Literature

The Return of Storytelling in a Digital Age

Podcast stories, like reading, have the advantage of engaging the audience’s imagination. And lest the technophobes among us decry the dominance of gadgets, rather than the gadgetry taking us into a brave new world, the technology is actually allowing us to participate in a much older form of literature:...

Oscar Wilde: “Gay” Icon or “Homophobe”?

It is time to whisper the truth that dare not speak its name. In short, it’s time to face the real facts about Oscar Wilde and his real views on homosexuality... It was with a queer...

“Come, Spirit, let us love Together”

We were born a light within pain Reckoned in spasms of a tender night A knowledge Child from infinite origin Born bearing what came before Us - So birth found Us quiet, like peace; And twenty alive, like blood. To the bright sun I leapt a...

To Tell a Tale With Washington Irving

Storytelling shaped Washington Irving and his life as much as he shaped it. Irving describes how from boyhood he rambled about the countryside and “made myself familiar with all its places famous in history or fable. I knew...

“The Unfortunate Fate of Septimus Wise”: A Ghost Story

The young man intended to purchase my death and, presumably and in some manner carry it away so that I never would meet with it. Immortality, wealth, my beloved Jessica all rotated in kaleidoscopic vision before my eyes...

“In a Disused Graveyard”

The living come with grassy tread To read the gravestones on the hill; The graveyard draws the living still, But never anymore the dead. The verses in it say and say: "The ones who living come today To read the stones...

What Donald Trump Has in Common With Huckleberry Finn

Have you ever wondered what a mostly adult Huckleberry Finn might have been like? Or who might pass for a modern day Huck Finn? Or what Huck might have done had he been born into money—or made...

Do You Know What an Odyssey Is?

My title is a question: "Do you know what an odyssey is?" I am asking each of you to ask yourself: "Do I know what an odyssey is?" In learning as in traveling and, of course,...

“The Wedding Knell”

The whole scene expressed the vain struggle of the gilded vanities of this world, when opposed to age, infirmity, sorrow, and death... There is a certain church in the city of New York which I have always...

G.K. Chesterton’s “A Ballade of Suicide”

Today’s offering in our Timeless Essay series affords readers the opportunity to join Titus Techera as he reflects on the meaning of G.K. Chesterton's "A Ballade of Suicide." —W. Winston Elliott III, Publisher

“The Morning Sun”

Endeavour to be like the Morning Sun Now sailing upon the circadian tide Who grants warmth to the world when it’s earned none, Without a sound and without hint of pride, Who lights the land as unversed lovers love, Demanding nothing, save to give yet...

“Lines on Ale”

Fill with mingled cream and amber, I will drain that glass again. Such hilarious visions clamber Through the chamber of my brain — Quaintest thoughts — queerest fancies Come to life and fade away; What care I how time advances? I am drinking ale today.

The Best of Contemporary Christian Fiction

In my last essay for The Imaginative Conservative, I offered a panoramic survey of the best of contemporary Christian literature, both poetry and prose. As a follow-up, I’d like to recommend twelve works of contemporary Christian...

Three Dangerous Philosophical Novels

In a culture in which algorithms control the content we consume—what movies to watch, what goods to buy, what news to listen to—the choice to read a book whose philosophy opposes our own and questions our sacred assumptions is nothing short of revolutionary...