literature

Is loneliness our modern malaise? Former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy says the most common pathology he saw during his years of service “was not heart disease or diabetes; it was loneliness.” ...

Mark Twain ends the “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” with these words: “And so there ain’t nothing more to ...

Homeschooling parents may find the prospect of teaching their children to read a straightforward endeavor. When it comes ...

Some readers may be homeschooling their children this year. Others may have enrolled them in private, public, or ...

Commentary The late Kurt Vonnegut had a simple yet profound approach to writing. “When I write,” he said, ...

So I’m shambling around online, looking for some inspiration to write about literary heroines, fictional females who inspire ...

The stormtroopers of modernity have trampled much underfoot on their monstrous march across the historical landscape. Having abandoned ...

“I don’t get no respect.” Comedian Rodney Dangerfield made that catchphrase the heart of his act. Sometimes these ...

When I was around 9 or 10 years old, my family was visiting my mom’s parents, who operated ...

Commentary The benefits of literacy to an educated culture should be obvious and are so important they can’t ...

Though a history major in college and a disciple of Clio (the muse of history) ever since, I was ...

For two years in the early 1990s, I taught adult basic education twice a week in a prison ...

"I am human, and I think nothing human is alien to me." —Terence, Roman playwright Nothing human is ...

Anyone, at any age, can become a lover of literature and will be a better and happier person ...

“Captain Blood.” For years, mention of the novel by Rafael Sabatini (1875–1950) about pirates in the Caribbean would ...

In the 1945 movie “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” based on Betty Smith’s novel about immigrants living in ...

When it comes to reading great children’s literature, I’m making up for lost time. I was not a ...

If there’s something book lovers like almost as much as reading books, it’s talking about books. About the plot ...

I’d been reading Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” to my 10-year-old daughter. I admit I was immediately motivated by my ...

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Sometimes this is true. A picture comes in handy ...

STOCKHOLM—Two Nobel prizes will be awarded for literature this year after the Swedish literary academy that chooses the ...

The Russian poet Anna Akhmatova is too tragic and striking a figure ever to be forgotten. A famous portrait depicts ...

Anyone who has read classic literature knows that there are things in old books that offend our sensibilities. ...

In 1804, a 19-year-old Oxford University undergraduate named Thomas De Quincey swallowed a prescribed dose of opium to ...

For almost 20 years, I have written book reviews for a weekly newspaper in Western North Carolina. In ...

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the chaos and the noise that seems to be a normal part ...

These days, William Cowper (1731–1800) isn’t likely to be found on anyone’s list of Top 20 English Poets. ...