The bulk of this Gimbling in the Wabe came from one I had posted three years ago; it’s also, I think, my favorite “winter” installment of this feature. So, since I’m running short of time and inspiration this week, I thought I would run it again, albeit with a bit […]
This is a reworking of a Gimbling in the Wabe I wrote in back in 2013, but it felt especially relevant today as the temperature here took a nose dive. The Mighty Belle and I still made it out to the Lake of the Isles, though! I hope you’ll allow […]
Ship Fever: Stories, by Andrea Barrett It’s been called the Oscars of the book world, and indeed, in recent years the National Book Awards have become a glittery, red carpet affair, with a press box, photographers, and a ballroom full of candlelit tables and white coated waiters at Cipriani’s. And […]
On this day, December 3, in 1857, Joseph Conrad was born in Berdichev, Imperial Russia (modern
Ukraine, then a part of Poland). While he settled in England and wrote in English, he always considered himself a Pole. Heart of Darkness, one of the most famous of his 20 novels (which explores colonialism and the attitudes regarding what constitutes a barbarian versus civilized society) is considered one of the best English novels of the 20th century, as is his novel Lord Jim, which chronicles a crew’s abandonment of its disabled ship. Conrad died in England in 1924 at age 66.