Romeo and Juliet is routinely called “the world’s greatest love story”, as though it is all about romance. The play features some of the most lyrical passages in all of drama, and th
Despite the astringency of her writing, Austen is often thought of as the mother of romance. She has made the Regency period (1811-1820) almost synonymous with modern popular notions of the romantic.
Writers, playwrights and philosophers have alike been fascinated by Shakespeare’s Cleopatra. The contradictions in her character, said the writer Anna Jameson, fuse “into one brilliant imp
More than any other, Christianity is the world’s first truly global faith. Lying at the heart of Western civilization, Christianity has spread everywhere, and today is still winning converts in Africa
The British colonies that became the United States of America originated in the 17th century. The early colonists were for the most part young men, looking to make their fortunes and then return home.
The sun never set upon the British Empire, its critics liked to say, because God didn’t trust the British in the dark. The joke was a backhanded tribute to the astonishing achievement of t
Western slavery goes back 10,000 years to Mesopotamia, today’s Iraq, where a male slave was worth an orchard of date palms. Female slaves were called on for sexual services, gaining freedom only
Despite all the traumas, violence and setbacks which marked its progress, the story of the American civil rights movement is an uplifting one. It is the story of one of America’s greatest revolutions.
Ignorance about Islam runs deep in the West – ignorance of its rites, its beliefs, and above all its prophet. Who was Mohammad, the founder of Islam, and the man Muslims believe was God&rs
Russia and its Rulers is a book which traces the history of Russia since the last days of the tsars until modern times. Caroline Brooke shows how Alexander II tried to reform his vast, backward and al
In 1954 William Golding was 43 years old and a nobody. He had been demobbed from the navy at the end of World War Two and returned to his pre-war job teaching English at Bishop Wordsworth’s Scho
Conrad finished Heart of Darkness on 9th February, 1899 and on publication it had an impact as powerful as any long short story, or short novel ever written – it is only 38,000 words. It quickly
Born in Corsica, and a brilliant military leader during the French revolution, Napoleon became Emperor in 1804 and dominated European and indeed global affairs for the next ten years, leading France a
Charlotte McGann tells the story of human sexuality from the days of the hunter gatherers through to modern times. She explores the attitudes of the ancient Greeks and Romans to sex – and at the
Few novels have divided critics more than Mansfield Park. It has been fiercely argued over for more than 200 years, and with good reason: it is open to radically different interpretations. At its broa
The Merchant of Venice is now the most contentious of Shakespeare's plays. Its only rival in this respect is Othello, and this is because both plays deal with dangerous issues of race. In Othello
Macbeth may well be the most terrifying play in the English language, but it hasn’t always been seen that way. It has divided critics more deeply than any other Shakespearian tragedy – and
English writers have a way of invoking paternal imagery when thinking of Chaucer. “The Medieval word for a Poet, was a Maker,” said G.K Chesterton, and “there was never a man who was
Within two years of coming out in 1960, To Kill a Mockingbird had been translated into ten languages, won the Pulitzer Prize, and been made into an Oscar-winning film. It spent an astonishing 88 weeks
Persuasion is now probably the favourite Austen book after Pride and Prejudice. It tells the story of a life that might have been wasted, but is redeemed by love. It is a story by anyone who believes
Many of Robert Browning’s poems are concerned with different aspects of human identity. In the great dramatic monologues, such as Fra Lippo Lippi, Andrea del Sarto and My Last Duchess, the quest
Julius Caesar stands at the changing of the tide in Shakespeare’s career. By 1599, when he wrote the play, he had penned only two experimental tragedies (Romeo and Juliet and Titus Andronicus),
Wuthering Heights is one of the most written-about novels in the English language. Famous for the dark and passionate world Emily Brontë creates, and for the doomed relationship between Catherine
It is hard to find anyone nowadays who will dare venture a bad word on Mrs Dalloway: its status as a pioneer feminist text and a brilliantly experimental work is wholly secure. At the time of its publ
The Waste Land, first published in 1922, is not far from a century old, and it has still not been surpassed as the most famous of all modern poems. In many ways, it continues to define what we mean by
Hard Times is Dickens’s shortest novel. Some early critics argued that it lacked the genius of the characterisation and humour that mark his greatest works. One of the 20th century’s leadi
In his first tetralogy of history plays (Henry VI Parts 1, 2 and 3, and Richard III), Shakespeare offered the most extensive dramatic sequence since the great days of ancient Greek drama in Athens.
With the exception of Hamlet, Othello is Shakespeare’s most controversial play. It is also his most shocking. Dr Johnson famously described the ending as “not to be endured”, and H.H
Great Expectations is one of the best-selling Victorian novels of our time. No Dickens work, with the exception of A Christmas Carol, has been adapted more for both film and television. It has been as
In the 400 years since The Tempest was first staged, millions of words have been written about it. Critics, directors and actors have interpreted it in widely different ways and developed theories ran
When Middlemarch was first published in 1872, it was recognised as an unprecedented achievement and as marking a new era in the development of the novel. Edith Simcox, later a close friend and persona
For better or worse, Far from the Madding Crowd was the novel Victorian readers wanted him to write over and over again. One early reviewer was delighted by the pastoral elements: “when the shee
What explains the special quality of A Midsummer Night’s Dream? Samuel Johnson called the play “wild and fantastical”, noting how “all the parts in their various modes are well
Malcolm Hebron writes with one aim in mind: to help you read, understand and appreciate poetry. The English language has an extraordinarily rich stock of poems to its credit, from the epic Beowulf, wr
The war in North America between 1861 and 1865 cost around three quarters of a million lives. Few societies in world history have lost a higher percentage of their military-aged men in battle than did
The success of the Norman Conquest of Britain turned on one lucky break. For months, William of Normandy waited for an opportunity to cross the Channel and invade. But he needed favourable weather and
Writing matters. We all do it, and we all admire it when it’s done well. It doesn’t just express us; it represents us. We write to connect with other people – to make them laugh, or
Between 1933 and 1945, Germany was under the grip of the Third Reich. Headed by Adolf Hitler, this National Socialist state endeavoured to control every aspect of the nation’s political, social,
Throughout history, a handful of unusually driven individuals have been inspired to explore the limits of the known world, inspiring us and changing our perceptions of our planet through their courage
History is littered with failed attempts to unite Europe by force, from the Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire onwards. By contrast, the European Union began as a small and unglamorous attempt to u
