I came to Cakes and Ale not with a sense of moral urgency, but with a cup of tea and a faint suspicion that I was about to be gently mocked. That suspicion, as it turns out, is the correct posture in which to approach W. Somerset Maugham. One doesn’t read Maugham expecting thunderbolts from … Continue reading Cakes and Ale, or the Saints and the Sinners
Category: Literature
A Very English Form of Possession – de la Mare’s, Seaton’s Aunt
I’ve always thought that the most frightening people don’t slam doors, rattle chains, or float about moaning like an amateur operatic chorus. They make the tea properly. They keep the house tidy. They speak softly. And they watch you. That’s why Seaton’s Aunt by Walter de la Mare unsettles me far more than any amount … Continue reading A Very English Form of Possession – de la Mare’s, Seaton’s Aunt
Not Bad: A Epitaph for Daisy Miller
In the end, they decided she was innocent — and that was all she was ever allowed to be. I’ve always felt that Daisy Miller is less a story about impropriety than about cowardice. Not Daisy’s — heaven forbid — but ours. Ours as readers, as observers, as members of those polite little tribunals that … Continue reading Not Bad: A Epitaph for Daisy Miller
The Smiling Corroder
Illustration inspired by Goethe’s Faust I’ve always preferred my devils civilised. Not the horned livestock of Sunday-school murals, nor the pantomime villain with a pitchfork and a contract written in sulphur. Those devils are easy to spot, which is why they’re mostly harmless. The devil that troubles me — the one who lingers — is … Continue reading The Smiling Corroder
The Lottery: A Sermon in Sunlight
This isn’t a story that creeps like fog, but a story that strikes like a thrown stone. Though Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery manages both. It begins with a sky of perfect summer blue, as though God Himself had painted it fresh for a village fête, and ends with Tessie Hutchinson screaming under a rain of … Continue reading The Lottery: A Sermon in Sunlight
Wording 