Literary criticism
Love and the Novel by Christina Lupton review – can you live life by the book?
In this clever, thought-provoking memoir, a married academic’s life is ‘derailed by desire’. Can reading help her find a way forward?
Rachel Cooke
12, Jun, 2022 @8:00 AM
Emma Smith: ‘Books do extraordinary work, but we can overstate their importance’
The Shakespeare critic and author on her new history of books and readers, and how it’s made her think about the contents of our shelves
Alex Preston
30, Apr, 2022 @5:00 PM
A rarely acknowledged leading light of literary criticism | Letter
Letter: Cambridge University may not have always welcomed female academics, but Laura Riding’s work inspired an era of new criticism, writes Dr Mark Jacobs
Letters
29, Apr, 2022 @3:24 PM
Orwell, the towering conscience of a generation, unmasked | Letter
Letter: In an essay, the novelist confesses that he might possibly have written reviews of books he had not read, writes Peter Davis
Letters
29, Apr, 2022 @3:24 PM
Critical Revolutionaries by Terry Eagleton review – five critics who changed the way we read
How modern literary criticism came to be – with a little help from TS Eliot, FR Leavis, Raymond Williams and others
Kathryn Hughes
21, Apr, 2022 @6:30 AM
Is Hamlet complicated? That is the question | Letters
Letters: Robin Jarvis and Michael Pyke disagree with Rhoda Koenig’s argument that the play is far more straightforward than critics make out
Letters
15, Feb, 2022 @5:34 PM
Rotten state of Hamlet analysis
Letters: Hamlet isn’t as mysterious a play as the critics make out, according to Rhoda Koenig
Letters
13, Feb, 2022 @6:36 PM
In brief: The Memory Monster; The Lives of Literature; Delicacy – reviews
A provocative novel of Jewish remembrance, a bold work of criticism and a sweet-toothed memoir
Hephzibah Anderson
16, Jan, 2022 @1:00 PM
New book celebrates the lost work of Shakespeare’s female editors
Scholar Molly Yarn identifies more than 60 women who have contributed to the history of the Bard’s works, and believes there are still more to find
Alison Flood
09, Dec, 2021 @10:22 AM
The Sinner and the Saint review – the story behind Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment
Kevin Birmingham’s clear and gripping new study of the Russian writer digs deep into the inspiration for Raskolnikov
Ian Thomson
15, Nov, 2021 @9:00 AM
Around the World in 80 Books by David Damrosch review – an erudite tour of the author’s head
Inspired by Phileas Fogg, an academic treks across the globe without leaving his library in a hymn to the unifying power of literature
Peter Conrad
24, Oct, 2021 @10:00 AM
Wonderworks by Angus Fletcher review – the power of invention
A close analysis of the science of stories reveals literature’s ability to change its readers, and the world
Jane Smiley
09, Sep, 2021 @8:00 AM
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