Great Books Every Catholic Should Know

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.”

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.”

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.”

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.

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.”