Literature

For a few years an impoverished barrister became one of the most effective orators and journalists of the French Revolution, writes John Hartcup.

Douglas Hilt profiles a statesman, jurist and man of letters who devoted his generous gifts to the service of Bourbon Spain.

Anthony Dent examines the lives of English foresters, parkers, warreners, and the preservation of deer and boar for hunting, all in the era of the Bard.

Joanna Richardson finds that Anatole France's politics, like his private life, remained unorthodox, but the Dreyfus Affair in the 1890s changed his literary life.

The grandson of the famous scholar Ausonius, Paulinus was a cultivated country gentleman, who lived to see the final breakdown and disintegration of the Roman way of life. By Charles Johnston.

David Mitchell inspects Marinetti’s various admirations: the beauty of speed and war, and the destructive gestures of anarchists.

During troubled times over Hawaii, Oregon and the West Indies, Melville maintained a sympathetic attitude to Britain - not least to the Chartists, writes Charlotte Lindgren.

In 1897 The Gadfly was published in English by Ethel Lilian Voynich - ‘E.L.V.’ to her friends. Anne Fremantle introduces this revolutionary novel, set in nineteenth-century Italy, which has sold 5 million copies in Russia.

One summer day, the author of the famous 'Alice' books first sent his heroine down a rabbit hole into a fantastic underground world, enriched with his own memories of many different scenes and characters.

One of the strangest literary figures of his time died on June 17th, 1963.