Similarly, it's hard not to love this book, which employs a diverse cast of characters ranging from C.S. Lewis and Emily Dickinson to Lily Munster and the Great Pumpkin to reveal the historical, hilarious, and even holy origins of the words we use, even though many of us have forgotten what they mean. Join Professor Esolen on this fun yet educational romp through 98 of your soon to be favorite words. *Learn how and why (to say nothing of when and where) to properly use the word"drunken." (Hint: not to relay the fact that..."The bridegroom's mother has drunken awhole bottle of champagne, and is now drawing flowers on the floor with her lipstick.") *Appreciate why you don't want Lily Munster to dust your furniture...at least not in theKing's English. *And seethe, along with Esolen and other lovers of beauty in language and liturgy, whenyou see how a mighty angel of God is reduced to the status of a mere messenger boythrough bad word choices. Again and again, you'll find yourself agreeing with Esolen, who, channeling his inner Boris Badunov (Bullwinkle the Moose's nemesis, for the philistines and milennials among you), reminds us that " Eees good to know grammar. Eees delight, to play with style. Eees, no?" Yes, it is! And it also edifying to see just how rooted our language is in the Christian faith, as rooted as once was our culture. Esolen's delightful tour of the English language and its roots gives us a window into our shared heritage that sadly we've largely forgotten. We won't tell you what the word referenced in the first sentence above is... but don't be it. Buy this book. You'll be glad you did.

Play dates, soccer practice, day care, political correctness, drudgery without facts, television, video games, constant supervision, endless distractions: these and other insidious trends in child rearing and education are now the hallmarks of childhood. As author Anthony Esolen demonstrates in this elegantly written, often wickedly funny book, almost everything we are doing to children now constricts their imaginations, usually to serve the ulterior motives of the constrictors. Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child takes square aim at these accelerating trends, in a bitingly witty style reminiscent of C. S. Lewis, while offering parents—and children—hopeful alternatives. Esolen shows how imagination is snuffed out at practically every turn: in the rearing of children almost exclusively indoors; in the flattening of love to sex education, and sex education to prurience and hygiene; in the loss of traditional childhood games; in the refusal to allow children to organize themselves into teams; in the effacing of the glorious differences between the sexes; in the dismissal of the power of memory, which creates the worst of all possible worlds in school—drudgery without even the merit of imparting facts; in the strict separation of the child’s world from the adult’s; and in the denial of the transcendent, which places a low ceiling on the child’s developing spirit and mind. But Esolen doesn’t stop at pointing out the problem; he offers clear solutions as well. With charming stories from his own boyhood and an assist from the master authors and thinkers of the Western tradition, Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child is a welcome respite from the overwhelming banality of contemporary culture. Interwoven throughout this indispensable guide to child rearing is a rich tapestry of the literature, music, art, and thought that once enriched the lives of American children. Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child confronts contemporary trends in parenting and schooling by reclaiming lost traditions. This practical, insightful book is essential reading for any parent who cares about the paltry thing that childhood has become, and who wants to give a child something beyond the dull drone of today’s culture.

The Holy Grail: it conjures images of a rich and fantastic world full of magnificent adventures and perilous quests by gallant knights. It whispers of strange mysteries and fabled conspiracies staged by Templars, Cathars, Nazis, and innumerable secret societies. Was it the Cup used by Christ at the Last Supper, or something else? Is there any truth to the wonders and marvels bards and poets associated with it? After years of being co-opted by pop culture and New Agers, what significance can this fairy tale still hold for Catholics? Ah, but this is no fairy tale! As A Catholic Quest for the Holy Grail shows, not only does the Grail exist, its whereabouts are known today! Charles Coulombe examines the fabled vessel's literary and historical connections, but he offers far more than a stuffy history of a dusty old cup. Rather, he shows how the Holy Grail is the key to an entire genre of glorious relics and miraculous phenomena that extend from the time of Christ to the present day. A Catholic Quest for the Holy Grail uncovers the Grail's intrinsic connections to Catholic Monarchy and Chivalry, to the Precious Blood of Christ, the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts devotions, and to the Kingship of Christ and Queenship of Mary, as well as its ties to the Passion of Our Lord and the Blessed Sacrament. Indeed, the Holy Grail is not a myth, but a living reality, a key to a new understanding of the world in which we all live. As far in time and space as the Crucifixion at Golgotha and Medieval deeds of knightly valor, and as close as the next Mass you attend, the Holy Grail is there, a real myth. The Grail is proof that when J.R.R. Tolkien asks: "Do we walk in legends or on the green earth in the daylight?" it can truly be answered: "A man may do both ... The green earth, say you? That is a mighty matter of legend, though you tread it under the light of day!" In these pages, discover the reality of the legend of the Holy Grail!

In Ironies of Faith, celebrated Dante scholar and translator Anthony Esolen provides a profound meditation upon the use and place of irony in Christian art and in the Christian life. Beginning with an extended analysis of irony as an essentially dramatic device, Esolen explores those manifestations of irony that appear prominently in Christian thinking and art: ironies of time (for Christians believe in divine Providence, but live in a world whose moments pass away); ironies of power (for Christians believe in an almighty God who took on human flesh, and whose “weakness” is stronger than our greatest enemy, death); ironies of love (for man seldom knows whom to love, or how, or even whom it is that in the depths of his heart he loves best); and the figure of the Child (for Christians ever hear the warning voice of their Savior, who says that unless we become like unto one of these little ones, we shall not enter the Kingdom of God). Esolen’s finely wrought study draws from Augustine (Confessions), Dante (The Divine Comedy), Shakespeare (The Tempest), and Tolkien (“Leaf, By Niggle”); Francois Mauriac (A Kiss for the Leper), Milton (Paradise Lost), and Alessandro Manzoni (The Betrothed); the poems of George Herbert and Gerard Manley Hopkins, and Edmund Spenser (Amoretti); Charles Dickens (A Christmas Carol), Dostoyevsky (The Brothers Karamazov), and the anonymous author of the medieval poem Pearl, among other works. Readers who treasure the Christian literary tradition should not miss this illuminating book.

In The Politically Incorrect Guide™ to Western Civilization , Esolen describes the cultures that formed Western civilization, and explains to readers how each of them—from the Ancient Greeks and Romans, to the Renaissance humanists—has shaped the world we live in today. The latest work in the Politically Incorrect Guide (P.I.G.) series shows how the West laid the cornerstones of all modern civilization, including historical, artistic, and intellectual achievements.