Books
A major-general names the guilty men
The author of this primer to the long-overdue Chilcot report, a retired sapper (Royal Engineers) major-general, nails his colours to…
The prophet Tolstoy and his dodgy vicar
One fine day in June 1896, a lone Russian nihilist visited Leo Tolstoy on his country estate. Come to hear…
Buffoonery
Not so much striding across the political landscape as huffing and puffing his way through the back rooms, Clive Palmer…
A window on Chaucer’s cramped, scary, smelly world
Sam Leith describes the frequently lonely, squalid and hapless life of the father of English poetry
An ill-waged war against the war on drugs
Since drugs became popular, there have been countless books on what to do with them. The most interesting are those…
Politics as an aphrodisiac: the secret of the Disraelis’ happy marriage
The long, happy and unlikely marriage of the great Conservative leader Disraeli and his wife Mary Anne, 12 years his…
William Marshal: kingmaker — or just king of the joust?
In February 1861 a 21-year-old French medievalist called Paul Meyer walked into Sotheby’s auction house near Covent Garden. He had…
The really shocking thing about Michel Houllebecq’s Soumission — he rather likes Islam
News of Michel Houllebecq’s Soumission caused such a stir that the book was pirated online before publication. David Sexton reports on the latest literary event in France
Title Stories: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
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Time-travel, smugglers, arsenic — what’s not to like in Sally Gardner’s novel for teenagers?
Which of us, as an adolescent, did not experience at some point a terrible sense of not belonging? Which of…
Patrick George: painting some of his best work at 91
‘If I see something I like I wish to tell someone else; this… is why I paint.’ Patrick George is…
Books and arts
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Title Stories: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
The post Title Stories: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov appeared first on The Spectator. Got something to add? Join the discussion…
Title Stories: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below.
‘J’adore Michel’
Michel Houellebecq’s sixth novel, imagining an Islamic government taking power in France in 2022, has been widely assumed to be…
‘J’adore Michel’
Michel Houellebecq’s sixth novel, imagining an Islamic government taking power in France in 2022, has been widely assumed to be…
The short story in Britain today: enough to make Conan Doyle weep
Philip Hensher bewails the current neglect of the short story, especially in the British literary press
Cowboys and Muslims: that’s the new global power struggle, according to the latest great American novel
‘I’m pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: if you fuck with me, I’ll kill you all.’ When ‘The…
Bish bash Bosphorus: Elif Shafak’s saga of love and death in Istanbul is crammed with incident on every page
If you like to curl up by the fire with a proper, old-fashioned, saga-style tale about a boy and his…
Title stories: The moon and sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham
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The turbulent reign of King Cotton: the dark history of one of the world’s most important commodities
If not for cotton, we would still be wearing wool. To equal current cotton production, we would need seven billion…
The hidden history of one of the greatest treasures of the early Renaissance: Florence’s Brancacci chapel
In 1439 Abraham of Souzdal, a Russian bishop visiting Florence, was in the audience in Santa Maria del Carmine for…
Rugger, Robin Hood and Rupert of the Rhine: enthusiasms of the young Antonia Fraser
Despite it being a well known fact that Antonia Fraser had earthly parents, I had always imagined that she had…
Black Knight
A few forgotten objects Dad passed on: copperplate pens with long nail nibs, still stained black, one coal-fire red, laid…
This Winter Journey goes far beyond expectation
You can tell a lot about a book from its bibliography. It’s the non-fiction equivalent of skipping to the final…
