Johann Wolfgang von Goethe achieved international renown in 1774 upon the publication of his first novel, The Sorrows Of Young Werther. It had all the qualities that characterized the later Romantic movement, of which it was an important precursor: strong […]
Richard J. Evans’ The Third Reich In Power
by on August 30, 2018
The second volume of Richard J. Evans’ trilogy of history books covering Nazi Germany, The Third Reich In Power, begins where the first left off, in 1933, with Hitler recently appointed Chancellor of Germany by the aging Hindenburg, and concludes […]
Oscar Wilde’s Selected Plays
by on August 24, 2018
I had not read any Oscar Wilde since high school, and even then my exposure had been limited: a single play, perhaps an essay or two, some of his more famous poems, and of course those glorious, decontextualized epigrams and […]
Octavio Paz’s The Labyrinth Of Solitude
by on August 21, 2018
We live in very strange times. Leaders across the developed world can be heard denying that their countries have a unique cultural identity, and the concept of the nation state as a bastion for a specific people to pursue their […]
J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy
by on August 8, 2018
J.D. Vance’s memoir Hillbilly Elegy was the surprise bestseller of 2016, largely because it offered a window into a segment of the American population that can justly claim to have been overlooked, even ignored, for the better part of the last two […]
William H. Gass’ Tests Of Time
by on July 31, 2018
William H. Gass died on December 6th of last year, four days before my thirtieth birthday. He was 93 years old. His death didn’t provoke the outpouring of acclaim accompanying the passing of, say, Philip Roth or Tom Wolfe, but […]
Ian Kershaw’s To Hell And Back
by on July 29, 2018
A recurring charge levelled at the growing populist movements of Europe is that they are undermining the fragile equilibrium that has produced more than a half-century of peace, and that their nationalist drumbeating can only lead to a third major […]
William S. Burroughs’ Junky
by on July 26, 2018
It was not my intention to read Junky, William S. Burroughs’ famous account of his heroin addiction and the ins and outs of the addict’s life, in tandem with Sam Quinones’ investigation into America’s present opioid crisis, Dreamland, but Burroughs’ […]
Sam Quinones’ Dreamland
by on July 19, 2018
Like many people, I was vaguely aware that America was in the midst of an opiate crisis, but the scope of the problem eluded me until I read Andrew Sullivan’s excellent New York Magazine exposé, “The Poison We Pick,” which begins […]
Hilaire Belloc’s The Great Heresies
by on July 14, 2018
Like so many other children of the British Empire, I was introduced to Hilaire Belloc by my mother, who read to me from his Cautionary Tales For Children snatches of his moralizing verses (“A trick that everyone abhors / In little […]