Reviews and News:
Truth and fiction in Jane Austen: “Did she write veiled historical novels, anchored to specific people, places and events, if on a smaller scale than Scott’s? Some readers say yes, choosing to advance the theory that Austen produced quasi-romans-à-clef of English social history. These readers often search for the keys to unlock the true meanings of her fiction. Unsurprisingly, they frequently claim to find them.”
* *
The piety and wit of Monsignor Ronald Knox: “During the second world war, while one brother was editing Punch as a national institution (‘Working with him was a little like helping to edit the Journal of Hellenic Studies,‘ said a colleague), and another brother, given to asking questions like ‘Which way does a clock go round?’, was breaking codes at Bletchley (as an interlude to piecing together fragments of the Greek low-life mime writer Herodas), Ronald Knox was translating the Bible.”
* *
Is an altar cloth in a small parish church made from one of Elizabeth I’s dresses?
* *
The National Library of Israel has acquired a vast private library of rare Jewish books: “Compiled by collector Jack V. Lunzer over more than six decades, and stored at his home in London, it became known as the Valmadonna Trust Library, a reference to the Italian town that Mr. Lunzer’s family has long been associated with. The collection comprises more than 10,000 items that ‘chart the spread of Hebrew printing and the global dissemination of Jewish culture,’ the National Library of Israel said in a statement. These items include an incunabula of the Pentateuch, printed in Lisbon in 1491, and one of only two surviving copies of a Passover Haggadah printed in Prague in 1556.”
* *
Alan Jacobs responds to an article on patronage and academic publishing: here and here.
* *
Are modern friendships “mostly about taste”?
* *
Essay of the Day:
Is a preoccupation with equality the most dangerous threat to democracy? Alexis de Tocqueville thought so. Samuel Gregg in Public Discourse:
“Over the past year, lots of people, I suspect, have been reading Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America (1835/1840) as they ask themselves how the United States could have found itself having to choose in 2016 between two of the most unpopular candidates ever to face off for the office of president.
“Historical factors contributed to America reaching this political point. These range from profound inner divisions characterizing American conservatism to deep frustration with the political class, as well as preexisting philosophical, cultural, and economic problems that have become more acute.
“Tocqueville, however, recognized that such problems are often symptoms of subterranean currents that, once in place, are hard to reverse. A champion of liberty, Tocqueville was no determinist. He nevertheless understood that once particular habits become widespread in elite and popular culture, the consequences are difficult to avoid. In the case of democracy—perhaps especially American democracy—Tocqueville wondered whether its emphasis on equality might not eventually make the whole thing come undone.”
* *
Image of the Day: Lavaux
* *
Poem: Sappho 31, translated by Chris Childers
Get Prufrock in your inbox every weekday morning. Subscribe here.
