It’s almost impossible to put down the Aeneid once you’ve picked it up. Whether you’re starting the epic all over … More
Author: Brett
The Marvel and Mystery of Hadrian’s Wall: a review of Adrian Goldsworthy’s new book
Ancient historian Adrian Goldsworthy is the author of many memorable books, including Pax Romana and How Rome Fell. In a … More
Review of King of Spies: The Dark Reign of America’s Spymaster in Korea
Review of Catullus’ Bedspread: The Life of Rome’s Most Erotic Poet
By the end of the 1st century BC, the civil strife that had characterized the Roman world in previous decades … More
Review of Hannibal by Patrick Hunt
Even those who aren’t particularly familiar with ancient history know of Hannibal. It was Hannibal who crossed the Alps — … More
Holbein: Eye of the Tudors documentary
The imposing figure — wide-framed, feet spread, powerful authority beaming from the eyes — of Henry VIII that many of … More
Review of A World Ablaze: The Rise of Martin Luther and the Birth of the Reformation
Review of Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities
Review of Collecting the World: Hans Sloane and the Origins of the British Museum
Review of The Classical Debt: Greek Antiquity in an Era of Austerity
Review of Civil Wars: A History In Ideas
Review of Istanbul: City of Majesty at the Crossroads of the World
Review of Variety: The Life of a Roman Concept
James Angelos’ The Full Catastrophe
This lively and revealing book counts as my first foray into the world of the Greek debt crisis. I vaguely … More
Review of Pax Romana: War, Peace and Conquest in the Roman World
The great poet Virgil wrote his epic Aeneid in the Age of Augustus. Centered on the founding of Rome via … More
Some passages from Lucan’s Civil War
After reading David Armitage’s Civil Wars: A History in Ideas, I read Lucan’s Bellum Civile. Armitage gives it close attention … More
Review of The Gustav Sonata
Thoughts on Looking for The Stranger: Albert Camus and the Life of a Literary Classic
In a post a couple of months ago, I wrote about the wild and often elusive journey that a piece … More
Review of Paul Auster’s 4 3 2 1
It’s the allure of wondering how one’s life might have turned out, might have transpired, had things been just a … More
C.S. Lewis’s lost Aeneid: Arms and the Exile
As A.T. Reyes relates the story in his introduction to C.S. Lewis’s Lost Aeneid: Arms and the Exile, Lewis’s unfinished … More
Review of Ancient Greece: Everyday Life
It’s never an easy task, I imagine, writing a book that surveys a broad period and a multitude of topics. … More
Review of The Man Who Invented Fiction: How Cervantes Ushered in the Modern World
Don Quixote is a novel which will never cease to be discussed, written about, or presented through art. Its protagonist … More
Review of Marathon: How One Battle Changed Western Civilization
The Battle of Marathon, fought in 490 BC, has just about everything you could want: an underdog against a powerful, … More
Time
If there’s one nagging worry that permeates our lives more than any other I’d bet it’s the passage of time. … More
Yates’ The Art of Memory
After years of wanting to read Yates’ The Art of Memory but never getting down to it, I finally did … More
Art and Its Journey
It’s hardly a revelation or insight to point out that a text (or any piece of art) doesn’t always have … More
Review of The Sea of Trees
The tangled, gloomy forest of Aokigahara, which sits near the base of Mt. Fuji, serves as the main setting for … More
Review of Where Shall Wisdom Be Found?
I don’t remember the precise circumstances of first encountering Harold Bloom, but I can recall with much fondness my positive … More
Review of Elena
Elena begins with a shot of a lone sparrow, soon joined by another, perched on a tree branch outside an … More
The Good, the Bad, and the Horrific in Eliduc
The first time I read Marie de France’s lais I had no idea how I was supposed to respond. Was … More
Random musings on different kinds of loss
Long before he wrote Part V of his Ethics, in which he culminates his geometrical treatise by discussing human freedom, … More
Present Ills and Past Pleasures
Forsan et haec olim meminisse juvabit. This beautiful Latin line was written by Virgil, put into the mouth of Aeneas … More
Review of Zero K
A few years ago I went through a relatively brief, but intense, phase of reading Don DeLillo’s novels. I think … More
Encountering Poetry through Gerard Manley Hopkins
There’s an intimidation factor to poetry that I think we all feel – or at least have felt – at … More
Review of SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome
As Mary Beard points out in her prologue to SPRQ: A History of Ancient Rome, there are so many vestiges … More
Review of Knight of Cups
It should be said upfront that if any of Terrence Malick’s films have turned you off— especially due to those … More
Review of Dante in Love
To approach any classical work — and Dante’s Commedia is no doubt one of the classical works of all Western … More
Spectatio 