There is an interesting new story emerging about the lengths of speeches in early modern plays. In the space of five years there was a dramatic shift in style – and it wasn’t just Shakespeare.
In Thomas Hardy’s novel The Woodlanders, the trees sing. Hardy’s exploration of the relationship between humans and trees resonates in an epoch of environmental catastrophe.
Stories about witches are having a resurgence.
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He is most famous for The Woman in White, but with their intriguing female characters and investigation of social issues, it’s time to delve into Wilkie Collins’ other novels.
Ian McEwan has forged his own genre – crisply realist surfaces mixed with sudden excursions into the darkest corridors of the mind. In Lessons, the central character reveals a writerly consciousness.
Lucrezia de Medici – Alessandro Allori (1560).
Public domain
A hip-hop artist and scholar says that while rap stresses the oral tradition, the music is also rife with references to a rich range of literature that spans the globe.
Julian the Apostate presiding at a conference of sectarians – Edward Armitage (1875).
Public domain
Chaucer’s career as a secret agent helped him assume different disguises in his writing. Some scholars interpret this role-playing as Chaucer being sexist and anti-Semitic.
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