The real crisis of literacy – we’re reading too much
In the age of AI, with its blizzard of words, we should relish our pre-linguistic sensibilities
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.
David Szalay: “I think of myself as a European novelist”
The Booker Prize winner on masculinity, sex and what Keir Starmer should read
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Why László Krasznahorkai won the Nobel Prize in Literature
The Hungarian author’s work has a huge and haunting vision
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Thomas Pynchon’s lasting triumph
His latest novel borrows too freely from his previous work. But what work it has been
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Has Kemi Badenoch actually read Terry Pratchett?
She claims he’s her favourite author, but his books have a few lessons for her
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The terrible contradictions of Tolstoy
Maxim Gorky’s reminiscences about his literary hero are just as avant-garde today as they were in the 1920s
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The good fortune of growing older
Also this week: City kids on country farms, and keeping on lurruping
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The manosphere’s literary muscle men
Two novels explore the crippling solitude of a pair of ripped English professors
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Christopher Marlowe’s stage fright
Stephen Greenblatt’s attempt to reconstruct the playwright’s story is brilliant – but Marlowe the man remains a mystery
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Constantine Cavafy’s melancholy and majesty
The 20th-century Greek-Alexandrian poet wrote of a faded grandeur that stood for all humanity.
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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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