Modern Literature

OFFERED 2026-2027

  • 2026-27 Time: Tuesdays, 2:00 – 3:30 pm Eastern
  • 2026-27 Tuition:
    • Seminar with writing tutorial: $95 per student per month (10 months, August – May)
    • Seminar only: $80 per student per month (10 months, August – May)
  • Location: Signal Mountain, Tennessee
  • Prerequisites: [For tutorial portion] Writing III AND [For seminar and tutorial], Ancient/Medieval Literature because the ideas covered in Modern History and Literature need to be understood in light of the ideas of the previous historical eras.
  • Grades: 11-12 only; Students in the Humane Letters Diploma Program should take Moderns in their senior year
  • Pairing: You can pair this course with Modern History
  • Description: Through close reading of key works of modern literature (1500-1950) from across Europe, students deepen their understanding of the ideas that created modern culture and did much to destroy it as well as “the lights in the dark”: the great ideas that were preserved despite the disintegration of modern culture. Following the advice of C.S. Lewis in, “On the Reading of Old Books”, we will begin and end our studies with “the clean sea breeze of the centuries” – a review of ancient and medieval works, ideas, and culture.
  • Assessment:
    • All: Students must complete all readings and daily-work/commonplacing as well as one cumulative final exam.
    • Writing tutorial only: Each term, students compose one essay, one other written piece, and one project, a literature-related handcraft or art. In December and May, students participate in Defense Day by giving a brief presentation on one of their essays and responding to questions from the audience.
  • POTENTIAL BOOK LIST – FINAL BOOK LIST WILL BE AVAILABLE MIDSUMMER: (Hard copies are required; recommended editions/translations are listed below)
    • Torquato Tasso, Gerusalemme Liberata [Jerusalem Liberated] (ISBN: 978-0801863233, Johns Hopkins University Press, translated by Anthony Esolen) <= Needed for first week of class
    • Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote – Students may read in full, however, only selected sections are assigned (Recommended ISBN: 978-0142437230, Penguin Classics, translated by John Rutherford)
    • BOOK CHOICE: Friedrich Schiller, Wilhelm Tell (ISBN: 978-0226738017, German Classics in Translation of University of Chicago Press, translated by William F. Mainland) OR Goethe, Faust, Part One, (ISBN: ‎ 978-0385031141, Vintage, translated by Walter Kaufmann). Note: Both Goethe and Schiller are essential Romantic authors. Schiller’s Wilhelm Tell shows Romantic themes in a more historical setting of medieval Switzerland. Goethe’s Faust – based on the traditional Faust legend – is much more about theological matters, and, consequently, it could be said to be the fiction book that transformed modern culture.
    • Victor Hugo, Les Miserables – Students may read in full, however, only selected sections are assigned (Recommended ISBN: 978-0375403170, Everyman’s Library, translated by Charles E. Wilbour)
    • BOOK CHOICE: Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment (Recommended ISBN: 9780679420293, Pevear-Volokhonsky translation) OR Dostoyevsky, Brothers Karamazov (ISBN: 978-0374528379, Pevear-Volokhonsky translation) Note: Both of these novels wrestle with the problem of evil: Why does evil exist? Why do horrible things happen to good people? Who gets to decide what is right and wrong? How can Christians respond to these questions? Either novel is a good choice. Practically, Crime and Punishment is shorter; theologically, Dostoyevsky wrote Brothers Karamazov as his most powerful statement of and response to the anti-Christian “philosophy” of his day, which is still popular in our day.
    • C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength (ISBN: 978-0743234924, Scribner)
    • William Shakespeare, A Winter’s Tale (Recommended ISBN: 978-1982122508, Folger Shakespeare Library)
    • RECOMMENDED FOR REVIEW: “The Clean Sea Breeze of the Centuries”:
      • Homer’s Iliad (Recommended: Lattimore translation, ISBN: 9780226470497)
      • OR Virgil’s Aeneid
      • OR Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Recommended: Tolkien translation, ISBN: 9780358652977)
      • OR Dante’s Divine Comedy (Recommended: Esolen translation; Inferno – ISBN: 9780345483577; Purgatory – ISBN: 9780812971255; Paradise – ISBN: 9780812977264)