April 23, 2008
Charles Darwin Online
Cambridge University is making available to the world at large works of Charles Darwin previously available only to scholars.
To live in the digital age is both a blessing and a curse. File this one under blessings.
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November 29, 2007
More on Kindle
From somone who seem to have spent the time, effort, and energy to get acquainted with the publicity and some of the features. However, I would note that the reviewer, as thorough and as balanced as he is does not appear to hold one of these in his own hands yet. And the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Nevertheless, some interesting points are made and I am very curious about the device, being an inveterate e-book reader myself and have thousands upon thousands of e-book files (unfortunately in palm format--but it is of little consequence to go and convert them to TXT or to get them once again--or even dig the original files out of the massive archive I have.)
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November 28, 2007
Kindle Reviews
Check this review or the slashdot review roundup to correct a few misconceptions about the availability of "outside" material on the Kindle.
Excerpt:
At the end of the day, Amazon's DRM applies only to books you actually buy - everything else works natively or with minimal hassle.
It's surprisingly easy to get non-Amazon material on it. I just plug it in to the USB cable which perpetually hangs off the back of my laptop, and it shows up as a hard drive. I drop .txt and .mobi files into the "Book" folder and they show up. I convert a handful of PDFs to .mobi files using Mobi Creator and they work perfect, Tables of Contents and all. Sweet.
And, I'm noting that others seem to agree with me in one of the great ironies of recent time: Amazon, the great online retailer, needs a brick and mortar presence to get these into the hands of people who might use them. I know I'm disinclined to purchase another pig in a poke.
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November 21, 2007
Kindle
This may be the breakthrough I've been waiting for. Great. Now I have at least four or five devices to trundle along because I'll still need my PDA for on the go writing, my iPod, because I can't keep enough memory on my PDA to play music, my cell phone AND now, my Kindle. I'll just be bristling with electronic gear. Call me "Neuromancer."
And the huge deal, is that using Amazon's retail strength, they've argued the price down to $9.99 or less. In most cases e-books were costing close to the full price of the book. Now, I know enough about the book business to realize that a goodly portion of the cost is wrapped up in what is called ppb (print, paper, and binding) and in inventory. When you're delivering electronically, you don't incur these costs, so the books should be commensurately cheaper. But they have not been. Now, just glancing through the titles, I found The Omnivore's Dilemma for $6.50. Amazing!
The down side is that I'm not likely to be able to find many of the great public domain things I've been able to derive from the internet. However, it is reputed that this device will also read Word files so there may be a way around that difficulty as well.
But right now, I just can't see my way to $400.00. Soon though, perhaps.
I do note that it's only getting 2.5 stars in the Amazon reviews. Much having to do with the lack of reading PDF, or some preferring wireless to cell-phone technology or "it's ugly." Etc. Well, there are some who will not be pleased with anything. But, as I've said to others, I'll need to find someone who owns one and hold it in my hands before I'll be able to decide. But it is cool, and it is only the start. I'm sure Amazone is already using the feedback they've gotten to improve the reader.
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November 6, 2007
Another Library
I don't know what all is included, having just discovered it as I was looking for the Pharsalia quoted in the post below:
Online Medieval and Classical Library
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February 9, 2007
Via Speculative Catholic
Butler's Lives of the Saints--The first three months of the year.
Soon to be followed by the other volumes, one hopes.
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Bishop Challoner's PDF
Enjoy at will.
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December 20, 2006
Science Fiction E-books
An amazing profusion from Baen books.
here.
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More by Dom Columba
I can't vouch for the remainder of this site, it may be fine, it may be otherwise; however, O Marvelous Exchange by Dom Columba Marmion is a wonderful meditation on some of the aspects of the mystery of the Incarnation.
from Christ in His Mysteries
Dom Columba MarmionWhat the Word Incarnate gives in return to humanity is an incomprehensible gift; it is a participation, real and intimate, in His Divine nature: Largitus est nobis suam deitatem. In exchange for the humanity which He takes, the Incarnate Word gives us a share in His Divinity; He makes us partakers of His Divine Nature. And thus is accomplished the most wonderful exchange which could be made.
Doubtless, as you know, this participation had already been offered and given, from the creation, to Adam, the first man. The gift of grace, with all its splendid train of privileges, made Adam like to God. But the sin of the first man, the head of the human race, destroyed and rendered this ineffable participation impossible on the part of the creature.
It is to restore this participation that the Word becomes Incarnate; it is to reopen to us the way to heaven that God is made man. For this Child, being God's own Son, has Divine life, like His Father, with His Father. In this Child "dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead corporeally" (Col 2:9); in Him are laid up all the treasures of the divinity (Cf. Ibid. 3). But He does not possess them for Himself alone. He infinitely desires to communicate to us the Divine life that He Himself is: Ego sum vita (Jn 14:6). It is for this that He comes: Ego vend UT vitam habeant (Ibid. 10:10). It is for us that a Child is born; it is to us that a Son is given: Puer natus est NOBIS et Filius datus est nobis (Introit of the Mass of the day). In making us share in His condition of Son, He will make us children of God. "When the fulness of time was come, God sent His Son, made of a woman,... that we might receive the adoption of sons (Gal 4:4-5). "What Christ is by nature, that is to say the Son of God, we are to be by grace; the Incarnate Word, the Son of God made man is to become the author of our divine generation: Natus hodie Salvator mundi DIVINAE NOBIS GENERATIONIS est auctor (Postcommunion of the Mass of Christmas Day). So that, although He be the Only-begotten Son, He will become the First-born of many brethren: UT sit IPSE PRIMOGENITUS in multis fratribus (Rom 8:29).
May you be blessed by the Blessed Dom Columba's prayers as you read this, May God grant us all a measure of His Wisdom as we contemplate the mystery of the Birth that we celebrate on Monday. Lord Jesus, come!
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December 19, 2006
One for Bill at Minutiae
If he doesn't already have it--Dom Columba Marmion's Sponsa Verbi.
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The Catholic Church of the Future
Elliot, at Claw of the Conciliator, reviews an e-book of short fiction dedicated to the future of the Catholic Church. Sounds good.
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December 15, 2006
Manly Wade Wellman
Most excellent.
John the Balladeer in several delectable versions. For those interested in American Fantasy, this is a must-read. (Also for those interested in the South and Appalachian folklore.)
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December 10, 2006
Henry James on the U.S.
The American Scene, by Henry James
From Boston to Florida, the impressions of Henry James on a trip through America. I don't think I realized that he had written about Florida. 1907 publication.
An excerpt from his disquistion on St. Augustine:
from The American Scene
Henry JamesThat perhaps was all that had been the matter with it in presence of the immemorial legend of St. Augustine as a mine of romance; St. Augustine proving primarily, and of course quite legitimately, but an hotel, of the first magnitude--an hotel indeed so remarkable and so pleasant that I wondered what call there need ever have been upon it to prove anything else. The Ponce de Leon, for that matter, comes as near producing, all by itself, the illusion of romance as a highly modern, a most cleverly-constructed and smoothly-administered great modern caravansery can come; it is largely "in the Moorish style" (as the cities of Spain preserve the record of that manner); it breaks out, on every pretext, into circular arches and embroidered screens, into courts and cloisters, arcades and fountains, fantastic projections and lordly towers, and is, in all sorts of ways and in the highest sense of the word, the most "amusing" of hotels. It did for me, at St. Augustine, I was well aware, everything that an hotel could do--after which I could but appeal for further service to the old Spanish Fort, the empty, sunny, grassy shell by the low, pale shore; the mild, time-silvered quadrilateral that, under the care of a single exhibitory veteran and with the still milder remnant of a town-gate near it, preserves alone, (460) to any effect of appreciable emphasis, the memory of the Spanish occupation. One wandered there for meditation--it is not congruous with the genius of Florida, I gathered, to permit you to wander very far; and it was there perhaps that, as nothing prompted, on the whole, to intenser musings, I suffered myself to be set moralizing, in the manner of which I have just given an example, over the too "thin" projection of legend, the too dry response of association. The Spanish occupation, shortest of ineffectual chapters, seemed the ghost of a ghost, and the burnt-out fire but such a pinch of ashes as one might properly fold between the leaves of one's Baedeker. Yet if I made this remark I made it without bitterness; since there was no doubt, under the influence of this last look, that Florida still had, in her ingenuous, not at all insidious way, the secret of pleasing, and that even round about me the vagueness was still an appeal. The vagueness was warm, the vagueness was bright, the vagueness was sweet, being scented and flowered and fruited; above all, the vagueness was somehow consciously and confessedly weak. I made out in it something of the look of the charming shy face that desires to communicate and that yet has just too little expression. What it would fain say was that it really knew itself unequal to any extravagance of demand upon it, but that (if it might so plead to one's tenderness) it would always do its gentle best. I found the plea, for myself, I may declare, exquisite and irresistible: the Florida of that particular tone was a Florida adorable.
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Cool Beyond Words
Contents to Archaeologia Hibernica: A Hand-book of Irish Antiquities
Cromlechs, raths or Duns, Stone circles, cairns, oratories, churches, crosses and round towers. With illustrations!
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November 23, 2006
Free SF E-Books and More
Can be found here.
They are generally of the militaristic brand of SFbeing from the Baen Books library, but there are a lot of them, and it's entirely possible you'll find something you'll really enjoy in amongst the titles. Go and see.
Everything almost anyone could want to know about Nematodes (and probably a good deal more than most care to know.)
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November 10, 2006
Many Catholic E-Books
and some nonCatholic sources as well here. Thanks to Bill White for noting one of the more difficult to find--St Bernard of Clairvaux's Commentary on the Song of Songs.
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November 3, 2006
Incredible Bible Online
The Polyglot Bible present Greek, Latin, KJV with Strong's numbers, Septuagint, and Tanakh (for OT). A real treasure. The Strong's numbers are lexical entries that help to explain the Greek and Hebrew usage.
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October 18, 2006
A Beautiful Prayer
For whatever reason, I was attracted to this Middle English version of The Cloud of Unknowing and found therein a really beautiful prayer for all those who seek to live the will of God.
Goostly freende in God, I preie thee and I beseche thee that thou wilt have a besi [earnest] beholding to the cours and the maner of thi cleeping [calling]. And thank God hertely, so that thou maist thorow [through] help of His grace stonde stifly agens alle the sotil assailinges of thi bodily and goostly enemyes, and winne to the coroun [crown] of liif that evermore lasteth.
Amen.
I don't know why I find it so moving, except to think--in the communion of the Saints, I am blessed by the prayer of a person who so long ago wrote these words and who lives now in this world through them even as he pleads before the throne of God for all those who read them. One of the great mysteries revealed by God and constantly spoken of by the Church stands open to me here in a way that it does not when I read some other things. Odd--but perhaps it is the touch of that which is almost foreign, but still remains within the grasp of those who wish to understand it. The language is not my language and yet, it is close enough to know and alien enough to suggest another time, another world, another way of being.
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October 17, 2006
More Middle English
Just a sampling from the relatively easy to read Stanzaic Life of Katherine:
Incipit vita sancte Katerine virginis.He that made bothe sunne and mone
In hevene and erthe for to schyne,
Brynge us to Hevene with Hym to wone
And schylde us from helle pyne!
Lystnys and I schal yow telle
The lyf of an holy virgyne
That trewely Jhesu lovede wel -
Here name was callyd Katerine.I undyrstonde, it betydde soo:
In Grece ther was an emperour;
He was kyng of landes moo,
Of casteles grete and many a tour.
The ryche men of that land
They servyd hym with mekyl honour.
Maxenceus was his name hotand,
A man he was ful sterne and stour.
The actual text which can be reached through the site referenced below has glosses on the difficult words to get you started.
