Puncturing pretensions with a sharp pen

It would be impossible to live happily or even sanely at all if one didn't accept appearance as reality most of the time. No one has expressed this truth as memorably as the grandiloquent narrator of Jonathan Swift's ''Tale of a Tub," specifically: ''Last week I saw a woman flayed, and you will hardly believe how much it altered her ... (Full article: 1103 words)

This article is available in our archives:

Globe Subscribers

FREE for subscribers

Subscribers to the Boston Globe get unlimited access to our archives.

Not a subscriber?

Non-Subscribers

Purchase an electronic copy of the full article. Learn More

• $9.95 1 month archives pass
• $24.95 3 months archives pass
• $74.95 1 year archives pass