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Joseph Conrad's short novel 'The Secret Sharer' is a story of homosexual desire between the murderer Leggatt and the narrator, the ship's captain who hides Leggatt in his cabin. This desire constitutes, on the deepest level, the shared secret mentioned in the title. The desire, or sharing, felt by these two men in an enclosed cabin on a solitary ship at sea is contrasted with the social norm of heterosexuality. Society accepts such desire from men in a confined situation, but it demands that this desire be surmounted once the ship reaches shore. Leggatt and the narrator, however, can never obey this demand.

To his painting The Treason of Images (1928-1929), one of his most infamous weddings of cheek and dread, Rene Magritte assigns the warning 'Ceci n'est pas une pipe.' The joke, [...]

Dasenbrock, Reed Way. 'Anatomies of Internationalism in Tarr and Howards End.' Unpublished paper presented at the 108th MLA convention (28 Dec. 1992). Eksteins, Morris. Rites of Spring: The Great War [...]

Oft from new truths, and new phrase, new doubts grow, As strange attire aliens the men we know. (John Donne, 'To the Countess of Bedford') While reading the conclusion of [...]

When William Golding's Pincher Martin appeared in 1956, it was eagerly received by an audience well prepared for another survival narrative along the lines of Lord of the Flies and [...]

In Japan and in Germany the aftermath of World War II brought a preoccupation with the destruction of monuments (both real and fictional) by fire. In 1950, in the city [...]

The authenticating apparatus of documentation and editorial commentary on the work of fiction in romantic Scotland are discussed.