Literature

William Rubinstein continues his survey of topics of enduring popular debate by examining the controversy surrounding the true identity of England's famous bard.

On October 8th 1600, Thomas Fisher published A Midsummer Night's Dream in quarto format thought to have been printed from Shakespeare’s own handwritten copy.

The ancient library of Alexandria, destroyed by fire in AD270 is to be replaced by a new great library in the city to open this year, which will also serve as a local city museum.

Charles Baudelaire described Edgar Allan Poe's death, on October 7th, 1849, as 'almost a suicide, a suicide prepared for a long time'.

Edward Pearce compares the careers of two giants of Fleet Street, A.G. Gardiner and J.L. Garvin.

The author of Wuthering Heights died on 19 December, 1848, aged 30.

Jeremy Black charts its growth in Victorian Britain.

The author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was born on January 27th, 1832.

Kenneth Baker argues that cartoonists have let recent Prime Ministers off lightly compared with their eighteenth-century predecessors.

Maxim Gorky was revered over the lifetime of the Soviet Union as the leading artist and intellectual associated with the 1917 Revolution. But did he really approve of Lenin and the Bolshevik experiment?