Reading fiction in these pandemic times is a reminder that the world’s strangeness and chaos rumbles on always. Over the past few weeks, Washington Irving’s works constantly come to mind, especially The Sketch-Book. The Sketch-Book, first published in installments between 1819-1820, is a collection of short-stories that exhibits a “rambling...

Herman Melville's great novel Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, contains a dedication to another well-known and admired American author. On the dedication page, in a conventional statement of appreciation, Melville writes, “In token of my admiration for his genius, this book is inscribed to Nathaniel Hawthorne.” Moby-Dick is not the...

“If there was any single belief that characterized the Victorian era, it was Christian belief. Religion pervaded social and political life to an extent almost unimaginable today. Yet this was also an age of major scientific progress and discovery. Ranging from Darwin’s Origin of Species to Strauss’ Life of Jesus...

Saint Valentine’s Day. A celebration of the kind of romance that not only sweeps us off our feet in the beginning, but endures and keeps us warm like a strong flame. There are plenty of literary couples who help us fantasize about this kind of lasting love—couples like Elizabeth Barrett...

Summertime. Road-trips. The two things fit together for a reason, reaching back as far as August of 1888, when the first motorcar was taken on the first long-range drive. As warm weather and wanderlust set in, it seems timely to consider: what are the origins of the summer road trip