Constantine Cavafy’s melancholy and majesty
The 20th-century Greek-Alexandrian poet wrote of a faded grandeur that stood for all humanity.
ByLiterature
Immerse yourself in the captivating world of literature with our collection of articles, offering literary analysis, book recommendations, author spotlights, and thought-provoking discussions that celebrate the written word.
Robert Louis Stevenson’s adventures in storytelling
A new biography reveals the author as shaped by conflicting influences – and affirms his status as a serious writer.
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Lord Byron’s sex education
This summer, take the epic satire Don Juan to the beach.
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What Bridget Phillipson can learn from Conservative education policy
In a new book, the former schools minister Nick Gibb defends a strong, if controversial legacy.
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Who loves the sun?
Also this week: Sweet summer reading and why we need immigrants.
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Ignore the pessimists – we are living through a literary golden age
Literature is booming. Literary culture needs to catch up.
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If literature is dead, at least the funeral is well attended
And Dostoevsky is here too!
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The romantasy infatuation
The best-selling genre in publishing combines magical worlds, steamy sex and unfortunate prose.
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English literature’s last stand
Stefan Collini’s new book explores why such a prestigious academic discipline finds itself on the margins of modern society.
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Geoff Dyer’s English journey
The writer on family, class and life lessons from a decade in America.
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We are all Mrs Dalloway now
For Virginia Woolf, stream of consciousness was a method. Now, it’s a way of life.
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The revenge of the young male novelist
Can good writing solve our crisis of masculinity?
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Sharing a bed with Edmund White
Epic sexual promiscuity was the key to White’s literary output.
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The epic of James Joyce
How Richard Ellmann’s capacious 1959 biography shaped modern life writing.
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The vagus nerve industry
Can a small and unassuming bundle of fibres really be the key to better health and a longer life?
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There is no contemporary fiction
The novel promises an ending. But world events will not be so neatly contained.
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A cold childhood
My unheated home wasn’t a temporary discomfort. The chill got into my bones.
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Gertrude Stein’s quest for fame
The modernist phenomenon believed bad attention was better than none at all.
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Mark Twain and the limits of biography
The great American writer witnessed the forging of his nation – but Ron Chernow’s portrait cannot see beyond its subject.
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Who was the real DH Lawrence?
A BBC series considers the novelist’s three great themes: sex, nature and class.
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