Journal
The world behind the books.
Short reads on the classics: what the money meant, who's who, what the first readers caught, and the stories behind the books. All spoiler-free, all drawn from our editions.
Who's who in Dracula, without spoilers
The solicitor, the Count, the three suitors, the doctor from Amsterdam and the old man on the Whitby cliff.
One wet summer, two monsters: the 1816 ghost-story dare
A villa by Lake Geneva, a summer that never came, and the dare that gave us Frankenstein and the gentleman vampire.
The King in Yellow: the play no one should read
Carcosa, Cassilda, the Pallid Mask and the Yellow Sign: everything Chambers lets slip, and what he never says.
Why Frankenstein's creature reads Paradise Lost
Three books found in a forest, and the poem that hangs over the whole novel.
How to read Dangerous Liaisons: five habits for a novel in letters
Check the heading, ask what each writer is hiding, watch the dates. The book people give up on becomes the one they can't put down.
Ten thousand a year: what the money in Pride and Prejudice really means
Darcy, Bingley, Mr. Bennet and five sisters with about forty pounds a year each: the arithmetic behind the comedy.