A New Dracula
A Bloody Habit: A Novel by Eleanor Bourg Nicholson. Ignatius Press, 2018. Paperback, 435 pages, $19. Reviewed by Matthew M. Robare Stop me if you’ve heard this one: while traveling through central Europe, a modern English lawyer gets entangled in the machinations of a...
Originalism and the Individual Jurist
by Caleb Stegall Editor’s Note: The following lecture was delivered in May of 2018 at the Russell Kirk Center as the keynote address at the annual conference of the Society for Law & Culture. Thank you all for being here. It’s an honor and privilege to be with...
The Habit of Being a Catholic Writer
The Letters of Flannery O’Connor and Caroline Gordon, edited by Christine Flanagan. The University of Georgia Press, 2018. Hardcover, 254 pages, $32.95 Reviewed by Emina Melonic “This girl is a real novelist,” said Caroline Gordon in a letter to Robert...
All the History That Fits a Narrative
The Final Act: The Helsinki Accords and the Transformation of the Cold War by Michael Cotey Morgan, Princeton University Press, 2018. Hardcover, 424 pages, $35. Reviewed by Francis P. Sempa People have a tendency, when they expend much time and energy working on a...
A District in Play
Spitalfields: The History of a Nation in a Handful of Streets by Dan Cruickshank. Random House, (2016) 2018. Paperback, 763 pages, $24 Reviewed by Derek Turner Every morning, I would be awakened by the cockerel across the road, and open the curtains to see an array of...
The Doctor as Moralist
The Proper Procedure and Other Stories by Theodore Dalrymple. New English Review Press, 2017. Paperback, 162 pages, $19. Reviewed by Scott Beauchamp The phenomenon of the literary doctor presents an interesting case in reading biography into a literary oeuvre. They...
The Doctor as Amoralist
Under the Knife: A History of Surgery in 28 Remarkable Operations by Arnold van de Laar, translated by Andy Brown. St. Martin’s Press, 2018. Hardcover, 357 pages, $30. Reviewed by Karl C. Schaffenburg In his entertaining and readable review of the history of surgery,...
Dropouts from a Mercenary Society
The Bump on Brannigan’s Head by Myles Connolly with an introduction and notes by Stephen Mirarchi. Cluny Media, (1950) 2018. Paperback, 252 pages, $18. Dan England and the Noonday Devil Myles Connolly, with an introduction and notes by Stephen Mirarchi. Cluny Media,...
An Artist in History
A Revolution in Color: The World of John Singleton Copley. by Jane Kamensky. W.W. Norton and Company, 2017. Hardcover, 544 pages, $19.95. Reviewed by James Baresel Much as honesty forces the admission that they are not of equal aesthetic quality, the works of John...
There are metaphorical hills on which I would be willing to die. The Oxford comma is one of them.
So easy to forget that the best way to educate yourself is to read great works of literature and philosophy, then talk about them. Bring back the salon!