Ray Moore's Blog

“Winter Comes to Pemberley,” published earlier this year, continues to sell well (mainly people read it online). It rates a 4.2 / 5 on Amazon and there is one very detailed (and positive) review. The book is set a decade after “Pride and Prejudice” and centers on Georgiana Darcy and Catherine (Kitty) Bennet as they each navigate their way through the marriage maze.

Just published is “Sanditon Completed.” “Sanditon” is the title given to Jane Austen’s final, unfinished novel. Austen began the manuscript in January 1817. She had been ill for some time but was beginning to feel better. Sadly, on March 18, she put the manuscript aside because she was again unwell. Exactly four months later, Jane died.

It has always been assumed that Austen abandoned her manuscript, but what if she actually dictated the rest of her novel to her sister, Cassandra? A discovery in the National Archives (London) of ‘The Cassandra Notebook,’ appears to confirm that she did so. However, questions are then raised as to whether this Notebook, found in the Archives, is genuine or a modern forgery. So… two stories in one: the ending of “Sanditon” and the mystery of whether or not it was written by Jane and Cassandra or is a fake.

I am sure that you will enjoy both of these novels. Please check them out on Amazon.com.

My next project is a Study Guide to “Philosophical Fragment” and “Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragment” by the nineteenth-century philosopher and theologian Soren Kierkegaard. This will probably be my last ‘big’ writing project. It is something I have wanted to do for the last 50 years!

The post Pemberley & Sanditon books written and Kierkegaard to come first appeared on Mystery Writer and Educational Author.

Study Guide to T.S. Eliot “The Four Quartets”

The Battle Between Traditional History and Inclusive History Is On!

Eliot’s last and greatest poetic work was a collection of four long poems each exploring the theme of time and eternity. Written largely during the Second World War (1939-1945) they were first published together in 1943. Eliot won the Nobel Prize in Literature shortly after. I first came across “The Four Quartets” as an undergraduate in 1971. I loved their sound, but their meaning went well over my head. Now, only fifty years later, I returned to this work and have published a study guide to the text. I finally got to grips with the difficulties of this great work and produced what I hope is a clear explication of Eliot’s meaning. I am not sure how widely read Eliot is these days, but this book will help anyone interested in understanding “The Four Quartets.”

With the publication in book form of “The 1619 Project” (Nov. 2021), we now have a definitive reply to the Trump-era “The 1776 Report.” Both texts raise the question of how American Education should approach the teaching of Slavery and the racism that, founded on slavery, outlived its abolition. You will be aware that I have already written on “The 1776 Report.” Now I have released two companion volumes that deal with “The 1619 Project.” The two books are: “Slavery, The 1619 Project and American Education” and “Study Guide: Understanding The 1619 Project.” I hope that you will take a look at these two works on Amazon.com and bring them to the attention of any friends who might be interested.

As an educator for 38 years, I know how important it is to teach students the truth no matter what the subject. However, the truth not only sets people free; it can also be hurtful and discomforting. That is a price that teachers and students have to be prepared to pay because comfortable lies only let you down in the end. I regard these three books as the most important I have written.

Looking forward

I seem to have fallen into a Jane Auster phase with the publication of “The Darcys of Pemberley: A Sequel to ‘Pride and Prejudice.'” I have already started a continuation of “Sanditon,” the novel that Austen left unfinished at her death. I am also contemplating another novel “Winter Comes to Pemberley” that will take up the story of Elizabeth, Fitzwilliam, and Georgina Darcy in about 1820.

I have long wanted to reread “Emma” and “Mansfield Park” and this will be necessary if I am to write the novels I have just mentioned, so I also plan to write study guides to these two novels. Altogether, it does not seem like 2022 will be a boring year – and we have several cruises to look forward to, COVID willing.

The post 2022- What’s next- looking forward and back! first appeared on Mystery Writer and Educational Author.

George Horsford / Daily Sun – Ray Moore, {cq}, at his home in the Village of Largo, talks about the ninety books he has written. Photograph was taken on August 6, 2021.

I recently had a very nice article about my writing in our local newspaper The Daily Sun – which I do not actually take. It was titled, “Villager Uses 38 Years of Teaching To Share His Love of Literature” and was accompanied by this rather nice photo which proves: 1. I really cannot smile and 2. I am getting older! Students from Vanguard will be glad to hear that the school got a mention, as did the IB program. Unfortunately they did not name my latest publications so I will: “The Darcys of Pemberley: A Sequel to ‘Pride and Prejudice’ by Jane Austen” and “Slavery, The 1776 Project and American Education.” Check them out on Amazon.

Summer is here and so are two more good reads.

“The Darcys of Pemberley: A Sequel to ‘Pride and Prejudice’ by Jane Austen” was published a few days ago and “Slavery, ‘The 1776 Project’ and American Education” will be available in a few days. I have been working on these two very different projects for the last seven months. I like to have two or three things on hand so that I can switch from one to the other when I get a little tired. The third project is normally whatever book I am reading at the moment.

If you were ever in one of my “Pride and Prejudice” classes, you will know how much I love that book. I always wondered what happened to Elizabeth, Fitzwilliam, and Georgiana – to say nothing of the other four Bennet sisters, the dastardly Wickham, and the odious Mr. Collins. So I wrote a sequel just to find out.

