“Wilkie Collins: A Life of Sensation”, by Andrew Lycett

544 pages, Windmill, ISBN-13: 978-0099557340

Eh, what’s that? Never heard of Wilkie Collins? Well, ya heard of The Moonstone? Or how about The Woman in White? That’s better. Maybe even Poor Miss Finch? Okay, too much, but William Wilkie Collins, the master of the Victorian sensationalist novel – hell, practically the inventor of the Victorian sensationalist novel – was a mover and a shaker in the literary and theatrical world during ole’ Queen Vic’s long-ass reign (second only to Dickens), and Andrew Lycett’s biography Wilkie Collins: A Life of Sensation is the first proper account of Collins’ life in two decades…and, brother, what a life: a peculiar, to say nothing of scandalous, private life consisting of two – TWO – mistresses and hers-and-their children with them both; a lifetime of illness soothed by a magnificent hallucinogenic cocktail of drugs and booze; and a body of work that would appear to reflect the disregarded usage of both. While Lycett’s research produces no Copernican revolution in Collins studies (mistresses Graves and Rudd, for instance, remain mysterious and indistinct the end), he sharpens our vision of the man, nonetheless.

Here was a man who understood the potency of hidden things, the power (and danger) of secrets; a man who expended much ink on the legal plight of the married woman in Victorian society, and yet still managed to keep two women at his beck and call. Lycett paints a vivid picture of Collins, both physically – with his distinctive thicket of a beard, his ever-present glasses and misshapen forehead – and morally, as a man who cared not for convention and walked his own path, though not always one that readers of his novels might expect. For, as Lycett shows, Collins tapped into a neurosis which lay at the heart of the Victorian moral project: the fear that amid so much outward prosperity and security lurked agencies and individuals who were not what they seemed. The man (and woman) pretending to be something else is a feature of Collins’ novels and the veneer that separates “respectable” life from the brothel and the mad-house is sometimes horribly thin.

In pain-racked old age, Collins appears to have hardened somewhat, his earlier protofeminism falling away and his views shifting to become more in keeping with the accepted Victorian stance on such matters but, as Lycett acknowledges, “Wilkie Collins has never been easy to pigeonhole”, and there remains something slippery and elusive about him, despite all the work gone in to bring to light this near-forgotten artist.

“Isaac Newton”, by James Gleick

288 pages, Pantheon, ISBN-13: 978-0965738002

James Gleick’s Isaac Newton is, overall, a good introduction to the thoughts and theories of one of the English language’s premiere scientists, but it is not without its flaws. While there were certainly moments in this book in which I had an Eureka! moment, overall I was left a bit disappointed by the author’s lack of insight into the man himself. I have always held Newton in awe and wondered what his IQ might have measured, but, perhaps, what I was looking for in this book was not Gleick’s intent in focus. I’ve read a few books that discuss the theories and history of Newton’s contributions to science, mostly as how they referred to the author’s topic at hand. In this book I had hoped to find more of an inner glimpse into Newton’s psyche, and in that regard what it did reveal was disillusioning: Newton was apparently petty, jealous and socially inept; oh, without question a genius, but also something of a dweeb, as well. For those who are looking for a biography of Isaac Newton, Isaac Newton doesn’t cut the mustard, as it is more concerned with his accomplishments than who and what he was.

For those who are not already familiar with the scientific thought of the day and with Newton’s accomplishments, this book will be much more satisfying: the alchemy, the genius, the religious heresy, the loneliness, the obsessions, the quarrels, the apple, and the years at the mint and the sublime science. By keeping away from a strict chronology, Gleick tells his story with emphasis on the episodes that made Newton and we do get a feel for his times and the contradictions that lay at the heart of Newton's life and probably drove his creative genius. However, this approach also reveals the flaws of the book: at times I found it a little disjointed and lacking in flow; different aspects of the story came without any real attempt at seamless transition and I felt quite a jolt. Thus, this is quite an odd book, both illuminating and not-so-much. The work is narrowly focused on Newton’s life or, rather, what Gleick considers especially important moments in Newton’s life. He discusses only in passing the tumultuous events of the 17^th Century with a little of the social history of science thrown in, as well. There is also a strange quality to the discussion of what Newton actually discovered: Gleick has the outline right, but the details are murky (to be honest, I’m not certain that he can follow Newton's math and so he doesn’t explain it well).

As a primer to Newton’s life and work, Isaac Newton works, but for a more in-depth discussion as to who he really was and why he is so important, I guess I’ll have to look elsewhere.

“Slouching Towards Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline”, by Robert H. Bork

400 pages, HarperCollins, ISBN-13: 978-0060391638

Say it with me, just once:
“Justice Bork”
*sigh* *whimper* *groan*

Ah, what coulda been if only this intellectual giant had not been brought low by the moral pigmy from Massachusetts and his litany of lies and slander. Slouching Towards Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline is truly the magnum opus of a towering figure in constitutional law and societal commentator and I was shocked at how prescient his work is. Having reread it a couple decades after he wrote it gives one the ability to compare his dire predictions with the ugly reality of the outcome, for Judge Bork was generally spot-on in his analysis and predictions. Judge Bork chronicles the rise of the radical “liberal” (as we call them, though Cultural Marxist would be a more accurate term) in the 1960’s. The radical, hard-left successfully executed Gramsci’s “long march through the institutions”, beginning with the universities and have, over time, come to dominate not only academia but also infotainment, law, government and the hierarchies of mainline Christian churches.

This is definitely not a book for liberals, or for sissies: if you want hard hitting, historically accurate and unassailable truth smacking-you-upside-the-head in every page, and you are willing to be open to read without criticism a critical critique of America’s narcissistic love of self and what consequences are coming down the pike, this is a must read. Bork pulls no punches as he explains in the first few pages how America and its dream of the American Way of Life have over reached its boundaries of realism, and how the fantasy Americans continue to pursue is killing the very soul of this country. You may not like Bork because of his true conservative mannerisms, but he tells the truth about our selfish, self-centered culture just like it is. I found this book fascinating in a dark sorta way, and directed to educating the unlearned and the unschooled about the consequences ofdabbling in the Beautiful Side of Evil, said consequences of ignorance being not pretty. Hopefully it is not too late for America and its citizens to wake up and see the fearsome, ugly, hateful, envious, celebrity centered reality which we have become.

Far from the neohedonism of liberalism and libertarianism, there exists the well-reasoned, constitutionally-grounded and values-affirming conservatism of Robert Bork. Slouching Towards Gomorrah is pure waters to those who have thought hard about the limits of free speech and progressive goals such as welfare expansion. Because Judge Bork’s arguments are so well thought-out and sincerely felt, his deft challenges to presumptions on the right and left again and again clear away sophomoric notions in favor of genuinely wise guidance. America was truly robbed of what would have likely been perhaps her greatest justice to date by the “borking” of this great thinker. This book should be required reading by constitutional lawyers as, whether you agree or not with Judge Bork, his arguments will definitely have you considering things more carefully.