A Cautionary Note on the Ghostly Tale

Since most modern men have ceased to recognize their own souls, the spectral tale has been out of fashion, especially in America. As Cardinal Manning said, all differences of opinion are theological at bottom; and this fact has its bearing upon literary tastes....

The Two Hoovers

Herbert Hoover in the White House: The Ordeal of the Presidency by Charles Rappleye. Simon and Schuster, 2016. Hardcover, 551 pages, $32.50. The title and subtitle of this book do—and do not—accurately advertise what it contains. Something a good deal less than a full...
From Hungary to the Outback

From Hungary to the Outback

Flight from the Brothers Grimm: A European-Australian Memoir by Valerie Murray. Sydney: Books Unleashed, 2016. Paperback, 184 pages, Aust.$20. “Only when one has lost all curiosity about the future,” wrote Evelyn Waugh in his autobiography, A Little Learning (1964),...

A Life Told by a Critic

William Faulkner: A Life through Novels by André Bleikasten, translated by Miriam Watchorn with the collaboration of Roger Little. Indiana University Press, 2017. Hardcover, 511 pages, $50.In his Foreword to William Faulkner: A Life through Novels, Philip Weinstein...

A Window on a Vanishing World

Comrade Baron: A Journey through the Vanishing World of the Transylvanian Aristocracy by Jaap Scholten. Helena History Press, 2016. Paperback, 404 pages, $24.I started reading this book filled both with excitement and dread. The former because I am Transylvanian, the...