Category Archives: History

People have always been just as crazy as they are now.

In Which I am Unconvinced by The Daughter of Time

Posted on April 24, 2011 by Wesley

In January1, I picked up Josephine Tey’s The Daughter of Time. I was in the mood for a mystery, and this is reputedly a great one. It’s a witty, compulsively readable, entertaining book, and it managed to convince me that … Continue reading →

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Links to Things

Posted on September 27, 2010 by Wesley

I thought it might be time to do another links post. So: Lance Mannion argues that one thing all great novels have in common—even such mournful volumes as Madame Bovary and Lord Jim—is a sense of humor: If a part … Continue reading →

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Alternate Histories

Posted on May 9, 2010 by Wesley

I haven’t written much lately. I’ve felt used up and exhausted and, honestly, I feel like I haven’t been thinking much lately. Writing is thought set down and recorded, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that I haven’t come … Continue reading →

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Links to Things

Posted on March 10, 2010 by Wesley

The amazing comics site What Things Do—which features complete stories by Sammy Harkham and John Porcellino, among others—is serializing What Am I Doing Here by Abner Dean. I was introduced to Dean’s long-out-of-print work by an article in Comic Art … Continue reading →

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Links to Things

Posted on January 26, 2010 by Wesley

Here’s another list of interesting links I’ve collected recently: Jo Walton, at Tor.com, on science fiction reading protocols: We talk about worldbuilding as something the writer does, but it’s also something the reader does, building the world from the clues. … Continue reading →

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Patrick Leigh Fernor, A Time to Keep Silence

Posted on November 22, 2009 by Wesley

A Time to Keep Silence is Patrick Leigh Fernor’s account of his experiences as a guest in two French monasteries during the 1950s, and his visit to a long-abandoned monastery carved out of the rocks in Cappadocia, Turkey. It’s a … Continue reading →

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The Crusades Drag On

Posted on October 31, 2009 by Wesley

When I open a book called The Fourth Crusade I sort of expect to read about the Fourth Crusade, so the preface to Jonathan Phillips’s The Fourth Crusade came as a speed bump. It’s a two-page argument that the “holy … Continue reading →

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Creepy

Posted on April 3, 2009 by Wesley

Skimming through a random selection on Project Gutenberg–the July 2, 1853 issue of Notes and Queries–I came across this weird little incident: Curious Posthumous Occurrence.—If the following be true, though in ever so limited a manner, it deserves investigation. Notwithstanding … Continue reading →

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The Secret History

Posted on March 30, 2009 by Wesley

Procopius was a respected historian back in his day. Upright. Sober. The go-to guy if you wanted to know what was up with Emperor Justinian. So everybody was kind of surprised when, a few centuries later, somebody dug up The … Continue reading →

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The Littlest Presidential Biography

Posted on March 28, 2009 by Wesley

Project Gutenberg has an RSS feed of new and updated titles. I check it sometimes; you never know what’s going to turn up. The best title I’ve seen recently is Lives of the Presidents Told in Words of One Syllable, … Continue reading →

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