Episode 312: "Best of" - Fairy Tales and Children's Literature with Dr. Vigen Guroian
The Literary Life Podcast
Angelina Stanford
4.7 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 20 January 2026
⏱️ 89 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome to an another great episode from the archives of The Literary Life podcast! This week we bring you an interview our hosts had with special guest Dr. Vigen Guroian, retired professor of Religious Studies and Orthodox Christianity at the University of Virginia and author of twelve book and numerous scholarly articles. Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks discuss with Dr. Guroian the new edition of his book, Tending the Heart of Virtue. They start out talking about how the first edition of this book came about, which leads into a discussion about the current approach to fairy tales and children's stories in both academia and the publishing industry.
Other topics of conversation include the problem with reducing stories down to a moral, story as mystery, the place of fairy tales in classical education, and the Biblical literacy of the authors of fairy tales. Dr. Guroian also shares his thoughts on people like John Ruskin and Rudyard Kipling. Finally, he shares some suggestions on finding good editions of fairy tale collections.
There is still time to register for this year's upcoming annual Literary Life Online Conference, happening January 23-30, 2026, "The Letter Killeth, but the Spirit Quickeneth: Reading Like a Human". Our speakers will be Dr. Jason Baxter, Jenn Rogers, Dr. Anne Phillips, and, of course, Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks.
To view the full show notes, including book links, visit https://theliterary.life/312.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Literary Life Podcast. |
| 0:02.9 | We've grown quite significantly since our debut in 2019, and we've had many requests to highlight older episodes that new listeners may have missed, as well as revisit listener favorites. |
| 0:15.2 | To honor that request, I present to you this episode of the best of the literary life podcast. |
| 0:21.6 | This is not just another book chat podcast. |
| 0:26.6 | Lifelong reader Cindy Rollins joins teachers Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks |
| 0:31.6 | for an ongoing conversation about the skill and art of reading well. |
| 0:36.6 | Explore the lost intellectual tradition and discover |
| 0:40.3 | how to fully enter end to the great works of literature. Learn what books mean while delighting in |
| 0:46.8 | the sheer joy of imagination. Each week we will rescue story from the ivory tower and bring it |
| 0:54.0 | to your couch, your kitchen, and your commute. |
| 0:57.7 | The literary life is for everyone because in the words of Stratford Caldecott, to be enchanted by story is to be granted a deeper insight into reality. |
| 1:07.9 | Join us for an ever-unfolding discussion of how stories will save the world. This is |
| 1:14.5 | the Literary Life podcast. |
| 1:35.8 | I'm Angelina Stanford. |
| 1:37.7 | And I'm Thomas Banks. |
| 1:39.3 | And today we have a very special guest to introduce you to today. |
| 1:43.4 | And hopefully you're not hearing of him the first |
| 1:45.8 | time because he previously was the keynote speaker in our 2022 Literary Life Conference. I am speaking |
| 1:53.5 | of the one and only Dr. Vegan Geroian. Welcome to the show. Hi. It's good to be here. |
| 2:00.7 | Well, we are excited to have you and to talk about, well, a topic that's near and dear to my heart, fairy tales and children's literature. |
| 2:09.5 | So if you are, if you've been living under a rock and you don't know his name, he is a retired |
| 2:16.6 | professor of religious studies in Orthodox Christianity at UVA |
... |
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