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Month: December 2024

Woman of Stone

M.R. James, Mark Gatiss, and the Evolution of the BBC’s Ghost Stories for Christmas Woman of Stone ‘The ghost is innately conservative,’ Professor Clive Bloom once wrote, in an uncompromising essay on M.R. James. A bold claim in gothic theory, it makes perfect sense when you think about it. ‘Ghosts tell us of stability and… Read More

‘The great floodgates of the wonder-world swung open’

Sally Minogue examines the ‘wonder-world’ of Herman Melville’s great novel Moby Dick. ‘Call me Ishmael’: is there a more famous opening sentence in fiction? People who have never read Moby Dick, people who have never read the Bible, and don’t know who Ishmael is in either text, may still recognize and even in some way… Read More