In classic British detective stories, villains might be atavistic monsters, foreign menaces, or conniving professionals—all tied to aristocrats’ anxieties.

Set during the Polish-Soviet War of 1919–1920, Babel’s novel captured the indiscriminate violence and injustice of warfare.

The sixteenth-century handwritten collection of poetry and commentary offers a glimpse of intellectual life at the court of King Henry VIII.

The Nobel Laureate drew on a centuries-old legend when he put the Fisher King in The Waste Land.

The author of the English literary classic Wuthering Heights died tragically young, leaving her second novel unfinished.

In the Victorian era, a different kind of ghostwriting became popular—largely because it allowed men to take all the credit.

King Charles VI of France was the most exalted representative of a rash of "Glass Men," who appeared throughout Europe between the 15th and 17th centuries.

Stories emerged in the centuries after Alexander the Great’s death. They revolved around Alexander's failures, not his victories. The portrait that emerges is strangely poignant.

The writer Katherine Dunn died last week at age 70. Anyone who ever felt like an outsider found a friend in her 1989 novel Geek Love.

Debates over English spelling reform have existed for centuries.