De Gaulle’s Ambition for France
A Certain Idea of France: The Life of Charles de Gaulle by Julian Jackson. Allen Lane, 2018 / Penguin 2019. Paperback, 928 pages, $30. Reviewed by Owen Edwards The summary of Julian Jackson’s reading of de Gaulle is the section title of Part Four of this monumental...
England’s Real-Time Wendell Berry
At the Field’s Edge: Adrian Bell and the English Countryside By Richard Hawking. The Crowood Press, 2019. Hardcover, 222 pages, $45. Reviewed by Robert Grano The name Adrian Bell will be unfamiliar to the great majority of American readers, and even in his native...
It Will Mean What the Words Say!
The Essential Works of Thomas More Ed. by Gerard B. Wegemer and Stephen W. Smith. Yale University Press, 2020. Hardcover, 1520 pages, $100. Reviewed by Kenneth Craycraft Three scenes from A Man for All Seasons, Robert Bolt’s play about the elevation and martyrdom of...
The Elon Musk of Botany Bay?
The Multifarious Mr. Banks: From Botany Bay to Kew, The Natural Historian Who Shaped the World By Toby Musgrave. Yale University Press, 2020. Hardcover, 357 pp., $35. Reviewed by Karl C. Schaffenburg In current usage “multifarious” refers to a thing that demonstrates...
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!