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CoffeeWithTheClassics Profile picture
CoffeeWithTheClassics
@CoffeewClassics
Make Reading Great Literature a Daily Ritual
11 subscribers
Oct 23 • 22 tweets • 8 min read
Long before Tolkien’s fantasy worlds enchanted us, other stories enchanted him.

Ever wonder which books sparked his imagination?

Here's a thread of 15 works — some high-brow, some low, all fascinating — that shaped Tolkien's world: Bertuccio's Bride by Edward Robert Hughes, 1895 1. Beowulf

Beowulf was Tolkien's academic specialty, 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. illustration by J.R. Skelton for "Stories from Beowulf," 1911
Oct 21 • 17 tweets • 5 min read
Leonardo da Vinci was a true polymathic genius, not just as an artist and inventor, but also as a thoughtful writer

Scattered in his Notebooks are memorable aphorisms on life, philosophy, and art.

Here are 15 of his best. 🧵 Image 15. Impatience, the mother of stupidity, praises brevity. Image
Oct 17 • 22 tweets • 7 min read
Happy 170th Birthday (one day late) to one of literature's most acid pens, Oscar Wilde.

A thread of the controversial playwright's most insulting (and amusing) quotations.

Which is your favorite?🧵👇 Image 20. "Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their life a mimicry, their passions a quotation." - De Profundis Image
Oct 15 • 11 tweets • 4 min read
In 1887, Mark Twain was asked what books every boy and girl should read.

He responded with a list of seven.

It's a list of Great Books, and they're not just for kids.

I think adults should read them, too -- or, at least, read this thread about them: 🧵 Image 7. Defoe's The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe

A timeless shipwrecked adventure story, Crusoe faces challenge after challenge on his desert island.

Crusoe's saga is a testament to the importance of perseverance, ingenuity, and never giving up. Robinson Crusoe illustration by N.C. Wyeth (1920)
Oct 4 • 17 tweets • 6 min read
Before he was a leader, Napoleon Bonaparte was a reader.

He read *everything* -- romances, plays, histories, myths.

A thread of (some of) Napoleon's favorite works of literature. 🧵👇

(Inspired by "Napoleon's Library" by Louis Sarkozy - an interesting book, I recommend it). The young Napoleon Bonaparte studying at the military academy at Brienne-le-Chateau, France, c. 1780. Litho by Job (pseudonym of Jacques Marie Gaston Onfroy de Breville), published in Bonaparte by Georges Montorgueil, Boivin & Cie, Paris, 1908. 10. Goethe's Sorrows of Young Werther

Napoleon idolized Goethe and even summoned him for a meeting in 1808.

Werther is an epistolary novel, chronicling the obsessions and failures of a highly emotional young man, struggling to cope with a failed romance. Goethe in the Roman Campagna (1786) by Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein
Sep 18 • 22 tweets • 7 min read
He's "arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history."

At least, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography says so.

On today, his 315th birthday, a thread of the most quotable wit and wisdom of the inimitable Dr. Samuel Johnson. 🧵👇 anonymous portrait of Dr. Johnson, c. 1750 20. "A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still."

~Dr. Johnson, Boswell's Life The Horse Fair by Rosa Bonheur, 1852-55, courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Jun 16 • 17 tweets • 5 min read
Happy Father's Day!

Celebrate with this thread of fatherly advice from one of the most quotable books of all time:

The Earl of Chesterfield's "Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman." 🧵👇 Image 15. "I recommend you to take care of the minutes: for hours will take care of themselves." The Gold Weigher, by Salomon Koninck, 1654
Jun 14 • 15 tweets • 6 min read
Twelve of Literature's Most Underrated Classics (from your suggestions).

A thread: 🧵👇 The good book by Federico Zandomeneghi, 1897 But first: most of these books are highly (and properly) esteemed.

They just have fallen off mainstream classics reading lists.

So, when I declare these titles "underrated," that's all I mean -- that they're often overlooked and not as widely read as they should be. Man holding book by Rogier van der Weyden, c.1440 - c.1449
Jun 13 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
Happy Birthday, William Butler Yeats, born June 13, 1865.

His poems possess a lyricism and emotional intensity that is nonpareil and an insight into the modern world that often feels prophetic.

A thread of excerpts from my favorite W.B. Yeats poems: 🧵👇 1933 photographic portrait of William Butler Yeats, copyright not renewed, public domain. Courtesy Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online Catalog. 10. When You Are Old, by W.B. Yeats (1893) Image
Jun 5 • 27 tweets • 4 min read
"A gentleman never hurts anyone's feelings, 𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺," Oscar Wilde once wrote.

A thread of the playwright's most insulting (and amusing) quotations.

Which is your favorite?🧵👇 Image 25. “I never saw anybody take so long to dress, and with such little result.” - The Importance of Being Earnest
Jun 4 • 27 tweets • 3 min read
It's been said that C.S. Lewis possessed "the rare gift of being able to make righteousness readable."

A thread of some of his most memorable quotes.

