The Classic English Literature Podcast

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While many may think of Swift's magnificent octopus as a mere children's adventure tale, it is, in fact, one of the darkest and most troubling satires in the English language.  Written as the Enlightenment began asserting rationality as the measure of all things, Gulliver's Travels questions the very premises of western culture themselves.  

Link to Gulliver's Travels: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/17157/17157-h/17157-h.htm
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mosaic is Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County's news magazine show, exploring Jewish...
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Podcast Theme Music: "Rejoice" by G.F. Handel, perf. The Advent Chamber Orchestra
Subcast Theme Music: "Sons of the Brave" by Thomas Bidgood, perf. The Band of the Irish Guards
Sound effects and incidental music: Freesounds.org
My thanks and appreciation to all the generous providers!

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I hope you've brought your appetite, because today we're looking at some of Dr. Swift's shorter prose satires (along with a couple of poems) and he certainly gives us plenty to chew on.

"A Description of the Morning": https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45266/a-description-of-the-morning
"A Description of a City Shower": https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50578/a-description-of-a-city-shower
"The Battle of the Books": https://www.gutenberg.org/files/623/623-h/623-h.htm
"A Tale of a Tub": https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4737
"A Modest Proposal": https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1080/1080-h/1080-h.htm
mosaic: Exploring Jewish Issues
mosaic is Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County's news magazine show, exploring Jewish...
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
Support the show
Please like, subscribe, and rate the podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube Music, or wherever you listen. Thank you!
If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting it with a small donation. Click the "Support the Show" button. So grateful!
Or Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/classicenglishliterature

Email: [email protected]

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Podcast Theme Music: "Rejoice" by G.F. Handel, perf. The Advent Chamber Orchestra
Subcast Theme Music: "Sons of the Brave" by Thomas Bidgood, perf. The Band of the Irish Guards
Sound effects and incidental music: Freesounds.org
My thanks and appreciation to all the generous providers!

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One of the most theologically and liturgically important Christmas carols may contain coded messages against the Throne of England!

Additional Music: "Adeste Fidelis" by Bing Crosby with The Max Terr choir; John Scott Trotter and his orch.; Traditional; Decca (BM 03929)
Support the show
Please like, subscribe, and rate the podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube Music, or wherever you listen. Thank you!
If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting it with a small donation. Click the "Support the Show" button. So grateful!
Or Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/classicenglishliterature

Email: [email protected]

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Podcast Theme Music: "Rejoice" by G.F. Handel, perf. The Advent Chamber Orchestra
Subcast Theme Music: "Sons of the Brave" by Thomas Bidgood, perf. The Band of the Irish Guards
Sound effects and incidental music: Freesounds.org
My thanks and appreciation to all the generous providers!

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In the early 18th century, the public press came to dominate English writing.  Pamphlets, newspapers, and periodicals fed the appetite for news and commentary of an ever-hungrier reading public.  Richard Steele and Joseph Addison were the great innovators of the periodical essay, a quintessentially English genre of writing.
mosaic: Exploring Jewish Issues
mosaic is Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County's news magazine show, exploring Jewish...
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
Support the show
Please like, subscribe, and rate the podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube Music, or wherever you listen. Thank you!
If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting it with a small donation. Click the "Support the Show" button. So grateful!
Or Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/classicenglishliterature

Email: [email protected]

Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.

Podcast Theme Music: "Rejoice" by G.F. Handel, perf. The Advent Chamber Orchestra
Subcast Theme Music: "Sons of the Brave" by Thomas Bidgood, perf. The Band of the Irish Guards
Sound effects and incidental music: Freesounds.org
My thanks and appreciation to all the generous providers!

Send us a text
On this trip, we're looking at the conventional candidate for the first modern novel in English.  Defoe's story of a resourceful man shipwrecked on a desert island is so much more than a ripping yarn: it speaks to the rise of a literary vernacular language, the values of an increasing bourgeois and expansionist society, and of spiritual awakening.  Come aboard!
Text: https://ia600207.us.archive.org/26/items/cu31924011498676/cu31924011498676.pdf
Additional Music:
"Theme from Emergency!" by Nelson Riddle. https://archive.org/details/tvtunes_206
"The Ballad of Gilligan's Island" by Sherwood Schwartz.  https://archive.org/details/tvtunes_275
mosaic: Exploring Jewish Issues
mosaic is Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County's news magazine show, exploring Jewish...
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
Support the show
Please like, subscribe, and rate the podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube Music, or wherever you listen. Thank you!
If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting it with a small donation. Click the "Support the Show" button. So grateful!
Or Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/classicenglishliterature

Email: [email protected]

Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.

Podcast Theme Music: "Rejoice" by G.F. Handel, perf. The Advent Chamber Orchestra
Subcast Theme Music: "Sons of the Brave" by Thomas Bidgood, perf. The Band of the Irish Guards
Sound effects and incidental music: Freesounds.org
My thanks and appreciation to all the generous providers!