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October 16, 2006
For Me Later, and for You Now
Of it pleases you:
The Celtic Literature Collective--sounds a bit pre-Berlin Wall, but looks like there is some good material. Part of the The Academy for Ancient Texts--I won't vouch for the translations as I haven't spent any time with them, but I offer the resource--the Welsh Text list looks quite fine.
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October 12, 2006
And this. . .
The War of the Wenuses--Charles Graves and E.V. Lucas.
Is it satire? Is it parody. I can't rightly say; however, when you start like this:
No one would have believed in the first years of the twentieth century
that men and modistes on this planet were being watched by intelligences
greater than woman's and yet as ambitious as her own. With infinite
complacency maids and matrons went to and fro over London, serene in the
assurance of their empire over man. It is possible that the mysticetus
does the same. Not one of them gave a thought to Wenus as a source of
danger, or thought of it only to dismiss the idea of active rivalry upon
it as impossible or improbable. Yet across the gulf of space astral
women, with eyes that are to the eyes of English women as diamonds are
to boot-buttons, astral women, with hearts vast and warm and
sympathetic, were regarding Butterick's with envy, Peter Robinson's with
jealousy, and Whiteley's with insatiable yearning, and slowly and surely
maturing their plans for a grand inter-stellar campaign.
and go on to do this:
Then came the night of the first star. It was seen early in the morning
rushing over Winchester; leaving a gentle frou-frou behind it. Trelawny,
of the Wells' Observatory, the greatest authority on Meteoric
Crinolines, watched it anxiously. Winymann, the publisher, who sprang to
fame by the publication of _The War of the Worlds_, saw it from his
office window, and at once telegraphed to me: "Materials for new book in
the air." That was the first hint I received of the wonderful wisit.
It is, at least, amusing. Meteoric crinolines--who'd'a thunk it?
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Some Antique Travel Books
The On-Line Books page has a number of interesting travel books by Lucas and Hutton.
E.V. Lucas
A Wanderer in. . . .
Florence,
Holland
Venice
Hutton
Ravenna: A Study
Florence and Northern Tuscany with Genoa and it's American Counterpart.
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October 10, 2006
A Huge Archive--Mary E Wilkins Freeman
Mary E. Wilkins Freeman was known, until recently for most of us by a handful of ghost stories reprinted in anthologies--most particularly "Shadows on the Wall" and "The Wind in the Rose-Bush."
While this site might not be "The Complete Works," there certainly is a large collection of the novels and short stories of this neglected writer. Go and sample--start with the stories mentioned.
It is interesting to me that she is collected with Sarah Orne Jewett, another writer of short stories whose talent has too long been neglected or ignored. I suppose Edith Wharton and Willa Cather overshadowed these writers. But if they are writers of the second rank, it goes to show how far the second rank has fallen in our own time. Would that my own meager talents were the equal of these.
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September 29, 2006
All About Bacterial Names
In case you were distraught over not knowing for sure: Approved Lists of Bacterial Names.
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Copyrights and Copywrongs
from the Descriptive Hype for said book
"Peer-to-peer networks have existed as long as gossip and word-of-mouth advertising--but with the rise of electronic communication, they are suddenly coming into their own. and they are drawing the outlines of a battle for information that will determine much of the culture and politics of our century, from file-sharing websites like Gnutella to private edits of Star Wars to the neo-Nazi concept of 'leaderless resistance.' On one side, trying to maintain control of information--and profits--are legislators, judges, cabinet officers, entertainment conglomerates, and multinational corporations. On the other side, trying to liberate information, are educators, computer programmers, civil libertarians, artists, consumers, and dissidents under all sorts of regimes. Vaidhyanathan draws upon examples ranging from ancient religions to open-source software to show how this battle will be one of the defining fault lines of twenty-first-century civilization. His radical and original explanation of the future of information is a warning shot that will mobilize anarchists and controllers alike."
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September 23, 2006
More E-Books
A History of Twelve Jesuit Martyrs, including Father Campion
Memoirs of Missionary Priests by Bsp. Richard Challoner--Includes biographies of both Fr. Edward Campion and Father Robert Southwell, among other British and Welsh Martyrs.
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Following Mr. White's Most Gracious Lead
I offer the following finds--
Carmel in England: A History of the English Mission of the Discalced Carmelites, 1615 to 1849
Carmel in Ireland: A Narrative of the Irish Province of Teresian, Or Discalced Carmelites
What is most remarkable is that given present concerns, these arrive at a most propitious time.
Now here's one for engendering humility:
egends of the Monastic Orders as Represented in the Fine Arts Anna Jameson. From which, this excerpt:
"Neither as an Order, nor as individuals, are the Carmelites interesting or important in their relation to art."
The Library of Historic Characters and Famous Events of All Nations and All Ages For those famaliar with Dumas, this recounts the life of Louise de la Vallière; Mother, Duchess, first mistress of King Louis XIV, and eventually, cloistered Carmelite nun. Certainly a candidate for Saints Behaving Badly--only it would have to be Latter-Day Holy People Who Don't Have a Cause Behaving Badly.
Spanish Mystics by Marguerite Tollemache
Also to be found on the site are complete biographies of St. Josemaria Escrive, In Converstation with God, various volumes of the Navarre Bible, and other Opus Dei and Sceptre publications.
Santa Teresa: Being Some Account of Her Life and Times, Together with Some Pages from the History Gabriela Cunninghame Graham
Anyone care for the works of Orestes Brownson?
Complete on-line edition of Charles Carroll of Carrollton: Faithful Revolutionary--Scott McDermott
A list of Publications related to Charles Carroll of Carrollton
This could go on forever, but you take a try at it. Amazing things available.
Once again, deep appreciation to Bill White who not only first alerted me to the resource, but who continues to mine its treasures.
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E-Books Galore!
Bill at Summa Minutiae has a whole slew of them. Start with the referenced post and then look at all of 22 September. Thanks Bill!
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September 22, 2006
Catholic Essays and Other Finds
A Book I had not encountered before with a leading essay on Juliana of Norwich:
The Faith of Millions by George Tyrrell S.J.
The Complete works of Charles and Mary Lamb for Children
A Compendium of Poets of the 18th Century
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Bartram's Travels
Available in a glorious transcribed html edition with all of the plates.
William Bartram was one of the first "naturalists" to do extensive tours and studies through the Southern United states. His Travels, published in 1791 records the people, the plants, and the animals he encountered during a tour of the Carolinas, Georgia and Northern Florida. A neglected masterpiece of observation.
PERHAPS, to a grateful mind, there is no intellectual enjoyment, which regards human concerns, of a more excellent nature, than the remembrance of real acts of friendship. The heart expands at the pleasing recollection. When I came up to his door, the friendly man, smiling, and with a grace and dignity peculiar to himself, took me by the hand, and accosted me thus: "Friend Bartram, come under my roof, and I desire you to make my house your home, as long as convenient to your self; remember, from this moment, that you are a part of my family, and, on my part, I shall endeavour to make it agreeable," which was verified during my continuance in, and about, the southern territories of Georgia and Florida; for I found here sincerity in union with all the virtues, under the influence of religion. I shall yet mention a remarkable instance of Mr. M'Intosh's friendship and respect for me; which was, recommending his eldest son, Mr. John M'Intosh, as a companion in my travels. He was a sensible virtuous youth, and a very agreeable companion through a long and toilsome journey of near a thousand miles.
And, for a moment, let us consider the rattlesnake:
BUT let us again resume the subject of the rattle snake; a wonderful creature, when we consider his form, nature and disposition, it is certain that he is capable by a puncture or scratch of one of his fangs, not only to kill the largest animal in America, and that in a few minutes time, but to turn the whole body into corruption; but such is the nature of this dreaded reptile, that he cannot run or creep faster than a man or child can walk, and he is never known to strike until he is first assaulted or fears himself in danger, and even then always gives the earliest warning by the rattles at the extremity of his tail. I have in the course of my travels in the Southern states (where they are the largest, most numerous and supposed to be the most venemous and vindictive) stept unknowingly so close as almost to touch one of them with my feet, and when I perceived him he was already drawn up in circular coils ready for a blow. But however incredible it may appear, the generous, I may say magnanimous creature lay as still and motionless as if inanimate, his head crouched in, his eyes almost shut, I precipitately withdrew, unless when I have been so shocked with surprise and horror as to be in a manner rivetted to the spot, for a short time not having strength to go away, when he often slowly extends himself and quietly moves off in a direct line, unless pursued when he erects his tail as far as the rattles extend, and gives the warning alarm by intervals, but if you pursue and overtake him with a shew of enmity, he instantly throws himself into the spiral coil, his tail by the rapidity of its motion appears like a vapour, making a quick tremulous sound, his whole body swells through rage, continually rising and falling as a bellows; his beautiful particoloured skin becomes speckled and rough by dilatation, his head and neck are flattened, his cheeks swollen and his lips constricted, discovering his mortal fangs; his eyes red as burning coals, and his brandishing forked tongue of the colour of the hottest flame, continually menaces death and destruction, yet never strikes unless sure of his mark.
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August 25, 2006
Gutenberg Science Fiction
Via Hassenpfeffer a list of Science Fiction books available in electronic format--they include works by Terry Carr, Andre Norton, and H. Beam Piper, among others.
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June 27, 2006
A Compendiium of E-Book Sites
The Electric Eclectic - reading
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June 17, 2006
Chronicle of a Medieval Abbey
Medieval Sourcebook: Jocelin de Brakelond: Chronicle of The Abbey of St. Edmund's (1173-1202)
From the Medieval Sourcebook--the Story of the Abbey of St. Edmund by a Medieval Chronicler.
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June 10, 2006
The Lusiads
Not necessarily the best translation from the notes, but here is the Portuguese National Epic from their great epic poet Camões. Enjoy
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June 4, 2006
An Announcement from OCDS St. Louis
Celebrating the greatness of the Holy Spirit on this holy feast day of Pentacost, the Order of Carmel Discalced Secular in St. Louis, Missouri invite you to the launch of their new website and downloadable Podcast!
As part of our new apostolate, we invite you to learn more about Carmelite Spirituality through listening to short meditations we have put together which come directly from the treasury of writings of the great Carmelite Saints including St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Therese of Lisieux, Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity, St. Teresa of the Andes, Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection, St. Teresa Benedicta and many more.
The audio from these Podcasts can be downloaded onto your computer or MP3 player, and you may store the meditations on an iPod or CD and to enjoy them wherever you go. There will be a new episode listed every week and to help keep you alerted to EVERY new Meditation, we have provided an RSS link so you won't miss a broadcast! Please visit us at:
These Meditations range in length between 1.5 to 5 minutes in length and are perfect and wonderful interludes between Radio Programming! The Meditations can be made available in broadcast quality so let us know if you are interested in helping our apostolate grow in your local Catholic Radio Area!
Send forth your Spirit, and they shall
be created and you shall renew face of the earth.
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May 31, 2006
Medieval Texts with Glosses
An excellent resource with a great many medieval texts and a large number of Arthur and Merlin resources. The texts are nicely glossed to help with the more difficult words and the more impenetrable syntax. Now, if I could just figure out how to carry them around with me.
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May 24, 2006
Rickaby et al.
Just one of the new batch at the Maritain Center of Notre Dame.
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May 20, 2006
Dante
Dante Online | Indice delle Opere
An elegant site present a range of Dante's works in the original Italian or Latin and with English translations for many. Much to explore here.
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May 2, 2006
Catholic E-Books
Thanks to Catholic Fire for this link to resources on the Web.
