Tending the Heart of Virtue How Classic Stories Awaken a Child's Moral Imagination

From Pinocchio to The Chronicles of Narnia to Charlotte's Web, classic children's tales have shaped generations of young people. In recent years, homeschoolers and new classical schools have put these masterpieces of children's literature at the center of their curricula. And these stories continue to be embraced by parents, students, and educators alike.

In Tending the Heart of Virtue, Vigen Guroian illuminates the power of classic tales and their impact on the moral imagination. He demonstrates how these stories teach the virtues through vivid depictions of the struggle between good and evil, while he also unveils components of the good, the true, and the beautiful in plot and character. With clarity and elegance, Guroian reads deeply into the classic stories. He demonstrates how these stories challenge and enliven the moral imaginations of children. And he shows the reader how to get "inside" of classic stories and communicate their lessons to the child.

For more than two decades Tending the Heart of Virtue has been embraced by parents, guardians, and teachers for whom the stories it discusses are not only beloved classics but repositories of moral wisdom. This revised and expanded second edition includes three new chapters in which Guroian interprets such stories as Hans Christian Andersen's The Ugly Duckling, the Grimms' Cinderella, and John Ruskin's The King of the Golden River. The concluding bibliographical essay has also been expanded.

Until his retirement in 2015, Vigen Guroian was Professor of Religious Studies in Orthodox Christianity at the University of Virginia. He is now a Permanent Senior Fellow of the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal, Senior Fellow at the Center on Law and Religion at Emory University, Distinguished Fellow of the John Jay Institute, and Senior Fellow at the Trinity Forum. He also is on the faculty of Memoria College online and is the author of ten books including The Orthodox Reality: Culture, Theology, and Ethics in the Modern World.

Acknowledgments
Preface to the Second Edition
Introduction

1 Awakening the Moral Imagination
2 On Becoming a Real Human Child: Pinocchio
3 Love and Immortality in The Velveteen Rabbit and The Little Mermaid
4 Friends and Mentors in The Wind in the Willows, Charlottes Web, and Bambi
5 Evil and Redemption in The Snow Queen and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
6 Heroines of Faith and Courage: Princess Irene in The Princess and the Goblin and Lucy in Prince Caspian
7 The Triumph of Beauty in The Nightingale and The Ugly Duckling
8 The Goodness of Goodness: The Grimms' Cinderella and John Ruskin's The King of the Golden River
9 Obedience and the Path to Perfection in George MacDonald's The Wise Woman: A Double Story

Conclusion: A Bibliographical Essay
Notes
Index