On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through the Great Books
Reviewed by Eighth Day Books
Feast of the Martyr Zosimas the Hermit of Cilicia
Anno Domini 2020, September 19
The library of Jeff Reimer with bookshelves custom built by his father.
On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life Through the Great Books by Karen Swallow Prior
Foreword by Leland Ryken
The reading of literature—considered a chore, an escape, or an out-of-date pastime in our fast-moving world—matters more than ever, according to Karen Prior. The very act of sitting down with a book requires attention, patience, and reflection; great books, read rightly, offer us keys for how to live a virtuous life. This argument (voiced by St. Basil the Great in the fourth century) is not new, but Prior’s eloquent persuasion—and her abiding love of books—will resonate with everyone whose inner life is formed, in part, by reading. Where does folly lead, what are the fruits of continence? Twain, Tolstoy, Dickens, and Flannery O’Connor never sermonize; they lead us into timeless questions by holding up a mirror that reflects life’s many choices. Cormac McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic The Road balances the virtue of hope against the scourge of hopelessness, Prior explains, while Shishako Endo’s Silence presents “a lofty figure who falls through…his own flaws and forces beyond his control,” letting us view “through a different lens what the virtue of faith looks like when it is practiced well (or not).” Prior’s nuanced reading of classics such as The Great Gatsby (temperance) and Ethan Frome (chastity) provides us with refreshing insights we can readily apply to less familiar novels. If you’ve never considered Augustine’s view of suffering while reading Jane Austen’s Persuasion (patience), you can rest assured that many hidden treasures await you in these pages.
272 pp. cloth $19.99
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