You will find no zombies, vampires, ghosts, or murders in “The Darcys of Pemberley: A Sequel to ‘Pride and Prejudice’ by Jane Austen.” The action, which takes place against the backdrop of Napoleon’s escape from Elba and his final battle at Waterloo, has plenty of real-life action. There are triumphs and tragedies aplenty, happiness and tears.

When, in January, I read the Report of the President’s 1776 Commission, I felt the need to enter the debate over slavery and racism in America. “Slavery, ‘The 1776 Project’ and American Education,” a book of about 350 pages, is the result. If you want to understand the current debate about the teaching of Critical Race Theory, this book is a good place to start. Perhaps, as a person born and educated in Britain, I can bring a fresh perspective to this vexed issue.

Check out these and my other books and products on Amazon and Teachers Pay Teachers.

We are well into 2021 now, and hopefully the world is getting on top of COVID.

In the last year, I enjoyed producing Study Guides with Texts to my two favorite Greek plays, Antigone by Sophocles and Medea by Antigone. I also wrote a Study Guide to On the Come up, Angie Thomas’ sequel to The Hate You Give. The latter has sold well in Germany, but my guide to the sequel (which is, I think, a better novel) has hardly sold at all. Perhaps what I most enjoyed though was completing a trilogy of Study Guides with Texts to the poems of A. E. Housman, a British poet who may not be well-known to Americans. The three books are: A Shropshire Lad, Last Poems and More Poems & Additional Poems. At the last minute, I found that the Additional Poems were still in copyright, but the Society of Authors, which manages Housman’s estate, gave me permission to use them.

I am currently working on a sequel to Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen set in 1815. Just at the moment, Elizabeth Darcy is experiencing sea bathing at Scarborough, Lady Catherine has died, leaving Rosings bankrupt. Oh, and Captain Wickham has gone to Belgium to fight Napoleon at Waterloo – but not before threatening to expose Georgiana’s shame! What will happen to Anne De Bough? Will Wickham die at Waterloo? Can Georgiana’s reputation be saved? All will be revealed!

What else? Well, I am still working on the Last Clerical Investigations of the Reverend Lyle Thorne, but I am also working an a book on Slavery in America which considers The 1619 Project and The 1776 Project. My aim is to show how to learn about slavery, and above all how to distinguish a valid from a fallacious argument.

I am still writing products for Teachers Pay Teachers. Check me out on their site.

Well, we are all staying at home and keeping social distancing for the foreseeable future. My wife and I will not be going on any cruises any time soon, so I am working on my reading and writing.

More Clerical Investigations of the Reverend Lyle Thorne has been published, but word has yet to get round. I worked harder on that book than on any of the previous ones, and I am pleased and proud of the result.

I am currently working on a “Text and Critical Introduction” to Jane Austen’s three unfinished and unpublished novels (Lady Susan, The Watsons and Sanditon). These are neglected Austen texts

What next? Well, I would like to write Last Clerical Investigations of the Reverend Lyle Thorne. After 41 stories, however, thinking of new plots, without repeating oneself, is a problem. I am also considering going back to Soren Kierkegaard’s Philosophical Fragment or Mary Wollstonecraft’s Rights of Women. Each would be a real intellectual challenge, which I would enjoy, but I have to be honest and say that neither book would actually sell many copies.

Perhaps I’ll put my energies into products for Teachers Pay Teachers. Watch this space!!!

Having spent a considerable time travelling at the start of this year Ray is now once again able to concentrate on his writing.

He has worked tirelessly on a fictionalized account of that epic year from British history… 1066! His book 1066 Year of the Five Kings is his latest novel and was published earlier this month.

Following on from his latest Study Guide which includes the text of a selection of Robert Frost poems, he is currently working on A.E. Houseman‘s poems in A Shropshire Lad as well as another set of stories about Reverend Lyle Thorne before he became the vicar at Sanditon. Hopefully this eighth volume of Rev Thorne’s stories may be ready for Christmas.

Ray has been so busy it is sometimes hard to keep the website up to date with all his work.

For students or avid book readers now available at Amazon is his latest Study Guide to Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood.

For teachers he has produced two new guides. One for The Groveland Rape Case of 1949 and Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan.  Both of these are available at his TeachersPayTeachers store.

He is currently working on a Study Guide for Death of a Salesman by  Arthur Miller and also book no. 8 in The Reverend Lyle Thorne series. This one will be Clerical Investigations of the intrepid puzzle solver!

July 31st 2016

Latest news for TeachersPayTeachers followers

It’s a bonus sale day!

Check out Ray’s sale at the site on August 1st and 2nd.

Great deals can be had on all Ray’s Study Guides and other items.

Don’t miss out!

Click on the graphic link…

Ray has been so busy it is sometimes hard to keep the website you to date with all his work.

For students or avid book readers now available are

Study Guides on

Henry V by William Shakespeare

Walden; or Life in Woods by Henry David Thoreau

and

Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan

Espernaza Rising is an interesting book (appropriate for middle schoolers) and was recently read by the Leesburg Library Book Discussion Group which Ray leads.