Unknown Friends

Published in 1912, G. K. Chesterton's novel Manalive introduces an exuberant guest among the bleak residents of Beacon House and makes the case that goodness is the true path to happiness. According to Chesterton expert Dale Ahlquist, "This novel is Chesterton’s most practical and least theoretical book. This is the book on how to live Chesterton."

(Be sure to listen to the end of the episode for an announcement about what to expect on the Unknown Friends podcast from now until the end of August.)

Thank you to all who've joined the Unknown Friends community on Patreon! I love getting to share extra content with you there. Learn more at www.patreon.com/unknownfriends, where you can explore the different ways to join as a patron and get access to bonus content like free books and monthly preview episodes.

I'm Rachelle Ferguson of Kittywham Productions, and Unknown Friends is my weekly book review podcast. Visit the Unknown Friends homepage at www.kittywhamproductions.com/podcast. To learn more about me and my work as a Christian playwright, explore my website at www.kittywhamproductions.com.

Get in touch with me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/rachelle.ferguson

Connect with me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/kittywhamproductions

Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast, leave a quick review, and share with your book-loving friends!

Bleak House is arguably my favorite Charles Dickens novel and one of his only major works with a domestic focal point: the house of the novel's title. G. K. Chesterton suggests that this novel "represents the highest point of his intellectual maturity" and declares, "When Dickens wrote Bleak House he had grown up."

Thank you to all who've joined the Unknown Friends community on Patreon! I love getting to share extra content with you there. Learn more at www.patreon.com/unknownfriends, where you can explore the different ways to join as a patron and get access to bonus content like free books and monthly preview episodes.

I'm Rachelle Ferguson of Kittywham Productions, and Unknown Friends is my weekly book review podcast. Visit the Unknown Friends homepage at www.kittywhamproductions.com/podcast. To learn more about me and my work as a Christian playwright, explore my website at www.kittywhamproductions.com.

Get in touch with me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/rachelle.ferguson

Connect with me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/kittywhamproductions

Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast, leave a quick review, and share with your book-loving friends!

In his memoir Father and Son: A Study of Two Temperaments, Edmund Gosse traces his upbringing in a devout Christian home and his gradual departure from the faith of his parents, but the inaccuracies and self-justification so evident in his narrative make it difficult to discern the true nature of his relationship with his father.

Thank you to all who've joined the Unknown Friends community on Patreon! I love getting to share extra content with you there. Learn more at www.patreon.com/unknownfriends, where you can explore the different ways to join as a patron and get access to bonus content like free books and monthly preview episodes.

I'm Rachelle Ferguson of Kittywham Productions, and Unknown Friends is my weekly book review podcast. Visit the Unknown Friends homepage at www.kittywhamproductions.com/podcast. To learn more about me and my work as a Christian playwright, explore my website at www.kittywhamproductions.com.

Get in touch with me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/rachelle.ferguson

Connect with me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/kittywhamproductions

Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share with your book-loving friends!

In Part 2 of my two-episode review of The Chronicles of Prydain, I describe what actually happens in the series' five books (without spoilers!) and explore the life lessons and moral philosophy presented in the books. Last week in Part 1, I shared details about the life and personality of the author, Lloyd Alexander, and also introduced the series' main characters. (Listen here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s2e22-the-chronicles-of-prydain-by-lloyd-alexander-part-1/id1506514648?i=1000525697963).

Thank you to all who've joined the Unknown Friends community on Patreon! I love getting to share extra content with you there. Learn more at www.patreon.com/unknownfriends, where you can explore the different ways to join as a patron and get access to bonus content like monthly preview episodes.

I'm Rachelle Ferguson of Kittywham Productions, and Unknown Friends is my weekly book review podcast. Visit the Unknown Friends homepage at www.kittywhamproductions.com/podcast. To learn more about me and my work as a Christian playwright, explore my website at www.kittywhamproductions.com.

Get in touch with me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/rachelle.ferguson

Connect with me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/kittywhamproductions

Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share with your book-loving friends!

In Part 1 of my two-episode review of The Chronicles of Prydain, I share details about the life and personality of the author, Lloyd Alexander, and also introduce the series' main characters. Next week, in Part 2, I'll explore the storyline and themes of this wonderful children's fantasy series.

Interview with Lloyd Alexander: https://youtu.be/Wt9ZHQy2wAk

(And if you're interested in learning even more, there's an hour-long documentary about Lloyd Alexander's life and career available for free on YouTube! Watch here: https://youtu.be/gocHqTToccY)

Thank you to all who've joined the Unknown Friends community on Patreon! I love getting to share extra content with you there. Learn more at www.patreon.com/unknownfriends, where you can explore the different ways to join as a patron and get access to bonus content like monthly preview episodes.

I'm Rachelle Ferguson of Kittywham Productions, and Unknown Friends is my weekly book review podcast. Visit the Unknown Friends homepage at www.kittywhamproductions.com/podcast. To learn more about me and my work as a Christian playwright, explore my website at www.kittywhamproductions.com.

