I am under the spell of language, which has ruled me since I was 10.

We do not wish to be better than we are, but more fully what we are.

Queen Victoria - a mixture of national landlady and actress.

A touch of science, even bogus science, gives an edge to the superstitious tale.

It is exciting and emancipating to believe we are one of nature's latest experiments, but what if the experiment is unsuccessful?

Short stories can be rather stark and bare unless you put in the right details. Details make stories human, and the more human a story can be, the better.

Among the masked dandies of Edwardian comedy, Max Beerbohm is the most happily armored by a deep and almost innocent love of himself as a work of art.