The New Criterion
(Mobile Version)

October 2008 Volume 27, Number 2  

Notes & Comments

The Rosenbergs: case closed
On the couple executed for treason in 1953.

An inspired choice at the Met
On the newly announced successor to Philippe de Montebello.


Features

Prague: spring in winter
by John O'Sullivan
On the fortieth anniversary of the Prague Spring.

Hazlitt's philocaption: a very child in love
by John Derbyshire
On the writer's "inordinate love for another."

Churchill's friends & rivals
by Robert Messenger
On the great prime minister's relationships with David Lloyd George and with Gandhi.

Auden's cheery bishop
by Jeremy Bernstein
On Ernest William Barnes, the Anglican Bishop of Birmingham.


Poems

First instinct
by David Sergeant

Taking the bull by the horns
by Dick Allen

Landscape with colossal kouros
by Betsy Bonner


Letter from Europe

Continental divide
by Paul Hollander
On the view of America from Europe.


Theater

Joys of summer
by Brooke Allen
On Hair at the Delacorte Theater, Noël Coward in Two Keys at the Berkshire Theater Festival, and Buffalo Gal at Primary Stages.


Art

Morandi at the Met
by Karen Wilkin
On "Giorgio Morandi, 1890–1964” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Exhibition note
by Christie Davies
On "Wyndham Lewis Portraits" at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Gallery chronicle
by James Panero
On "The Etchings of Giorgio Morandi" at Pace Master Prints, & "Giorgio Morandi: Paintings and Works on Paper" at Lucas Schoormans Gallery.


Music

Salzburg chronicle
by Jay Nordlinger
On the 2008 Salzburg Festival.


The Media

The choice of Sarah Palin
by James Bowman
On the Republican vice-presidential candidate and the feminists.


Books

French & Indian peace
by Walter McDougall
On Champlain's Dream: The European Founding of North America, by David Hackett Fischer.

The art of reality
by Paul Dean
On How Fiction Works, by James Wood.

As deep as England
by Richard Tillinghast
On Letters of Ted Hughes, edited by Christopher Reid.

Sacred monsters
by Andrew Stuttaford
On Blood & Rage: A Cultural History of Terrorism, by Michael Burleigh.

Dispiriting
by Joseph Bottum
On Nobility of Spirit: A Forgotten Ideal, by Rob Riemen.

Whitman's spell
by Thomas M. Disch
On Worshipping Walt: The Whitman Disciples, by Michael Robertson.

iPods & nimrods
by Liam Julian
On The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Don't Trust Anyone Under 30), by Mark Bauerlein.

The family Lincoln
by Alexander Nazaryan
On The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage, by Daniel Mark Epstein.


Notebook

I.M. Shusha Guppy, 1935-2008
by Ben Downing
Remembering the Persian expatriate and London editor of the Paris Review.