donald Grey Barnhouse. This is a short Bible commentary that concentrates on 

* Hamlet & Othello by Edward de Vere (aka William Shakespeare). Two of the Bard's best known tragedies. 'Nuff said.

* Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories by C.S. Lewis. Among the treasures in this small volume are his essays "On Stories," "On Three Ways of Writing for Children," and "Sometimes Fairy Stories May Say Best What's To Be Said."

* The Triumph of William McKinley: Why the Election of 1896 Still Matters (Karl Rove) probably told me more than I wanted to know, but it was extremely well researched and of significant interest.

Bookin’ Along in the New Year

Due to the winter weather which has precluded outdoor activities (especially my walking & praying routines) AND a trip to the March for Life in Washington D.C. which created a lot of hours on planes and in hotel rooms (including being stranded in Chicago for a day), I have done a bit more reading than normal in these 6 weeks since my last book roundup here.

There have been a few clunkers in that bunch of 19 books read since January 1 — books that I gave only 1 or 2 Stars. And there have been several 3 Star books that I enjoyed, found of value, and which, in certain circumstances, I would recommend.

But it’s the 4 Star books that I would recommend most heartily, books of excellence and high significance. Here’s the specific breakdown according to genre with the titles in bold showing books that were, in fact, re-reads for me.

Fiction:
* The Lone Star Ranger (Zane Grey) - 1 Stars
* The Mysterious Island (Jules Verne) - 4 Stars
* Kim (Rudyard Kipling) - 2 Stars
* The Paradoxes of Mr. Pond (G.K. Chesterton) - 3 Stars
* The People of the Mist (H. Rider Haggard) - 2 Stars
* Journey to the Center of the Earth (Jules Verne) - 1 Star

Historical Fiction:
* Fair Stood the Wind for France (H.E. Bates) - 3 Stars
* Valley Forge: George Washington and the Crucible of Victory (Newt Gingrich, William R. Forstchen, Albert S. Hanser) - 4 Stars
* The Cornet of Horse: A Tale of Marlborough’s Wars (G.A. Henty) - 3 Stars
* August 1914 (Alexander Solzhenitsyn) - 4 Stars

History: 
* The Wright Brothers (David McCulloch) - 4 Stars
* Dodge City: Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and the Wickedest Town in the American West  (Tom Clavin) - 3 Stars
* True Detective Stories from the Archives of the Pinkertons (Cleveland Moffet) - 2 Stars
* Lonely Vigil: Coastwatchers of the Solomons (Walter Lord) - 4 Stars

Drama:
* Once in a Lifetime (George S. Kaufman & Moss Hart) - 3 Stars
* You Can’t Take It With You (George S. Kaufman & Moss Hart) - 4 Stars
* The Man Who Came to Dinner (George S. Kaufman & Moss Hart) - 3 Stars

Culture & Politics:
* Ship of Fools (Tucker Carlson) - 4 Stars

Theology & the Christian Life:
* Life Is Mostly Edges: A Memoir (Calvin Miller) - 3 Stars
* Death in the City (Francis Schaeffer) - 4 Stars

Bookin' Along: Off the Shelves

As I frequently mention, most of my reading in the last couple of decades is actually re-reading -- that is, re-reading books whose meaningful moral values, encouraging inspiration, and/or unusual entertainment value I already appreciate. This latest reading review provides a clear example of this for of the last 15 books I’ve read, 12 of them have been re-reads. They include novels, plays, a collection of short stories, and some books specifically dealing with theology and the Christian life. So, since my latest catch-up post appeared here back on July 5, here are the latest.

The novels? Well, two of them were the July and August selections of our book club, The Notting Hill Napoleons. They were, respectively, Killer Angels, Michael Shaara’s fine story of the battle of Gettysburg, and Fire Over England, A.E.W. Mason’s adventure novel set in Queen Elizabeth’s England. Both were re-reads and I found both were informative, entertaining, and inspiring books...again.

