Russell A. Berman

Thomas Mann’s 1929 novella Mario and the Magician describes the performance of an ominous hypnotist at a seaside resort. The magician entertains his gullible audience by placing individuals in a trance before making them humiliate themselves by dancing ludicrously on stage. The setting . . . . Continue Reading »

A year before the end of his long life (1895–1998), the German author Ernst Jünger converted to Catholicism, a late change on a tumultuous path of searching and adventures that were far from exclusively spiritual. Born into a Protestant family, he attended conventional boarding schools, but at . . . . Continue Reading »

The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm by jacob and wilhelm grimm translated and edited by jack zipes princeton, 568 pages, $35 F or two hundred years, the Grimms’ fairy tales have charmed the world. Yet their wide circulation has gone hand in hand with a systematic dilution. . . . . Continue Reading »