A Fellow of Infinite Jest

A Fellow of Infinite Jest

Fool: In Search of Henry VIII’s Closest Man By Peter K. Andersson. Princeton University Press, 2023.  Hardcover, 224 pages, $27.95.  Reviewed by Jesse Russell. No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;  Am an attendant lord, one that will do  To swell a...
The Triumph of Love

The Triumph of Love

Muses of a Fire: Essays on Faith, Film, and Literature By Paul Krause. Stone Tower Press, 2024. Paperback, 227 pages, $24.95. Reviewed by Jesse Russell. Roman Polanski’s 1974 masterpiece Chinatown is not only a classic of film noir, but it is also one of the greatest...
Something Wicked This Way Comes

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Magus: The Art of Magic from Faustus to Agrippa By Anthony Grafton.  Belknap Press, 2023.  Hardcover, 304 pages, $39.95.  Reviewed by Jesse Russell. “Dame Frances Yates” is a name that usually does not cross the lips of the educated public. However, in the field of...
Early Modern Queens

Early Modern Queens

Young Queens: Three Renaissance Women and the Price of Power By Leah Redmond Chang.  Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2023. Hardcover, 512 pages, $35.00.  Reviewed by Jesse Russell. In the Anglophone world, there is one (and only one) Renaissance queen: Elizabeth Tudor....
Sailing East

Sailing East

Adventurers: The Improbable Rise of the East India Company, 1550-1650 By David Howarth.  Yale University Press, 2023.  Hardcover, 480 pages, $35.00. Reviewed by Jesse Russell. One of the most popular phrases among Marxists during the long reign of Barack H. Obama was...