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More Barzun on Espionage
Though Jacques Barzun in "Meditations on the Literature of Spying" (1965) reveals that he is no fan of recent developments in the espionage genre, he makes a number of observations that I, as an…
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An Extra Seat at the Table [by Jake Adam York]
A guest in another’s house, I am admiring, marveling at his taste, her taste, or I am simply curious, noticing a peculiarity of the house or the housekeeping, discovering some device I wonder how…
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A Riddle from “The Earliest English Poems”
Many were met, men of discretion,wisdom and wit, when in there walked. . . Two ears it had, and one eye solo,two feet and twelve hundred heads,back, belly, a brace of handsa pair of…
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“… he likes having thought of it so well / he says again…” some things about poetry and ontology but mostly about poetry [by Jake Adam York]
In yesterday’s elliptical post, I was thinking persistently about how reading an anthology, like any one of the Best American Poetry volumes, introduces various crises of knowledge and confidence—how an anthology forces me to…
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Barzun on Maugham: I can’t resist
Though I love Somerset Maugham's fiction and think him lamentably underrated for reasons it would, on another occasion, be interesting to explore, I can't resist this little riff from Jacques Barzun's "Meditations on the…
