Angels Ever Bright and Fair
A short story written in the earliest days of the First World War became an enduring symbol of British providence.
Literature
Frankenstein: Between Two Worlds
Mary Shelley’s great novel is not a commentary on the Industrial Revolution, nor is it a simple retelling of the myth of Prometheus. It is far more original than that.
Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover (Quote)
How does the reader decide if a history book is worth their time?
The Enigma of Emily Brontë
Since the moment Emily Brontë died we have tried – and failed – to understand who she was.
The Invention of Fiction
What goes on in other people’s minds? The idea of writing about what we can never know – the interior lives of others – was born in the fertile hybrid culture of 12th-century England and made possible by the pursuit of romantic love.
Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover
The Parisian pornographer who modernised literature.
The Best History Books 2017
From ancient Greece to the Second World War, from the papacy to the Antichrist, from Byzantium to China and the story of the Jewish people, historians select their favourite books of the past year.
Sarah Bernhardt, Divine Salomé
Wild yet chaste, impudent and ageless, Sarah Bernhardt was inescapably Oscar Wilde’s Salomé, ‘the most splendid creation’.
Death of Walt Whitman
The American poet died on March 26th, 1892 after completing his masterpiece, Leaves of Grass, a year earlier.
Order from Chaos
Despite its popularity in France, the political memoir took a while to get going in Britain. It was Lord Clarendon’s epic attempt to make sense of the turbulent 17th century that slowly set the ball rolling.