Anthony Esolen

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Anthony Esolen is the author or translator of 28 books, on literature, culture, and the Christian faith, among them the three-volume Modern Library translation of The Divine Comedy, and, most recently, In the Beginning Was the Word: An Annotated Reading of the Prologue of John (Angelico Press). He and his wife Debra also produce a web magazine, Word and Song, dedicated to a revival of interest in the good, the true, and the beautiful, through traditional hymns, poetry, classic films, popular music from its golden age, and the quirky history of the English language.

Recent Essays

The New House, The New Life

I fear that neither liberals nor most self-styled conservatives want to reexamine the habits, both economic and sexual, that have impoverished the working class, set the middle class on the wheels of a machine that literally sends their extra income up the chimney, and eviscerated neighborhood life.

The Borough Playground

It’s children that make the neighborhood, and when children are outdoors, you’ll want porches in the front of your houses, so that you can see the streets where they often play, as we did.

The Polls of Nowhere

Nowhere, America Today, the subjects of the Assimilated Provinces of Megalomerica will go to the polls to vote. It's mostly a formality, since the polls...

News from Nowhere

Providence, RI There are in these recent days at least three matters of great importance confronting my beloved land, The Assimilated Provinces of Megalomerica. They...

Something Better than a Giant

This Christmas my daughter bought for me a CD of Welsh hymns, folk songs, and patriotic anthems, sung by the burly baritone Bryn Terfel....

There’s Equality, and There’s Equality

In one of my favorite movies, John Ford's How Green Was My Valley, a family of coal miners is faced with the prospect of...

A Message in a Bottle

Every now and then we hear of a lucky homeowner who takes down a wall to make renovations on his house, and finds inside...

Life Under Compulsion: The Minotaur

When we lose the sense of transcendence, when in our hearts and minds the things of time are no longer oriented toward eternity, then,...

Life Under Compulsion: Contemplation

I am looking at another painting by Norman Rockwell, a part of his Four Seasons Calendar: Grandpa and Me in Summer.  I know that...

Life Under Compulsion: Saying Grace

The creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. (Rom. 8:21) I am...

Life Under Compulsion: Play and No Play

In East Bangor, Pennsylvania (pop. 800), there’s a little diner named for the trolley that used to take people to the once bustling steel...

Life Under Compulsion: Noise

The child’s language is melodious.  The words hide and protect themselves in the melody – the words that have come shyly out of the...