Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The Wild Places Robert Macfarlane Penguin Books: 340 pp., $15 paper "I did not believe, or did not want to believe, the obituaries for the wild. They seemed premature, even dangerous. Like mourning for someone who was not yet dead, they suggested an...

What a difference a song makes. And what a difference a movie can make for a song. Take "Singin' in the Rain." It has been ukulele ditty (Cliff Edwards in the 1920s), comedy (Jimmy Durante in the 1930s), swing (Judy Garland in the 1940s), ode to joy...

By Nick Owchar Why do so many monsters live in Victorian London? Was there something toxic in the Thames (Spenser probably wouldn't call it "sweet" if he could have seen it then -- or now) or in the fog that, as the Environmental Protection Agency points...

October 24, 2007 With this piece, we introduce a series of occasional articles in which contemporary writers look back at classic works of literature. Here, Jack Lynch, the author of "Becoming Shakespeare: The Unlikely Afterlife That Turned a...

To the uninitiated, "Serenity" may seem like just another "Star Trek" knockoff, but to so easily dismiss writer Joss Whedon's feature directing debut, a continuation of his short-lived 2002 sci-fi western TV series "Firefly," would be to miss out on a...

I have crossed Long Island Sound by ferry and voyaged across the English Channel in abject misery. But I have never crossed the Atlantic or any other ocean by boat. Except for the time I covered a tuna-fishing tournament and covered myself with disgrace...

In Preview INTRIGUE WITH FAYE. Modern relationship drama by Kate Robin in which an urban couple attempts to cultivate trust and intimacy by videotaping one another's every move; Benjamin Bratt and Julianna Margulies star, previews to June 11 opening, MCC...

Catwoman is a comic-book movie. And had he read comic books, Samuel Taylor Coleridge might have advised adopting a "willing suspension of disbelief" to enjoy such stories. Thus, stupid plot lines become forgivable in comic-book movies. Catwoman's plot,...

Exmoor is one of England's smallest national parks, but it packs a grand variety of natural attractions within its borders: magnificent coastal bluffs, lush woodland, tumbling streams. Despite all this wonderful countryside, don't expect to meet many...

"Gosford Park," American filmmaker Robert Altman's satiric dissection of the British class system in the 1930s, was named the top film at the 29th annual Evening Standard Film Awards, honoring achievement in British moviemaking during 2001. Altman,...

Bushnell Park and the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts concert hall are named for a man whose bicentennial birthday is barely being marked this year. In his era, the sermon was the literature that served rich and poor, much as television does...

There may be longer and deeper rivers in our country, but few have left such a lasting impression as the St. Johns on the consciousness of the writers and artists who experienced it. Certainly, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings knew of its powerful natural magic....