Literature
An engaging reassessment of the celebrated essayist and his relevance to contemporary readers
An entertaining tour of Old English words for animals, from the author of The Wordhord: Daily Life in Old English, which Neil Gaiman called “a marvelous book”
An entertaining and illuminating collection of weird, wonderful, and downright baffling words from the origins of English—and what they reveal about the lives of the earliest English speakers
A beautifully illustrated guide to over seventy-five important journeys in world literature, spanning more than thirty countries and twenty-five hundred years
The first book in English to examine Leon Battista Alberti’s major literary works in Latin and Italian, which are often overshadowed by his achievements in architecture
A captivating portrait of the poet and the scientist who shared an enchanted view of nature
A compelling personal introduction to the life and work of Nobel Prize–winning writer Czesław Miłosz from his fellow Polish exile and acclaimed writer Eva Hoffman
The first book-length selection from the extraordinary unpublished diary of the late-Victorian writer “Michael Field”—the pen name of two female coauthors and romantic partners
Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism
A history of the chapter from its origins in antiquity to today
An illustrated biography of the pioneering British artist and writer, tracing her life and work through the many places around the world where she lived
The first biography of Henry VIII’s court fool William Somer, a legendary entertainer and one of the most intriguing figures of the Tudor age
A biography of the remarkable woman whose bestselling Mythology has introduced millions of readers to the classical world
What Thoreau can teach us about working—why we do it, what it does to us, and how we can make it more meaningful
A Dominican-born academic tells the story of how the Great Books transformed his life—and why they have the power to speak to people of all backgrounds
The first comprehensive biography of an extraordinary English poet and composer whose life was haunted by fighting in the First World War and, later, confinement in a mental asylum
The definitive biography of a leading twentieth-century French writer
From their acclaimed biographer, a final, powerful book about how Emerson, Thoreau, and William James forged resilience from devastating loss, changing the course of American thought
Revelatory talks about art and life with internationally acclaimed Israeli novelist Amos Oz
A unique look at Thomas Mann’s intellectual and political transformation during the crucial years of his exile in the United States
A vivid and original account of one of Ireland’s greatest poets by an acclaimed Irish historian and literary biographer
From the Nobel Prize–winning writer, a new collection of literary and personal essays
Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography
A double portrait of two of America’s most influential writers that reveals the surprising connections between them—and their uncanny relevance to our age of crisis
How modernist women writers used biographical writing to resist their exclusion from literary history
The definitive biography of a pivotal figure in American literary history
An incisive critique that examines the origins of contemporary American ideas about surveillance, terrorism, and white supremacy
How eighteenth-century literature depended on misinterpretation—and how this still shapes the way we read
A collection of new and startlingly original essays from an acclaimed poet, essayist, and playwright
Revisiting an almost-forgotten American interracial literary culture that advanced racial pluralism in the decades before the 1960s
Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism
A leading trans scholar and activist explores cultural representations of gender transition in the modern period
How Black poets have charted the direction of American poetics for the past two centuries
A literary and cultural history of coral—as an essential element of the marine ecosystem, a personal ornament, a global commodity, and a powerful political metaphor
A vivid historical imagining of life in the early United States
“One of the richest books ever to come my way.”—Annie Proulx, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Shipping News
From the award-winning biographer of Chaucer, the story of his most popular and scandalous character, from the Middle Ages to #MeToo
How nineteenth-century “disciplines of attention” anticipated the contemporary concern with mindfulness and being “spiritual but not religious”
From the UK Poet Laureate and bestselling translator, a spirited book that demystifies and celebrates the art of poetry today
Why a monumental diary by an aunt and niece who published poetry together as “Michael Field”—and who were partners and lovers for decades—is one of the great unknown works of late-Victorian and early modernist literature
A unique look at how classical notions of ascent and flight preoccupied early modern British writers and artists
An engaging look at how debates over the fate of literature in our digital age are powerfully conditioned by the nineteenth century's information revolution
How English has become a language of the people in India—one that enables the state but also empowers protests against it
A collection of colorful and candid essays and other pieces about Freud and his legacy today, featuring twenty-five leading writers
With original contributions by André Aciman • Sarah Boxer • Jennifer Finney Boylan • Susie Boyt • Gerald Early • Esther Freud •...