Saved by G Henry de Frahan
How to get started reading English literature.
The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature
Seb Falk • The Light Ages: The Surprising Story of Medieval Science
Rather than offering direct lessons about the modern world, literature is an indirect guide to life. There is no simple way in which we can interpret modern politics with Shakespeare, but we will find again and again that he had named so much of what we see today, and that those names are useful companions in the struggle of thought.
Henry Oliver • Notes Towards an Applied Literature
Literature exists to teach what is useful, to honour what deserves honour, to appreciate what is delightful. The useful, honourable, and delightful things are superior to it: it exists for their sake; its own use, honour, or delightfulness is derivative from theirs. In that sense the art is humble even when the artists are proud;