Search Results for: Mark twain

The Pilgrim’s Progress and the Nursery Bookshelf: A Book’s Journey (Throwback Thursday)

Posted on March 17, 2022 by Brenton Dickieson

At A Pilgrim in Narnia, we have an occasional feature called “Throwback Thursday.” By raiding either my own blog-hoard or someone else’s, I find a blog post from the past and throw it back out into the digital world. This … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections, Reviews | Tagged books, C.S. Lewis, children's literature, Education, Emily of New Moon, English Literature, fantasy, Frances Hodgson Burnett, John Bunyan, John Milton, L.M. Montgomery, literacy, Louisa May Alcott., Mark Twain, Shakespeare, The Pilgrim's Progress, The Pilgrim's Regress, Tyndale | 7 Comments

Bunyan and Others and Me: Vicarious Bookshelf Friendship and a Jazz Hands Theory of Reading

Posted on March 22, 2022 by Brenton Dickieson

I have been quite open about the fact that I have had some difficulty finding true sympathy with John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress. I even went so far as to admit that the text at one time had been for … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections | Tagged A Pilgrim's Regress, Auerbach, C.S. Lewis, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, Dante, Enid Blyton, George MacDonald, Harold Bloom, Huckleberry Finn, Jane Eyre, John Bunyan, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, literary friendship, Little Women, Louisa May Alcott., Mark Twain, Middlemarch, Milton, mimesis, Prince Edward Island, Spenser, The Allegory of Love, The Land of Far-Beyond, The Pilgrim's Progress | 9 Comments

“There Are No Cruel Narnians: What The Horse and His Boy Can Tell Us About Racism, Cultural Superiority, Beauty Standards, and Inclusiveness” by Daniel Whyte IV

Posted on September 15, 2021 by Brenton Dickieson

There Are No Cruel Narnians: What The Horse and His Boy Can Tell Us About Racism, Cultural Superiority, Beauty Standards, and Inclusiveness by Daniel Whyte IV The Chronicles of Narnia has legions of fans around the world. According to journalist … Continue reading →

Posted in Thoughtful Essays | Tagged C.S. Lewis, Lev Grossman, Narnia, Netflix, orientalism, Philip Pullman, racism, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Horse and His Boy | 41 Comments

Mark Twain’s Letters from Earth: A Pre-/Post-Screwtapian Discovery

Posted on September 14, 2016 by Brenton Dickieson

One of the readers of A Pilgrim in Narnia tipped me off to a lost-but-found work by Mark Twain. Letters from Earth was written in 1909 but not published until long after his death in 1962. This little book, incomplete … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged atheism, C.S. Lewis, demonic epistolary fiction, epistolary fiction, Letters from Earth, Mark Twain, Screwtape, The Screwtape Letters, Voltaire | 27 Comments

2016: A Year of Reading

Posted on December 29, 2016 by Brenton Dickieson

This time last year I had a sense of the kind of season that 2016 would be, but I did not know the how deeply the experiences of bereavement, family responsibility, and overwork would impact me. While my work has … Continue reading →