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Keep the Grammar Sane, for Word’s Sake!

Scholars say that language is a living entity, constantly shifting to reflect the society that speaks it. Yet, there is a fine line between dynamic evolution and unnecessary unravelling. In recent years, major style guides and lexicographers have approved sweeping changes to traditional English grammar rules. While proponents argue that…

Summa Cum Confusion (Part 2)

September 1, 2026
[ The Story So Far: read here https://eurolit.net/?p=4229 ] Five minutes. Four minutes and fifty-eight seconds. Dr Cybelius stared at the chemistry speech. Then at the Physics letter. Then at the ceiling. Then at his cabin bag. Something about the cabin bag caught his attention. The unidentified metal object. He…

Summa Cum Confusion (Part 1)

August 29, 2026
Dr Guy B. Cybelius had a summa cum laude PhD in Comparative Literature, specialising in Afro-European Culture. He was also as absent-minded as a scientist could possibly be. At least, that was what the visible signs suggested: He had red wine with ice for breakfast. He regularly wore two different-coloured…

Look Up: The World Beyond the Screen

August 28, 2026
I am looking forward to the day when governments finally decide to print blunt health warnings on mobile phones, much like they do on packs of cigarettes. Imagine opening a sleek new device only to be greeted by a stark warning that excessive use damages your brain, disrupts your sleep…

The Coleridgean Moral of the Ancient Mariner

August 26, 2026
Today, two hundred and thirty-five years after the ratification of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and two hundred and twenty-seven years since the publication of Mrs Anna Lætitia Barbauld’s poem ‘To Mr S.T. Coleridge’, when she reproached him that the Ancient Mariner had no moral, I am going…

Literary Van Goghisation in the Third Millennium

August 21, 2026
The phenomenon of Van Goghisation, named after the post-impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh whose artistic genius was famously recognised only after his tragic death, describes the structural delay between creative production and critical validation. In the twenty-first century, this mechanism has undergone a profound transformation. Rather than operating as a…

The Dawn of the Phone Scam

August 19, 2026
The lounge was blissfully quiet until the telephone’s sudden ring pierced the silence. Dorothy Jameson set her needles aside, stepped across the rug and lifted the heavy receiver cup to her ear, speaking into the mouth-funnel. ‘Hello? Whom do I have the honour of addressing at this outrageous hour?’ ‘Good…

The Missing E.P. Stone Files

August 17, 2026
It was a cheerless Tuesday morning in London and the fog was as thick as cold porridge. Detective Fred Flint sat at his battered oak desk, nursing a lukewarm cup of tea and staring blankly out of the misty window. Opposite him, Detective Barney Rubb was vigorously trying to remove…

𝐓𝖍𝖊 𝕭𝖔𝖔𝖐 𝐓𝖍𝖆𝖙 𝕹𝖊𝖛𝖊𝖗 𝑾𝖆𝖘

To review a book that contains not a single word feels initially like a nonsensical exercise in literary absurdity. Yet 𝐓𝖍𝖊 𝕽𝖊𝖘𝖙 𝙄𝖘 𝑺𝖎𝖑𝖊𝖓𝖈𝖊, printed in London in the late spring of 1598, is perhaps the most radical artifact in the history of the bound volume. Published exactly one year…

THE TROJAN UFO

August 15, 2026
For one hundred forty-one years, historians have insisted that the Statue of Liberty is a statue. This is, frankly, embarrassing. Much like the ancient Greeks concealed a battalion inside a wooden horse to breach Troy, the aliens disguised a colossal warship within a copper statue to infiltrate Earth unnoticed. The…
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About Me

Former diplomat and globetrotter, Dan Costinas is a versatile contemporary writer, translator, and editor. A true polyglot, he has authored and contributed to several dozen books spanning mainly fiction, essays, aphorisms, reviews and criticism, journalism, and poetry.

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Books of Our Continent

From the quiet shelves of forty-four national archives and ancient university libraries to the cosy corners of independent bookstores and modest home…

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