Canonball: Recent Episodes

Alex

In this podcast we discuss the European literary canon and the history, culture, philosophy, art, and science that surrounds it.

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In this episode of Canonball, Evan and I discuss the play "Medea," which Euripides wrote and which was first performed in 431 BC.

The cover art for this episode is the painting "Jason and Medea," which John William Waterhouse completed in 1907.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "Mozart On The Way To Prague" by Eduard Mörike, which was published in 1856.

Here is the final scene of Don Giovanni, Mörike's description of which we discuss at around 28:32

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ioc9shJa_lI

Here is a website of translations of Mörike's poetry:

https://www.cingolani.com/Moerike_English.html

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In today's episode of Canonball we discuss Francis Petrarch's "Scattered Rhymes," which were written over 40 years and finalized as a collection shortly before Petrarch's death in 1374.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "Where Is Science Going?" by Max Planck, which was published in 1932.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "Novum Organum," which Francis Bacon wrote and which was published in 1620.

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In this episode of Canonball, Evan and I discuss the play "Eumenides," which is the third part of Aeschylus' only extant trilogy "Oresteia," which premiered in 458 BC.

The cover art for this episode is from a painting titled Pallas Athena that Rembrandt completed in 1657.

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This is a summary of what I think is the best approach to learning a language, based on my experience mastering a foreign language as an adult.

Here you can download the software that I mentioned, Anki: https://apps.ankiweb.net/

Here is a page of links to word-frequency lists for German; similar lists can be found online for many other languages:

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Frequency_lists/German

The cover art is from the painting "Before the Audience," which Jean-Leon Gerome completed in 1881.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "The Life Of Saint Louis," which Jean de Joinville completed in 1309.

The cover art for this episode is a painting titled Louis IX that Émile Signol completed in 1844.

The other painting I mentioned is Saint Louis Mediating Between the King of England and His Barons which Georges Rouget completed in 1820 and can be found here.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss the fragments of Heraclitus, who lived in the sixth and fifth centuries BC.

The cover art for this episode is The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons, which JMW Turner completed in 1834 or 1835.

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In this video, Evan and I discuss "The Libation Bearers," which is the second play in the Aeschylus' trilogy Oresteia.

The cover art for this episode is from Orestes Pursued by the Furies, which William-Adolphe Bouguereau completed in 1862.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "The Civilization Of The Renaissance In Italy," which was written by Jacob Burckhardt and published in 1860.

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The data below are in the format indicated in the first line: The first word given is the term that I searched on opensyllabus.org, followed by its frequency in 2008, its frequency in 2024, and the percent change. So, for example, the first term in the list, that of the name of Diderot, declined by 90 percent in 16 years.

Term 2008 frequency 2024 frequency percent change
Diderot 0.027714 0.0025916 -90.64876957
Thucydides 0.10137 0.011824 -88.33579955
Petrarch 0.060532 0.0074508 -87.69113857
Aristophanes 0.090434 0.0115 -87.2835438
Tacitus 0.039382 0.0053452 -86.42730181
Boccaccio 0.040112 0.0055071 -86.27069206
Erasmus 0.026255 0.0037254 -85.81070272
Francis Bacon 0.033548 0.0051832 -84.54989865
Virgil 0.061991 0.010042 -83.80087432
Victor Hugo 0.009481 0.0016197 -82.91635903
Xenophon 0.035736 0.006317 -82.32314753
Montesquieu 0.040841 0.0076128 -81.35990794
Dostoevsky 0.060532 0.011338 -81.26941122
Voltaire 0.080953 0.015388 -80.99143948
John Dryden 0.012041 0.0023654 -80.3554522
Horace 0.078036 0.015388 -80.280896
Hesiod 0.040112 0.0084227 -79.00204428
Thomas Hobbes 0.080953 0.017331 -78.59128136
Aeschylus 0.058344 0.012634 -78.34567393
Tolstoy 0.080953 0.018303 -77.39058466
Homer 0.18451 0.042923 -76.73676224
Seneca 0.081682 0.019923 -75.60906932
Dante 0.11231 0.028669 -74.47333274
Moliere 0.043758 0.011338 -74.08930938
Euripedes 0.081682 0.021381 -73.82409833
Samuel Johnson 0.032089 0.0084227 -73.75206457
Goethe 0.030631 0.0082607 -73.03156933
Ovid 0.061991 0.017169 -72.30404414
Sophocles 0.14149 0.041303 -70.80853771
Edmund Burke 0.034277 0.010366 -69.75814686
Friedrich Nietzsche 0.18816 0.057339 -69.52646684
John Locke 0.074593 0.022806 -69.42608556
Edmund Spenser 0.010279 0.0031979 -68.88899698
Chaucer 0.11742 0.037092 -68.41083291
David Hume 0.057615 0.018303 -68.23223119
Cicero 0.064179 0.020409 -68.19987846
Cervantes 0.053239 0.017007 -68.05537294
Christopher Marlowe 0.014684 0.0050494 -65.61291201
Herodotus 0.043029 0.014902 -65.36754282
John Milton 0.044488 0.01555 -65.04675418
Charles Dickens 0.032089 0.011662 -63.65732806
Kant 0.30631 0.11176 -63.51408704
Jonathan Swift 0.048134 0.018465 -61.63834296
Plato 0.46019 0.17671 -61.60064321
Shakespeare 0.48863 0.19226 -60.65325502
Marcus Aurelius 0.013127 0.0055071 -58.04753561
Aristotle 0.39966 0.17655 -55.82495121
Schiller 0.098456 0.046163 -53.11306573
Descartes 0.199983 0.096699 -51.64638994
John Donne 0.026431 0.012876 -51.28447656
John Keats 0.037195 0.018465 -50.35623068
Mary Shelley 0.039382 0.019761 -49.82225382
Epictetus 0.024067 0.017817 -25.9691694
Edgar Allan Poe 0.02555 0.028276 10.66927593
Average decline: -69.83809964

