Literature

The following is excerpted from Ann Leary’s new novel, The Foundling.Leary is the New York Times bestselling author of a memoir and four novels including The Good House. Her work has been translated into eighteen languages, and she has written for the New York Times, Ploughshares, NPR, Redbook, and Real Simple, among other publications. Her

Ernest Hemingway’s 1925 short story ‘Cat in the Rain’ is a short vignette about an American husband and wife staying in Italy. The wife notices a cat outside their hotel, in the pouring rain, and wants to bring it inside. As with much of Hemingway’s fiction, he leaves out more than he includes on the

On her arrival in England, Marilyn Monroe expressed how much she wanted to meet two people—poet Dame Edith Sitwell and dramatist Sean O’Casey. The latter was thrilled to hear this news, and told the Stage newspaper, “I would love to see her, and I would like to meet her husband, Arthur Miller, one of the

In the days before my first-ever trip to London, many friends and acquaintances asked me if I was excited to go. I responded that I was; my husband and I had planned this trip to celebrate our having finally paid off the loans incurred on the way to my earning a doctorate in British Renaissance

‘The Village Schoolmaster’ is an unfinished short story by Franz Kafka (1883-1924), begun in 1914-15 before being abandoned by Kafka. The story is about interpretation versus reality, and how our understanding of the world is often determined by our motivations and outlook. ‘The Village Schoolmaster’, which is sometimes known by the alternative title ‘The Giant

Saugerties, a sleepy Hudson Valley town with big shop windows, narrow streets, and an old-fashioned movie theater, surrounded by large tracts of farmland, was known as “the place time forgot.” Two hours north of New York City, it was too far for commuters, so it felt like a world away. This was where I planned

The following first appeared in Lit Hub’s The Craft of Writing newsletter—sign up here. * Maybe five years ago I read a novel in which a man drowns in a lake, and, a few minutes later, his body is found floating on the water’s surface. If any of my writer friends are reading this, they’re probably groaning

Of Herman Melville’s shorter works, ‘Bartleby, the Scrivener’ has remained the most popular and widely studied. Critics have disagreed over the story’s meaning, with this tale of one man who repeatedly asserts that he ‘would prefer not to’ carry out the orders of his employer inviting a raft of interpretations. Melville (1819-91) wrote ‘Bartleby, the

Elif Batuman’s Either/Or, Jhumpa Lahiri’s Translating Myself and Others, Colin Barrett’s Homesickness, and Ali Smith’s Companion Piece all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Month. Brought to you by Book Marks, Lit Hub’s “Rotten Tomatoes for books.” * Fiction 1. Either/Or by Elif Batuman(Penguin Press) 13 Rave • 7 Positive • 1 MixedRead an

TODAY: In 1849, Anne Brontë (far left, with sisters Emily and Charlotte) dies at 29. Yan Lianke explores the overlooked contemporary Chinese literature of mythorealism. | Lit Hub Criticism What writing a novel and tending a garden have in common: Naheed Phiroze Patel in praise of lifelong projects. | Lit Hub Who was Leonardo da

Family plays an important part in much fiction, of course, but sometimes the short story form has offered us an insight into family life that the longer novel does not. Because it can only provide us with a few snapshots, or a handful of moments, perhaps even just one episode in a family’s life, the

I wrote a version of this essay, about the Noah Baumbach-Greta Gerwig film Frances Ha, when I was 21 years old. It was 2013, a year and a half after the film came out. I wanted to write about how the film frames its main character’s coming of age, which happens when she is in

TODAY: In 1819, Julia Ward Howe, a prominent American abolitionist and author of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” is born.     “It is a fact that if you are looking to raise llamas with another person, you are seriously considering a lifelong commitment to each other.” Aileen Weintraub on finding love in upstate New York.

‘The Snake’ is a short story by the American author John Steinbeck (1902-68), published in The Monterey Beacon in 1935 before being included in Steinbeck’s collection The Long Valley in 1938. The story tells of a young scientist who is at work experimenting with animals in his laboratory when he receives a visit from a

I did not grow up in a household that discussed art. My family did not go to art museums and no coffee table books filled with the work of Impressionists or abstract artists adorned our tables. What little I learned about famous artists and techniques in my youth, I learned in art class in public

TODAY: In 1799, Alexander Pushkin is born.    “I don’t even know if it is possible to decolonize portraiture, but it’s important for me to take those steps toward attempting to do that work.” Nikole Hannah-Jones and Gio Swaby discuss portraiture that uplifts Black women. | Lit Hub Art What can dogs teach us about

Poets have often tried to emphasise the hopeful aspects of human nature, and our tendency to look optimistically towards the future as a brighter, happier time. Individual ambitions and aspirations, too, have often come under the purview of some of the best and most celebrated poets writing in English. Below, we select and introduce ten

This essay is excerpted from Dear America (March 2020) and was originally called “Titration.”  * I. Dear American gun owner, Several days have passed since the most recent mass shootings. I want to write to you, as a mother, a grandmother & a teacher, about your guns. I don’t know you, but I know you