Two more in the novel category were the chivalric works of Arther Conan Doyle, The White Company and Sir Nigel. They were okay but this time around I found them both a little tedious at times.

The other four novels in these last couple of months were all re-reads also: the three in the Dickson McCunn series by John Buchan (Huntingtower, The House of the Four Winds, and Castle Gay) and the other was Dashiell Hammett’s classic The Maltese Falcon. And though I like Buchan quite a lot, the only one of this group that I'd recommend highly would be The Maltese Falcon, a true classic of the hardboiled detective genre.

The short story collection I mentioned was The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories by Washington Irving. They were a mixed bag. The title story is superb as was “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Devil and Tom Walker” but most of the others were uninteresting.

The plays? Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe has been a favorite since high school even though it wasn’t until I became a Christian that I really got the message. Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmund Rostand is another favorite and it too has profound moral lessons. Finally, I also re-read Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s The Love-Girl and the Innocent, a a very moving play set in one of the Soviet gulags. I recommend all three.

The books read in the past couple of months that dealt most pointedly with spiritual matters were a Bible study by John MacArthur (The Elements of True Prayer), a 1971 practical theology work by J. Dwight Pentecost (Design for Discipleship) and Peter Kreeft’s Jesus-Shock. These were all provocative and helpful but, to be honest, I would recommend many other Christian books before I got down to these.

Okay, that’s it until the next catch-up post. Keep reading!

Of Interest to My Bookish Friends

* “Tolkien, Lewis, and the Great War” (Linda Bridges, National Review)

* “Can Shakespeare Heal? One Director’s Quest to Help Treat PTSD” (Madaline Donnelly, Daily Signal)

* “More Answers to Twelve Tantalizing Questions” (John Malek, The Book Den)

* “Alice in Wonderland at 150: still a literary wonder” (Susan Reibel Moore, Mercator)

* “America’s Reading Crisis Is Much Worse Than You Think” (Sara Kay Mooney, Christianity Today)

Reflecting On "An Inspector Calls"

J.B. Priestly’s most famous play, “An Inspector Calls,” has long been considered an expression of Priestly’s strong (if naive) socialist views. There was certainly a reason, for instance, that the play was considered inappropriate for wartime Britain and therefore made its 1945 debut…in the Soviet Union.

However, despite what unfair hatred Priestly felt for the British upper class, for capitalism, and for individualism, “An Inspector Calls” still stands as an excellent drawing room drama, one that effectively explores morality, responsibility, self-deception, and the virtue of mercy. Left-leaning politicos will certainly find their presuppositions encouraged by the play, but I would suggest that the grievous faults revealed in the wealthy and self-centered family of the Birlings are not products of a political class. No, they are sins — sins of the classic biblical description: greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, wrath, and gluttony. These originate not from politics or class but from the fall of Adam.

Remembering the awful reality of the human condition (“All have sinned and come short of the glory of God”) provides the clearest and most beneficial perspective of “An Inspector Calls.” Indeed, it allows the audience to appreciate the most important elements of the final scenes.

Like often happens when an artist effectively captures reality, he presents a work that goes beyond his own philosophic prejudices. And this is what happened to J.B. Priestly in “An Inspector Calls.” Though the playwright may have been aiming only at a political target, he managed to hit something truer and more universal.

I write these thoughts because Claire and I enjoyed watching a 1982 BBC production of “An Inspector Calls” on YouTube the other night. And we think you might find it an interesting, stimulating experience too.

A Most Moving "Edwardian" Experience

Among the best viewing pleasures we have had with Netflix options in recent months has been the sterling ATV mini-series from 1975, "Edward the King" starring Annette Crosbie as Queen Victoria, Timothy West as the adult Edward VII, Robert Hardy as Prince Albert, Helen Ryan as Princess/Queen Alexandra, Michael Hordern as Gladstone, John Gielgud as Disraeli and many other superb performances.

Both Claire and I found the long series enthralling. It's certainly better than most when it comes to historical accuracy (being conscientiously based on Sir Philip Magnus' excellent biography) and, as thoughtful and compelling viewing, it would be very hard to top. The writing, acting, editing, sets all represented a level of excellence that moderns rarely reach.

