by Dr. Jessica Ann Hughes | May 16, 2013 | Reading Well, The Christian Imagination, Victorian Studies
Recently, I’ve spent quite a bit of time with Charles Dickens’s least-read work: The Life of Our Lord. It is a slim volume that re-tells the story of Jesus, drawing much of its language directly from the gospels. As I wrote in my post last month, despite Dickens’s...
by Dr. Jessica Ann Hughes | Apr 11, 2013 | Reading Well, The Bible, Victorian Studies
Between 1846 and 1849 Charles Dickens wrote The Life of Our Lord, a simplified version of Jesus’ life for his children, who ranged in age from newborn to 11 years-old at the time of its completion. The work was never intended for publication—it was a family text,...
by Dr. Jessica Ann Hughes | May 4, 2012 | Reading Well, Victorian Studies
Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations details the maturation of Pip, a young man specially selected by an unknown benefactor to become a “gentleman.” It is easy to read the tale as a rags-to-riches story, with Pip moving from his apprenticeship to his brother-in-law,...
by Dr. Jessica Ann Hughes | Sep 9, 2011 | Reading Well
James Joyce’s only play The Exiles is little performed because, well, it isn’t really very good. If it hadn’t been written by Joyce (who begged Ezra Pound to help him get it staged), the play would have probably never had a single staging, let alone the repeated (and...
by Dr. Jessica Ann Hughes | May 20, 2011 | Reading Well, The Christian Imagination
When people email me, they almost always include some line that goes “please don’t check my spelling” or “I know I’m terrible at grammar” or “I hate emailing an English teacher.” It is interesting, especially considering that I have always been a bad speller myself...
by Dr. Jessica Ann Hughes | Jul 23, 2010 | Reading Well, Victorian Studies
To receive and to return gifts is no easy matter. How often has the kindly birthday or Christmas gift from a boss or acquaintance led to panic the following year, as you try to figure out how to reciprocate at the right price-point and level of thoughtfulness: a...
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