Introduction

The study of literature is the cornerstone of any liberal arts education.

Literature is the history of ideas. It is a reflection of thoughts, feelings and culture of a time and a place. What better place to start when learning about the world we live in? In this 12 HOUR audiobook, Charles Lamarck, Ph.D. introduces us to the great currents in literature from the early Anglo Saxon period (ca.500) to the end of the Victorian era (ca. 1906).
Meet the first great heroes of modern story telling in the Anglo Saxon masterpiece Beowulf. Hear the songs of courtly love who’s grandeur is yet to be surpassed sang to the lords and ladies of medieval days. Trod the boards with Shakespeare as the grandest tradition in theater since the ancient Greeks flourishes in renaissance London. Turn a clever phrase with Spenser, Pope and Bacon- and reap the rewards his majesty’s court is capable of bestowing.

Be there as the great newspapers and periodicals are first published and work their way into the coffee houses of the enlightenment. Take a mystic country stroll with Wordsworth. Explore turn of the century industrial revolution England with Dickens and Carlyle. Experience the fantastic opium induced waking visions of Coleridge and De Quincey. Rush headlong into the battles and romances that were the pleasure of the Romantic era with Austen, Arnold and Scott. Woo, laugh, live, love and ponder the mysteries of the universe with the greatest thinkers and minds the modern western world has ever produced.