Medlemordinaryslob

Classics, poetry, historical novels, popular histories, and straight history; with forays into adventure stories and murder mysteries. That's a reference to classic English country-house murder mysteries, not the modern schtick.

At the moment I am obsessed with Shakespeare. It is nice all these years later to read the plays on my own terms, free of the constraints of the classroom.

I prefer vintage literary criticism to the modern kinds because many of the the older literary commentators wrote in a plain, old-fashioned, useful style that wasn't littered with jargon. I like reading collections of letters from other centuries--a strange form of time travel.