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Category Archives: Fiction
Detectives and Philosophers
I picked up a new set of the Bantam two volume edition of Sherlock Holmes to replace the tattered copies acquired during my college days. I started with “A Study in Scarlet” a novella length story, published in the 1887 … Continue reading
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Philosophy
Tales From the Golden Age
Recently I’ve taken time out with books from the “Golden Age” of science fiction. The first two entries are from the Winston series of the 1950s-60s, aimed at younger readers. The stories are definitely more facile, but action packed—the sort … Continue reading
Posted in Fiction
Lord Greystoke of the Jungle
Edgar Rice Burrough’s Tarzan of the Apes (1912) is certainly one of the best page-turners I’ve encountered in awhile. Like many people I knew, or thought I knew, the Tarzan story through the old Johnny Weissmuller films that I grew … Continue reading
Posted in Fiction
Truth is Stranger than Science Fiction
Fiction may seem outlandish to us when it imagines exotic realms or daring adventures, yet few things in the universe are as mysterious as the human soul. We all enjoy works of pure escapism. That said, the most enduring stories … Continue reading
Posted in Art and Culture, Fiction
The Time Traveller’s Prophecy
H. G. Wells’ novel The Time Machine, published in 1895, is more than a piece of highly entertaining fiction. It is also an interesting and important contribution to the canon of dystopian literature. Even before Wells, there was a tendency … Continue reading
Posted in Fiction, H. G. Wells, Literature
Of Martians and Men
Over the years I have a commented on many of H. G. Wells’ tales. In this post I want to profile his greatest work, The War of the Worlds (1898). I first encountered the novel around the age of twelve … Continue reading
Posted in Fiction, H. G. Wells, Literature
The Fantastic Voyages of Jules Verne
Jules Verne’s Around the Moon (1870) is the sequel to his famous tale From the Earth to the Moon (1865), though of the two I think the later book must be the more interesting because the first story deals only … Continue reading
Posted in Fiction
Orwellian Paradoxes
Stephen Jay Greenblatt’s Three Modern Satirists (1965) is an obscure but insightful volume that I found while browsing the increasingly depleted shelves of the public library. It examines the careers of English authors Evelyn Waugh, George Orwell and Aldous Huxley. … Continue reading
Posted in Fiction, George Orwell, Literature, Politics
Dr. Jekyll’s Temptation
During this Halloween season I took up Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The book is full of the “atmospherics” that I enjoy in older British fiction. Take for example this scene between the taciturn lawyer Mr. Utterson (friend … Continue reading
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Religion
The Infinite Worlds of Lester del Rey
One of the Golden Age science fiction novels that I fondly remember reading as a child was Step to the Stars (1954) by Lester del Rey (1915-1993). I have recently rediscovered this and other classic novels at the Richmond city … Continue reading
Posted in Fiction, Literature
