The infamous Dorian Gray was more innocent than I expected. Though he had the temptations of his own temperament, it took Walter Pater’s mimic in Lord Henry Wotton to seduce him to the “new Hedonism.” The opening scenes of The Picture of Dorian Gray seem nearly idyllic, pastoral, dare I say Edenic with the lush … More We are All Dorian Gray
Rev. Stephen Harding, the warden of Hiram’s Hospital, is a gentle and humble man. He wants nothing more than to continue as precentor of the local cathedral in Barchester, leading the liturgy and filling the church with his voice, within his comfortable position as a beneficed clergyman at the hospital. There he has a comfortable … More Trollope’s Warden and the Problem of Medievalism
Last week, we looked at some summer reading for the Victorianist in all of us. I’m spending this summer preparing for exams with reading lists and will be sharing them over the next few weeks. Today I thought we would look a little more closely at two of the poets that I included on the … More Summer Reading: Hopkins and Hardy
Looking for some books to read over the summer? I know it can be a time for lighter reading–I’ve been reading Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn as a break for the last few days–but summer can also be this magical time when we discover what Mark Edmundson calls “alienated majesty” when we find our “own suppressed and rejected … More Summer Reading
The Golden Echo 