Latest posts
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Scaramouche: He Was Born With a Gift of Laughter
‘He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad.’ On Scaramouche — the swashbuckler with a brain, set against the French Revolution.
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Captain Blood: The Doctor Who Became a Pirate
A physician is sold into slavery and escapes to become the Main’s most dashing pirate. On Captain Blood — the purest swashbuckler ever written.
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The Wizard of Oz: The Hidden Allegory
Beneath the yellow brick road, many read a coded parable of the 1890s. On The Wizard of Oz as hidden political allegory — and why fairy tales are never only for children.
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Jo March: The First Girl Who Wanted to Be a Writer
Return to Little Women and one figure blazes: Jo March, who wanted to be a writer more than a wife. On the patron saint of every girl who ever felt the same.
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The Art of War: The 2,500-Year-Old Book Everyone Still Quotes
A pamphlet by a Chinese general around 500 BC, still quoted in every boardroom. On The Art of War — whose real subject is not war but the mind that wins.
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Ethan Frome: Edith Wharton’s Coldest Book
Wharton’s startling escape from the gilded drawing-room — a frozen New England tragedy of two decent people trapped. On Ethan Frome, her coldest book.
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The Hunchback of Notre-Dame: The Cathedral Is the Hero
We remember Quasimodo and Esmeralda, but the real hero is the cathedral. On how Hugo’s novel literally saved Notre-Dame — and its dark tale of the outcast.
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Around the World in Eighty Days: The Race Against the Clock
A punctual gentleman bets he can circle the globe in eighty days. On Verne’s most delightful novel — a real race on real trains, with a perfect final twist.
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White Fang: The Wild Comes In
The mirror image of The Call of the Wild: a wild wolf-dog who comes in from the cold and learns, painfully, to love. On Jack London’s White Fang.
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A Princess of Mars: The Pulp That Launched the Space Age
A soldier lies down in a cave and wakes on Mars. On A Princess of Mars — the gloriously silly pulp that runs straight to Star Wars, and inspired the space age.