It's a Classical Life

Image Via Anzac Portal This week Australia, New Zealand, and other countries around the world remembered and commemorated Anzac Day. For those of you who don't know, Anzac Day (standing for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) falls on April 25 in commemoration of the landing these forces made on the beach of Gallipoli, Turkiye on April 25 1915.  It is traditional to read the ode, We Will Remember Them (from Laurence Binyon's poem For the Fallen, 1919). This is such a moving ode, and I recommend that you listen to it if you can, followed by the playing of the Last Post. These two pieces never fail to make me cry. You can listen to a rendition of the ode and the Last Post here . A minute's silence is observed, usually at 11am. The term Anzac has come to represent many things for Australians and New Zealanders. I don't claim to speak for all of us, but some of the things that I think of when I hear this term is courage, camaraderie, determination and loyalty. A...

Home. There truly is no place like it. A place where we can rest and rejuvenate at the end of a busy day. Where we can share laughter, tears, happiness, fear and togetherness - and feel validated and welcome. A place that allows us to be the best and most true version of ourselves. Do you ever wonder what home has looked like in the past? I do. It's one of my favourite parts of reading classic novels and studying history. The simple, everyday life of the people who came before us still has to much to teach and inspire us. Today, I'd like to take you on a little guided tour inside a Renaissance home. In case you are wondering, the Renaissance usually refers to a time of reawakening and enlightenment after the historical period known as the Dark Ages (or the Middle Ages). It began predominantly in Italy and then spread throughout Europe and focused on a renewed appreciation of Classical Greek and Roman thought, art, architecture, and values. Generally it is defined as beginning ...

Welcome back to It's a Classical Life! I took a week off from blogging over Easter to visit some family and generally relax. It was lovely and you can see some pictures from our travels in this post. I did, however, keep reading my classics - current read is The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. I'm enjoying it so much and just like A Room With a View by E.M. Foster it is really making me think about English society one or two hundred years ago. I know these books are considered modern classics, but it still amazes me how much has changed and yet, how very little has remained the same in our world. There are still prejudices, still quarrelling families, still heartache and anxiety. It got me thinking about how we can use the classics to help us with our everyday lives, and how just by reading them, we can reap so many benefits.  If you are a regular visitor here you may already know and appreciate these benefits of reading the classics, but if you are new to it, or struggling...

Part of my little Victorian literature collection I started this month on Instagram participating in what is lovingly called #victober. This tag celebrates the diverse and rich history, literature and society of the Victorian era during the month of October. I started the month by reading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, then followed that with The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte and A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett (the latter is not technically a Victorian novel, but it is certainly imbued with many facets of Victorian ideals, values and social norms.) It has been a while since I have done a History post, and thought I would love to revisit Victorian Britain in a bit more detail here on the blog. I hope to explain here some of the history of this time that has influenced those books, artists and poets that we know and love from this time. There is a lot to love about this time, but there is also a lot that might shock or sadden our modern...

Normally, I unashamedly only read books that I consider classics  (not everyone agrees with my definition!) but sometimes books, especially non-fiction books, come my way that were written recently but hold the allure of potentially offering advice that is timeless and classic. When my good friend Jenny, a retired English and History teacher, told me about Eddie Jaku's book, The Happiest Man on Earth, I was intrigued. Jaku is a Holocaust survivor, and in his book he "shares how he found gratitude, kindness and hope in the darkest of places." I knew that my friend had met Eddie Jaku on several occasions when she took History students to the Sydney Jewish Museum to hear him speak. After reading the book in only one sitting, I knew that there was so much enduring wisdom that I wanted to share it here with you. The content can be quite deep and troubling, but the writing is easy to read and, honestly, it's hard to put it down! Without giving too much of Eddie's story...

  This summer I have decided to focus a little bit on Ancient Greece in my blog posts. First up, I thought I would give an introduction, just to set the scene. I’ve used a number of sources for this information; see the end of the post for a full resource list. If you already have a sound background on this time period, feel free to skip the following overview. If not, I suggest you do read as knowing the cultural and historical context in which a writer is writing will add to not only your understanding of the themes and style of writing, but also help with your critical analysis of the work.  There are many resources available today for the beginning student of Ancient Greece, some of them good, some of them not. I won’t try and recreate a whole unit of study on Ancient Greece here at this stage (though I may do in the future 😊) because for the self-educated student, working through a variety of sources is the best way to learn. What I will do is guide you through a brief i...