Tag Archives: Charles Dickens

Wishing Upon a Narnian Star: Unboxing “The Spiritual Imagination of C.S. Lewis”

Posted on August 7, 2026 by Brenton Dickieson

I don’t have a clear idea about how Austen and Dickens handled their social media platforms, but I suspect the videos of them unboxing their author’s copies were quite popular. I decided to join in the tradition and open “the … Continue reading →

Posted in News & Links | Tagged Amazon Kindle, books, C.S. Lewis, centaurs, Charles Dickens, fantasy, Inklings, Jane Austen, literature, Narnia, scholarship, spiritual theology, writing | 13 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

Ann Radcliffe’s Absolutely Essential “The Mysteries of Udolpho” (1794) and the Books I’d Rather Read

Posted on March 23, 2021 by Brenton Dickieson

Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho: A Romance Interspersed With Some Pieces of Poetry (1794) has been one of those books that I have been wanting to read for some time—wanting to read in one way, but hesitant in another. … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged Ann Radcliffe, Becoming Jane, Bleak House, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, feminism, Jane Austen, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, mary shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, Michael Lewis, Northanger Abbey, Pamela, Samuel Richardson, Stephen King, Susanna Clarke, The Brothers Karamazov, The Green Mile, The Monk, The Mysteries of Udolpho | 19 Comments

The Gift (and Curse) of Asher Lev

Posted on October 28, 2019 by Brenton Dickieson

The Gift of Asher Lev by Chaim Potok My rating: 5 of 5 stars The Gift of Asher Lev is a lovely, evocative book. It is my first time reading the sequel to My Name is Asher Lev, which I … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, Thoughtful Essays | Tagged art, Chaim Potok, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, Fyodor Dostoevsky, holocaust, Jane Austen, Judaism, My Name is Asher Lev, New York City, Shoah, The Gift of Asher Lev, Theology of Culture, vocation | 19 Comments

Harold Bloom and “The Western Canon”: A Note on His Death

Posted on October 18, 2019 by Brenton Dickieson

I received news this week that Harold Bloom has died. Bloom (1930-2019) was an avid reader, a rapid writer, and a penetrating critic whose essays and books on literature are breathtaking in scope and exemplary in their attention to the … Continue reading →