Currently reading: Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes 📚 Chapter XXXIX: In which the captive narrates the events of his life. In the episode following the reconciliation of the two separated couples–Don Fernando and Dorotea, and Don Cardenio and Luscinda–a mysterious traveler arrives at the inn “who appeared from his attire to be a Christian recently returned from the land of the Moors.” After dinner, the company begs him to reveal his story and he begins by relating how years earlier, his father had promised to bestow on him and his two brothers an immediate share of their inheritance if they would each choose one of three professional paths:

The story of “Caedmon’s Hymn” moves and delights me. As told by the Venerable Bede (673-735), Caedmon was an illiterate and unmusical cowherd of Northumbria. Whenever village gatherings turned to music, Caedmon would excuse himself from the festivities to avoid being asked to sing. One such evening as the lyre was being passed around, Caedmon left the feast early and went directly to the cattle shed for his turn at guard duty for the night.

Currently reading: Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. 📚 I’m halfway through Part I of Cervantes' humorous tale about the delusional-but-endearing Don Quixote and his long-suffering companion, Sancho Panza. Considered by many to be the prototype of the modern novel, Don Quixote blends romance, poetry, and satire to expose the excesses of a fading fictional genre (the medieval romance) and one man’s obsession with knight-errantry. I’m pleased to be reading it with my dear friend and literary partner, Laura, in anticipation of tackling Deceit, Desire, and the Novel by Rene Girard later this summer.

Currently reading: Pensees by Blaise Pascal for my Great Books reading group.📚

Finished reading: Areopagitica by John Milton 📚 Click here for my Substack post and study outline.