The Revelatory Rabbits of Watership Down
On Christmas Eve we lost Richard Adams, the British writer whose 1972 novel Watership Down became one of the bestselling children’s books of all time.
How Charles Dickens Set the American Christmas Dinner Table
How did a religious celebration turn into a holiday that is all about home, family, and Christmas dinner? Turns out Charles Dickens has a lot to do with it.
The Art of Cutting Up Shakespeare
We should acknowledge the connection between cuts as bodily violence and cuts as violent ways of making art.
The Collapse of Meaning in a Post-Truth World
2016 was certainly an unstable time in history. Even the way we use language to convey our collective fears about the state of society seems fractured.
What Madame Bovary Revealed About the Freedom of the Press
Gustave Flaubert was put on trial for obscenity. Why didn't he fight government censorship harder?
Jane Austen and the Value of Flaws
Jane Austen is known for self-assured heroines and love stories. But she also wrote a lot about the importance of being wrong.