Which is your favorite? 🧵👇 Briton Rivière: Una and the Lion, bef. 1920 1. "There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal."
May 29 • 28 tweets • 9 min read
Today is G.K. Chesterton's birthday, May 29, 1874.

Let's get him trending today.

In this thread, I have collected 25 of his best-loved quotes.

Which is your favorite? Share it, tell me about it, or post your own. 🧵👇 Image “A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.”

~G.K. Chesterton
1/ Image
May 27 • 12 tweets • 6 min read
Poet Wilfred Owen was killed-in-action in 1918, one week before the First World War's end.

Among his papers was found, unfinished, what would become the preface to his posthumous poetry collection.

Read on, for a Memorial Day thread on the War Poets: 🧵👇 Field with Poppies by Van Gogh, 1890 Owens wrote:

"This book is not about heroes.

English Poetry is not yet fit to speak of them.

Nor is it about deeds or lands, nor anything about glory, honour, dominion or power, except War... 2/ Field of Poppies by Claude Monet, 1881
May 24 • 11 tweets • 4 min read
In 1903, Jack London published a newspaper column with advice for young writers.

It is full of gold.

I've panned it for you and picked out 9 golden nuggets: 🧵👇 Image Rule #1: Don't Wait For Inspiration

"Don’t loaf and invite inspiration.

Light out after it with a club, and if you don’t get it you will nonetheless get something that looks remarkably like it." Joseph Wright of Derby: An Iron Forge
May 22 • 17 tweets • 6 min read
Why settle for one Great Book, when you can get *three*?

A thread of the Best Classic Literary Trilogies:

(You'll want to bookmark this for your summer reading list) 🧵👇 Interrupted Reading by Camille Corot, 1870 15. The Space Trilogy (1938-1945)

C.S. Lewis's "Out of the Silent Planet," "Perelandra," and "That Hideous Strength" blend science fiction with Christian theology to explore the corruption of human nature and the possibilities of redemption. The Great Comet of 1680 over Rotterdam as painted by Lieve Verschuier
May 15 • 16 tweets • 6 min read
If you want your children to be:

• curious
• courageous
• compassionate &
• in love with reading

You need to inspire them (and yourself!) with these classic books. 🧵👇 On the Stile, by Winslow Homer, c. 1878 But first:

The original versions of these works are masterpieces, but they may not be right for all reading levels.

All are available in children's abridged editions.

Check the publisher's age guidelines and find an edition that works for you. Girl in the Hammock, by Winslow Homer, 1873
May 14 • 28 tweets • 11 min read
The best books go out with a bang.

A Thread of the 50 Best Closing Lines in Classic Literature. 🧵 👇 The Librarian by Arcimboldo, 1562 1. "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."

~F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

2. "He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother."

~George Orwell, 1984 Moonlit Night on the Dnieper by artist Arkhip Kuindzhi, 1880.
May 12 • 12 tweets • 5 min read
A mother's love can move mountains.

In ancient myth, sometimes literally.

For Mother's Day, a thread of the greatest moments of motherly devotion in mythology. 🧵👇 Demeter Mourning for Persephone by Evelyn De Morgan, 1906 10. Venus

In the Aeneid, Venus repeatedly intervenes to rescue her mortal son, the hero Aeneas.

Whether it's warning him of Troy's fall, tending to his wounds, or delivering special armor on the eve of battle, Venus is a strong candidate for mythical mother of the year. Venus and Anchises by William Blake Richmond (1889 or 1890)
May 11 • 27 tweets • 10 min read
Nothing like a good hook to reel in the reader!

A Thread of the 50 Best Opening Lines in Classic Literature. 🧵 👇 Dickens' Dream by Robert William Buss, 1875 1. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."

~Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

2. "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice By Thomas Gainsborough, Public Domain
May 9 • 20 tweets • 7 min read
In 1934, an aspiring writer asked Ernest Hemingway what books he should read.

He responded with a list of 16 classic works.

They're Great Books. I suggest you read them.

Or, at least, read this thread about them: Hemingway working on For Whom the Bell Tolls at the Sun Valley Lodge, 1939, Public Domain, CC0 When Hemingway handed this list to his young writer friend, he noted:

"If you haven’t read these, you just aren’t educated...

“Some may bore you, others might inspire you.

"And others are so beautifully written they’ll make you feel it’s hopeless for you to try to write... Hemingway writing in Kenya, 1953, US National Archives and Records Administration, Public Domain as a U.S. government work
May 8 • 14 tweets • 5 min read
C.S. Lewis wasn't just a great writer.

He was a great reader.

And he was always anxious to credit the great books that made him who he was.

A thread of the classic books C.S. Lewis credited with inspiring his writing and worldview: 🧵👇 WH Pyne's The History of the Royal Residences, plate 55: "The King's Library, Buckingham House, Plate II" 12. Edith Nesbit's The Story of the Treasure Seekers

Nesbit's children's books, featuring the imaginative Bastable kids, were among Lewis's childhood favorites.

When he began work on Narnia, he told a friend that he wanted his book to be "in the tradition of E. Nesbit." Playing at Giants by Francisco Goya, 1791 - 1792