The cover art for this episode is Imaginary View of the Grand Galarie in the Louvre in Ruins, which Hubert Robert completed in 1796.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "The Revolt Of The Masses" which Jose Ortega y Gasset first published as a series of essays in 1929 before it was published as a book in 1930.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss the play "Agamemnon," by Aeschylus, which is the first part of Aeschylus' only extant trilogy "Oresteia," which premiered in 458 BC.

I was very pleased to have my good friend Evan join me for this discussion. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

The cover art for this episode is from the painting Clytemnestra Hesitating Before Striking Agamemnon, which French painter Pierre-Narcisse Guerin completed in 1817.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "The Protestant Ethic And The Spirit Of Capitalism," which was written by Max Weber and published in 1904.

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This is a talk I gave at a bookstore in Western Maryland in October 2025 discussing the world in which Mary Shelley was living when she wrote Frankenstein.

Pick up my edition of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein at my website: https://www.vollrathpublishing.com

At 3:36 I reversed the names of the Islands of St. Helena and Elba; Napoleon was of course first imprisoned on Elba, then St. Helena.

00:00 Intro

00:40 The French Revolution, The Napoleonic Wars, And Mary's Parents

04:51 The Industrial Revolution And Science Fiction

11:49 Mary's Influences And Education

14:50 Mary's Elopement With Percy

17:15 The Mt. Tambora Eruption

19:28 Bringing It All Together

20:50 Reading German Ghost Stories In A Mansion Overlooking Lake Geneva

22:36 Did Mary Really Write A Short Story At The Villa Diodati?

25:37 Artificial Intelligence And Creating Consciousness – The Relevance Of Frankenstein Today

26:57 Closing

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "The Spirit Of The Laws," which was written by Montesquieu and published in 1748.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "Fathers And Sons," which was written by Ivan Turgenev and published in 1862.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "We," which was written by Yevgeny Zamyatin and first published in 1924.

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In this episode of Canonball we continue discussing "The New Science," which was written by Giambattista Vico and first published in 1725, before being republished in a revised edition in 1730, and a final edition in 1744. See also Part I for more on Vico.

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In this episode of Canonball we begin discussing "The New Science," which was written by Giambattista Vico and first published in 1725, before being republished in a revised edition in 1730, and a final edition in 1744. See also Part II for more on Vico.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "The Devil's Dictionary," which was written by Ambrose Bierce and first published as a book in 1906 before being republished in 1911.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "The Last Man," which was written by Mary Shelley and published in 1826.

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This is a short story I wrote. I hope you enjoy it.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "Statesman," which is one of the dialogues of Plato, who lived in the fifth and fourth centuries BC.

The cover art for this episode is Plato as depicted in a portion of the oil painting The Death of Socrates, which French painter Jacques-Louis David completed in 1787.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "Sophist," which is one of the dialogues of Plato, who lived in the fifth and fourth centuries BC.

