To Beatrix in the Shadows: Johnny Town-mouse After 100 Years
One century ago, as the shadows of World War I were fading away, shadows were closing in on Beatrix. After nearly…
A Tale of Two Cities: Read It Again for the First Time
It is the best of tales, it is the worst of tales, it is for the age of foolishness, it is…
The Virginian:
Encountering Manhood
by Paul Guenzel
What is manliness in relation to Christian virtue or societal influence? Is there any way to speak of authentic masculinity…
The Affair Must Go On
I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a…
10 Books That Every Boy Should Hazard
Thanks to the adulterators of children’s literature, the natural anticipations when approaching forgotten classics have been skewed. Everyone expects that everything…
Murder on the Orient Express and the Theology of Murder
Et voilà. The cold corpse lay in Compartment #2 of the Orient Express, stabbed twelve times, no murder weapon, no obvious…
A Study in Sherlock
“I know well that I have it in me to make my name famous. No man lives or has ever…
He Is Risen! Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of Easter
Eastertide, 1894 marked the resurrection of a famous figure besides Jesus Christ. Sherlock Holmes, supposed dead for three years following his…
Scaramouche, Sabatini, and Spadassinicide
Few are the stories that are vouched for by a lead sentence alone. It was the best of times, it was…
Descending into the Chocolate Factory: Are Dahl’s Works Worth it?
Every good child takes some pleasure in being bad. It is the perversity of human inheritance that forbidden fruit is fascinating….
On Pilgrim’s Progress
by Michael Yost
My dark and cloudy words, they do but hold The truth, as cabinets enclose the gold. —Pilgrim’s Progress A generation…
The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh (Not for the Squeamish)
When Evelyn Waugh came to Hollywood in 1947 to discuss the film rights for Brideshead Revisited, he visited a graveyard: Forest Lawn Memorial Park. He…
Journeying to Calvary
with the Blessed Mother:
Lynch’s A Woman Wrapped in Silence
By Miriam Schroder, Class of 2017 This is God’s chosen way with men, To take men’s way: and so the…
Flannery O’Connor’s Revelation:
Daily Encounters with Grace and Ugliness
by Paul Guenzel
It must surely be marveled at how one and the same word—nay, one and the same concept—elicits such different reactions….
The Ballad of Judas Iscariot and the Burden of Lent
Lent is a burden and a blessing. It calls Catholics to crawl beneath the weight of themselves to the Cross of…
The War of the Worlds and the Significance of Science Fiction
In 1938, the world was waiting for war. Germany had invaded Czechoslovakia. The United States was battling the Great Depression. The…
The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux: Triumphant Tragedy
All great literature is well written, but not all that is well written is great literature. In other words, there are…
Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown: The American Nightmare
The surrender to sin in America is a species of Satanism. Whether through seduction or submission, depravity is the mantra of…
“Re: Vampires” by John H. Watson, M.D.
NB: The circumstances surrounding my access to this manuscript are of such moment that their publication is impossible. Those involved…
The Spectre Bridegroom and the Immortal Love for Ghost Stories
It was a dark and stormy night… Besides “Once upon a time,” this storytelling opening has no equal. Is there any…