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April 27, 2006
H Beam Piper and others
A whole slew of H. Beam Piper (Little Fuzzy and Space Viking fame--the first is present, the latter is not.
and
Andre Norton, Murray Leinster, E.E. "Doc" Smith, Tom Godwin,and others
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April 8, 2006
A Nobel Prize Winner
Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 1903, Bjornstjerne Bjornson, as with many such prize winners is almost unheard of today.
Here's another titled A Happy Boy.
Here's a place to get a biography
Absalom's Hair and A Painful Memory from Childhood
A Project Gutenberg Download Site
And finally, One site to rule them all, one site to find them, one site to bring them all together and in the darkness bind them.
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April 7, 2006
More E-books
Among Famous Books by John Kelman.
The TOC looks interesting:
PREFACE.
LECTURE I. THE GODS OF GREECE
LECTURE II. MARIUS THE EPICUREAN
LECTURE III. THE TWO FAUSTS
LECTURE IV. CELTIC REVIVALS OF PAGANISM
LECTURE V. JOHN BUNYAN
LECTURE VI. PEPYS' DIARY
LECTURE VII. SARTOR RESARTUS
LECTURE VIII. PAGAN REACTIONS
LECTURE IX. MR. G.K. CHESTERTON'S POINT OF VIEW
LECTURE X. THE HOUND OF HEAVEN
from "Lecture IX" of above
No one will accuse Mr. Chesterton of being an unhealthy writer. On the contrary, he is among the most wholesome writers now alive. He is irresistibly exhilarating, and he inspires his readers with a constant inclination to rise up and shout. Perhaps his danger lies in that very fact, and in the exhaustion of the nerves which such sustained exhilaration is apt to produce. But besides this, he, like so many of our contemporaries, has written such a bewildering quantity of literature on such an amazing variety of subjects, that it is no wonder if sometimes the reader follows panting, through the giddy mazes of the dance. He is the sworn enemy of specialisation, as he explains in his remarkable essay on “The Twelve Men.�
Genesis A novelette by H. Beam Piper
Poets and Dreamers tr. Lady Augusta Gregory et al. By the title you can tell that this will be a translation of irish texts.
RAFTERY
WEST IRISH BALLADS.
JACOBITE BALLADS.
AN CRAOIBHIN'S POEMS
BOER BALLADS IN IRELAND
A SORROWFUL LAMENT FOR IRELAND
MOUNTAIN THEOLOGY
HERB-HEALING
THE WANDERING TRIBE
WORKHOUSE DREAMS
ON THE EDGE OF THE WORLD
AN CRAOIBHIN'S PLAYS
THE TWISTING OF THE ROPE
THE MARRIAGE
THE LOST SAINT
THE NATIVITY
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For E-book and Belloc Fans
Project Gutenberg Edition of The Free Press--by Hilaire Belloc
The Works of Lucian of Samosata (tr.) Fowler and Fowler
The Syrian Goddess of Lucian of Samosata, not included in the Works indicated above.
The Mycenaean Origin of Greek Mythology Martin P. Nilsson
Laotzu's Tao and Wu Wei (tr.) Dwight Goddard
The Vishnu Purana tr. Horace Hayman Wilson.
These cover a range of my eccentric interests. I can't vouch for all of the translations, but if you are interested and unfamiliar with the works, these may just give you enough information to decide for yourselves where you would like to start reading.
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March 8, 2006
Podcast Prayers
Obtained via You Duped Me Lord. Thanks Mark.
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March 7, 2006
Lenten Reading from the Web
The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus, of The Order of Our Lady of Carmel (iii)
Abandonment to Divine Providence
Catena Aurea - Gospel of Matthew
Some of these might hit the spot for self-imposed mortifications, but most of them are very good reading in their season and place--even if the translations are somewhat older.
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February 27, 2006
Jane Austen Fans Take Note
A memoir by her nephew.
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February 14, 2006
Robert Hugh Benson
Blackmask Online : Search Results
Particularly worthy of note is the new addition of Benson's None Other Gods. Very nice.
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A Slew of Cable, Cabell, and Oppenheim
The Online Books Page: What's New
In case I need to find it again. The E-texts include Cabell's magnificent Figures of the Earth, Cable's The Grandissimes, and a variety of works by E. Phillips Oppenheim.
Also note in this batch of stuff, Sigrid Undset's preconversion novel Jenny.
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Y Gododdin--Aneirin
This is the first time I've seen it as "Y Gododin." Be that as it may, this is kind of THE National Epic of Wales (NOT, the much better know Mabinogion) by its most renowned poet, one who has a remote connection to the Arthurian cycle (see below). Here, for conoisseurs it is presented in Welsh and English.
Y Gododdin Preserved in the thirteenth century, Llyfr Aneirin, Y Gododdin has a claim to be one of the earliest Welsh poems (or sequence of poems). It contains one reference to Arthur, which may or may not be a later interpolation; if it is original it is the earliest of all references to Arthur:
He charged before three hundred of the finest,
He cut down both centre and wing,
He excelled in the forefront of the noblest host,
He gave gifts of horses from the herd in winter.
He fed black ravens on the rampart of a fortress
Though he was no Arthur.
Among the powerful ones in battle,
In the front rank, Gwawrddur was a palisade.
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January 25, 2006
Deus Caritas Est
Encyclical Letter "Deus Caritas Est"
Obviously, I can't comment as I just received notice of it--but for those who would like to look, the first encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI--his Christmas present to the Church.
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January 19, 2006
William Jennings Bryan
Being a compendium of his lectures to the Union Theological Seminary.
Bryan made his reputation in two major events that showed how wrong a good person could be--the Scopes trial, in which he debated oppostie Clarence Darrow (chronicled in Inherit the Wind)and his support of bimetalism, in whic he made this famous speech:
from "Cross of Gold"
William Jennings BryanIf they dare to come out in the open field and defend the gold standard as a good thing, we will fight them to the uttermost. Having behind us the producing masses of this nation and the world, supported by the commercial interests, the laboring interests, and the toilers everywhere, we will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.
You can see that his oratorical style made him one of the most persuasive and interesting speakers of his time.
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An Antiquarian Gift
Project Gutenberg Edition of Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches
Most particularly for Julie D. and her comrades-in-arms. I love old/ancient cooking and recipe books. Hope you all enjoy this one.
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A Slew of Bellocs
The Online Books Page: What's New
See January 18th Entry:
Marie Belloc Lowndes (Sister of Hilaire, and author of The Lodger--a very nice Jack-the-Ripper novel published in 1913. Her work is primarily in the Mystery, suspense, ghost story mode): From Out the Vasty Deep, The Chink in the Armour, What Timmy Did, The End of Her Honeymoon
Hilaire Belloc The Historic Thames, Hills and the Sea
Note also, the delectable Waltoniana: Inedited REmains in Verse and Prose of Isaak Walton
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January 13, 2006
Just in Time. . .
Project Gutenberg Edition of From Boyhood to Manhood: Life of Benjamin Franklin
For his three-hundredth birthday.
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December 3, 2005
St. Thomas More
Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation
One of the Saint's great works. Don't know how this made it to public domain, but what a boon for those of us who own palmtop computers.
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November 27, 2005
From Julie at Happy Catholilc
Liturgy of the Hours instruction
Comes this useful, simple, and PRACTICAL guide to praying the Liturgy of the Hours. Highly recommended for those just starting or those who wish to start.
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November 24, 2005
Fr. Marie-Eugene de l'Enfant Jesus
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November 23, 2005
Carmina Gaelica
Carmina Gadelica Vol. 1 Index\
Available for a while elsewhere, here's the compendium at Sacred-Texts.
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November 4, 2005
Please Indulge Me This One Last Time
Blackmask Online : Search Results
A nice listing of the available fiction in a variety of formats. More than you'll find elsewhere.
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Benson and Redeeming History
from Essays "The Death-Beds of "Bloody Mary" and "Good Queen Bess"
Robert Hugh Benson" 'BLOODY MARY,' a sour, bigoted heartless, superstitious woman, reigned five years, and failed in everything which she attemptcd. She burned in Smithfield hundreds of sincere godly persons; she went down to her grave, hated by her husband, despised by her servants, loathed her her people, and condemned by God. 'Good Queen Bess' followed her, a generous, stout-hearted strong-minded woman, characteristically English; and reigned forty-five years. Under her wise and beneficent rule her people prospered she was tolerant in religion and severe only to traitors; she went down to her grave after a reign of unparalleled magnificence and success, a virgin queen, secure in the loyalty of her subjects, loved by her friends, in favour with God and man. "
So we can imagine some modern Englishman summing up the reigns of these two half-sisters who ruled England successively in the sixteenth century -- an Englishman better acquainted with history-books than with history, and in love with ideas rather than facts.
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More Benson-From Notre Dame
A nice selection of the nonfiction of Robert Hugh Benson
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Another E-Book Offering
An Introduction to Vulgar Latin - Google Print
When I have little to say otherwise, expect I'll keep you apprised of what's happening in the e-book world. (At least to the extent that I can.)
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I Followed My Own Advice. . .
And look what I found! Until recently this was one of the major works I wanted to read that was not available on-line. I'll still probably buy it, but now I can carry it around in my pocket. How wonderful.
Excerpt from the preface:
from Come Rack! Come Rope!
Robert Hugh BensonVery nearly the whole of this book is sober historical fact; and by far the greater number of the personages named in it once lived and acted in the manner in which I have presented them. My hero and my heroine are fictitious; so also are the parents of my heroine, the father of my hero, one lawyer, one woman, two servants, a farmer and his wife, the landlord of an inn, and a few other entirely negligible characters. But the family of the FitzHerberts passed precisely through the fortunes which I have described; they had their confessors and their one traitor (as I have said). Mr. Anthony Babington plotted, and fell, in the manner that is related; Mary languished in Chartley under Sir Amyas Paulet; was assisted by Mr. Bourgoign; was betrayed by her secretary and Mr. Gifford, and died at Fotheringay; Mr. Garlick and Mr. Ludlam and Mr. Simpson received their vocations, passed through their adventures; were captured at Padley, and died in Derby. Father Campion (from whose speech after torture the title of the book is taken) suffered on the rack and was executed at Tyburn. Mr. Topcliffe tormented the Catholics that fell into his hands; plotted with Mr. Thomas FitzHerbert, and bargained for Padley (which he subsequently lost again) on the terms here drawn out. My Lord Shrewsbury rode about Derbyshire, directed the search for recusants and presided at their deaths; priests of all kinds came and went in disguise; Mr. Owen went about constructing hiding-holes; Mr. Bassett lived defiantly at Langleys, and dabbled a little (I am afraid) in occultism; Mr. Fenton was often to be found in Hathersage—all these things took place as nearly as I have had the power of relating them. Two localities only, I think, are disguised under their names—Booth's Edge and Matstead. Padley, or rather the chapel in which the last mass was said under the circumstances described in this book, remains, to this day, close to Grindleford Station. A Catholic pilgrimage is made there every year; and I have myself once had the honour of preaching on such an occasion, leaning against the wall of the old hall that is immediately beneath the chapel where Mr. Garlick and Mr. Ludlam said their last masses, and were captured. If the book is too sensational, it is no more sensational than life itself was to Derbyshire folk between 1579 and 1588.
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November 1, 2005
A Resource for Inspiration
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October 31, 2005
Science Fiction Classics
Such as The Black Star Passes by J.W. Campbell, works of Andre Norton, Lester Del Rey, H. Beam Piper, and Murray Leinster.
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October 27, 2005
The Open Library
Where e-book pages turn like real pages. A lovely concept, a future reality?
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Neat E-books
Tennyson--Becket and Other Plays--I don't think I realized that Tennyson had a Becket.
The Spirit of St. Francis de Sales A lengthy anthology of the writings of the saint preceded by a short biographical sketch.
Slavery Ordained of God--a sad and sobering reminder of the extent to which religion can be perverted in the name of a cause.
