What We’re Reading

Lee Durkee, Stalking Shakespeare. Lee Durkee’s memoir and exposé in the art history of painting Shakespeare is a fun, intoxicating, and, at times, shocking read. We all know what Shakespeare looked like, right? Not so fast! Stalking Shakespeare reveals the memoir of a funny and, at times, tortured soul, moving from Mississippi to Vermont to England to Japan, back to America, all the while devouring the research and commentary into the many faces of Shakespeare. The work blends narrative memoir, the joys and failures of fathership and adventure, and the complex and complicated history of Shakespeare’s many paintings over the centuries. At its heart, the work is a human tale, revealing Lee to readers, but also introducing to readers the fascinating history of Shakespeare’s portraits, including the forgeries and skepticism over what the infamous Bard actually looked like.

~ Paul Krause

Bernard Iddings Bell, Crowd Culture: An Examination of the American Way of Life. An Episcopal clergyman and the author of more than twenty books, Bernard Iddings Bell (1886-1958) was a priest and cultural critic who is virtually unknown today. However, given that Bell wrote with penetrating insight into the ailments of the modern age, some people believe he deserves a broader readership. After reading Bell’s 1952 book Crowd Culture for the first time, I am now one of these people. As a member of what Russell Kirk called the “literary party of order,” Bell was a champion of orthodoxy in religion and an opponent of egalitarian leveling in both culture and education. Above all, he was a critic of what he called “crowd culture”—a term he used to describe a new conformism whereby the dictates of the crowd debase the taste, manners, and morality of modern men and women. In Crowd Culture, Bell also argues that the twentieth century gave rise to what may be called the “Common Man,” who is concerned less with the pursuit of moral and personal excellence than he is with the pursuit of sex, pleasure, and the accumulation of wealth. In this way, Crowd Culture is a scathing critique of the “American way of life” as Bell observed it in the twentieth century which was profoundly conformist, secular, and materialist. Bell’s thoughts on literature and education are especially prescient. A defender of liberal education in the tradition of Newman, Bell understood that the purpose of education is the cultivation of wisdom and character. In our age dominated by the “crowd,” the reinvigoration of liberal education is needed to raise capable leaders with a clear vision of the good life.

~ Darrell Falconburg

Robert Browning, “My Last Duchess.” Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess” is a dramatic monologue to present the Duke of Ferrara as a possible suitor for marriage. Written in the first person, the Duke uses this perspective to boast about a beautiful painting of his last Duchess. Though the piece provokes a conversation between Ferrara and an unnamed character, he uses the work to initiate supremacy over his dead wife. Browning writes “My Last Duchess” to reveal the Duke’s view of controlling and objectifying women through his choice of language. Browning utilizes the conversation to unveil the Duke’s controlling and possessive nature towards his previous wife. While the Duke and the unnamed character walk around, the Duke abruptly turns and says, “that’s my last Duchess painted on the wall / looking as if she were alive.” The Duke begins the conversation by prompting the unnamed character to observe the painting of his dead wife. Even though this is the Duke’s first statement concerning the painting, he does not use her portrait to commemorate the Duchess’ memory. Instead, the Duke tells the unnamed character that she is an object of possession because he transformed her into a materialistic object.

In revealing his overall attitude towards the painting itself, he tells the unnamed character that it is only “a wonder now.” Because the painting is only a piece of art to the Duke, he appreciates the painting more than his deceased wife. By repeating the painter’s name, “Fra Pandolf,” multiple times, he implies the painting’s value. His need to exaggerate the artist’s name tells readers the Duke has expensive taste as well as a high wealth and class status. Thus, the Duke uses the painting to present a powerful dynamic that uplifts his personal worth and status within society. The Duke uses his wealth and status to portray his controlling nature. To solidify this idea, he places the painting in an area that forces his visitors to “sit and look at her.” As if other guests are curious about the painting, he places it in an open area for onlookers to ask about its origin, therefore bragging about his wealth and status through the painting. He then says to the unnamed character he is “not the first / to turn and ask thus” because it seems to be a common question. In response to the unnamed character’s question, the Duke removes the curtain from the painting. The painting’s cover reminds the audience that the Duke is in full control over the painting. He can either cover the painting, telling the audience that they can no longer gaze at its beauty, or force the audience to ask questions about his previous wife. Either way, he can give or take away whatever he desires just by simply covering or revealing the painting. The Duke wants the unnamed character to look at the work specifically because he is alluding to the ways he will treat his future spouse. The Duke subtly tells the unnamed character that like his previous wife, he will treat his new spouse as another materialistic possession he can show off and control. In the poem, the Duke denied his former wife’s independence even after her death, telling the unnamed character that she is an object to be controlled through the form of a painting.

Through the Duke’s word choice, readers are subject to believe every word he conveyed within his monologue. He does not give the unnamed character a choice to speak at any point in time. Browning’s purpose in only describing the Duke’s experiences leaves the audience out of the loop, representing the Duke’s sense of domination over the Duchess’ life before and after her death.

~ Sarah Tillard

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