The Easter season can be a time of fasting and feasting, restraint and celebration, rebirth and renewal. Brimming with meanings and symbolism, it serves as a powerful backdrop to many classic tales, ranging from Faust to Faulkner. Below, we share a few of these classic stories as our "Easter Reads" for any of our hard working students.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Most of the pivotal scenes in this romantic social satire seem to be embedded into the Easter weekend. Readers can enjoy Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet's love blooming in parallel real time over the course of the University's Easter breaks, if you start reading it now.
Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy:
The backstory of this novel is based on a true story. It's publication led to Tolstoy's excommunication. Written to expose the injustices of the Russian Legal System, Women's Rights, Orthodox Morality and Societal Hypocrisy, the book has direct links to synchronistic real life experiences of Tolstoy and his aristocratic circle, as well as controversial links to a very important Russian Orthodox Synod leader. Not a fast read but certainly one that is hard to put down, once you start.
Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Easter may not be the first time frame one expects a 'date with the Devil' but Goethe, always a master of juxtaposition unfolds the story of Faust's deal and downfall with Easter as primary place for the punctual parlée. So many films, plays, tv series, ballets and exceptional number of operas have been based on Goethe's masterpiece, it would seem almost a sin to miss out on this timeless read.
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner:
Over the course of Easter weekend, Faulkner manages to wrap his closely intertwined family members into the worlds of Harvard, the Circus, the Black experience, the (Italian) Immigrant experience, runs with sobriety, alcoholism, pre-crash Wall Street and the Confederacy all with that strange Faulknerian incestual touch somehow mixed into a classic style stream of consciousness cocktail, for which he is known. A perfect book to pick up and put down, pick up and put down and pick up and...put down again during the course of preparing food, driving to a relatives or between Easter events and entrées.
We wish a wonderful break to all of our students. If you need help finding an item in our collection or have any suggestions for books you are interested in sharing, please contact us below:
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