Noctambulate

Balzac's "About Catherine De Medici" (first titled "Catherine De Medici Explained") -- a passionately-argued defense...

The orphan boy "Wart," who will become King Arthur grows up in the shadow of Sir Ector's legitimate son and heir, the easily-b...

Phineas is damaged politically by the scandal-mongering of the journalist Slide and by his own thin-skinned quarreling with the junior leade...

The idle suitor Gerald Maule's father is introduced -- a man equally lazy and, what's more, has an ideology of laziness. An aesthete...

"Phineas Redux" begins with its hero called back from his Irish retreat by the Liberal Party and seemlessly renewing the relations...

Daudet develops his portrait of Parisian society as sapped of vigor, both physical and financial. For physical vigor, the elite rely on the ...

Alphonse Daudet, The Nabob : Reading Notes, Part I Daudet's "The Nabob" opens with scenes of the society physician Dr. Jenkins...

Walter Scott, The Black Dwarf : Reading Notes, Part II Elshie's misanthropy challenged when a brigand informs him that he intends to rai...

Walter Scott, The Black Dwarf : Reading Notes, Part I The titular character of Scott's "The Black Dwarf" a misanthropic indivi...

From Craig Childs, House of Rain: Tracking a Vanished Civilization across the American Southwest 1. "When archaeological crews began di...

James Purdy, In a Shallow Grave : Reading Notes, Second Part Garnet's ideal applicant, Daventry, appears suddenly -- "I thought he ...

James Purdy, In a Shallow Grave : Reading Notes, First Part Purdy's "In a Shallow Grave": a half-dead and physically shattered...

Herman Melville, The Confidence Man : Reading Notes, Part the Third The confidence man continues his tour of the steamship. He taunts a mise...

Herman Melville, The Confidence Man : Reading Notes, Part the Second The confidence man advises an effete young scholar to abandon reading t...

Herman Melville, The Confidence Man : Reading Notes, Part the First As pasengers embark on the steamship Fidele at the wharf in St Louis, a ...

Emile Zola, The Belly of Paris : Reading Notes, part 3 Observing how the church of Saint Eustache can be seemed framed through the massive a...

Emile Zola, The Belly of Paris : Reading Notes, Part 2 At the fishmarket, Florent befriends Muche, the wild son of The Beautiful Norman. “Th...

Emile Zola, The Belly of Paris : Reading Notes, Part 1 Zola’s “The Belly of Paris” shows consumerism’s –- and specifically food’s -– power a...

John Crowley, Endless Things (Book Four of the AEgypt Cycle): Reading Notes, Part V Last section of "Endless Things" centered on ...

John Crowley, Endless Things (Book Four of The AEgypt Cycle): Reading Notes, Part IV A wind rises -- a counter-wind to John Dee's -- th...

John Crowley,  Endless Things  (Book Four of The AEgypt Cycle): Reading Notes, Part III Forces gather in heaven and earth for the (or rather...