Episode 5 – Great Works in Western Literature with Joseph Pearce – Charles Dickens

St. Pope John Paul II described Dickens’ books as “filled with love for the poor and a sense of social regeneration . . . warm with imagination and humanity”. Such true charity permeates Dickens’ novels and ultimately drives the characters either to choose regeneration or risk disintegration. In Great Expectations, Pip — symbolic of the pilgrim convert — gains both improved fortunes and a growth in wisdom, but as he acquires the latter, he must relinquish the former — ending with a wealth of profound goodness, not of worldly goods.

That the Dickensian message was a Christian one is unmistakable. Reminiscent of an Augustinian model, one of reflection, conversion, and moral improvement, Pip undergoes an internal change that manifests itself in his profound contrition for his earlier deeds and his equally profound resolution to make amends. As we travel with Pip, we find that Dickens leads us to an acceptance of worldly limitations and an anticipation of final salvation.

[powerpress]

Based on the Ignatius Critical Edition, this series examines, from the Judeo-Christian perspective, the life,the times, and influence of authors of great works in literature .

Joseph Pearce is currently the Writer-in-Residence and Visiting Fellow at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack, New Hampshire. He is also Visiting Scholar at Mount Royal Academy in Sunapee, New Hampshire. He is also Visiting Scholar at Mount Royal Academy in Sunapee, New Hampshire. He is co-editor of the Saint Austin Review (or StAR), an international review of Christian culture, literature, and ideas published in England (Family Publications) and the United States (Sapientia Press). He is also the author of many books, including literary biographies of Solzhenitsyn, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton, and Oscar Wilde.

To learn more about the authors and titles available in the Ignatius Critical Editions

Episode 16 – Great Works in Western Literature with Joseph Pearce – Charles Dickens and “A Tale of Two Cities”
[powerpress]

In this exciting novel set during the French Revolution, Charles Dickens expresses sympathy for the downtrodden poor and their outrage at the self-indulgent aristocracy. But Dickens is no friend of the vengeful mob that storms the Bastille and cheers the guillotine. As with all of his stories, his passion is for the unforgettable and unrepeatable individuals he creates.

The sorrows of the suffering masses, their demands for justice, and the indiscriminate fury they unleash take flesh in Madame Defarge, while the self-sacrifice that is the truest means of atonement and rebirth manifests in the unlikely hero Sydney Carton. In A Tale of Two Cities, humanity does not show its best side in the mean streets of Paris or even London, but in the intimate circle of loyal friends that gathers around the honorable Doctor Manette and his lovely daughter, Lucie.

 

Based on the Ignatius Critical Edition, this series examines, from the Judeo-Christian perspective, the life, the times, and influence of authors of great works in literature .

Joseph Pearce is currently the Writer-in-Residence and Visiting Fellow at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack, New Hampshire. He is also Visiting Scholar at Mount Royal Academy in Sunapee, New Hampshire. He is also Visiting Scholar at Mount Royal Academy in Sunapee, New Hampshire. He is  co-editor of the Saint Austin Review (or StAR), an international review of Christian culture, literature, and ideas published in England (Family Publications) and the United States (Sapientia Press). He is also the author of many books, including literary biographies of Solzhenitsyn, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton, and Oscar Wilde.

To learn more about the authors and titles available in the Ignatius Critical Editions

[powerpress = “Vatican_Radio”]

Another program from Vatican Radio and the insightful Veronica Scarisbrick:

Charles Dickens ‘s grave lies in Westminster Abbey , in Poet’s Corner.
Here two centuries after his birth on the 7th February 1812 he was remembered in a special way .
But above all this great English 19th century novelist has not gone out of print in people’s hearts and minds .
Not perhaps for the prayers he wrote , some of which focused around supplications on behalf of the poor, the sick, the destitute but for the larger than life characters he invented, among them many children from hungry orphan Oliver Twist to lonely little Nell. His hallmark humanity and compassion sometimes even crossed paths with our parables , for example that of the ‘Prodigal Son’ which he once referred to as the “most beautiful story ever told”.
But while eighty years ago G.K. Chesterton another English novelist proclaimed Dickens as ‘almost Catholic ‘and others still claimed him as ‘almost Marxist’ , what’s certain is that his 200th birthday is something you cannot ‘bah humbug’ .
So why don’t we remember him here at Vatican Radio with a little bit of humour by bringing you

an extract from a series of imaginary letters John Paul I wrote before becoming Pope, the ‘Illustrious through the Ages’ , the ‘Illustrissimi’. Among them one to Charles Dickens: ‘…Your books pleased me immensely because they are pervaded with a sense of love for the poor. Against them stand the oppressors , whom you disgrace with your pen dipped in the genius of anger and irony …We are in one boat full of people …If we don’t want to encounter serious turmoil , the rule is this : all for one and one for all..The whole world is a poorhouse and has such need of God.”.

A programme presented and produced by Veronica Scarisbrick.