Get in touch with me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/rachelle.ferguson

Connect with me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/kittywhamproductions

Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share with your book-loving friends!

First published in 1890 and condemned as indecent, Oscar Wilde's only novel The Picture of Dorian Gray insightfully depicts the corruption of a soul by hedonism and serves almost as a confession of Wilde's own secretly scandalous life.

Thank you to all who've joined the Unknown Friends community on Patreon! I love getting to share extra content with you there. Learn more at www.patreon.com/unknownfriends, where you can explore the different ways to join as a patron and get access to bonus content like monthly preview episodes.

I'm Rachelle Ferguson of Kittywham Productions, and Unknown Friends is my weekly book review podcast. Visit the Unknown Friends homepage at www.kittywhamproductions.com/podcast. To learn more about me and my work as a Christian playwright, explore my website at www.kittywhamproductions.com.

Get in touch with me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/rachelle.ferguson

Connect with me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/kittywhamproductions

Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share with your book-loving friends!

Elizabeth Borton de Treviño's 1966 Newbery Medal winner, I, Juan de Pareja, tells the story of a 17th-century Spanish painter and his beloved slave, while exploring the nature of art as well as themes of longing, contentment, friendship, and faith.

Links from this episode:

Juan de Pareja portrait by Diego Velazquez - https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437869

"As Ever, Sam" Cast Q&A: On war and responsibility - https://youtu.be/qlOcVo2Gkiw

Thank you to all who've joined the Unknown Friends community on Patreon! I love getting to share extra content with you there. Learn more at www.patreon.com/unknownfriends, where you can explore the different ways to join as a patron and get access to bonus content like monthly preview episodes.

I'm Rachelle Ferguson of Kittywham Productions, and Unknown Friends is my weekly book review podcast. Visit the Unknown Friends homepage at www.kittywhamproductions.com/podcast. To learn more about me and my work as a Christian playwright, explore my website at www.kittywhamproductions.com.

Get in touch with me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/rachelle.ferguson

Connect with me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/kittywhamproductions

Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share with your book-loving friends!

In his 1953 dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury offers an insightful - even prophetic - vision of a future in which books are unwanted, media is omnipresent, and people have lost the ability to focus, to think, or even to know one another.

S1E16: Dandelion Wine, by Ray Bradbury - https://soundcloud.com/unknown-friends/ep-16-one-strange-nostalgic-summer-in-dandelion-wine

Thank you to all who've joined the Unknown Friends community on Patreon! I love getting to share extra content with you there. Learn more at www.patreon.com/unknownfriends, where you can explore the different ways to join as a patron and get access to bonus content like monthly preview episodes.

I'm Rachelle Ferguson of Kittywham Productions, and Unknown Friends is my weekly book review podcast. Visit the Unknown Friends homepage at www.kittywhamproductions.com/podcast. To learn more about me and my work as a Christian playwright, explore my website at www.kittywhamproductions.com.

Get in touch with me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/rachelle.ferguson

Connect with me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/kittywhamproductions

Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share with your book-loving friends!

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, published serially in 1859-60 by Charles Dickens in his literary magazine All the Year Round, introduced a suspenseful plot structure and investigative narrative style that helped create the mystery novel genre we know today.

Thank you to all who've joined the Unknown Friends community on Patreon! I love getting to share extra content with you there. Learn more at www.patreon.com/unknownfriends, where you can explore the different ways to join as a patron and get access to bonus content like monthly preview episodes.

I'm Rachelle Ferguson of Kittywham Productions, and Unknown Friends is my weekly book review podcast. Visit the Unknown Friends homepage at www.kittywhamproductions.com/podcast. To learn more about me and my work as a Christian playwright, explore my website at www.kittywhamproductions.com.

Get in touch with me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/rachelle.ferguson

Connect with me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/kittywhamproductions

Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share with your book-loving friends!

Muriel Spark's 1963 novel The Girls of Slender Means depicts a mix of struggling and successful young women at the end of World War 2, and Spark tells the girls' story with wry humor and almost shocking efficiency, which belie the novel's spiritual weight.

Thank you to each of you who've joined the Unknown Friends community on Patreon! I appreciate your support, and I love having the opportunity to share extra content with you. Learn more at www.patreon.com/unknownfriends, where you can explore the different ways to join as a patron and get access to bonus content like monthly preview episodes and chapter readings.

I'm Rachelle Ferguson of Kittywham Productions, and Unknown Friends is my weekly book review podcast. Visit the Unknown Friends homepage at www.kittywhamproductions.com/podcast. To learn more about me and my writing, explore my website at www.kittywhamproductions.com.

Get in touch on Instagram: www.instagram.com/rachelle.ferguson

Connect on Facebook: www.facebook.com/kittywhamproductions

Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast, rate and review it, and share it with your book-loving friends!