I wanted to wait until I had a released copy of Be Like the Fox to quote anything from it. Here’s a lengthy excerpt about an episode late in Machiavelli’s life. The setting: the Medici successfully returned to Florence in 1512 and Machiavelli was removed from office. He remained in political exile until 1521 when […]
Author: Dwight
The Red Sphinx by Alexandre Dumas Edited and translated by Lawrence Ellsworth Pegasus Books, 2017 Hardcover, 832 pages What is clear and undeniable in this painting is that it depicts a man of mind and intelligence, and nothing more. Here is neither heart nor spirit—fortunately for France. In the vacuum of the monarchy between Henry […]
Be Like the Fox: Machiavelli in His World by Erica Benner W. W. Norton & Company, 2017 Erica Brenner’s study of “Machiavelli in his world” is being released today. I obtained an advance reading copy secondhand and wanted to pass on a few of my thoughts about the book since I found it helpful and […]
Many thanks to Michael Wooff for translating this short story and making it available at Project Gutenberg. It’s a wonderful piece that hints at what we will see in later works by Galdós. Published in 1871, “The Novel on the Tram” is close in tone and style to Galdós’ first novel The Shadow. The story […]
If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you’ll know from my reading projects on Herodotus’ Histories, Thucydides’ The Peloponnesian War, and Arrian’s The Campaigns of Alexander that I am a huge fan of The Landmark Ancient Histories series. As I noted in a post last August, a quote from editor Robert Stassler on an […]
Jean Barois by Roger Martin du Gard Translated by Stuart Gilbert Viking Press, 1949 (original publication in 1913)I picked up The Thibaults a couple of years of years ago, but haven’t been able to commit to the almost-two thousand page work. Jean Barois ended up being my introduction to Roger Martin du Gard instead. I […]
I’m updating this post because of Grant Hart’s recent death. My range of focus online has narrowed quite a bit, but I was surprised how little I saw about this as it was happening. What he contributed to me is difficult to quantify, but I have to say the influence was substantial. I guess I […]
I wanted to recommend this article on Reginald Foster, “The Vatican’s Latinist,” by John Byron Kuhner. Foster was “part of a small team of scribes who composed the pope’s correspondence, translated his encyclicals, and wrote copy for internal church documents” for over forty years. He has done so much more, though. He also taught Latin […]
I recently saw that “Firing Line” now has a channel on YouTube. I’ve mentioned the episode on “The Southern Imagination” a few times, with Eudora Welty and Walker Percy, and it is available here. A different episode I wanted to share was the conversation with Jorge Luis Borges, recorded on February 1, 1977. If you’re […]
Last night my son was watching Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage while I was fixing dinner. At one point I asked him to repeat a scene: “Did I just see Geddy Lee reading Faulkner?” Yes. Yes I did. Update: A few blogs I found that feature books on the screen Cinematic Literature People reading in […]