The 13-episode series is currently available on the Netflix instant download feature or via CD discs. We couldn't recommend it more highly.

"Is Shakespeare Dead?" Dramatized

Dr. Keir Cutler performs (and performs very well!) Mark Twain's "Is Shakespeare Dead?" debunking the myth that the Stratfordian actor wrote the great works of William Shakespeare.

Harold Pinter: A Distorted Anti-West Vision

On learning of his Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005 Harold Pinter diplomatically acknowledged that he was unsure to what extent his political activism had played a part in the award. Unfortunately, that open question does a disservice to Pinter’s memory and to the credibility of the Nobel Committee; for while Pinter’s contribution to literature was a great one, his contribution to politics was less so...

Yet the political world that Pinter conjured up was an extravagant fantasy. In it, the Western democracies exemplified not imperfection or even moral failings, but venality and bloodlust. To Pinter, the modern US had only one point of comparison: “Nazi Germany wanted total domination of Europe and they nearly did it. The US wants total domination of the world and is about to consolidate that.”

In its nefarious designs, according to Pinter, the American leadership was assisted by a culpable populace and a mass-murdering British prime minister. In his Nobel lecture, Pinter asked rhetorically, with reference to Tony Blair and President Bush: “How many people do you have to kill before you qualify to be described as a mass murderer and a war criminal?”

Pinter’s political message...was sophistry couched in the unrelentingly scatological language of the lavatory wall. Posterity will surely judge Harold Pinter as an impassioned voice and a great artistic talent; it is less likely to honour or even recall the areas in which he went astray.

Oliver Kamm deftly diagnoses the muddled and mean-spirited perspective of the late playwright (and husband of Lady Antonia Fraser) Harold Pinter in this Times (U.K.) article.

The Key (Seven of Them, Actually) to a Great Melodrama -- George M. Cohan's "Seven Keys to Baldpate"

I confess that until a couple of weeks ago, I only knew the name of George M. Cohan as a major vaudevillian player and songwriter, one of the few who successfully made the transition to Broadway stardom. However, even those impressions were pretty fuzzy as they arose from my memories of seeing James Cagney play Cohan in the film Yankee Doodle Dandy -- and that was decades ago.

But even a cursory inquiry revealed to me that Cohan was truly an American superstar. Considered the father of American musical comedy and, at one time, "the fellow who owned Broadway," Cohan was a skilled musician, composer, singer, dancer, actor, stage director and playwright. No wonder they made movies about this guy!

But I need to tell you why my interest was kindled in George M. Cohan in the first place. It was because I came across a rollicking good play that he had written and produced, Seven Keys to Baldpate. It was the last play featured in a library book I had picked up, 10 Classic Mystery and Suspense Plays of the Modern Theater.

The collection was edited by Stanley Richards and sported a 1973 copyright. However, the plays Richards had selected were from a much earlier period of the London and Broadway stage: Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians (1943); Joseph Hayes' The Desperate Hours (1955) (The original cast included Karl Malden, James Gegory, Paul Newman and was directed by Robert Montgomery.); Edward Chodorov's Kind Lady (1935); J.B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls (1946) (The opening cast included Alec Guinness, Ralph Richardson, and Harry Andrews.); Hostile Witness (1964) (The New York premiere two years later had Ray Milland in the lead.); Night Must Fall (1935); and a few more, including the one I found so quirky and delightful, Seven Keys to Baldpate, which opened at New York's Astor Theater on September 22, 1913.

I enjoyed several of the plays in Richards' collection but Baldpate was clearly my favorite. Wrote Richards about the play, "While Cohan publicly acknowledged that 'it stands for nothing but pure entertainment and a sort of comedy kidding of the technique of melodramatic thrillers," a number of critics and colleagues credited Seven Keys to Baldpate with breaking new ground in the field of playwriting."

