Saturday, April 10, 2021

The virtues of reading …

… The Literature of Wisdom and Enjoyment | The Russell Kirk Center. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

… Prior organizes her book based on twelve essential virtues, calling to mind a sort of literature-based Nichomachean Ethics. It is this organizational structure that sets her book above standard literary criticism. Prior has paired polemics and narrative to both instruct and persuade. In each chapter, she uses a work of narrative fiction to extol and analyze the nature of each virtue, resulting in a work both entertaining and edifying.

You can read much of what Prior has to say about Cormac McCarthy’s The Road here (which Dave also sent along). As my review of  The Road indicates, I do not share her view.

No comments:

Post a Comment