What We’re Reading

Shakespeare, Richard III. Shakespeare’s Richard III is a political tragedy dealing with the rise and fall of Richard III and the end of the Plantagenet dynasty of the House of York. The play is especially useful to read after reading Machiavelli since, in doing so, one can see Shakespeare in dialogue with other intellectual currents of his era despite projecting back into the past. This permits the reader to see Richard III not as merely a tyrant’s ascent to power and fall into death, but also a subtle critique of the Machiavellian outlook for princes and rulers with the inevitable end of those following Machiavelli’s path resulting in tyranny and, due to tyranny, death and destruction. Following Machiavelli is the pathway to death as Richard III found out in Shakespeare’s imaginative tragedy.

~ Paul Krause

Vrest Orton, Vermont Afternoons with Robert Frost. Picture yourself on the East coast, sitting in a grassy area with your feet dangling over a rocky cliff, and looking towards the Atlantic Ocean’s calming yet fierce waves; a sudden brush of peace grazes your face after every gust of prickly, cold wind. This is what it feels like reading Vermont Afternoons with Robert Frost. Many of us, like myself, from New England experience periods of nostalgia as winter wanes and spring approaches. The Red Sox win on opening day, and it is time to pack up wool sweaters to the seller. Through Frost, Orton encapsulates all these feelings by utilizing vivid and similar Northeastern coastal colors and symbols, picturing seasonal activities, and overdoes the New England experience. Vermont Afternoons with Robert Frost is a special chapbook that brings back feelings you never thought you had and memories you thought you had forgotten. Whether from New England or not, Orton will touch your heart.

~ Sarah Tillard

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