213. (Marcel Proust)

Aristotle, whose “hexis” is not passive habit, but whose thought of human happiness and nature turns on habituation, tells us … More

208. (Marcel Proust)

To illuminate Proust, consider Zola, who aspires, like Proust to a mythic scale, and whose novel Germinal is an epic … More

Coming to grips with Dostoevsky at all means coming to grips with the other half of the burden of art, … More

At least in her four masterpieces–My Antonia, The Professor’s House, Death Comes for the Archbishop, and Shadows on the Rock–Willa Cather is … More

The other day, I wrote a post on Henry James that now seems extraordinarily muddled. I didn’t recognize the puzzle … More

When T.S. Eliot characterized that peculiar mental life we and he call wit, he had in mind a metaphysical poet … More

“So listen I got this neat idea hey, you listening? Hey? You listening . . .?” Thus ends J R. The … More

No other writer has made me think about the short story and short fiction as William Gaddis has; that is … More

Though The Recognitions may have overwhelmed more powerfully, submerging and clinging with an undercurrent, JR (so far; nearing a half-way … More

Charles Dickens appears as a character in Gaddis’ The Recognitions, published in 1955, and it is hard not to believe that … More