On reading well: finding the good life through great books

Foreword / by Leland Ryken

Introduction: Read well, live well

Part one. The cardinal virtues

Prudence: The history of Tom Jones, a foundling, by Henry Fielding

Temperance: The great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Justice: A tale of two cities, by Charles Dickens

Courage: the adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain

Part two. The theological virtues

Faith: Silence, by Shusaku Endo

Hope: The road, by Cormac McCarthy

Love: The death of Ivan Ilych, by Leo Tolstoy

Part three. The heavenly virtues

Chastity: Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton

Diligence: Pilgrim's progress, by John Bunyan

Patience: Persuasion, by Jane Austen

Kindness: "Tenth of December," by George Saunders

Humility: "Revelation" and "Everything that rises must converge," by Flannery O'Connor.