The cover art for this episode is Plato as depicted in a portion of the oil painting The Death of Socrates, which French painter Jacques-Louis David completed in 1787.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "Theaetetus," which is one of the dialogues of Plato, who lived in the fifth and fourth centuries BC.

The cover art for this episode is Plato as depicted in a portion of the oil painting The Death of Socrates, which French painter Jacques-Louis David completed in 1787.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "Cratylus," which is one of the dialogues of Plato, who lived in the fifth and fourth centuries BC.

The cover art for this episode is Plato as depicted in a portion of the oil painting The Death of Socrates, which French painter Jacques-Louis David completed in 1787.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "Phaedo," which is one of the dialogues of Plato, who lived in the fifth and fourth centuries BC.

The cover art for this episode is Plato as depicted in a portion of the oil painting The Death of Socrates, which French painter Jacques-Louis David completed in 1787.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "Crito," which is one of the dialogues of Plato, who lived in the fifth and fourth centuries BC.

The cover art for this episode is Plato as depicted in a portion of the oil painting The Death of Socrates, which French painter Jacques-Louis David completed in 1787.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "Apology," which is one of the dialogues of Plato, who lived in the fifth and fourth centuries BC.

The cover art for this episode is Plato as depicted in a portion of the oil painting The Death of Socrates, which French painter Jacques-Louis David completed in 1787.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "Euthyphro," which is one of the dialogues of Plato, who lived in the fifth and fourth centuries BC.

The cover art for this episode is Plato as depicted in a portion of the oil painting The Death of Socrates, which French painter Jacques-Louis David completed in 1787.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "Growth Of The Soil," which was written by Knut Hamsun and published in 1917.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "The Beautiful And Damned," which was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and published in 1922.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote Of La Mancha," which was written by Miguel De Cervantes and originally published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615.

A correction: Edith Grossman's translation is 940 pages.

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Today I wanted to let you know where I've been and what to expect going forward, then offer my thoughts on a few topics.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss Volume I of "The Decline Of The West," which, subtitled "Form And Actuality," was written by Oswald Spengler and published in 1922.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss Volume I of "The Decline Of The West," which, subtitled "Form And Actuality," was written by Oswald Spengler and published in 1918.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss Volume III of "The Gulag Archipelago" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, which was written between 1958 and 1968 and published in 1973.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss Volume II of "The Gulag Archipelago" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, which was written between 1958 and 1968 and published in 1973.

Here is a recording of Liebestod, from Tristan and Isolde, which I mentioned:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07YFIWL_XSI

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss Volume I of "The Gulag Archipelago" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, which was published in 1973.

One correction: Since recording this I have found reports that Solzhenitsyn did apply for U.S. citizenship in 1985. I cannot see that he ever received it, though his wife and children did.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "Vanity Fair," which was written by William Makepeace Thackeray and first published in serialized form in 1847-1848.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss selected writings by George Orwell. I forgot to mention that Orwell was shot in the neck in the Spanish Civil War.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "The Foundations Of Arithmetic," which was written by Gottlob Frege and published in 1884.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman," which was written by Laurence Sterne and published in 1759.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "Motley Stones" which was written by Adalbert Stifter and published in 1853.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "Science And Method," which was written by Henri Poincare and published in 1908.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "The Value Of Science," which was written by Henri Poincare and published in 1904.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "Science And Hypothesis," which was written by Henri Poincare and published in 1902.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "Notes From Underground," which was written by Fyodor Dostoevsky and published in 1864.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "Physics And Philosophy," which was written by Werner Heisenberg and published in 1962.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "What Is Art?" which was written by Leo Tolstoy and published in 1897.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "The Country Of The Blind And Other Stories," is a collection of stories which was written by Herbert George Wells and first published between 1894 and 1909 before being published as a collection in 1911.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss selected writings by Jonathan Swift, who lived from 1667 to 1745.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "Chrestomathy," a collection of articles that Henry Louis Mencken wrote between 1918 and 1948.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "The Rider On The White Horse" and other novellas by Theodor Storm published between 1848 and 1888.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "Ninety-Three" by Victor Hugo, which was published in 1874.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss essays that Robert Louis Stevenson wrote between 1874 and 1888.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss the poetry and letters of John Keats, who wrote between 1814 and 1821.

The cover art for this episode is an 1819 portrait by Joseph Severn, who was a friend of Keats.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "The Chronicles," which Jean Froissart completed in 1400.

