An Unofficial 'The Rest Is History' Reading List

151. Valentine's Day

February 14, 2022

Description

Happy Valentine's Day! Have you ever wondered why we send each other cards and go out to Carluccio's for dinner on a weeknight? In today's episode, Tom and Dominic drill down into the details -...
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Books Referenced

The Dream of Scipio

Author: Cicero

Context:

Tom describes Chaucer reading this book in 'The Parliament of Fowls' - 'So the plot of it is that Chaucer is reading a book by Cicero, The Dream of Scipio. And he falls asleep.'

The Parliament of Fowls

Author: Geoffrey Chaucer

Context:

Tom discusses this poem extensively as the first English literary work to mention Valentine's Day in connection with romance - 'the first kind of mention that we get in English poetry is in a poem by Chaucer called The Parliament of Fowls'

Romance of the Rose

Author: Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun

Context:

Tom mentions Chaucer translating this medieval work when discussing the language of courtly love - 'Chaucer is very keen on that, translating the romance of the Rose'

I, Claudius

Author: Robert Graves

Context:

Implied reference when discussing Emperor Claudius - 'the stutterer, the hero of Robert Graves' (transcribed as 'Grayson') - distinguishing the early Emperor Claudius from Claudius Gothicus

Butler's Lives of the Saints

Author: Samuel Butler

Context:

Tom references this 18th century compendium when discussing Catholic attempts to explain Valentine's Day origins - 'Butler as in Butler's Lives, the great kind of compendium of saints' lives that gets written in the 18th century'

The Young Man's Valentine Writer

Author: Anonymous

Context:

Dominic mentions this 1797 publication as a manual for writing Valentine poems - 'somebody publishes a book called The Young Man's Valentine Writer. So a manual about how to write nice Valentine poems'

The Satanic Verses

Author: Salman Rushdie

Context:

Referenced in discussion of the fatwa issued against Salman Rushdie on Valentine's Day - 'the issuing of the fatwa against Salman Rushdie by the Ayatollah Khamenei'