Tag Archives: Literature

Capt. Aubrey’s dad’s house

Posted on December 4, 2020 by David Brussat

Here is a May 2016 post, quoting from the late Patrick O’Brian’s The Surgeon’s Mate, written in 1979. His novels are – and I truly hate to say this, as it verges on sacrilege – as good as those of … Continue reading →

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Humanities in Providence

Posted on October 3, 2018 by David Brussat

Two of my favorite buildings will host humanities events on Thursday and Friday of this week. If you are attending the silent auction sponsored by the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities tomorrow, you will see the Masonic Temple, now … Continue reading →

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Nice and soulful architecture

Posted on July 15, 2016 by David Brussat

It is hard to think with violence raining down, near and far. I am far from it in Providence, at least for now. My heart goes out to Nice. In a strange way its beauty struck me as I read … Continue reading →

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Renovating Castle Lyndon

Posted on February 23, 2016 by David Brussat

Here is a set of passages from William Makepeace Thackeray’s Barry Lyndon, which I am reading for the first time after seeing the movie, directed by Stanley Kubrick in a sort of cinematic slo-mo. The novel is an extended exercise … Continue reading →

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Lovecraft at the Facade

Posted on August 20, 2015 by David Brussat

Fans of H.P. Lovecraft’s tales of horror, most of which are set in Providence and elsewhere in New England, will want to be downtown at “The Facade” tonight at 7 for an event hosted by NecronomiCon Providence – the conference … Continue reading →

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Des “passages” de Paris

Posted on July 23, 2015 by David Brussat

In the late 1800s, long after Baron Haussmann supposedly transformed the Paris of rabbit warrens into a Paris of bowling alleys for cannoneers, the protagonist (if you can call him that) of Umberto Eco’s novel The Prague Cemetery (2010) – … Continue reading →

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‘The Hidden Light of Objects’

Posted on February 14, 2015 by David Brussat

The fragility of culture, even of culture wrought in the hardness of masonry, is one of the themes of the ten short stories in Mai Al-Nakib’s first book, The Hidden Light of Objects. The second story, “Echo Twins,” is set … Continue reading →

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Among the Tudors

Posted on March 29, 2014 by David Brussat

My oldest and dearest friend from growing up in D.C. recently urged me most vociferously to read Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, published in 2009. It is the story of the years leading up to Henry VIII’s battle with Rome over … Continue reading →

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Save NYC’s Rizzoli bookstore

Posted on January 21, 2014 by David Brussat

I don’t see many petitions I’m inclined to sign but I signed one just a few moments ago. It was a petition to save the building that houses the publisher Rizzoli’s flagship store in a glorious old building on West … Continue reading →

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