Literature

One of the most original and endlessly thought-provoking dystopian novels of the whole twentieth century, A Clockwork Orange (1962) is Anthony Burgess’ best-known novel. But what is the message behind this curious novel? Stanley Kubrick’s famous 1971 film adaptation of the novel departed from the novel in some respects, so it’s worth offering a brief

Freedom and liberty have proved to be popular topics for poets down the ages, whether it’s Romantic poets espousing the values of liberty in the wake of the French Revolution or more recent poets musing upon the various meanings of freedom in the world. Here are ten of our favourite poems to touch upon freedom

In the second half of May of 1940, my grandfather Gaston Messud, a 34-year-old French Naval officer reporting to the Deuxième Bureau in Paris from Salonica on the movements of the Italians, all too aware of their imminent entry into the war on the Axis side (this occurred on June 10), and anxious, too, about

‘Ars Poetica’ is one of the most famous poems by the American poet-librarian, Archibald MacLeish (1892-1982). A self-referential reflection on the nature of poetry, ‘Ars Poetica’ (1926) is provocative, suggestive, and – as is often the case with twentieth-century modernist poems – a piece of writing which raises as many questions as it settles. You

At the beginning of our now apparently unending isolation, we put out a call asking that those of you who need something good to read in this trying, frightening time, might send us a few of your favorite books (and other things) so we could recommend a good book for you to read. And turns out quite

‘The Miller’s Tale’ is one of the most technically accomplished, and perhaps the funniest, of Geoffrey Chaucer’s completed Canterbury Tales. An example of a French literary form known as the fabliau, ‘The Miller’s Tale’ appears to have been Chaucer’s invention (many of the other tales told in The Canterbury Tales were translations, or retellings, of

The coronavirus pandemic is dramatically disrupting not only our daily lives but society itself. This show features conversations with some of the world’s leading thinkers and writers about the deeper economic, political, and technological consequences of the pandemic. It’s our new daily podcast trying to make longterm sense out of the chaos of today’s global

Although scientists now consider the list of senses to be much longer than the proverbial five – things such as balance and thermoception are often counted as ‘senses’ now too – it’s true that we still talk of ‘the five senses’: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. If you want to explore more ‘sensory poems’,

TODAY: In 1927, Peter Matthiessen is born. You’ve (almost) made it through another indistinguishable week! Why not celebrate with round nine of our personalized quarantine book recommendations? | Lit Hub “How painful it is to think that the world might crumble.” Claire Messud on her family’s WWII correspondence. | Lit Hub History Ridiculously rich people: they’re not

‘The Horses’ is one of the best-known and most widely studied poems by the Scottish poet Edwin Muir (1887-1959). The poem (not to be confused with Muir’s early poem ‘Horses’) was published in his 1956 collection One Foot in Eden. You can read ‘The Horses’ here before proceeding to our analysis of the poem below.

The coronavirus pandemic is dramatically disrupting not only our daily lives but society itself. This show features conversations with some of the world’s leading thinkers and writers about the deeper economic, political, and technological consequences of the pandemic. It’s our new daily podcast trying to make longterm sense out of the chaos of today’s global

Although it was the nineteenth century when the novel arguably came into its own, with novelists like Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, George Eliot, and the Brontë sisters writing novels that are still widely read and studied today, the eighteenth century was the age in which the novel emerged as a real force in writing and

TODAY: In 1906, Henrik Ibsen dies. If you’re not already rereading your favorite books all the time, Natalie Jenner recommends it. | Lit Hub Gabrielle Bellot on the disconcerting parallels between “The Machine Stops,” E.M. Forster’s only foray into sci-fi, and our current socially distanced reality. | Lit Hub The only successful coup in the US began as a campaign to

Subtitled ‘A Song Apologetic’, ‘In the Person of Womankind’ is a poem by the poet and playwright, and contemporary of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson (1572-1637). As the title suggests, ‘In the Person of Womankind’ sees Jonson assuming the voice of all women, and addressing men. Before we offer some words of analysis, here’s the text of

May 22, 2020, 10:50am If you’d like to spend the long weekend before Raymond Carver’s birthday revisiting some of his short stories, be sure to add this to the list: There’s only one recording of Raymond Carver reading his iconic short story, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” and it is glorious.

In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle goes on his travels to Taormina in Sicily, where D. H. Lawrence lived One tends to associate D. H. Lawrence with his native Nottinghamshire, although Lawrence left his mark on a great number of places. Helen Corke, for instance, even wrote a book with