I often shake my head in disgust when I think about my appreciation for Matthew Arnold. That guy was a conservative nutbar at the end of his life, but some of his lit, and a lot of his criticism really hit the mark for me (case in point: i’ve quoted his definition of culture on another site for well over a year now). In the end, the guy was a wicked critic because he was adept at not letting his own politics rule over his works.
Anyway, I discovered this morning that the SMU Ferguson Library, a small hole-in-the-wall service for some of the school’s patrons, made a sound recording of _Culture and Anarchy_ back in 1990. That’s awesome - I hardly think there are many sound recordings of old Mr. Arnold lying around; he isn’t your run-of-the-mill listen-on-your-way-to-work sort of author