england – Scott J. Pearson’s Book Review

The Village Healer’s Book of Cures

By Scott J. Pearson | October 8, 2023October 20, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

Witchcraft and alchemy, when they appear in literature, often do so in a young adult novel teaching about the difference between such crafting and reality. In a twist, Jennifer Sherman Roberts attempt to spin these entities into a tale of historical fiction geared towards adults. Set in 17th-century England – the age of Republican passions and Reformation excesses – this tale weaves together a sketchy “witchfinder” and a plain but strong village healer. The female…

Le Morte d’Arthur: King Arthur and the Legends of the Round Table

By Scott J. Pearson | December 27, 2020August 13, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

King Arthur’s mythic Round Table – with Queen Gwynevere, Sir Launcelot, and the famous sword Excalibur – resounds through England’s history. They might be fable, or they might have a historical root. Either way, they make for a good telling and national myth. Sir Thomas Malory recorded these tales in book form in the late fifteenth century, and Keith Baines adapted these for modern languages in the mid-twentieth century. Their storytelling power remains full of…

Fiction-Stories History Poetry Religion-Philosophy

The Ballad of the White Horse by G.K. Chesterton

By Scott J. Pearson | June 15, 2020June 16, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

This poem attempts to mark a great historical event in English history. It does so not by chronicling history but by celebrating the human spirit. King Alfred the Great, against all odds, defeated Danish invaders in the year 878. The Battle of Ethandune went a long way in establishing the constitutional unity of an English people. Chesterton, writing over a millennium later, sought to use his prodigious talents to excite the English people to embrace…

Poetry

Collected Poems: 1909 – 1962 by T.S. Eliot

By Scott J. Pearson | February 24, 2020February 24, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

T.S. Eliot surely resides in history as one of the greatest twentieth-century poets in the English language. He spanned the American-English landscape in life as well as in literature. His poetry is replete with imagery yet relatively devoid of obvious meaning. Even a poem entitled “Ash Wednesday” (a seemingly religious topic) skirts on just conjuring a sense of beauty in the reader and avoiding a tone traditionally reminiscent of a church. Of course, one poem…

Biography-Memoir Poetry Writing-Communication

T.S. Eliot: A Life by Peter Ackroyd

By Scott J. Pearson | January 26, 2020January 26, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

T.S. Eliot was one of the great poets in the English language during the twentieth century. He grew up in St. Louis and after graduating from college, moved to England. He loved his new country so much that he eventually became a subject of the English king. He wrote noted poems and plays over his lifespan. He also worked as a banker and as an editor for a publishing firm. The author of this biography…

History Poetry

Murder in the Cathedral

By Scott J. Pearson | January 20, 2020January 20, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

The greatest work of verse by the great American/English poet T.S. Eliot was not in a poem (though some readers of The Waste Land might disagree). It is surely Murder in the Cathedral. In a short play, Eliot shows his mastery of the British form of Church and State. In so doing, he sends a message that those who do not practice justice shall some day receive vengeance. The story of the 12th-century Archbishop of…