Confessions by Saint Augustine (Oxford, $8). The first psychological analysis of the human condition—sublimely wise, rich with insights into the covert motivations of the human heart—does the spadework for Freud’s own explorations, 1,500 years later.
Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust (Vintage, $64). Whoever perseveres to the last chapters of this glorious text—some 4,000 pages filled with unsurpassed splendor and wit concerning turn-of-the-century European life—will be rewarded by an illumination into the nature of time and memory. For many of us, it has been nothing less than life-transforming.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The Tragic Muse by Henry James (Kessinger, $43). This work of the master’s late Middle Period—more accessible than The Wings of the Dove or The Golden Bowl—offers poignant perceptions into the nature of ambition and lust, and also into the torments that often plague those who choose art as a vocation.
Break, Blow, Burn by Camille Paglia (Pantheon, $20). Our foremost cultural provocateur takes on a new incarnation as a tame and measured literary critic. In pellucid prose, with no academic cant or obfuscation whatever, Paglia brilliantly explores the structure and symbolism of 43 poems of the Anglo-American tradition. As entertaining as it is dazzlingly erudite, Break, Blow, Burn is capable of re-energizing any reader’s engagement with poetry.
Regeneration by Pat Barker (Penguin, $15). The first installment in this British novelist’s brilliant World War I trilogy concerns the poet Siegried Sassoon and his harrowing saga as a conscientious objector, when he was sent to a psychiatric hospital for refusing military service. Barker’s complex interplay of fiction and historical fact breaks new ground in the genre of the historical novel.
The Untouchable
-
The Icelandic women’s strike 50 years onIn The Spotlight The nation is ‘still no paradise’ for women, say campaigners
-
Mall World: why are people dreaming about a shopping centre?Under The Radar Thousands of strangers are dreaming about the same thing and no one sure why
-
Why scientists are attempting nuclear fusionThe Explainer Harnessing the reaction that powers the stars could offer a potentially unlimited source of carbon-free energy, and the race is hotting up
-
Gilbert King’s 6 favorite books about the search for justiceFeature The journalist recommends works by Bryan Stevenson, David Grann, and more
-
Nathan Harris’ 6 favorite books that turn adventures into revelationsFeature The author recommends works by Kazuo Ishiguro, Ian McGuire, and more
-
Marisa Silver’s 6 favorite books that capture a lifetimeFeature The author recommends works by John Williams, Ian McEwan, and more
-
Lou Berney’s 6 favorite books with powerful storytellingFeature The award-winning author recommends works by Dorothy B. Hughes, James McBride, and more
-
Elizabeth Gilbert’s favorite books about women overcoming difficultiesFeature The author recommends works by Tove Jansson, Lauren Groff, and more
-
Fannie Flagg’s 6 favorite books that sparked her imaginationFeature The author recommends works by Johanna Spyri, John Steinbeck, and more
-
Jessica Francis Kane's 6 favorite books that prove less is moreFeature The author recommends works by Penelope Fitzgerald, Marie-Helene Bertino, and more
-
Keith McNally's 6 favorite books that have ambitious charactersFeature The London-born restaurateur recommends works by Leo Tolstoy, John le Carré, and more
