Iconic authors
Themes
Bibliography of the day
Misanthrope or Patriot, How Readers Separated Gulliver from the Drapier
Swift was first hailed as the Drapier who forced the withdrawal of a coinage imposed on Ireland. Then critics called him a misanthrope, a madman, an Englishman, and schools made Gulliver a fairy tale. His rage was never invented. It was stripped of its address.
Goblins in the Nursery, Where a Child's Fear of the Dark Comes From
Did nurses' goblin stories put the fear of the dark into children, or did children bring it with them? From Locke to Chesterton, the quarrel over the nursery tale ended not with a winner but with a new line: fear used as a threat against fear handed over as a game.