Horace's Ars Poetica in English and Latin
The Greater Inclination--a lesser-known work of Edith Wharton. (Well, at least I've never heard of it, but then I'm not a Wharton Scholar.)
The Compleat Angler--The 18th Century Oddity of Izaak Walton.
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October 26, 2005
Some of the Long-Awaited Google Library
Starting with public domain works and gearing themselves up, one assumes.
The Poets and the Poetry of the Nineteenth... - Google Print
The Age of Shakespeare (1579-1631) - Google Print
The Age of Shakespeare (1579-1631) - Google Print
And THIS is the beta page from which you can begin your searches.
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October 24, 2005
Putting History on the Web
Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web
A nice html source that gives suggestions and guidelines for putting historical material on the web.
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October 21, 2005
Two On-Line Biographies of St. Teresa Margaret
St. Theresa Margaret by Canon Joseph Bardi, 1939
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October 20, 2005
Of Interest to Home-Schoolers
Project Gutenberg Titles by McGuffey, William Holmes, 1800-1873
The Gutenberg library of the Eclectic Primers Including readers, primers, and spelling-book. These often come with enthusiastic recommendations. I am a bit cautious. I wonder if they are lauded because they are good or because they are old. Older ways are not necessarily better ways. (Nor should one jump to the conclusion that they are necessarily worse ways either.)
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The Christ of Cynewulf
Honestly, I don't know what to make of the offerings of cinmay.com. I can't enthusiastically endorse all of them, but some of them have a peculiar interest both antiquarian and oddity.
The Christ is an oddity in mediocre verse with some interesting wood-cuttings or engravings. Some of the poetry sings, some thuds, I won't comment on the theology because I haven't read extensively enough, but it parallels much of the site there is enough there to be wary of. Nevertheless, these things hold an odd charm.
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October 9, 2005
A History of the Civil War from 1865--Almost a Primary Source
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Moliere's Last Play
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Robert Browning: A Poet Worth Knowing
Robert Browning: How to Know Him
A combination critical appreciation, biography and anthology of some of Brownings very best work. By far the most difficult of the Victorians, and likely one of the most difficult poets ever, Browning is a poet who has a surface smoothness that overlays enormous depths. He repays close reading many times over, and, at its best, his poetry is absolutely gorgeous.
One has only to glance at the printed page of _My Last Duchess_, and see how few of the lines end in punctuation points, to discover the method employed when a poet wishes to write a very strict measure in a very free manner.
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The California Missions
The Penance of Magdalena and Other Tales of the California Missions
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A Biography of St. Augustine
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October 6, 2005
Anna's Story
The memoirs of the governess of the children of the King of Siam.
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October 5, 2005
Guides On-Line
Among other things you'll find at this site at self-guided tours to a number of different battlefields. I note New Market, Second Manassas, Ball's Bluff, and Cedar Creek, in particular.
Not my cup of tea, but I suspect there are those who would appreciate these things. (Far more detail than any other than the die-hard fan can easily endure.)
Sample from second Manassas:
0300, King's Division may have withdrawn down Pageland Lane toward Manassas. And on the same day, between 0300 and 1000, Early's and Forno's Brigades of Lawton's Division moved into the fields northwest of the intersection about sunrise. The 13th and 31st Virginia were advanced as pickets just east of Stuart Hill on the other side of the nursery. Early was protecting Jackson's flank while looking for Longstreet. His men skirmished with the Pennsylvania Bucktails of Reynolds' Division.During 1000 to 1200, Longstreet's Corps arrived from Thoroughfare Gap. He immediately placed Hood's Division in this area:
On approaching the field some of Brigadier General Hood's batteries were ordered into 9 position and his division was deployed on the right and left of the turnpike at right angles with it, and supported by . . . Evans' Brigade.
Reilly's Battery (Rowan Artillery) went into position on the ridge east of the nursery (Stuart Hill).Wilcox's Division went into line on Hood's left (north).
Kemper's Division deployed south of Hood to the Manassas Gap Railroad Line.
D. R. Jones' Division moved down Pageland Lane to the south opposite Dawkin's Branch on the Manassas-Gainesville Road.
Then on 29 August at 1200 Lee established his headquarters on Stuart Hill (known as Munroe's Hill in 1862), just south of the turnpike.
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September 30, 2005
For Fans of Thomas á Kempis
The Chronicle of the Canons Regular of Mount St. Agnes
Not a work that I am familiar with. I'll have to spend a weekend or so with it.
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Science Fiction Studies:Full Texts of Sold-Out Back Issues
For those who take their Science Fiction somewhat more seriously.
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Washington Irving
Page images of the 1861 Edition of the Collected Works of Washington Irving. Includes his biography of George Washington, his study of the Alhambra and of Islam, and the Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, etc.
Nice place to start thinking about the season--"Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is always a nice seasonal treat.
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Now Available
It's not the definitive ICS, and it is from the 1922 redaction known to have been modified for the sake of the living by her sister. Nevertheless, if you need something quick, easy, on-line, and in public domain, here's your text. The words that remain are those of St. Therese. Much of her sister Pauline's editing was merely deletion of personal references and remarks she thought inappropriate. (Thus leading those who have not read the definitive version to think of St. Therese as a little saccharine and a little over-pious. Her sister Pauline was a great fan and a tremendous spin-doctor in the short run, but may have done her damage in the long-run.
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September 28, 2005
Podcasts for Christ
Against a dictatorship of relativism
Look at the supercool array of Podcasts found by Mr. Thakur. Thank you sir.
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September 27, 2005
The Spoken Word Archive
Browse Top Level > Audio > Open Source Audio > Spoken Word
At Open Source Audio--A number of readily available books--and thanks to the efforts and contributions of volunteers such as Maria Lectrix noted below, this will only increase. This is the greatest find (for me) since Distributed Proofreaders.
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September 24, 2005
Another Key Text in "Japanese Literature"
I honestly don't even know how to describe and typify this work. It isn't Japanese because it is by Lafacadio Hearn, a would-be Japanese from ?San Francisco.
Kokoro means "heart" and it includes a number of glimpses into Japanese culture at the time. (read more about Hearn here).
Suffice it to say that this is a major work in the genre. Gutenberg has had some pretty hot properties of recent date.
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History of Mystery
Some fairly important mysteries have already made it to Gutenberg, but this is the first I've heard of R. Austin Freeman's The Red Thumb Mark. Part of the "Impossible Crime" Movement and featuring Dr.Thorndyke, this is a critical publication for those interested in the development of the mystery.
With this publication there were three other Thorndyke mysteries--The Uttermost Farthing, John Thorndyke's Cases, and The Mystery of 31 New Inn. I must confess ignorance as the the first and last of these--so more new good reading.
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September 23, 2005
Rashomon
Probably the single most famous Japanese story of all time. Made into one of the most copied Japanese films of the great master Akira Kurasawa. And relentlessly copied in literature. If you read only one piece of Japanese literature, you owe it to yourself to become acquainted with this strange, haunting, frightening little tale.
later I see I originally neglected to mention that this story is by Akutagawa, often nicknamed "the Japanese Poe." But perhaps a much more important figure in Japan than Poe was in the U.S.
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September 18, 2005
John Mason Neale--A Romance
Theodora Phranza; or, the Fall of Constantinople, by John Mason Neale (1913)
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At Long Last--Another Ebook No One Cares About!
Finally an e-edition of the famous complementary volume to Dream of the Red Chamber. Like Red Chamber The Scholars is an 18th century novel in the realist tradition.
A sample from the very beginning:
from The Scholars
Wu Ching-tzu
The idea expressed in this poem is the commonplace one that in human life riches, rank, success and fame are external things. Men will risk their lives in the search for them; yet once they have them within their grasp, the taste is no better than chewed tallow. But from ancient times till now, how many have accepted this?However, at the end of the Yuan Dynasty 1 a really remarkable man was born. His name was Wang Mien, and he lived in a village in Chuchi County in Chekiang. When he was seven his father died, but his mother took in sewing so that he could study at the village school. Soon three years had passed and Wang Mien was ten. His mother called him to her and said, “Son, it's not that I want to stand in your way. But since your father died and left me a widow, I have had nothing coming in. Times are hard, and fuel and rice are expensive. Our old clothes and our few sticks of furniture have been pawned or sold. We have nothing to live on but what I make by my sewing. How can I pay for your schooling? There's nothing for it but to set you to work looking after our neighbour's buffalo. You'll be making a little money every month, and you'll get your meals there too. You start tomorrow.�
“Yes, mother,� said Wang Mien. “I find sitting in school boring anyway. I'd rather look after buffaloes. If I want to study, I can take a few books along to read.� So that very night the matter was decided.
The next morning his mother took him to the Chin family next door. Old Chin gave them some breakfast, and when they had finished he led out a water buffalo and made it over to Wang Mien.
“Two bow shots from my gate is the lake,� he said, pointing outside. “And by the lake is a belt of green where all the buffaloes of the village browse. There are a few dozen big willows there too, so that it is quiet, shady and cool; and if the buffalo is thirsty it can drink at the water's edge. You can play there, son; but don't wander off. I shall see that you get rice and vegetables twice a day; and each morning I shall give you a few coppers to buy a snack to eat while you're out. Only you must work well. I hope you'll find this satisfactory.�
Wang Mien's mother thanked Old Chin and turned to go home. Her son saw her to the gate, and there she straightened his clothes for him.
“Mind now, don't give them any reason to find fault with you,� she charged him. “Go out early and come back at dusk. I don't want to have to worry about you.�
Wang Mien nodded assent. Then, with tears in her eyes, she left him.
From this time onwards, Wang Mien looked after Old Chin's buffalo; and every evening he went home to sleep. Whenever the Chin family gave him salted fish or meat, he would wrap it up in a lotus leaf and take it to his mother. He also saved the coppers he was given each day to buy a snack with, and every month or so would seize an opportunity to go to the village school to buy some old books from the book-vendor making his rounds. Every day, when he had tethered the buffalo, he would sit down beneath the willows and read.
So three or four years quickly passed. Wang Mien studied and began to see things clearly. One sultry day in early summer, tired after leading the buffalo to graze, he sat down on the grass. Suddenly dense clouds gathered, and there was a heavy shower of rain. Then the black storm clouds fringed with fleecy white drifted apart, and the sun shone through, bathing the whole lake in crimson light. The hills by the lake were blue, violet and emerald. The trees, freshly washed by the rain, were a lovelier green than ever. Crystal drops were dripping from a dozen lotus buds in the lake, while beads of water rolled about the leaves.
As Wang Mien watched, he thought, “The ancients said, 'In a beautiful scene a man feels he is part of a picture.' How true! What a pity there is no painter here to paint these sprays of lotus. That would be good.� Then he reflected, “There's nothing a man can't learn. Why shouldn't I paint them myself?�
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September 16, 2005
Finally. . . Soseki
Soseki Natsume's Botchan on-line. One of the great Japanese Novelists, one of his great novels.
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September 10, 2005
The Death-Wake
Okay, I'll admit it. I include this one merely for one of the more bizarre titles I've seen in a long time:
"The Death-Wake or Lunacy; A Necromaunt in Three Chimeras"
Very, very odd indeed. With an intro by Andrew Lang.
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The PreInklings
A novel by Maurice Baring, the third member of the "PreInklings" consisting of Chesterton, Belloc, and their associates. You don't often find Baring's stuff on the web or elsewhere, so I thought I'd alert you.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 10:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 5, 2005
Sorry, One More
It's on days like these that you can tell I run this blog for me. I collect all these bits and pieces and put them into posts so that when I've forgotten where they are in my bookmarks, etc., I'll have a repository. Sorry.
