In 'Twelve Caesars,' Mary Beard analyzes the reception and adaptation of ancient Roman imperial portraits in Western European and American art from the 15th century to the present.
Called “the Chekhov of the suburbs” for his intimate if painful portraits of American suburban life, John Cheever was a prose master and, said one reviewer, “a boyish scamp.”
If contemplation and criticism can lead to imitation, then writing about the literary Christian left of the last century might help establish a literary Christian left for this century.