Literature

In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle explores the meaning of T. S. Eliot’s ‘this is the way the world ends’ ‘This is the way the world ends’, T. S. Eliot tells us at the end of his 1925 poem, ‘The Hollow Men’: ‘not with a bang but a whimper.’ The

February 26, 2021, 3:13pm There’s something thrilling about watching a movie or a TV show and finding that you recognize the characters’ surroundings— that you have stood on that street corner or peered into that shop before the characters, before that story begins. As someone who has been basically nowhere, I find it validating, like

February 25, 2021, 4:03pm Good news for all you Jenkophiles and Whiteheadheads out there: after four maddening months of mystery—which saw the release of two gorgeous teaser trailers but no premiere date—we now know when we’ll be able to watch Barry Jenkins’ small-screen adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning historical epic, The Underground Railroad. The ten-episode

Charles Dickens (1812-70) is best-known for his fifteen novels and for shorter books like A Christmas Carol. However, Dickens’s was a restless talent, and during his publishing career that spanned more than thirty-five years, he also wrote countless articles, essays, and short stories. Although Dickens’s short stories are less famous than novels like Oliver Twist

February 25, 2021, 1:21pm On the 38th anniversary of Tennessee Williams’s death, we’re remembering his very first published piece of writing, written way before he was a literary giant—and even before he used his own name. (Well, his assumed name, but still.) As a sixteen-year-old, Williams was published in the 1927 issue of the “magazine

February 24, 2021, 1:21pm The movie adaptation of Nico Walker’s Cherry—the best-selling debut novel about an Iraq veteran turned heroin addict turned bank robber—will be released in theaters in two days, directed by the Russo Brothers (who you might know from Avengers) and starring Tom Holland (who you might know from Avengers). The auction for

‘The Hare and the Tortoise’ is one of Aesop’s best-known fables. The meaning or ‘moral’ of the fable is worth analysing more closely, however, and the story has attracted a number of competing – indeed, actively conflicting – interpretations. So let’s take a closer look at the meaning of ‘The Hare and the Tortoise’ (sometimes

February 24, 2021, 3:09pm Since you’re on here, you know that it is the month of the Internet novel. Two heavy-hitters in particular—Lauren Oyler’s Fake Accounts and Patricia Lockwood’s No One Is Talking about This—have been brought into the world, and everyone on Book Twitter seems to be ruminating on what we want from this kind

February 23, 2021, 3:53pm Lawrence Ferlinghetti—a crucial supporter of the Beat movement and literary icon who bore a century’s worth of witness to social and political transformation—died on Monday at the age of 101 of interstitial lung disease, The Washington Post confirmed. Ferlinghetti epitomized the soul of San Francisco counterculture for generations of artists and

Robinson Crusoe, often called the first English novel, was written by Daniel Defoe and published in 1719. The novel is the tale of one man’s survival on a desert island following a shipwreck. Published in 1719, the book didn’t carry Defoe’s name, and it was offered to the public as a true account of real

February 23, 2021, 2:04pm Surprisingly, despite the heavy toll taken by the COVID-19 pandemic on brick and mortar bookstores (especially independent brick and mortar bookstores) nationwide, US book sales actually increased by 8 percent in 2020. What demographic is responsible for keeping the industry alive and thriving against all odds? Why, the much-maligned Millennials of

February 22, 2021, 1:02pm Despite having watched several seasons of Outlander I confess I eventually gave up. Sure, the scenery is gorgeous (The Grampians! The Highlands!), and the leads are very easy on the eyes, but the incessantly soap operatic twists built around a highly dubious time-travel premise eventually wore me out (not to mention

The ‘St Crispin’s Day’ speech is one of the most famous speeches from William Shakespeare’s Henry V, a history play written in around 1599 and detailing the English king’s wars with France during the Hundred Years War (1337-1453). Henry V himself delivers the St Crispin’s Day speech in the play. He delivers the speech on

February 22, 2021, 1:04pm Today, the Horror Writers Association—dedicated to promoting horror and dark fantasy writers—announced the finalists for the annual Bram Stoker Award, which honors the best work in horror and dark fiction published in the last year. The Award is named in honor of Irish writer Bram Stoker, author of Dracula, and comes with

TODAY: In 1958, Helen Fielding, who wrote a weekly column about urban life in London designed to appeal to young professional women which she later published as a book (Bridget Jones’s Diary) is born. Interview with an Indie Press: Milkweed staffers talk reader relationships, working together during political turmoil, and what having a mega-hit (Braiding

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was a successful poet, playwright, novelist, short-story writer, and writer of fairy tales for children. And this, of course, is to say nothing of his sparkling wit and conversation, and the many memorable quotations he is known for. Below, we consider Oscar Wilde’s writing, bringing together the best of his work across

February 19, 2021, 11:45am Food, like a great novel, can tell a story. The storytelling opportunities are endless: the way we eat, the culinary traditions we pass down from one generation to the next, and communal rituals can provide deeper insight into ourselves and the world around us. For the Spring 2021 edition of Oxford

February 19, 2021, 2:09pm I have always been an outsider at Winter Institute, the American Booksellers Association’s annual conference—and yet I love it so. Having only attended four of the last six I am a relative newcomer compared to many of the legendary booksellers who’ve been attending for decades. I’m thinking here of the likes