But this site features a large number of e-texts--some by John W. Cample, Alan E. Nourse, Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Andre Norton. All are claimed to be copyright cleared.
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Against the Neo-Malthusians
An interesting text against birth control. I do not know its vintage, though it strikes me that much of the advise is incorrect and some of the physiology odd--so it may be turn of the century. (GSB is quoted--another clue.) It has this striking paragraph toward the end:
from Birth Control
Halliday G. Sutherland M.D.There are thousands who know little of the Catholic or of any other faith, and thousands who believe the Catholic Church to be everything except what it is. These people have no infallible rule of faith and morals, and when confronted, as they now are, by a dangerous, insidious campaign in favour of birth control, they do not react consistently or at all. It was therefore thought advisable to issue this statement in defence of the position of the Catholic Church; but the reader should remember that the teaching of the Church on this matter is held by her members to be true, not merely because it agrees with the notions of all right-thinking men and women, not because it is in harmony with economic, statistical, social, and biological truth, but principally because they know this teaching to be an authoritative declaration of the law of God. The Ten Commandments have their pragmatic justification; they make for the good of the race; but the Christian obeys them as expressions of the Divine Will.
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Another E-Book Link
I found this yesterday and didn't quite know what to make of it. Was this an evangelical Matthew Fox? What exactly is Christian Hedonism?
But rather than continue to withhold, I thought you all might like to go and make your own evaluation. Given that it is evangelical, it could be anywhere in the spectrum from strongly anti-Catholic to nearly Catholic in sensibility. My sense of what I've seen is that the focus is "ecumenical."
So without further ado, I give you the library of the Desiring God foundation
A small sample from a book on fasting:
from A Hunger for God: Desiring God Through Fasting and Prayer John PiperBeware of books on fasting. The Bible is very careful to warn us
about people who “advocate abstaining from foods, which God
created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know
the truth� (1 Timothy 4:1-3). The apostle Paul asks with dismay,
“Why . . . do you submit yourself to decrees, such as ‘Do not handle,
do not taste, do not touch’?� (Colossians 2:20-21). He is
jealous for the full enjoyment of Christian liberty. Like a great
declaration of freedom over every book on fasting flies the banner,
“Food will not commend us to God; we are neither the worse
if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat� (1 Corinthians 8:8).
There once were two men. One said, “I fast twice a week�; the
other said, “God be merciful to me a sinner.� Only one went
down to his house justified (Luke 18:12-14).The discipline of self-denial is fraught with dangers—
perhaps only surpassed by the dangers of indulgence. These also
we are warned about: “All things are lawful for me, but I will not
be mastered by anything� (1 Corinthians 6:12).Posted by Steven Riddle at 9:39 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 4, 2005
I Beg One Last Indulgence
For the Antiquarians--the online works of William Morris. Arguably a better poet and designer than prose artist. Nevertheless, once you slip into the oddities of style, there is something wonderful about William Morris's work. Definitely for the medievalists and pseudo-medievalists amongst us. Waters of the Wondrous Isles, translations of Old French Romances and Icelandic sagas, and some very, very, very fine poetry.
And for those more modern, a relatively early work by Andre Norton.
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Another Amazing Compendium of Books
I'm not certain what all the titles here have to do with one another, but there's sure a lot of them.
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For Only the Most Inveterately Irish
Dracula's Crypt: Bram Stoker, Irishness, and the Question of Blood" Weird study of Dracula.
Sample:
from Dracula's Crypt:"The Metrocolonial Vampire"
Joseph ValenteA founding insight of the Irish Dracula school of criticism has been that Harker's observations in Transylvania refer in whole or in part to the features of life in Ireland in the nineteenth century.3 I think it would be more accurate to say that Harker's observations in Transylvania seem intended to echo or recall prominent treatises, received wisdom, and well-worn remarks, not to mention canards about Ireland. His comment on the immodesty of a peasant woman's native dress, for example, rehearses Edmund Spenser's strictures on Irish women's attire in A View of the Present State of Ireland.4 Harker's complaint about dilatory trains and his comments on the "idolatrous" peasants kneeling by a roadside shrine in a "self-surrender of devotion" (11), like figures "in old missals" (15), would have been familiar enough from Anglocentric travel narratives about Ireland. So too would have been his sense of the general depopulation of the countryside.
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Michael Palin's Guides to Everything
He has his own Site. Seems to include complete text of many books and some Quick Time videos, maps, etc. Cool!
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Chesterton
A list of what's available via Gutenberg. There's even more in Australia Gutenberg.
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Fr. James V. Schall online
Another Sort of Learning. Includes links to a wide variety of essays and studies by this erudite commentator on literature, society, and learning.
Subjects include: Belloc, Chesterton, Sense and Nonsense, Augustinian Political Philosophy, Teaching and Learning, Christian Political Philosophy, Thomas Aquinas--each subject having a plethora of resources associated with it. Truly a treasure trove.
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Here's Another--The Doré Bible Illustrations
They can be found here. It's nice that Gutenberg is doing something other than plain vanilla .txt files.
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May 25, 2005
Two Medieval English Dictionary Sources
The Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse, which includes the world-famous Ayenbite of inwit.
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March 28, 2005
The Art of Singing
by Luisa Tetrazzini and Enrico Caruso--the former having a most formidable bosum, and undoubtedly capable of prolonged, protracted, perhaps even painful musical exhalations.
Find it here
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March 24, 2005
Selected Works of Edmund Burke
Trying to find the exact formulation of the quotation from the previous post, I did find this rather nice on-line compendium of Burke's writing. It includes Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontent, Reflections on the Revolution in France and Letters on a Regicide Peace.
Here's another listing, for those interested, including a wider variety of works.
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March 18, 2005
Who Knew. . .
that John Dryden, one of the greatest of the crop of late 17th century writers actually composed a Life of St. Francis Xavier and, it is reputed in the intro a life of St. Ignatius. Haven't read 'em so I don't have any idea how "fair" they might be, but it came as news to me.
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Sermons of St. Anthony of Padua
Via Summa Minutiae. Find them here.
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March 14, 2005
Discovered While Fact-Checking/Researching Waugh
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March 3, 2005
For Those Interested in St. Edmund Campion
Ten Reasons in Latin and English.
Campion's "Brag" or Challenge to the Privy Council
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February 26, 2005
The Blessing of Great Works
Guide for the Perplexed --Moses Maimonides (aka Rambam)--one of the great scholars and writers of his, or any time.
Excerpt of above:
My primary object in this work is to explain certain words occurring in the prophetic books. Of these some are homonyms, and of their several meanings the ignorant choose the wrong ones; other terms which are employed in a figurative sense are erroneously taken by such persons in their primary signification. There are also hybrid terms, denoting things which are of the same class from one point of view and of a different class from another. It is not here intended to explain all these expressions to the unlettered or to mere tyros, a previous knowledge of Logic and Natural Philosophy being indispensable, or to those who confine their attention to the study of our holy Law, I mean the study of the canonical law alone; for the true knowledge of the Torah is the special aim of this and similar works.
[And another from "On the Three Types of Evils"]MEN frequently think that the evils in the world are more numerous than the good things; many sayings and songs of the nations dwell on this idea. They say that a good thing is found only exceptionally, whilst evil things are numerous and lasting. Not only common people make this mistake, but even many who believe that they are wise. Al-Razi wrote a well-known book On Metaphysics [or Theology]. Among other mad and foolish things, it contains also the idea, discovered by him, that there exists more evil than good. For if the happiness of man and his pleasure in the times of prosperity be compared with the mishaps that befall him, — such as grief, acute pain, defects, paralysis of the limbs, fears, anxieties, and troubles, — it would seem as if the existence of man is a punishment and a great evil for him. This author commenced to verify his opinion by counting all the evils one by one; by this means he opposed those who hold the correct view of the benefits bestowed by God and His evident kindness, viz., that God is perfect goodness, and that all that comes from Him is absolutely good. The origin of the error is to be found in the circumstance that this ignorant man, and his party among the common people, judge the whole universe by examining one single person. For an ignorant man believes that the whole universe only exists for him; as if nothing else required any consideration. If, therefore, anything happens to him contrary to his expectation, he at once concludes that the whole universe is evil. If, however, he would take into consideration the whole universe, form an idea of it, and comprehend what a small portion he is of the Universe, he will find the truth. For it is clear that persons who have fallen into this widespread error as regards the multitude of evils in the world, do not find the evils among the angels, the spheres and stars, the elements, and that which is formed of them, viz., minerals and plants, or in the various species of living beings, but only in some individual instances of mankind. They wonder that a person, who became leprous in consequence of bad food, should be afflicted with so great an illness and suffer such a isfortune; or that he who indulges so much in sensuality as to weaken his sight, should be struck With blindness! and the like.
The Works of Dionysius the Areopagite aka St. Denis (in some Medieval Works).
from "The Treatise on the Names of God"
Concerning this then, as has been said, the superessential and hidden Deity, it is not permitted to speak or even to think beyond the things divinely revealed to us in the sacred Oracles. For even as Itself has taught (as becomes Its goodness) in the Oracles, the science and contemplation of Itself in Its essential Nature is beyond the reach of all created things, as towering superessentially above all. And you will find many of the Theologians, who have celebrated It, not only as invisible and incomprehensible, but also as inscrutable and untraceable, since there is no trace of those who have penetrated to Its hidden infinitude. The Good indeed is not entirely uncommunicated to any single created being, but benignly sheds forth its superessential ray, persistently fixed in Itself, by illuminations analogous to each several being, and elevates to Its permitted contemplation and communion and likeness, those holy minds, who, as far as is lawful and reverent, strive after It, and who are neither impotently boastful towards that which is higher than the harmoniously imparted Divine manifestation, nor, in regard to a lower level, lapse downward through their inclining to the worse, but who elevate themselves determinately and unwaveringly to the ray shining upon them; and, by their proportioned love 4of permitted illuminations, are elevated with a holy reverence, prudently and piously, as on new wings.
from "The Letters of Dionysius
The Divine gloom is the unapproachable light in which God is said to dwell66. And in this gloom, invisible67 indeed, on account of the surpassing brightness, and unapproachable on account of the excess of the superessential stream of light, enters every one deemed worthy to know and to see God, by the very fact of neither seeing nor knowing, really entering in Him, Who is above vision and knowledge, knowing this very thing, that He is after all the object of sensible and intelligent perception, and saying in the words of the Prophet, “Thy knowledge was regarded as wonderful by me; It was confirmed; I can by no means attain unto it68;” even as the Divine Paul is said to have known Almighty God, by having known Him as being above all conception and knowledge. Wherefore also, he says, “His ways are past finding out69 and His Judgements inscrutable,” and His gifts “indescribable70,” and that His peace surpasses every mind71, as having found Him Who is above all, and having known this which is above conception, that, by being Cause of all, He is beyond all.
Keep in mind that these may be the works of the "Pseudo-Dionysius" no less respectable despite the questionable name.
Of God and His Creatures St. Thomas AquinasThe Catena Aurea for the Gospel of Mark
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February 8, 2005
"And Now for Something Completely Different. . ."
For those feeling a bit peckish but nevertheless not wishing to curtail their walpoling activities, Hugh Walpole's The Cathedral. May be the wrong Walpole, but read it with a nice bit of stilton or some brie (even very runny brie) and you won't notice the difference.
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January 4, 2005
On-Line Catholic Bible Commentary
TSO noted that this Catholic Commenatry on the Bible was available online. I don't know what Questia is, but if it is open to all, this is a wonderful resource.
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December 27, 2004
Appropriate for the Season
As we approach Epiphany and the brilliant end of the Christmas Season (actually with Baptism of the Lord), we have The Story of the Other Wise Man by Henry Van Dyke.
