Civilized Reader:
“If youth knew;
if age could”
by Paul Connell
In times of cultural transition such as our own, we would do well to heed the words of the great…
Oedipus the Detective
The murder mystery is as old as murder. When the blood of Abel cried out for justice, the all-seeing Judge took…
10 Christmas Stories Every Father Should Read to His Children
When St. Nick drives his miniature sleigh full of toys drawn by eight tiny reindeer to the snowy housetop, and drops…
Why The Worst Christmas Story is Worth Reading
There are few Christmas stories that begin with a scene so ragged and rich as a threadbare, moth-gnawed Santa Claus who,…
Christmas
One Christmas was so much like the other, in those years around the sea-town corner now, out of all sound…
Gravediggers, Goblins, and How Dickens Discovered Christmas
Christmas has become a humbug. Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge was a sour soothsayer for our times. By and large, Christmas is a humbug these…
What Are You Reading This Summer? Excellent Drivel
Reading in the dog days should never be dogged reading. Just as summer is for recreation, so also is it for…
Paper or Plasma? How Are You Reading This Summer?
Summertime is a favorite time for some favorite reading—but in these times, and in these summers, the issue is not…
“Spring and Fall” Under an Old Ash Tree
As we cross the solar border into summer, many may remark that this past spring was not very spring-like. With…
Heathen Holiness: Padraic Colum’s Nordic Gods and Heroes
Winter is the season for readers. Bitter cold and polar darkness drive people beneath quilts and by hearthsides where the book…
Rip Van Winkle and the American Phantasy
The ghosts that haunt the lonely corners of the globe have ever managed to play an uncanny and incalculable role in…
What Are You Reading This Summer?
The return of summertime every year often recalls the years that will never return: the golden days of youth. The energy,…
The Birds: When the Wind Changes Overnight
For all their disagreements, scientific fact and science fiction are in agreement concerning the viral quality of fear. Men tend to…
The Writing Is on the Web
With the unfolding of spring comes a renewed awareness and appreciation for life. It is peculiar, though, how the observation of…
The Divine Tragedy of Achilles
As the heroes of The Iliad are slain in blood, Homer gives each of them an epitaph in poetry, that they may die…
Learning by Light and Darkness: A Review of A Lantern in Her Hand
by Paul Prezzia
If philosophy is a preparation for death, as Socrates says, then the same can be said of education, at least…
The Vampyre Bicentennial: Should Catholics Be Wary?
Full disclosure: I have been scarred by vampiric literature. It happened when I was a boy. My mother learned of an…
The Vulgar Morality of Tam o’ Shanter: A Tale by Robbie Burns
January 25 marks the birthday of Robert Burns (1759-1796), the national poet of Scotland, and is observed worldwide with the Robbie Burns…
Jungle Fever: Reading for the Heart of the Summer
There is something distantly primal and tribal about summer, when sunny days and sultry nights seem to unconsciously conjure up the…
Captain Blood and the Real Pirates of the Caribbean
It was bound to happen. Even the venerable and visceral occupation of piracy has fallen to the vicissitudes of the movies….
