Tea at Trianon: Prince Caspian

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Prince Caspian

Author Regina Doman discusses her hopes and fears for the new film. I am looking forward to seeing it.

Prince Caspian isn’t a story about saving a fantasy world, about “making us care again” about Narnia. It’s a story about saving our own world, about trying to bring the magic back when atheism and materialism and pragmatism have tried to banish and outlaw it for good. And the solution to the problems of both worlds is found in following that elusive and increasingly mysterious lion, Aslan.

Anonymous said...: As a Sr. Citizen I look back on my life of over half a century that followed the path of 20th Century culture as it became swallowed up in the vortex of atheism, materialism and pragmatism. Now I seek the path of The Lion....what an adventure in faith He compels us to take!; January 13, 2008 at 1:31:00 PM EST
elena maria vidal said...: Isn't that the truth.; January 13, 2008 at 1:38:00 PM EST
Anonymous said...: I'm rereading the books and this book is the next one up!; January 14, 2008 at 10:59:00 AM EST
elena maria vidal said...: Good idea.; January 14, 2008 at 5:58:00 PM EST