Seven Keys to Baldpate is based on a novel of the same name by Earl Derr Biggers (later the creator of Charlie Chan). It is a novelty of sorts, a melodrama played for laughs but which manages to create real suspense and tension as well.

The plot involves a popular author of "pot-boiler" novels who takes a bet that he can't write a publishable book in 24 hours...24 hours that must be spent in a deserted (and haunted) hotel in a wintry, mountainous area. He tries to come through but his encounters with criminals, political blackmail, a lovely woman and, of course, the ghost, makes it look like his thousand dollar bet is sure to be lost. In fact, he may not even be around to pay off the debt!

Even though Cohan's legend emphasizes his contributions to Broadway's musical heritage, it turns out that Seven Keys To Baldpate was Cohan's most popular play. It has been revived many times over the years (Cohan himself starred in a 1935 production for the esteemed Player's Club) and it has been used as the basis for several film versions. Cohan starred in the first (1917) with the latest being The House Of Long Shadows (1983) which starred some of the leading actors in horror pictures of the century: Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, John Carradine, and Peter Cushing.

As visitors to The Book Den know, I'm always recommending older literature, classic stuff that we shouldn't let get away from us -- even if it means doing a little extra work to get it. George M. Cohan's splendid melodrama Seven Keys to Baldpate is just such a treasure.

One final note: the popularity of the play gave the title to a famous magic trick originated by Theodore Annemann back in 1931, a trick that you can still purchase (and by that name too) in magic stores today.

Arthur Miller's Greatest Work Was Never Performed

The American playwright Arthur Miller who died in February 2005 is remembered for many things: his most famous plays (Death of a Salesman and The Crucible), his marriage to Marilyn Monroe, his liberal social activism, etc. But there's something that is only now coming out about Arthur Miller that represents a personal selfishness and callousness that certainly contradicts his heretofore high reputation.

At the news of Arthur Miller's passing, the Denver Post called him "the moralist of the past American century." The New York Times praised his "fierce belief in man's responsibility to his fellow man." At his funeral, fellow playwrights Edward Albee and Tony Kushner celebrated his virtues, Albee even saying that Miller's life was a moral example for all of society -- "Here is how you behave."

But these praises would hardly have been as vaunted if people knew that Arthur Miller had completely abandoned his own son Daniel, consigning him to a cruel, loveless, unfathered life in mental institutions because Daniel was born with Down's syndrome, a condition for which he was punished by being wholly deleted from his father's life.

Below are excerpts from a well-researched, well-written Vanity Fair article by Suzanna Andrews. It was published last year. I hope it will encourage you to read her entire article. And I hope it will make you see more clearly the magnificent difference it makes (to individuals and the whole of society) when one truly values the sanctity of all human life. Thus, it's certainly not Miller of whom it should be said, "Here is how you behave" but rather people like Todd and Sarah Palin.

..."Arthur was terribly shaken—he used the term 'mongoloid,'" Whitehead recalled. He said, "'I'm going to have to put the baby away.'" A friend of Inge's recalls visiting her at home, in Roxbury, about a week later. "I was sitting at the bottom of the bed, and Inge was propped up, and my memory is that she was holding the baby and she was very, very unhappy," she says. "Inge wanted to keep the baby, but Arthur wasn't going to let her keep him."...

Within days, the child was gone, placed in a home for infants in New York City. When he was about two or three, one friend recalls, Inge tried to bring him home, but Arthur would not have it. Daniel was about four when he was placed at the Southbury Training School. Then one of two Connecticut institutions for the mentally retarded, Southbury was just a 10-minute drive from Roxbury, along shaded country roads. "Inge told me that she went to see him almost every Sunday, and that [Arthur] never wanted to see him," recalls the writer Francine du Plessix Gray. Once he was placed in Southbury, many friends heard nothing more about Daniel. "After a certain period," one friend says, "he was not mentioned at all."...

"Southbury Training School was not a place you would want your dog to live."

