By Stephen GreenblattMacbetha play by William Shakespeare, directed by Rupert GooldMacbethan opera by Giuseppe Verdi, directed by Adrian NobleIn the company of Banquo, King Duncan arrives in great good spirits at the castle of his principal thane Macbeth to whose
By Claire MessudThe Plague of Dovesby Louise ErdrichOnly in the years following my French Catholic grandmother's death was it revealed to me that there is no such thing as 'magical realism.' There are, instead, culturally specific experiences of the real
By Mary BeardStop Me If You've Heard This: A History and Philosophy of Jokesby Jim HoltLooking at Laughter: Humor, Power, and Transgression in Roman Visual Culture, 100 BCâ€"AD 250by John R. ClarkeJust over halfway up the Column of Marcus Aurelius
By Michael Massing'0900: Link up with 2-4 IN patrol at Cross Sabers in IZ,' read the message from the press center of the Multi-National Force-Iraq. That meant that at nine the next morning I should show up at the crossed-sabers
By Hilary MantelThomas Cromwell was born in Putney, outside London, around 1485. Little is known of his family, but his father, a brewer and blacksmith, had court convictions for drunkenness and assault. Wolf Hall, my new novel from which this
By Zadie SmithThe Tremendous World I Have Inside My Head: Franz Kafka: A Biographical Essayby Louis BegleyHow to describe Kafka, the man? Like this, perhaps:
By Darryl PinckneyMy parents, old NAACP activists, live in front of CNN, and back in April I happened to be with them in Indianapolis the week before the Indiana primary, when the Reverend Jeremiah Wright controversy returned to embarrass Senator
By Thomas PowersAt a moment of serious challenge, battered by two wars, ballooning debt, and a faltering economy, the United States appears to have lost its capacity to think clearly. Consider what passes for national discussion on the matter of
By William DalrympleChola: Sacred Bronzes of Southern Indiacatalog of the 2007 exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, edited by Vidya DehejiaThe Book of Love: The Story of the Kamasutraby James McConnachieKamasutra: A New, Complete English Translation of the
By Israel RosenfieldThe Physiology of Truth: Neuroscience and Human Knowledgeby Jean-Pierre Changeux, translated from the French by M.B. DeBevoiseNicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors: From Molecular Biology to Cognitionby Jean-Pierre Changeux and Stuart J. EdelsteinConversations on Mind, Matter, and Mathematicsby Jean-Pierre Changeux and
By Edmund WhiteWartime Writings: 1943â€"1949by Marguerite Duras, edited by Sophie Bogaert and Olivier Corpet, and translated from the French by Linda CoverdaleThe War: A Memoirby Marguerite Duras,translated from the French by Barbara BrayThe North China Loverby Marguerite Duras, translated from
