The hardboiled detective’s lack of a sidekick has significant attendant costs to the author’s narrative repertoire....

Gilt and red plush. Rococo bar backed by pink shell.  The air is cloyed with a sweet evil substance like decayed honey. Men and women in evening dress sip pousse-cafés through alabaster tubes. A Near East Mugwump sit naked on ...

IN 1976, AT THE HEIGHT of his cultural influence in France, the philosopher Michel Foucault published one of the most famous books ever written on the history of sexuality, titled, aptly enough, The History of Sexuality, Vol. I. (The book was ...