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December 16, 2004
Code of Canon Law
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November 29, 2004
E-Chesterton
Books from Gutenberg--Chesterton--scroll to November 29
* The Crimes of England
* The Barbarism of Berlin
* The Appetite of Tyranny, Including Letters to an Old Garibaldian
* The Wild Knight, and Other Poems
* The Defendant (second edition, 1902)
* Twelve Types
* Robert Browning
* The New Jerusalem
* Varied TypesPosted by Steven Riddle at 5:09 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
November 8, 2004
Literary Taste: How to Form It
A magnificent e-text from the author of one of the 100 best books of the twentieth century. This excerpt:
from Literary Taste: How to Form It
Arnold BennettChapter IX Verse
There is a word, a “name of fear,” which rouses terror in the heart of the vast educated majority of the English-speaking race. The most valiant will fly at the mere utterance of that word. The most broad-minded will put their backs up against it. The most rash will not dare to affront it. I myself have seen it empty buildings that had been full; and I know that it will scatter a crowd more quickly than a hose-pipe, hornets, or the rumour of plague. Even to murmur it is to incur solitude, probably disdain, and possibly starvation, as historical examples show. That word is “poetry.”. . .
The formation of literary taste cannot be completed until that prejudice has been conquered. My very difficult task is to suggest a method of conquering it. I address myself exclusively to the large class of people who, if they are honest, will declare that, while they enjoy novels, essays, and history, they cannot “stand” verse. The case is extremely delicate, like all nervous cases. It is useless to employ the arts of reasoning, for the matter has got beyond logic; it is instinctive. Perfectly futile to assure you that verse will yield a higher percentage of pleasure than prose! You will reply: “We believe you, but that doesn't help us.” Therefore I shall not argue. I shall venture to prescribe a curative treatment (doctors do not argue); and I beg you to follow it exactly, keeping your nerve and your calm. Loss of self-control might lead to panic, and panic would be fatal.
So, for those of you who suffer metrophobia run, don't walk to this text and find out what Bennett's advice might be. The life you change could be your own!
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October 20, 2004
E-books
In Praise of the New Knighthood St. Bernard of Clairvaux
Poems Jonathan Swift
The Primitive Rule of the Templars
The Hawaiian Romance Of Laieikawai
Youth and the Bright Medusa--Willa Cather
The Tatler, Vol I Addison and Steele
The Complete Studies in the Psychology of Sex--Havelock Ellis--the beginning of the slippery slope in the twentieth Century. Unfortunately more influential that Freud.
The Nonsence Verse of Edward Lear
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October 11, 2004
Elizabethan Authors
Featuring a far-too-annotated Thomas Kyd The Spanish Tragedy along with some unfortunately modernized John Lyly--why can't people leave things alone. Yes, they're tough to read in the original, but it give the brain a little work to do and you have a sense of the author you don't get when people go fiddling with the texts. Well, for better or worse:
If 'tis done when 'twere done
'tis best 'twere done quickly.Enjoy
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October 7, 2004
E-books Worthy of Your Attention--John Ruskin
Val d'Arno: Ten Lectures on the Tuscan Art Directly Antecedent to the Florentine Year of Victories -- John Ruskin--Prince of the Victorian Critics, if something of an aesthete.
Also Queen of the Air
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October 6, 2004
Jansenism
From a correspondent--an extremely interesting site with everything you always wanted to know about Jansenism but were afraid to ask. Note the inclusion of a PDF of Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange's Grace, being a Thomistic explanation of the doctrine of Grace &c.
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September 25, 2004
From Project Canterbury
The Worthy Communicant;
Or, a Discourse of the Nature, Effects, and Blessings consequent to the Worthy Receiving of the Lord's Supper, And of all the Duties required in Order to a Worthy Preparation: Together with the Cases of Conscience occurring in the Duty of Him that Ministers, and of Him that Communicates; As also Devotions Fitted to Every Part of the Ministration.
by Jeremy Taylor, author of the remarkable Holy Living and Holy DyingPosted by Steven Riddle at 8:00 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
September 11, 2004
Incredibly Cool!
Comparing the texts - Shakespeare in quarto
Yes, you can see some of the orginal Quarto editions of Shakespeare's work! Wonderful! Magnificent! Exciting! Even for people who are not Shakespearian Scholars. This is one of the reasons I love the web!
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September 9, 2004
E-Books-Chesterton and Belloc
Robert Browning--G.K. Chesterton
The Vanity of Human Wishes and Rambler Papers--Samuel JohnsonHills and the Sea--Hillaire Belloc
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August 22, 2004
An Orthodox Psalter
POMOG - Daily Psalter Readings
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More Than You Ever Dreamed You Wanted To Know (or Didn't) about North Carolina
North Carolina History and Fiction Digital Library
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August 19, 2004
E. F. Benson
Crescent and Iron Cross--an unusual work by Benson, neither Lucia nor the splendid Ghost Stories (including "Room for One More" and "The Room in the Tower"). I've not read it--but for afficianados of this brother of the illustrious R.H. Benson--a Chesterton-age convert who became a priest.
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August 17, 2004
A Travelogue by S. Baring-Gould
In Troubadour-Land S. Baring-Gould
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For the Mathematically Inclined
Chebyshev and Fourier Spectrum Models
Problem Course in Mathematical Logic
A Plethora of Books from the AMS (I'm assuming that is the American Mathematical Society.)
Dynamical Systems and Ergodic Theory
Jacobi Operators and Completely Integrable Nonlinear Lattices
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Poetry in Translation
Poetry In Translation - A.S. Kline's Free Archive--provides translations of Catullus (not for the easily offended), Ovid (ditto), as well as prominent modern or recent European poets--Goethe, Guillaume Apollinaire, Paul Eluard, etc. (Includes a complete Dunio Elegies, a complete Divine Comedy with notes, a complete Canti of Leopardi, a complete Canzoniere of Petrarch, and a complete Faust with notes.
Very nice.
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August 7, 2004
Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress
from the beginning to now--here. Found searching for George Wythe.
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August 5, 2004
St Bernard of Clairvaux
Following on today's office of readings, I was stunned to find this magnificent treasure trove on-line. St. Bernard of Clarivaux's Sermons on the Song of Songs--Volumes I and II.
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August 3, 2004
Early Christian Writers
From an interesting site, and interesting book by George Jackson--a summary of the writings of the Early Church fathers, The Greek Post-Nicene Fathers. There's a nice description of the Church Father and of the nature of his writings.
An interesting e-Catena which includes excerpts from the Apocrypha of the New Testament including the exceedingly weird Protevangelium of James.
Look around the site, there is much of great interest and much that will confound, confuse, and add fuel to The DaVinci Code flame. We've had them with us from the very beginning. I suppose we should be thankful for Dominicans and Jesuits.
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July 31, 2004
For Hillaire Belloc Fans and others
I don't know if this is a fragment, a pamphlet, a reprint of an extended essay, but here it is: The Historic Thames
Thomas Chatterron's faked 15th century poems The Rowley Poems
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July 29, 2004
Mystical Theology
Dionysius the Areopagite: On the Divine Names and the Mystical Theology
Posted by Steven Riddle at 7:41 PM | TrackBack
Site for Works of Marvin Olasky
Marvin Olasky's Books and Articles
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Pedro Calderon de la Barca
The Two Lovers of Heaven: Chrysanthus and Daria
Posted by Steven Riddle at 5:26 PM | TrackBack
July 26, 2004
From the Site I Posted Yesterday
Were you all aware of the availability of these e-books? If so, shame on you for not telling me.
This collection includes:
The Golden Legend Jacobus de Voraigne
Steedman on the Saints
Documents of the Council of Trent
Writings of St. Catherine of Genoa
For Greater Things: The Story of St. Stanislaw Kostka
Memoir of Father Vincent de Pauletc.
Go and see, wonderful resources!
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July 25, 2004
St Joseph Software Home Page
A correspondent sent me this wonderful link. I'll be adding it to my side-column later.
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July 20, 2004
Essential E-Texts
Procopius--The Secret History of the Courts of Justinian a.k.a. The Secret History second only to Suetonius in gossipy vitriol, this history of the the Court helps us to better appreciate the derogatory adjective "byzantine."
John Webster--The White Devil Read it to truly appreciate the greatness of Shakespeare, but also for its sheer lurid awfulness--not in prose or poetry but in story conception.
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June 6, 2004
E-books Worthy of Note
A very nice little translation of some of the more important texts fromt he Early Church Fathers with explanatory notes is available through CCEL Early Christian Fathers.
And a novel about the days of St. John Chrysostom--Frederic Farrar The Gathering StormPosted by Steven Riddle at 7:23 AM | TrackBack
June 3, 2004
E-book Annouoncements
The following should be of some interest to St. Blogs, as I think it has been out-of-print or only available in omnibus volumes:
G. K. Chesterton Twelve Types
Including studies of Savonarola, Tolstoy, Stevenson, Scott, and St. Francis.
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June 2, 2004
E Book Roundup
M. R. James's translation of Biblical Antiquities of Philo
A popularized Pseudepigrapha The Forgotten Books of Eden
Cicero De Amicitia; Scipio's Dream
Tacitus The Germany and the Agricola
Crutwell A History of Roman Literature
Lord The Roman Pronunciation of Latin
Posted by Steven Riddle at 7:06 PM | TrackBack
May 28, 2004
Harvest of E-books
For our lawyers and the lawyerly inclined: BLACKSTONE'S COMENTARIES: WITH NOTES OF REFERENCE, TO THE CONSTITUTION AND LAWS, OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES; AND OF THE
COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA. IN FIVE VOLUMES. WITH AN APPENDIX TO EACH VOLUME, CONTAINING SHORT TRACTS UPON SUCH SUBJECTS AS APPEARED NECESSARY TO FORM A CONNECTED VIEW OF THE LAWS OF VIRGINIA,AS A MEMBER OF THE FEDERAL UNION. St. George Tucker, 1803.Sax Rohmer's magnificent Brood of the Witch Queen (How could you possibly resist a title so lurid?
George du Maurier Trilby
George Du Maurier Peter Ibbetson
For the hopelessly recondite: Charles Bishko Portuguese and Spanish Monastic History 600-1300
And a searchable Douay-Rheims-Challoner Bible Not so fine as the King James, lacking some linguistic nuance and subtlety, but still a very nice translation. Also has a nice link to a searchable Latin Vulgate Bible.Posted by Steven Riddle at 5:36 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
May 21, 2004
King Charles I--Martyr?
For those interested in King Charles the First and the Anglo-Catholic view of him, you could do worse than to seek the library of documents at Project Canterbury.
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May 20, 2004
Roundup of E-Books
G.K. Chesterton The Defendant See particularly the essays on humility and the detective story.
William Wordworth The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, Vol III--which volume includes the autobiographical and exceedingly influential poem The Prelude (in fourteen books).
Jonathan Swift Prose Works of Jonathan Swift vol III--including the essay on abolishing Christianity in England.
Roy Chapman Andrews Camps and Trails in China Andrews is one of the first names in Dinosaur Paleontology and apparently natural history--a narrative of his sojourn in China.
Sir George Frazer Balder the Beautiful, Vol 1 a lesser-known anthropoogical work.
John Muir The Grand Canon of the Colorado by America's earliest conservationist/naturalist.
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May 18, 2004
For Don
And now you can't say that I have never done anything for you--
What we might term one of the more progressive texts of its time.
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April 30, 2004
Now Available
Pedro Calderon de la Barca's The Two Lovers of Heaven: Chrysanthus and Daria--a play subtitled "A story of early Christian Rome." Worth looking at.
