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Articles on Novels

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Oregon’s Umpqua Dunes inspired the desert planet Arrakis in Frank Herbert’s ‘Dune.’ VWPics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

How ‘Dune’ became a beacon for the fledgling environmental movement − and a rallying cry for the new science of ecology

When Frank Herbert sat down in 1963 to start writing ‘Dune,’ he wasn’t thinking about how to leave Earth behind. He was thinking about how to save it.
Betty Smith’s novel sold millions of copies in the 1940s. Weegee/International Center of Photography via Getty Images

Betty Smith enchanted a generation of readers with ‘A Tree Grows in Brooklyn’ − even as she groused that she hoped Williamsburg would be flattened

No other 20th-century American novel did quite so much to burnish Brooklyn’s reputation. But Smith rarely saw her hometown through rose-colored glasses − and even grew to resent it.
‘Monkey: Journey To The West,’ a nine-act opera adaptation performed at the Chatelet Theater in France. Bertrand Rindoff Petroff/French Select via Getty Image

‘Journey to the West’: Why the classic Chinese novel’s mischievous monkey – and his very human quest – has inspired centuries of adaptations

There is a long tradition in China of associating monkeys with the mind – symbolism that has helped the novel’s most memorable character, the Monkey King, find universal resonance.
McCarthy attends the 2009 premiere of the film adaptation of his novel ‘The Road.’ Evan Agostini/AP Photo

Cormac McCarthy’s fearless approach to writing

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author was always willing to experiment with his prose, pacing and narration, crafting an oeuvre that varied wildly in style and structure.
The shortlisted books. Courtesy of the International Booker Prize

International Booker Prize 2023: our experts review the six shortlisted books

Reflecting on themes as diverse as motherhood, war, religion and memory, our experts were impressed by the 2023 shortlist.
An online exhibition includes access to personal newspaper advertisements from 1860 to 1879 transcribed from archives. (Jacquelyn Sundberg and Nathalie Cooke)

How encrypted Victorian newspaper personal ads shaped fiction like Sherlock and Enola Holmes

Personal ads of ‘the Agony Column’ were full of longing, tragedy and profound misfortune. Intrigue they generated has had an enduring effect on literature and film.

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