The painting used for the cover art for this episode is "The Black Prince At Crecy," completed by Julian Russell Story in 1888.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "Martin Eden," written by Jack London and published in 1909.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "Under Western Eyes," written by Joseph Conrad and published in 1911.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "Parzival," which Wolfram Von Eschenbach completed between 1200 and 1210. The cover art for this episode is from a portrait of Eschenbach by an unknown artist from the Codex Manesse, which was completed in 1304.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "The Canterbury Tales," written by Geoffrey Chaucer, who died in 1400 before completing it. It was compiled and released in hand-written form throughout the 15th century and was first printed in 1476.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "The Annals," written by Tacitus and completed in 117 AD.

The cover image for this episode is taken from "Arminius Says Goodbye To Thusnelda," which Johannes Gehrts completed in 1884.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "First Principles," written by Herbert Spencer and published in 1862.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "Tess Of The d'Urbervilles," a novel written by Thomas Hardy and published in 1891.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "The House Of The Seven Gables," written by Nathaniel Hawthorne and published in 1851.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "Njal's Saga," which was written sometime in the 13th century by an unknown author.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "The Decameron" by Giovanni Boccaccio, the final revisions of which were completed in 1371.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss  "Dead Souls" by Nikolai Gogol, which was published in 1842.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss  "On Heroes, Hero-Worship, And The Heroic In History" by Thomas Carlyle, which was published in 1841. 

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "Of Plymouth Plantation" by William Bradford, which was completed in 1651. I said 1647 because that is when the record of the colony ends, but he continued writing for a few years after that. Some of the information about what happened to the passengers on the Mayflower dates to 1651.

The cover art for this episode is a painting called "Pilgrims Going To Church" by George Henry Boughton that was completed in 1867.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "The Origins And Deeds Of The Goths" by Jordanes, which was completed in 551.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "The Prince" by Niccolo Machiavelli, which was published in 1532, five years after Machiavelli's death in 1527.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "In Praise Of Folly" written in 1511 and "Against War" written in about 1514 by Desiderius Erasmus.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "The Divine Comedy," completed in 1320 by Dante Alighieri.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss some of the writing of the 17th-century French playwright Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, better known as Moliere.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "Sir Gawain And The Green Knight" written in the late 14th century by a poet whose name is not known.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "A Journal Of The Plague Year" written by  Daniel Defoe and published in 1722. 

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "On The Aesthetic Education Of Man" written by  Friedrich Schiller and published in 1795. I have also seen 1794 given as the year of publication. 

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "The Notebooks Of Malte Laurids Brigge" published in 1910 and written by Rainer Maria Rilke.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "The Red And The Black" published in 1830 and written by Marie-Henri Beyle, better known as Stendhal.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "The Consolation Of Philosophy," which was written by Boethius in about 524.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "Self-Reliance," "Heroism," "The American Scholar," and other essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson, who lived in the 19th century.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "The Song Of Roland" a French epic whose author is unknown and which was put to paper in the late 11th or early 12th century.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One's Reason and of Seeking Truth in the Sciences" written by Rene Descartes and published in 1637.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia" written by Samuel Johnson and published in 1759.

Here is that other portrait of Johnson by John Opie that I mentioned. The better-known portrait that I used for the cover of this episode is by Johnson's friend Joshua Reynolds. 

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful," which was written by Edmund Burke and published in 1757.

Here is that engraving of the literary club that I mentioned. 

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "Outlines Of Pyrrhonism," which was written by Sextus Empiricus and written in the second century. 

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "Areopagitica; A Speech Of Mr. John Milton For The Liberty of Unlicenc'd Printing, To The Parlament Of England," which was written by John Milton and first published in 1644. 

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "A Sportsman's Notebook," which was written by Ivan Turgenev and first published in 1852. 

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "On Crimes And Punishments," which was written by Cesare Beccaria and first published in 1764. 

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "Rameau's Nephew," which was written by Denis Diderot and first published in 1805. 

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "Rhetoric," written by Aristotle in the fourth century BC. 

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss "On Liberty," which was written by John Stuart Mill and published in 1859. 

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss the "Odes," written by Horace in the first century BC. 

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss the "Poetics," written by Aristotle in the fourth century BC. 

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss the "Works and Days" and the "Theogony" written by Hesiod in the seventh century BC. 

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss the "The Life of King Alfred" written in the ninth century by Asser.

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In this episode of Canonball we discuss the short story "Dumpling" by Guy de Maupassant. 

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