On this day, Feb. 9, 1881, Fyodor Dostoevsky breathed his last.
His dying wish?
For his children to be gathered around him and read a story.
It was his final lesson to his children, and it is the key to understanding his work.
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Dostoevsky's daughter Aimée recounts the scene:
“He made us come into the room, and, taking our little hands in his, he begged my mother to read the Parable of the Prodigal Son.
He listened with his eyes closed, absorbed in his thoughts..." 2/
The parable, from Luke's Gospel, tells of a wayward son, who roams far from home, squandering his inheritance.
But, reaching rock bottom, he returns, repentant.
His father welcomes him with open arms:
For the son who "was dead... is alive again; he was lost and is found." 3/
‘My children,’ the dying Dostoevsky said in his feeble voice, ‘never forget what you have just heard.
Have absolute faith in God and never despair of His pardon.
I love you dearly, but my love is nothing compared with the love of God for all those He has created... 3/
'Even if you should be so unhappy as to commit a crime... never despair of God.
You are His children; humble yourselves before Him, as before your father.
Implore His pardon, and He will rejoice over your repentance, as the father rejoiced over that of the Prodigal Son.’” 4/
This is the simple story he kept on telling, in different ways, in his novels.
His protagonists are the prodigals.
He'd have them squander everything and reach rock bottom.
But he'd leave a glimmer of hope, a possibility that there was a way back home, through repentance. 5/
In Crime and Punishment, the prodigals are Raskolnikov, the former law student who descends into nihilism and commits crimes beyond imagining, and his counterpart Sonia, degraded in poverty and despair.
Both end the novel in Siberia, as far from home as possible. 6/
But the closing image is one of hope, our prodigals metaphorically at the threshold of their Father's door:
Raskolnikov holds Sonia's New Testament in his hand -- still unopened, but with the hope that his gradual renewal into a "new unknown life" was about to begin. 7/
Dostoevsky's novels are dark and complex.
They deal with big questions about the nature of evil; the meaning of suffering; why people choose hate over love.
But they don't stay in the dark. They point to the light. They have hope.
They're Great Books. I recommend them. /Fin
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In 1887, Mark Twain was asked what books every boy and girl should read.
He responded with a list of seven.
It's a Great List of Great Books -- and they're not just for kids.
I think all adults should read them, too.
But first, read this thread about them:
1. Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome
A collection of poems depicting heroic moments in Roman history, written in 1842.
Wildly popular in 19th-century America, these tales of courage, self-sacrifice, and patriotism were many students' first introduction to poetry and history.
2. Plutarch's Lives
A collection of biographies of great figures in ancient Greek & Roman history, this work is a textbook on leadership and character, showing how a leader's character is his destiny.
J.R.R. Tolkien invented a world in the Lord of the Rings.
But it didn't come from nowhere.
Tolkien drew literary inspiration from a variety of Great Books.
Here are 10 of them that you should know:
1. Beowulf
Beowulf was Tolkien's academic expertise, and he consciously drew upon it in LOTR.
Ents, orcs & elves are all taken from Beowulf.
Gollum is partly based on the monster Grendel.
And the dragon Smaug (in The Hobbit) mirrors Beowulf's dragon.
But that's not all.
Like Beowulf, LOTR also portrays a pagan, pre-Christ world but is by a deeply Christian author.
Tolkien sought to emulate how Beowulf nodded implicitly towards Christian eschatology through "large symbolism" about good, evil & redemptive grace but eschewed heavy-handed allegory.
• love reading
• be brave
• stand up for themselves and others &
• have strong values.
You need to inspire them with these 10 classic adventure books:
1. King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table by Howard Pyle
The quintessential story of chivalry, centered on King Arthur, his Queen Guinevere, the Knights of the Round Table, and the eternal struggle of might vs. right.
2. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
The original high seas adventure classic: a boy sets out to find buried pirate treasure and faces the evil Long John Silver and a crew of memorable characters.
This tale of greed and betrayal is both entertaining and ennobling.