Christmas by Dickensian Decree

by Algis Valiunas

“Keeping Christmas well” entails rather more than Dickensian high spirits and well wishing to all comers. Continue Reading »

29 Dec 2021

The History of Christmas Ghost Stories

by Francis Young

To tell dark stories at Christmas is to acknowledge the reality of the encompassing darkness into which the light of Christ is born. Continue Reading »

27 Dec 2021

The Heart of the Christmas Story

by John Wilson

If among those on your Christmas gift list there are some who love reading “mysteries,” consider When Christmas Comes. Continue Reading »

5 Nov 2021

What We’ve Been Reading—November 2021

by Editors

Our editors reflect on Czesław Miłosz, crime fiction, Roger Scruton, and the divine right of kings. Continue Reading »

2 Nov 2021

We Are All Double Agents

by John Wilson

In a very real sense, we are all double or triple agents—such are the consequences of the Fall—and it is this condition that gives the best “spy fiction” such resonance. Continue Reading »

8 Oct 2021

Books From a Parallel Time Stream

by John Wilson

It was almost as if the McHenry books existed in a parallel time stream and had somehow leaked into our own. Continue Reading »

2 Jul 2021

Nordic Penelope

by Randy Boyagoda

Oh, to be married in the Middle Ages! Your parents would select your spouse. Relatives and the local lord would consider and approve the choice; the clergy would do likewise and bless the bond before God and family, parish and town. You’d know what to expect about the rest of your life because . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Apr 2021

Papa Don’t Preach

by Randy Boyagoda

For about three years, I read fiction on my phone. I’d never done so before, and I haven’t since. I had to, during this period, because my wife and I were working our way through “The Neapolitan Quartet,” a series of novels by the Italian writer Elena Ferrante. The books were so readable . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Jan 2021

The First Commandment of Fiction

by Joshua Hren

In his short story “The Trouble,” the American Catholic writer J. F. Powers refuses to stay in his lane. Continue Reading »

13 Mar 2020

Flannery O’Connor and Friends, Revisited

by George Weigel

Good Things Out of Nazareth, a collection of previously unpublished letters, is a powerful reminder of the intensity of Flannery O’Connor’s Catholic faith. Continue Reading »

12 Feb 2020