Tag Archives: Doctor Faustus

A GOP Senator as Doctor Faustus

By Robin Bates | Published: September 17, 2023

Mitt Romney has accused Sen. J.D. Vance for selling himself “so cheap.” Think of the “Hillbilly Elegy” author as Faustus.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Christopher Marlowe, J.D. Vance, Mitt Romney, selling souls, U.S. Senate | Comments closed

Selling Dead Souls in an American Prison

By Robin Bates | Published: May 16, 2023

While lit mostly helped Daniel Genis handle a 10-year prison term, novels by Gogol and Thomas Mann got him into special trouble.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Daniel Genis, Dead Souls, Nikolai Gogol, prison reading, soul selling, Thomas Mann | Comments closed

Hawthorne Explains the Eternal Sin

By Robin Bates | Published: June 5, 2021

Hawthorne explores what Jesus means by the “eternal sin” in a number of stories, including “Scarlet Letter.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Altar", Christopher Marlowe, eternal sin, Ethan Brand, George Herbert, Man of Adamant, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Scarlet Letter, Sin | Comments closed

Who Gets to Be Called “Dr.”?

By Robin Bates | Published: December 17, 2020

Alexandra Petri satirizes a dismissal of Jill Biden’s doctorate by imagining herself as Dr. Victor Frankenstein.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Christopher Marlowe, colleges and universities, doctorate programs, Frankenstein, Jill Biden, Joseph Epstein, Mary Shelley, misogyny, Sexism | Comments closed

Does Lit Lead to Illicit Sex?

By Robin Bates | Published: August 25, 2020

Dante’s beautifully tragic account of Paolo and Francesca captures–as many great works do–the dangers of total absorption in a relationship.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Adultery, Charlotte Bronte, Christopher Marlowe, Dante, Goethe, Inferno, Jane Eyre, Paolo and Francesca, passionate love, Romeo and Juliet, Samuel Johnson, Sorrows of Young Werther, Stephenie Meyer, Twilight, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Better Living through Virgil

By Robin Bates | Published: August 11, 2020

When lost in deep depression, Dante turns to his favorite author, Virgil, to help him out.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Aeneid, Christopher Marlowe, Dante, Divine Comedy, Virgil | Comments closed

Go High When Trump Goes Low?

By Robin Bates | Published: August 19, 2019

Tuesday Given that a recession would doom Donald Trump’s already shaky reelection chances, how will he behave if the economy suddenly tanks? On Nicole Wallace’s NBC program last week, the Rev. Al Sharpton said that Democrats must be prepared to deal with a man who has no boundaries and will do anything to win. Of […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Al Gore, Barack Obama, Christopher Marlowe, Donald Trump, electoral politics, Go Set a Watchman, GOP, Harper Lee, King Lear, Othello, To Kill a Mockingbird | Comments closed

The Meaning of Hell

By Robin Bates | Published: December 8, 2018

Spiritual Sunday Stephen Greenblatt, the world’s preeminent Shakespearean, has an article about hell in the latest issue of the New York Review of Books that has me thinking about a subject I generally avoid. It’s a smart piece but fairly grim. For the most part, my view of hell is the one set forth in […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Seneca a Fragment", Charlotte Bronte, Christopher Marlowe, Dante, hell, Inferno, Jane Eyre, John Wilmot | Comments closed

Mann on Nationalists’ Faustian Bargain

By Robin Bates | Published: June 26, 2018

Thomas Mann’s “Doctor Faustus” shows what could happen in the U.S. if we continue to close our hearts to immigrants.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Donald Trump, immigrant children separation, Thomas Mann | Comments closed