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April 20, 2004
A Martian Odyssey and other E-Text Delights
Surprised and delighted to find it available online here
Not a fan of G.K. Chesterton's poetry, but for those who are The Wild Night and Other Poems
Flaubert's Trois Contes including the remarkable "Un Coeur Simple" and " La Légende de St. Julien L'Hosptialier"
A lesser known Weinbaum story "Valley of Dreams"
Johnson's Essays from The Adventurer and The Idler
This link contains selections of the Red Book of Hergest and the Black Book of Caermaerthen (or sometimes spelled Caer Myrddin) as well as the book of Taliessin and Aneurin. Thus the four so-called Ancient Books of Wales. See Charles Williams The Arthurian Torso for more exposition.
And here Lady Guest's translation of The Mabinogion including some of the earliest known Welsh sources for the Arthurian legend.
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April 17, 2004
And For the Purely Weird. . .
you can't beat W. Scott-Eliot's The Lost Lemuria. Enjoy this delightfully bizarre telling of the Atlantis-like continent that occupied the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Very nice. Hope we Velikovsky next.
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An Older, Very Protestant, But Nevertheless Intersting Book:
Posted by Steven Riddle at 4:51 PM | TrackBack
April 12, 2004
Riches Found While Searching
While looking for references in the previous posts I found a number of interesting sites:
19th Century French Literature
Athena:Authors and Texts in French This latter having the works of Chretien de Troyes, Pascal, and many, many others.
Enjoy!
Posted by Steven Riddle at 6:59 AM | TrackBack
April 8, 2004
The Way of the Cross
With meditations by Fr. Andre Louf.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 9:16 PM | TrackBack
April 4, 2004
Robert Hugh Benson
Dawn of All is available as e-text. When will we finally see Come Rack, Come Rope ?
Posted by Steven Riddle at 6:10 AM | TrackBack
April 3, 2004
Charles Williams E-books
The least known and unjustly neglected member of the inklings available as e-text.
My very favorite (an apparently a favorite of T.S. Eliot) All Hallow's Eve
Posted by Steven Riddle at 7:19 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
March 29, 2004
More Religious E-Texts
Here's a site that has a great many e-books some in PDF, some in HTML, and others as TXT which can be modified to be read on palm devices. This includes a slew of G.K. Chesterton, the Catechism and other important works. For those who are not aware, it is possible to get a PDF reader for Palm from adobe. It requires that you convert ordinary PDFs into palm-readable PDFs, but it is very, very nice. (It also allows you to carry around many of the books from the Broderhof collective.)
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From St. Louis de Montfort
First part available in its entirety here
from The Secret of the Rosary
St. Louis de MontfortSaint Gregory of Nyssa makes a delightful comparison when he says that we are all artists and that our souls are blank canvasses which we have to fill in. The colors which we use are the Christian virtues, and the original which we have to copy is Jesus Christ, the perfect living image of God the Father. Just as a painter who wants to do a lifelike portrait places the model before his eyes and looks at it before making each stroke, so the Christian must always have before his eyes the life and virtues of Jesus Christ, so as never to say, think or do anything which is not in conformity with his model.
It was because Our Lady wanted to help us in the great task of working out our salvation that she ordered Saint Dominic to teach the faithful to meditate upon the sacred mysteries of the life of Jesus Christ. She did this, not only that they might adore and glorify him, but chiefly that they might pattern their lives and actions on his virtues.
See here for more Montfortian works online.
And here is an interesting prayer--The Fiery Prayer for the Apostles of the Latter Times by St. Louis Marie Grignon de Montfort.
It's a shame so much of this great Saint's work is co-opted by sedevacantists and other schismatics, as it is both profound and salutary.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 9:47 AM | TrackBack
March 20, 2004
Selections from Pére Marie-Eugene de L'enfant Jesus
Posted by Steven Riddle at 8:42 AM | TrackBack
March 14, 2004
The Anatomy of Melancholy Online
from The Anatomy of Melancholy
Democritus Junior (Robert Burton)
A third argument may be derived from the precedent, [436]all men are
carried away with passion, discontent, lust, pleasures, &c., they generally
hate those virtues they should love, and love such vices they should hate.
Therefore more than melancholy, quite mad, brute beasts, and void of
reason, so Chrysostom contends; "or rather dead and buried alive," as [437] Philo Judeus concludes it for a certainty, "of all such that are carried
away with passions, or labour of any disease of the mind. Where is fear and
sorrow," there [438]Lactantius stiffly maintains, "wisdom cannot dwell,"------"qui cupiet, metuet quoque porro,
Qui metuens vivit, liber mihi non erit unquam."[439]Seneca and the rest of the stoics are of opinion, that where is any the
least perturbation, wisdom may not be found. "What more ridiculous," as
[440]Lactantius urges, than to hear how Xerxes whipped the Hellespont,
threatened the Mountain Athos, and the like. To speak _ad rem_, who is free
from passion? [441]_Mortalis nemo est quem non attingat dolor, morbusve_, as [442]Tully determines out of an old poem, no mortal men can avoid sorrow
and sickness, and sorrow is an inseparable companion from melancholy.
[443]Chrysostom pleads farther yet, that they are more than mad.Posted by Steven Riddle at 11:28 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
January 1, 2004
For Your Delectation and Delight
Sir Philip Sidney's The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia
And a complete on-line Translation of Goethe's Faust
And here you will find a plethora of on-line works including:
Translations of some of the Poetry of Fredrico Garcia Lorca, Osip Mandelstahm, Rainer Maria Rilke (including the Dunio Elegies and The Sonnets to Orpheus, Petrarch, Leopardi, Baudelaire, Catullus, The Homeric Odes, Chaucer, Sidney, a new Translation of Racine's Phaedra, Cyrano de Bergerac, Aucassin and Nicolette, Verlaine, Apollinaire and others.
And at This site translations of Ovid and others including some interesting rhyming translations of Tang Dynasty Poets.
I found the translation of Baudelaire's extraordinarily difficult poem "Les Correspondences" very nice indeed.
And consider for a moment the notion of this venture--free on-line translations/texts. What a great way to start the New Year.
I might also suggest sampling the poet's original work. Some of it is appealing.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 9:55 AM | TrackBack
November 5, 2003
Dream of the Red Chamber
For those interested in reading one of the earliest novels, this one by Cao Xuequin is now available via Blackmask. It looks like other than the Pinyin transliteration of the Author's name, the translation employs largely Wade-Giles, or perhaps even earlier systems--nevertheless, it can be quite enjoyable. Book two is also available on the same site.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 8:53 AM | TrackBack
October 31, 2003
Exciting New Texts
In Welsh, with a nice introduction and translation
Y Gododin--Aneurin
(Although I would swear that I had heard this referred to as Y Gododdin)
Courtesy of Alicia
An Analytic Bibliography of On-Line Neo-Latin Texts
Posted by Steven Riddle at 7:46 AM | TrackBack
October 16, 2003
E-Books For Everyone
H. Rider Haggard Fair Margaret
G.K. Chesterton Alarms and Discursions
John Knox First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women (voted most amusing title in a long time)
Erasmus Darwin The Botanic Garden
M.R. James Ghost Stories of an Antiquary--Volume II--Contains the remarkable stories "Casting the Runes" and "Stalls of Barchester Cathedral." James is one of the all-time greats in the genre of stories that are just a bit chilling.Posted by Steven Riddle at 8:25 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
October 8, 2003
Narnia Resource
A book highly recommended at Blithering Idiot, is made available on-line. Peter J. Schakel's Reading with the Heart: The Way into Narnia has long been out of print, but the author has generously made it available to readers through the web. Thanks to both Blithering and Mr. (Dr.?) Schakel.
By the way, I read Blithering Idiot to keep a sense of the pulse of conservative Episcopalianism in this time of crisis. (Midwest Conservative Journal is also an excellect resource for this. ). I continue to pray for those in the church who have chosen to lead others astray and hope that they will eventually come to understand the magnitude of what they have done.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 12:38 PM | TrackBack
October 7, 2003
Room in the Dragon Volant Available as E-Text
The fantastically rare Room in the Dragon Volant by J. Sheridan Le Fanu, of Carmilla fame. Thank heaven's for rescuing such things from obscurity, if only to a pixelated existance.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 5:37 PM | TrackBack
October 5, 2003
Craig Rice
Following on my note of this morning, following on Lee Ann's note, this announcement of the availability of at least the first three or four Craig Rice novels. An American mystery writer of some little talent and a good deal of humor. Now, if only we can start to see Thorne Smith available.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 9:49 AM | TrackBack
October 1, 2003
How NOT to Make Your Point
I'm not fond of Schopenhauer's philosophy. I find it approaching Nietzsche's in utter repugnance; however, this little ditty seems to be a source of salutary reading for many of St. Blog's (and the world-at-large's) controversialists. These are to be distinguished from St. Blog's distinguished, reputable, and above-board disputant
Posted by Steven Riddle at 1:37 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
September 24, 2003
St. Francis de Sales--From a Contemporary
Here's a biography/study of St. Francis de Sales from 1639, approximately 17 years after the Sainted Bishop's death. It looks like a wonderful précis of his thought and spirituality.
An excerpt drawn quickly, at random:
from The Spirit of St. Francis de Sales
Jean Pierre CamusDistrust of self and confidence in God are the two mystic wings of the dove; that is to say, of the soul which, having learnt to be simple, takes its flight and rests in God, the great and sovereign object of its love, of its flight, and of its repose.
The Spiritual Combat, which is an excellent epitome of the science of salvation and of heavenly teaching, makes these two things, distrust of self and confidence in God, to be, as it were, the introduction to true wisdom: they are, the author tells us, the two feet on which we walk towards it, the two arms with which we embrace it, and the two eyes with which we perceive it.
In proportion to the growth of one of these two in us is the increase of the other; the greater or the less the degree of our self-distrust, the greater or the less the degree of our confidence in God. But whence springs this salutary distrust of self? From the knowledge of our own misery and vileness, of our weakness and impotence, of our malice and levity. And whence proceeds confidence In God? From the knowledge which faith gives us of His infinite goodness, and from our assurance that He is rich in mercy to all those who call upon Him.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 7:33 AM | TrackBack
September 19, 2003
Quiz Time
Okay, let's be honest now--how many of you even knew there was Tertullian Project?
One. . . two. . . three. . .
Okay, how many actually cared?
Anyone? Anyone?
For those interested includes texts in English, Latin, Italina, Russian, French, Greek, and perhaps other languages. In some cases mutliple translations of a single work (for example Ad Martyres. If the Church Fathers are your thing (even if Tertullian did become a montanist) this is a site for you.
This is an index of other Church Fathers' writing as well as the writing of such luminaries as Gildas (one of the very early supposed sources of the Arthur Legend) and other delightful tidbits.
Go a browse--there's a wealth of wonderful and entertaining stuff at these locations.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 2:33 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
September 15, 2003
A Complete Boswell-Life of John Vols 1-3 of 6
Great news for followers of e-books: a complete Life of Johnson in process
Posted by Steven Riddle at 8:20 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Ancient Rome
From Mr. White's Blog, a link to a full reference on ancient Roman History. Try to ignore the very annoying popunders.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 8:09 PM | TrackBack
September 13, 2003
A brief introduction to the art of Descant: or, Composing Musick in Parts
This work, by John Playford, is by the "Father of English Music Publication" according to the introduction. The work was written in 1654 and covers composition of music in 2, 3, and 4 parts. It appears to be part of a larger work.
