Great Books Every Catholic Should Know

  • Rank #
  • Premiered: Nov 2023
  • Episodes: 13
  • Followers: 0
  • Ended
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  • Documentary History

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Season 1
1x1
Pride Precedes A Fall
Episode overview
Air date
Nov 05, 2023
Joseph Pearce introduces great works of literature that have graced Catholic civilization over the centuries. Today, he examines the works of Homer, including The Iliad and The Odyssey, as well as Virgil's The Aeneid.
1x2
Greek Tragedy & Anglo-Saxon Wisdom
Episode overview
Air date
Nov 12, 2023
Great works by Sophocles, the ancient Greek tragedian, are analyzed by host Joseph Pearce. He provides insight into Antigone, Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus, and looks at Beowulf, written by an unknown author.
1x3
Quest & Pilgrimage
Episode overview
Air date
Nov 19, 2023
Epic stories of quest and pilgrimage are on the menu as host Joseph Pearce looks at Dante's Divine Comedy, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, and the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, written by an unknown author.
1x4
Love & Mercy
Episode overview
Air date
Nov 26, 2023
The moral dilemmas that permeate his stories are a big reason why Shakespeare’s works are loved and performed. Pearce looks at Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, The Merry Wives of Windsor and Julius Caesar.
1x5
Love & Responsibility
Episode overview
Air date
Dec 03, 2023
Four more works from William Shakespeare are on tap, as Joseph Pearce delves into the key moral themes contained in Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Othello and Macbeth. See the beauty of truth found in these classic stories.
1x6
Saints & Sinners
Episode overview
Air date
Dec 10, 2023
No examination of Shakespeare’s works would be complete without focusing on the saints and sinners who populate his stories. Host Joseph Pearce wraps up his look with King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, and The Tempest.
1x7
Holy Fools & Unholy Falls
Episode overview
Air date
Jan 01, 2024
Joseph Pearce provides insight into Cervantes' “Don Quixote,” Milton's “Paradise Lost” and Manzoni's “The Betrothed” in this examination of literature’s holy fools and unholy falls that have graced Catholic civilization.
1x8
Sense & Nonsense
Episode overview
Air date
Jan 07, 2024
Delve deeper into the truth found in history's most amazing stories. Today, it’s Jonathan Swift's “Gulliver’s Travels,” Jane Austen's “Sense and Sensibility” and “Pride and Prejudice” and Mary Shelley's “Frankenstein.”
1x9
The Victorian Age in Literature
Episode overview
Air date
Jan 14, 2024
Host Joseph Pearce examines the beauty of truth found in history's most amazing stories. Today, he turns to Charlotte Brontë's “Wuthering Heights,” and Charles Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities” and “A Christmas Carol.”
1x10
Pride & Pilgrimage
Episode overview
Air date
Jan 21, 2024
On today’s show, host Joseph Pearce reviews a classic storiy of pride and vanity in Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” He also examines the pilgrimages of Hilaire Belloc in “The Path to Rome and “The Four Men.”
1x11
Two Literary Converts
Episode overview
Air date
Jan 28, 2024
Three great books by two Catholic converts are on tap in today’s episode. Joseph Pearce looks at Robert Hugh Benson’s “By What Authority?” and “Lord of the World” and G.K. Chesterton's “The Man Who Was Thursday.”
1x12
Wasteland to Promised Land
Episode overview
Air date
Feb 04, 2024
Works covered by Joseph Pearce are “The Waste Land,” a poem by T.S. Eliot, “Kristin Lavransdatter,” a trilogy written by Sigrid Undset, and “C,” a novel by Maurice Baring.
1x13
A Ring for the Bride
Episode overview
Air date
Feb 11, 2024
Three more great books wrap up this series. Host Joseph Pearce examines Evelyn Waugh’s “Brideshead Revisited” and J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings.”

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