Reviving the festive spirit

What makes a novel of ideas?

Mark Twain and the making of an American literary revolution

How Chaucer reshaped English poetry

Many things can add that extra frisson of fear to horror fiction. Prime among them we might think of the time of day or the weather, the device we know and love as pathetic fallacy. A bleak and stormy

How Stalin shaped the Soviet collective memory

The dandy’s role as icon and irritant