Literature

During troubled times over Hawaii, Oregon and the West Indies, Melville maintained a sympathetic attitude to Britain - not least to the Chartists, writes Charlotte Lindgren.

In 1897 The Gadfly was published in English by Ethel Lilian Voynich - ‘E.L.V.’ to her friends. Anne Fremantle introduces this revolutionary novel, set in nineteenth-century Italy, which has sold 5 million copies in Russia.

One summer day, the author of the famous 'Alice' books first sent his heroine down a rabbit hole into a fantastic underground world, enriched with his own memories of many different scenes and characters.

One of the strangest literary figures of his time died on June 17th, 1963.

Lord Byron’s death there in April 1824 created an enduring legend. But the real story of the poet’s mission to help Greece in its revolution against Ottoman Turkish rule is one of hard-headed politics, which goes straight to the heart of the country’s present-day crisis, says Roderick Beaton.

Most of Shakespeare’s working life was spent in or around the City of London. By the time he retired, Greater London – a residential as well as a commercial metropolis – was beginning to spring up beyond its ancient limits.

Shakespeare was born into an England rejoicing in the peace and prospects of a new reign, but anxious about the future, writes Joel Hurstfield.

I.F. Clarke describes how the eighteenth century saw the beginnings of popular predictive fiction that attempted, in terms of politics or science, to forecast the life of later centuries.

George Pendle finds that the authoress of Little Arthur's History of England was also an inquisitive and adventurous traveller.

Sean McGlynn reconsiders the origins of the popular myth and suggests a new contender for the original folk hero; not an outlaw from Nottingham but a devoted royal servant from Kent, who opposed the French invasion against King John in 1216.