When it opened, in 1940, Southbury was considered one of the best institutions of its kind. Set on 1,600 acres in the rolling hills of central Connecticut, it was magnificent to behold, with porticoed, neo-Georgian red-brick buildings surrounded by endless lawns. It had a school and job-training programs, and its residents were housed in "cottages"—with their own living areas and kitchens. Well into the 1950s, Southbury was so highly regarded that wealthy families in New York City would buy country homes in Connecticut to establish residency so that, for a minimal fee, they could place their children there.

By the early 1970s, however, around the time Arthur Miller put his son there, Southbury was understaffed and overcrowded. It had nearly 2,300 residents, including children, living in rooms with 30 to 40 beds. Many of the children wore diapers, because there weren't enough employees to toilet-train them. During the day, they sat in front of blaring TVs tuned to whatever show the staff wanted to watch. The most disabled children were left lying on mats on the floor, sometimes covered with nothing but a sheet. "In the wards you had people screaming, banging their heads against the wall, and taking their clothes off," says David Shaw, a leading Connecticut disability lawyer. "It was awful."...

Bowen recalls the first time she met Daniel: "He was just a delight, eager, happy, outgoing—in those days even more so than now, because of his isolation." He showed her his room, which he shared with 20 other people, and his dresser, which was nearly empty, because everyone wore communal clothing. "I remember very clearly trying to respond with happiness, but it was very hard, because there was nothing there," she says. "He really had nothing. His sole possession was this little tiny transistor radio with earplugs. It was something you'd pick up at a five-and-dime. And he was so proud to have it. You couldn't help but think, This is Arthur Miller's son? How could this be?"...

In 1985, the U.S. Department of Justice sued Connecticut over the poor conditions at Southbury. The following year it ordered the state to close Southbury to new admissions. By then, Daniel was living in a group home with five housemates, and making huge strides. He had a lot to learn—how to live on his own, how to use public transportation, how to shop for groceries.

Experts say it is difficult to measure how much Daniel had been held back by years of living in an institution. Early-intervention programs, nurturing families, and special-education classes—all of which Daniel missed out on—have contributed to a 15-point rise in the I.Q. scores of Down-syndrome children in the last 30 years, says Stephen Greenspan, a professor of psychiatry and former president of the Academy on Mental Retardation. Today, many higher-functioning Down-syndrome children can read and write; some graduate from high school and even college. Chris Burke, the actor with Down syndrome, who played Corky on the television show Life Goes On, lives in his own apartment in New York and commutes to work. Daniel, by contrast, had to learn basic reading skills. He had to work on his speech, and people say it is still difficult to understand him unless you know him...

Today, Daniel Miller lives with the elderly couple who have long taken care of him, in a sprawling addition to their home that was built especially for him. He continues to receive daily visits from a state social worker, whom he's known for years. Although his father left him enough money to provide for everything he needs, Daniel has kept his job, which he loves and "is very proud of," according to Rebecca, who visits him with her family on holidays and during the summers. "Danny is very much part of our family," she said, and "leads a very active, happy life, surrounded by people who love him."

Omaha Chesterton Society's 2007 Reading Schedule

Here's the Omaha Chesterton Society agenda for 2007. It certainly is a great list -- more than enough, I would think, to draw forth some new Chestertonians from the area into our fun, faithful group.

February 12 – G.K. Chesterton: The Apostle of Common Sense by Dale Ahlquist

April 9 – GKC's The Man Who Was Thursday

June 11- GKC's Collected Poetry (Volume 10 of the Ignatius Press series. See this page to order.)

August 13 –GKC's Robert Louis Stevenson (It is included in Volume 18 of the Ignatius Press series. See this page to order.)

October 8 – GKC's marvelous drama, Magic (It is included in Volume 11 of the Ignatius Press series. See this page to order.)

December ? - The annual OCS Christmas Party

By the way, we will continue to meet at Mercy Villa at 7:00 PM until further notice. Send me an e-mail for more information. (Denny at vitalsigns@vitalsignsministries.org)

A Bit More of Capek

Following up on my promise last month to read a bit more of Karel Capek, I wanted to pass along that I have enjoyed several of the short stories compiled in Toward the Radical Center published by Catbird Press. Though simply written, the stories are insightful, provocative, and full of an optimistic attitude towards life.

