Your Daily Penguin: The Venerable Bede!

[@battybibliophile-Clare]

A friend of Steve, that will do me, I'm off to buy it now.

[@MayberryBookclub]

That was a beautiful passage, thank you.

[@marianapgar4409]

I will be ordering this ASAP.

[@Isthmiades2]

Thank you, and yes I agree, Bede is a very agreeable companion. I love this book too. I am never without it and often dip into it.

[@jenniferbrooks]

“An old friend”-what a great way to sum up time spent with Bede! I adore him. This has made me want to reread the Ecclesiastical History very soon.

[@Wilsonn_esquire]

Beautiful.

[@paulgriffin419]

For anyone interested, Durham Cathedral is well worth a visit as it houses Bede's tomb, as well as a magnificent Library.

[@NicholasOfAutrecourt]

You'd never be able to fit all of Bede into a single volume. He wrote dozens upon dozens of books.

[@saintdonoghue]

But a lot of those volumes aren't very long! At least they could make a fat volume, even if they don't include everything!

[@gaildoughty6799]

I’ve avoided Bede for years. Not now.

[@evolassunglasses4673]

England lives!

[@acruelreadersthesis5868]

Yay! I’ve been waiting for when you’d get to this one!

[@peterprablo1331]

What the heck, I love Bede! I just started reading his life of Cuthbert today on the recommendation of one of your reviews and now I can say that I know what it means when people call something "charming". I love the sense I get (that you pointed out) of so much that is lying underneath the surface of his simple sentences and the combination of the strange angelic world mixed with the matter of fact. I love the different ways he proves the truthfulness of his claim (oh you think it's crazy that an angel would be on a horse? Well have you read....). The reading experience kind of reminds me of the Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald. I want more like this. I want to write something like this..

[@eamonandmarg]

I've got my own modest collection of the Black Spine Penguin classics - most sourced at second hand bookshops over last few years. Only a handful of them are your ancient Romans and Greeks. Typically I pick up the the 18th century English writers - which I assume you will get to eventually. Your current vein of reviews are generally new ground for me - but I'm determined to push back a few centuries in my 2020 reading and to at least cover a bit of Homer and a few of the Roman writers you have praised. Your clear reverence for Bede also obliges me to expand my TBR - his account of Voyages of St.Brendan might work for an Irishman. The wall behind your standard video shot clearly indicates your lover of the physical Penguin Classic books. I too am a fan - I like having them as interactive wallpaer. Bu I've also found that the Kindle version of the Penguin Classics contain all the annotations and critical apparatus - with good "clickable" links. And they are very reasonably priced.

[@anselman3156]

A good friend to have! I treasure my 1975 Penguin reprint of the 1968 revised Leo Sherley-Price A History of the English Church and People. It has a nice cover illustration of Bede sharpening his quill, from a codex at Engelberg Abbey. Also, Penguin's 1973 reprint Lives of the Saints, translated by J F Webb 1965, featuring Bede's Life of Cuthbert, Eddius Stephanus's Life of Wilfrid, and also The Voyage of St Brendan. I also have Bede's commentary On Genesis, translated by Calvin Kendall, Liverpool University Press 2008.