The Function of Criticism in a Time of Entropy

The Function of Criticism in a Time of Entropy

American Audacity: In Defense of Literary Daring By William Giraldi. Liveright, 2018. Hardcover, 462 pages, $30. Reviewed by Oliver Spivey William Giraldi, author of the critical prose collected in American Audacity: In Defense of Literary Daring, is that rarest of...
A Justified Confessions

A Justified Confessions

Confessions by Augustine, translated by Thomas Williams. Hackett Publishing Company, 2019. Paperback, 344 pages, $11. Reviewed by Eve Tushnet Thomas Williams spends a decent chunk of the introduction to his new translation of St. Augustine’s Confessions justifying its...
Fault Lines in American Identity

Fault Lines in American Identity

Pop Culture and the Dark Side of the American Dream: Con Men, Gangsters, Drug Lords, and Zombies by Paul A. Cantor University Press of Kentucky, 2019. Hardcover, 224 pages, $40. Reviewed by Harrison F. Dietzman Anna Sorokin, an émigré fashion student of modest means,...
Placing Chaucer

Placing Chaucer

Chaucer: A European Life by Marion Turner. Princeton University Press, 2019. Hardcover, 624 pages, $40. Reviewed by Carl Rollyson We know so little about Shakespeare’s life. The facts could be put onto no more than a page. That has not prevented biographers from...
John Milton, Latin Love Poet

John Milton, Latin Love Poet

John Milton’s The Book of Elegies translated by A. M. Juster The Paideia Institute for Humanistic Study, Inc., 2019. Paperback, 135 pages, $15. Reviewed by Patrick Callahan As we are told Mount Helicon had two fonts of poetry, so we witness in recent years an...