On Mowgli and Tarzan: Savage Reading for Civilized Readers
Despite the incorrigible march of civilization, there will always be an inborn appeal for feral fantasies. The howls of Romulus and…
The Unsolved Mystery of Mr. Dickens
June 9, 1870. Charles Dickens sat writing at his desk. He had been laboring more than was his custom on his…
Squirrel Nutkin and the Art of Mischief
Running up and down Yggdrasil, the Tree of trees of Nordic lore, goes Ratatösk the Squirrel. Up and down Yggdrasil Ratatösk…
The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope: Escape From Cynicism
Are you a prisoner of cynicism? In a godless world where men tend to hedge their bets on man before…
Don Quixote and the Via Dolorosa
Times there are when readers will find books spiritual that were written with no intention of being spiritual books. The subconscious…
Trent’s Last Case by E. C. Bentley: First Among Mysteries?
London, 1936. Gilbert Keith Chesterton was dead, leaving the President’s Chair of the Detection Club vacant. Under deep mourning, the…
GKC’s The Napoleon of Notting Hill: How to Be a Catholic Lunatic
America stands in need of a new revolution to free itself from the tyranny of bureaucracy and the ensuing slavery of…
Orwell’s 1984: Are We There Yet?
The second most terrifying thing about George Orwell’s 1984 is the supposition that it is possible to destroy humanity without destroying humankind….
The Mystery of a Century: Who Wrote His Last Bow?
Though ice cold logic was ever his bread and butter, Mr. Sherlock Holmes had a talent and taste for histrionics. While…
Dostoevsky and the Glory of Guilt
There are only a very few authors whose works bear the power of changing the way the whole world is perceived…
Nightfall: Péguy’s La Nuit and the Hope of Discontinuity
The French poet and philosopher Charles Péguy died in September, 1914 with a bullet through his head. He had anticipated the…
Adam’s Curse: William Butler Yeats on Original Sin
We made a good run in Genesis… all of two and a half chapters before finding ourselves on the business end…
The Merchant of Venice: Shakespearean Insincerity
Insincerity in people is recognized as a problem, which is why Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice is recognized as the “problem play.” The Merchant…
“The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe: The Madness of Nevermore
There is something of the madman in every man. There is something of the sadist in every sinner. Is there something…
“To Build a Fire” by Jack London: Hanging Humanity by a Thread
There is a peculiar characteristic about the ice-bound regions of the world that renders them absolutely fantastic, absolutely fascinating, and absolutely…
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: Uncommon Nonsense
by Emma Warner
Those who seek a profound meaning cloaked within the bizarre and absurd scenarios of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland are sure to be frustrated. …
Absurdity, Divinity, and Humanity: “Bartleby, the Scrivener” by Melville
It is uncommon to read a story that is uncommon. In the literary world, where there seems to be nothing new…
Marcel Pagnol’s L’eau des Collines: Moral Accountability with Community
The French filmmaker and writer Marcel Pagnol died in 1974 at the age of 79 in Paris, having lived through one…
The Line Between Holiness and Madness in Ron Hansen’s Mariette in Ecstasy
Modern artistic treatments of religious life tend to share a few assumptions: first, that there is something sinister in a life…
Finding True Meaning in the Modern World: Willa Cather’s Death Comes for the Archbishop
To live as an American and as a Catholic is no small challenge, for America is fundamentally a modern project and…
