The most significant events in the history of books on the 16th of November 1849: Fyodor Dostoevsky is sentenced to death for anti-government activities. At the last moment, the death sentence was commuted to four years’ hard labour and exile at a prison camp at Omsk, Siberia, followed by enforced military service. He […]
The most significant events in the history of books on the 15th of November 1869: Charlotte Mew is born. This English poet spanned both the Victorian and modernist periods in English poetry; it is fitting, then, that among her admirers were both Thomas Hardy and Virginia Woolf. Among her most famous […]
The most significant events in the history of books on the 14th of November 1851: Herman Melville’s novel Moby-Dick is published in the United States, nearly a month after it had gone on sale in the UK. The novel sold badly (it now sells more copies in a year than it sold during […]
Some tips for the close reading of poetry, by Dr Oliver Tearle ‘Close reading’ is not as straightforward as it may appear. Many readers of poetry, for instance, may have encountered ‘close readings’ of poems which are anything but. They’re not so much ‘close’ as ‘at arm’s length’. How do […]
The most significant events in the history of books on the 13th of November 1850: Robert Louis Stevenson is born. However, as we’ve revealed elsewhere he legally renounced all rights to the 13th of November as his birthday, in a characteristic act of kindness (for more of which, see below). […]