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Category Archives: AP English – 18 Years Later
Mornings with Milton, Day 2: Book II of Paradise Lost (first part only) – by Bethany
Death is not – as Wallace Stevens supposes – the mother of beauty. In fact, Death is the father of the hell hounds. What? Yes, I’m serious. I’ve read Book II of Paradise Lost, and I know these things. Book … Continue reading
Mornings With Milton: Book I of Paradise Lost (by Bethany)
Paradise Lost is hard. It’s hard and intimidating and impossible to read without hearing Milton’s throaty voice laughing at you from wherever he is now – probably Purgatory. It’s also fascinating. This poem reminds me how much I love blank … Continue reading
That’s right, I’m skipping ahead. Pre-Reading Notes on Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment (by Jill)
I can’t do Paradise Lost yet. I just can’t. I’ve started it. I blundered through Book One and the first couple pages of Book Two. But I, too, am afraid of John Milton and I need to plan out my … Continue reading
The Return of the AP English Challenge: Final Thoughts on Anna Karenin(a) (by Jill)
I don’t think I’ve ever put off writing about a book for as long as I’ve put off finishing up April’s AP English Challenge selection. I started Anna Karenin(a) on April 4th, and finished it on June 13th, effectively derailing … Continue reading
Thoughts on The Turn of the Screw (by Bethany)
I don’t think I understood the concept of ‘intertextuality’ back in A.P. English. Of course I knew that authors could make allusions to other works, but I think I saw this as a relatively unusual occurrence, and I certainly didn’t … Continue reading
Final Thoughts on The Aspern Papers (by Bethany)
If memory serves, it was during our discussions of The Aspern Papers and The Turn of the Screw that Fr. Murphy introduced us to the concept of “pot boilers.” I even remember the exact words in which I wrote the … Continue reading
Enter Bastard: Final Thoughts on Much Ado About Nothing (by Bethany)
I think the bottom line is that I just don’t like Shakespeare’s comedies very much. I do generally understand where they are coming from in a philosophical sense: all of Shakespeare’s comedies on some level are devoted to exploring the … Continue reading
The AP Challenges Continues, if Slowly: Pre-Reading Notes on Henry James’ The Aspern Papers and the Turn of the Screw (by Bethany)
I’m not going to give you anything in the way of witty memories for this installment in the AP Challenge, because I remember exactly nothing about this book. Here’s what I know. The book consists of two novellas, one just … Continue reading
Pre-Reading Notes on Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing (by Bethany)
You may have noticed that I am taking my own sweet time with the A.P. Challenge. This is only partially my fault, since when we started this challenge back in June of 2012 I was mostly unemployed. Beginning in January … Continue reading
Postcards From Purgatory 