Literature: History & Criticism

Born in 1926 in France, Foucault is one of those rare philosophers who has become a cult figure. Over the course of his life he dabbled in drugs, p...

The last days of five great thinkers, writers and artists - as they come to terms with the reality of approaching deathKatie Roiphe's extraordinary...

The only autobiography by the great Roland Barthes, philosopher, literary theorist and semiotician.This is the autobiography of one of the greatest...

From the author of the definitive biography of Fyodor Dostoevsky, never-before-published lectures that provide an accessible introduction to the Ru...

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER PICKED BY THE SUNDAY TIMES, GUARDIAN, INDEPENDENT, IRISH TIMES, SPECTATOR, TLS, NEW STATESMAN, MAIL ON SUNDAY, I PAP...

Homecoming, haunting, nostalgia, desire: these are some of the themes evoked by the beguiling motif of the lighted window in literature and art. In...

The perfect Father's Day giftTolkien's works have inspired artists for generations and have given rise to myriad interpretations of the rich and ma...

The Sonnets explore many of Shakespeare's most common themes: jealousy, betrayal, melancholy. They ache with unfulfilled longing, and, for many, th...