The same can be said about two more of Capek's plays that I've read since last month. They are The Makropulos Secret, about a woman whose discovery of a "fountain of youth" still leaves her without the knowledge of what makes life worthwhile, and Life of the Insects, a clever, colorful and softly satirical look at human values through the interchange of talking insects and a personable down and outer.

The latter was really delightful to read but oh, how I would have loved to have seen Life of the Insects staged there on Broadway in the late 1920s! New Yorkers were said to have raved about it...and I can understand why.

The Future (Yet Fixed) Tense of Hell

In Christopher Marlowe's medieval tragedy, Doctor Faustus, an ambitious, sensual physician sells his soul to the devil, never really believing he has much of anything to lose. For instance, in Scene 5 there is this momentous exchange with the demon who has overseen the evil transaction. For his part, Faustus dismisses any consequence of life's actions beyond the grave. But his flippant bravado is countered by the demon himself who knows all-too-well of hell's existence.

Faustus: Come, I think hell’s a fable.

Mephastophilis: Ay, think so still, till experience change thy mind.

The Dickens Scholar

Here's a link to a very brief but , I think, a very provocative drama. See what you think.

Theater of the Absurd: Harold Pinter's Nobel Speech

Yes, I've spent many trying hours in my undergraduate years reading the plays of Harold Pinter and his like-minded colleagues in the "modern" drama. Therefore, I had some personal reasons to be disappointed when this liberal hack won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Not that I'm deceived into believing that the Nobel is actually awarded for genuine talent; oh no. The Prize has long been much more of a political award than an artistic one. But even still...Harold Pinter?

Well, it turns out that Pinter's acceptance speech displayed the same childishness, the same self-serving propaganda, and the same lack of artistic purpose that he has shown in his "literature."

Here's an excellent report (and commentary) on Pinter's leftist pontificating from Investor's Business Daily via Yahoo News.

Thomas Becket On Stage

Last weekend’s meeting of the Notting Hill Napoleons was an abbreviated one of sorts; specifically, it involved only about half of our noble little company. It isn’t easy finding the best evening for our book discussion. After all, though regular readers, the Napoleons have plenty of activities, responsibilities and travel schedules besides books that we have to work around. Still, though the numbers were small, the discussion was terrific, most relevantly because the book under review was T.S. Eliot’s compelling religious drama, Murder in the Cathedral.

Written for a Canterbury church festival in 1935, Eliot used both lyric verse and prose narrative to tell the story of Thomas Becket’s martyrdom at the behest of King Henry II. And although the tale is widely known, Eliot is remarkably creative in bringing the audience out of a mere spectator’s role and truly into the emotional tension and the universal spiritual meaning of this historic event.

T.S. Eliot had only a few years earlier converted to Christianity after a childhood of Unitarianism and an adulthood of acclaim in the liberal academic and literary circles of the U.S., London and Paris. While his embrace of orthodox Christianity, his acceptance into the Anglican Church and his change of citizenship from America to England had certainly made him less popular among his old pals, Murder in the Cathedral is proof that both his perceptions of life and writing talents had actually sharpened since his landmark success with “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” The Waste Land and other early works.

Murder in the Cathedral is a profound religious play but, make no mistake, it is also high art.

The play is a short one and is easy to appreciate by all readers. Even if you’re leery of verse, or adaptations from Greek tragedy, or historical models, Murder in the Cathedral is entry-level stuff. But beware; once you enter the world of Thomas Becket (through the magic of T.S. Eliot), you will likely be changed.

But since the changes wrought are most certainly to be positive ones, I pass on an enthusiastic recommendation for Murder in the Cathedral.

