In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle enjoys the adventures of the Puritan swordsman, Solomon Kane Some writers have just one great character in them. Conan Doyle created a range of memorable characters, from Professor Challenger to Sir Nigel Loring of the Hundred Years’ War, but […]
Macbeth is, along with the character of Iago in Othello and his earlier portrayal of Richard III, William Shakespeare’s most powerful exploration and analysis of evil. Although we can find precursors to Macbeth in the murderer-turned-conscience-stricken-men of Shakespeare’s earlier plays – notably the conspirator Brutus in Julius Caesar and Claudius […]
Poets are often concerned with beauty and the beautiful. But what are the best poems about beauty? In this post, we’ve suggested ten of the finest poems about the beautiful. Edmund Spenser, ‘The sovereign beauty which I do admire’. We begin this pick of classic poems about beauty and all […]