Find the complete document via PDF, here
Posted by Steven Riddle at 10:42 AM | TrackBack
September 11, 2003
A Depressing Document in the History of Religion
Here--Slavery Ordained of God. There's no point in denying these realities of the past and these misconstructions of God's word, but it does hurt at times. We do well to learn from our errors.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 9:46 AM | TrackBack
September 2, 2003
For Fans of C.S. Lewis
For Fans of C.S. Lewis
His mentor's book Unspoken Sermons. George D. MacDonald, despite his excesses in the novel-world is one of the writers C.S. Lewis most admired. I would like to discover why. Perhaps these short sermons will help.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 5:57 PM
August 26, 2003
New Resources
New Resources
In the course of preparing the previous post, I happened upon the following enormously valuable resources:
Greek New Testament, this one is up and working and provides the original Greek of the verse with an ability to parse the words as you click on them. Great for those learning Biblical Greek.
The New Testament Gateway, whose caretaker seems not to care for the Notion of Q (Quellen--a "source document" for the synoptic Gospels or at least Matthew and Mark). But it links to a Greek New Testament gateway that has links to a great many site.
And perhaps most wonderful of all The Unbound Bible which allows you to search for Biblical References in 10 English Versions, 5 Greek Versions, 2 Hebrew Versions (OT), 6 ancient versions--including Latin and the Septuagint, and 42 modern languages (including Icelandic). In addition, you can display these in parallel three versions at a time. It includes a Greek Lexical parser, and a Greek and Hebrew Lexicon, as well as a guide to reading the Bible in a year. The presence of Naves Topical Bible and Matthew Henry's commentary show this to be a protestant-influenced, possibly evangelical site, but the resources are tremendous and exciting (and it does include a Douay-Rheims-Challoner).
Wonderful, wonderful resources. Go and make good use of them.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 8:34 AM
August 11, 2003
A New Scupoli Translation Mr.
A New Scupoli Translation
Mr. Perry seems to be working on a new translation of Scupoli's The Spiritual Combat, along with some cogent notes and details. So far only fourteen chapters, but I hope the work continues.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 11:29 AM
July 10, 2003
A Treasure!
A Treasure!
Look at what I stumbled across in my searches: The Paradoxes of Catholicism, a collection of Sermons by Robert Hugh Benson. (I was actually looking for Come Rack, Come Rope which I know has been reprinted, but my book budget for such things is, shall we say, abstemious in the extreme.) Following an excerpt from a Sermons preached on Easter Day:
from Paradoxes of Catholicism--"Life and Death" Preached on Easter Day Robert Hugh BensonIt is easy, then, to see why it is that the Church dies daily, why it is that she is content to be stripped of all that makes her life effective, why she too permits her hands to be bound and her feet fettered and her beauty marred and her voice silenced so far as men can do those things. She is human? Yes; she dwells in a body that is prepared for her, but prepared chiefly that she may suffer in it. Her far-reaching hands are not hers merely that she may bind up with them the brokenhearted, nor her swift feet hers merely that she may run on them to succour the perishing, nor her head and heart hers merely that she may ponder and love. But all this sensitive human organism is hers that at last she may agonize in it, bleed from it from a thousand wounds, be lifted up in it to draw all men to her cross.
She does not desire, then, in this world, the throne of her Father David, nor the kind of triumph which is the only kind that the world understands to be so. She desires one life and one triumph only -- the Risen Life of her Saviour. And this, at last, is the transfiguration of her Humanity by the power of her Divinity and the vindication of them both.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 8:26 AM
June 30, 2003
More on Lectio
More on Lectio
A generous reader contributed this website which is from the Valyermo Benedictine on lectio It includes tips for private consideration of the prayer and for communal forms. Quite often our Carmelite group does this with great effect for everyone--it allows an exploration of the message of scripture in a way that is impossible for a single person. Also, it better helps tease out some of the applications one might make of the scripture. My thanks to the person who so generously sent me this link. (There are a great many links out there on lectio. This one is nice because it is succinct and yet pretty thorough, it seems.)
Posted by Steven Riddle at 8:19 AM
June 27, 2003
Berkeley and UC Press
Berkeley and UC Press
Apparently a great many books from these two sources are available online. Some of them of may interest some St. Blog's parishioners. I have yet to discover a good means to knowing everything available, as there doesn't appear to be a central index. But here's a couple of titles that may evoke some comment:
Papal Patronage and the Music of St. Peter's 1380-1513
Stravinsky and The Rite of Spring.
Later: Found the link to a general index:
University of California Press E-Scholarship Editions
Posted by Steven Riddle at 1:14 PM
Wodehouse Fans
For some reason can't seem to get to Catholic Bookshelf to blog so I leave this notice here.
You may want to check out Blackmask, which has two works (look like collections of short stories):
and
and another from Gutenberg, certain to show up at Blackmask shortly:
Posted by Steven Riddle at 11:42 AM
June 23, 2003
Pepys Online
I have read now, in several places, of the Pepys Now project, and heartily recommend it to your attention because the blog entries that have resulted from it have been most fascinating and enjoyable. I don't know about the promised instant immortality but I do think the personalization of history through such details is a powerful and persuasive argument for it.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 8:36 AM
June 22, 2003
Passage from Another Work Compiled by Rose Hawthorne Lathorp
This brief passage, excerpted from a letter of Sophia Hawthorne may give some indication of why Rose Hawthorne Lathorp was able to develop in the way she did. For the complete work, look here
from Memories of Hawthorne Compiled and annotated by Rose Hawthorne LathorpWe breakfast about nine o'clock, because we do not dine till three; and we have no tea ceremony, because it broke our evenings too much. I break my fast upon fruit, and we lunch upon fruit, and in the evening, also, partake of that paradisaical food. Mr. Emerson, with his sunrise smile, Ellery Channing, radiating dark light, and, very rarely, Elizabeth Hoar, with spirit voice and tread, have alone varied our days from without; but we have felt no want. My sweet, intelligent maid sings at her work, with melodious note. I do not know what is in store for me; but I know well that God is in the future, and I do not fear, or lose the precious present by anticipating possible evil. I remember Father Taylor's inspired words, "Heaven is not afar. We are like phials of water in the midst of the ocean. Eternity, heaven, God, are all around us, and we are full of God. Let the thin crystal break, and it is all one." Mr. Mann came to Concord to lecture last week. He looked happiest. What can he ask for more, having Mary for his own? Hold me ever as Your true and affectionate friend,
SOPHIA.
I love the image of "phials of water in the midst of the ocean." We cannot see what surrounds us even though it is at the same time within us.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 1:18 PM
June 19, 2003
E-Books for All
E-Books for All--From the Bruderhof Community Website
I've never been quite sure what to make of the Bruderhof communities, and because I do not know, I will refrain from advancing an opinion. What I can say of the collective is that I have very much enjoyed some of the books they have published. You now have a chance to sample some of their work through an extensive e-book collection (perhaps as many as 28 titles.) This includes such works as a sampler of Soren Kierkegaard titled Provocations and other books that might appeal to some in St. Blogs. Go to this site and click e-books. I hope you enjoy them. Warning to the Nervous: Very Social Justice Oriented and VERY Anabaptist.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 6:04 PM
June 18, 2003
A Coda to Disputations
John da Fiesole is ably defending the truth against various detractors. In response I found this absolutely irresistable piece of anti-Catholic diatribe, enshrined in the archives of Catholic-hating protestants everywhere. Ms. Monk purports to give a true account of the awful goings-on in a Canadian Nunnery. (Although given a recent post by Mr. de Vere at Catholic Light, it would seem that Canada has enough to account for on its own.)
Posted by Steven Riddle at 5:32 PM
June 16, 2003
Originally Left in the Comment Box--American Memory Collection
One of the most superb collections of Americana available to all may be found here. Incorporating collections of literary works, presidents papers, photographs, films, and sound recordings, the collection is an invitation to the study of American History. You can view films from the Pan-American Exposition that marked the final days of William McKinley. You can see footage of early New York City. You can see letters by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson in their own hand--a couple of them taken from the blotter rather than the original. You can read about the Donner Party. The collection is searchable and it is also organized into "special exhibitions." Truly worth the time anytime you have something you want to research. (Oh, and if you wish to see it, there's even a famous fragment of a "Gertie the Dinosaur" cartoon.)
Posted by Steven Riddle at 8:25 AM
March 9, 2003
Oh, I have Stumbled Upon a Treasure Trove
Start here with an arrangement of Herbert lyrics specifically selected and laid out for Lenten Reading.
Then visit the Tenebrae service accompanied by Herbert's "The Sacrifice"
And then go here for Herbertalia galore, including A Priest to the Temple and other Herbert Poems and writings. Wonderful, wonderful stuff.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 8:27 AM
November 16, 2002
Calling All Proofreaders/Editors Distributed Proofreaders
Distributed Proofreaders (found here) could use your help. The concept behind Distributed Proofreaders is to proof public-domain e-texts for posting on the Gutenberg Site. Past projects have included things like Pope's translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey as well as a great many others. If you are interested in e-texts, in proofreading, or simply in getting a glimpse into the world of those of use who read nearly everything on a Palm OS computer--drop in here and see what's going on.
(Yes, I carry about 100 different books, articles, and collections on my Handspring with memory expansion. I want to get a machine that will take compact flash or smart media and load it up with complete Shakespeare, some lengthy anthologies of poetry I've found around the net and other more guilty goodies (such as the "Barsoom" Series of Burroughs and much of the complete opus of H. Rider Haggard--author of She, King Solomon's Mines [written on a dare] and Allan Quatermain. I could also put on A.E.W. Mason's Four Feathers, much of Stevenson [who I've come to like better than I originally did after reading his spirited defense of Fr. Damien], and yes, Chesterton--Currently I'm carrying Heretics, Orthodoxy, The Man Who Was Thursday, St. Thomas Aquinas, and some selected essays and poetry.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 8:53 AM
October 25, 2002
Representative Poetry Online
Representative Poetry Online
Representative Poetry Online, or RPO as they are calling themselves, has change not only its URL but its format. It's great, take a look.Posted by Steven Riddle at 7:43 AM
October 18, 2002
For those who read French
For those who read French
This lovely piece. While I read French I dare not compose in it--the offense to native French ears would probably precipitate an international crisis.Posted by Steven Riddle at 6:41 PM
August 19, 2002
For Chesterton Fans
It may be that this is available elsewhere on the web, but this is the first full version I've come across of "Lepanto."
I must immediately say that usually I'm not overwhelmed by Chesterton's verse, mostly workmanlike stuff. But this piece is nice for those of us taught in American schools where we really haven't an inkling of some of the important things have have gone on in the world before our naissance. It also has some sumptuous imagery and works as narrative (often a very difficult trick to pull off in poetry).
from "Lepanto"
G. K. ChestertonMahound is in his paradise above the evening star,
(Don John of Austria is going to the war.)
He moves a mighty turban on the timeless houri's knees,
His turban that is woven of the sunsets and the seas.
He shakes the peacock gardens as he rises from his ease,
And he strides among the tree-tops and is taller than the trees;
And his voice through all the garden is a thunder sent to bring
Black Azrael and Ariel and Ammon on the wing.
Giants and the Genii,
Multiplex of wing and eye,
Whose strong obedience broke the sky
When Solomon was king.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 8:43 PM
August 2, 2002
Peggy Noonan on John Paul II
Dylan at Error 503 recommends this. I couldn't possibly agree more. A very moving, sensitive, and timely tribute to a very loving, concerned, and strong man. No matter what one might say about feminization of faith (page down to August 1, 1:07 pm) il Papa is not exemplary of the trend.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 10:20 AM
July 30, 2002
Prayers from Other Places I
I hesitate to call these prayers of the Eastern Church, but these wonderful treasures on Dylan Six-Eighteen's site here and here should provide days of reflection, meditation, and food for thought. A line I shall treasure
"Hail, O little space that held within it Him whom the world cannot contain! "These two pieces are going into my personal prayer book. Thanks Dylan!
Posted by Steven Riddle at 5:41 PM