And, one other thing – this last re-reading I did of Eliot’s play was greatly enhanced by an earlier re-reading a few days previous of a play covering the same historic event written by Jean Anouilh. This play, Becket: The Honour of God, gives a much fuller account of the relationship between Thomas Becket and King Henry and so it made for a great complement. Becket doesn’t have quite the same spiritual power that Murder in the Cathedral does but, nevertheless, it too is a very informative, stimulating read.

By the way, the latter play was the basis for the movie Becket which starred two of the finest actors of the 20th century, Richard Burton and Peter O’Toole. If you can find a copy, that too would provide an inspirational experience.

The Liberating Power of Truth

The injustice and cruelty of the Soviet Union’s vast organization of labor camps in the 1930’s and 1940’s are now well known. But that knowledge didn’t have to surface. Indeed, without the grace of God acting through such heroic individuals as Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the truth might well have remained buried by Communist cover-ups. Solzhenitsyn was the foremost voice raised against the grand Soviet machine. Through rare courage and sacrificial efforts, he managed to alert the whole world to what was really happening to countless numbers of innocent human beings.

Solzhenitsyn’s most famous (though not often read) book is the riveting 3-volume, Gulag Archipelago. In that incredible work, the former slave camp worker documents the massive catalog of outrageous lies, violence, and criminal corruption perpetrated by Soviet Communism. In the Gulag (and even in his fiction), Solzhenitsyn serves as an historian. It is enough, he insists, to simply record what happened, to give the truth an open hearing. Truth has amazing power. Solzhenitsyn hoped that when people learned the real story of Soviet tyranny, they would resolve to never again allow the devil an open door to such blasphemy and brutality. It is in this sense that Alexander Solzhenitsyn is hailed as a prophet – not as a fortune teller, but as a “forth teller.” He bravely held up the banner of truth…and simply by performing that service, he helped change the world.

In Solzhenitsyn’s play The Love-Girl and the Innocent, set in a 1945 forced labor camp in Siberia, one of the persecuted men lists just a few of the monstrous crimes performed by Soviet thugs that he has witnessed. The prisoner is beside himself with fury, feeling utterly helpless to do anything about this all-enveloping injustice. But in response, Pavel Gai, an imprisoned ex-soldier who has experienced more than his own share of horrors, answers him with chilling authority. “What can we do? Remember – that’s all.”

Alexander Solzhenitsyn did, in fact, remember. In fact, it was his constant plea to God for help in remembering specific events, people and situations so that he could record the true history of the Soviet Union. Solzhenitsyn desired more than anything else to be a faithful historian in order to effectively honor the victims but, more importantly, so that the preserved truth could set the future free. Ronald Reagan was one who was inspired by those revelations and he acted on the knowledge that Solzhenitsyn had preserved. The Wall fell. The camps are now empty. Truth, just a simple presentation of the truth, can indeed destroy the darkness.

"The Jeweler's Shop" Is a Jewel In Itself

As much as I read, it still is rare to have something move me as much as did my reading of The Jeweler’s Shop. For in this brief three-act play, I encountered one of the wisest, most compelling treatments of the sacrament of marriage. It kindled a new appreciation for the beauty and sanctity of marriage in general and it refreshed my resolve to honor God by devoutly adhering to my own marriage vows.

Claire saw how affected I was by The Jeweler’s Shop and so she sat down and read it too. She came in later with tears in her eyes and with the same devotion I had experienced to re-commit herself to the sacred adventure of our marriage.

Now Claire and I have been head over heals in love since the spring of 1970 and our romance gets more intense all the time yet our reading of this simple but provocative play so moved us to a new depth of commitment to each other as well as a new gratitude to the gracious God Who designed marriage that I just had to pass the word on about this truly remarkable read.

Again, it’s brief; it’s challenging; and its exhortation is for us all. Please get a copy of The Jeweler’s Shop soon and let the Lord touch your heart as He did ours through its marvelous mystery.

Oh, the author of this play? It comes from the pen of a Polish priest, named Karol Wojtyla, a man you perhaps know better as Pope John Paul II. The Jeweler’s Shop – don’t pass it by.