David Jones and Rome: Reimagining the Decline of Western Civilization by Jasmine Hunter Evans. Oxford University Press, 2022. Hardcover, 432 pages, $115. Reviewed by Adam Schwartz. In 1964, poet-painter David Jones lamented changes underway in the Roman Catholic...
The Commonwealth: Poems By Dan Rattelle. Little Gidding Press, 2022. Paperback, 34 pages, $9.99. Reviewed by Joshua Hren. Wordsworth’s complaint in the Lyrical Ballads Preface (1800) might well have been written last Tuesday at 2:00 a.m. (lost already among too many...
Proteus Bound: Selected Translations, 2008-2020 By Ryan Wilson. Franciscan University Press, 2021. Paper, 224 pages, $15.00. Reviewed by Patrick Callahan. Ryan Wilson’s new collection of verse translations, Proteus Bound, dazzles when you try to grasp it. The whole...
In the House of Tom Bombadil C.R. Wiley. Canon Press, 2021. Paper, 128 pages, $16.95. Reviewed by Nathanael Blake. Old Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow, but what is the point of him? He is one of the most enigmatic characters in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings,...
Minor Indignities: A Novel. By Trevor Cribben Merrill. Wiseblood Books, 2020. Paperback, 233 pages, $16.00. Reviewed by Alex Taylor. Reading Trevor Cribben Merrill’s first novel, Minor Indignities, one finds a fictional analogue to William F. Buckley’s God and Man at...
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!