Michael Wood

Michael Wood is a man of many parts. On Empson is out now.

In the LRB Archive:

• The Profusion Effect: Salman Rushdie’s ‘Quichotte’ · 12 September 2019

  • Quichotte by Salman Rushdie

• At the Movies · 12 September 2019

• At the Movies · 1 August 2019

• At the Movies · 4 July 2019

• At the Movies · 6 June 2019

• At the Movies · 9 May 2019

• It’s Hard to Stop: Sartre’s Stories · 18 April 2019

• At the Movies · 4 April 2019

• Angry or Evil?: Brecht’s Poems · 21 March 2019

  • The Collected Poems of Bertolt Brecht translated by Tom Kuhn and David Constantine

• At the Movies · 21 February 2019

• At the Movies · 24 January 2019

• Don’t worry about the pronouns: Iris Murdoch’s First Novel · 3 January 2019

  • Under the Net by Iris Murdoch

• At the Movies · 20 December 2018

• At the Movies · 22 November 2018

• Nothing like metonymy when you’re at the movies: ‘The Third Man & Other Stories’ · 8 November 2018

  • The Third Man & Other Stories by Graham Greene

• At the Movies · 25 October 2018

• At the Movies · 27 September 2018

• At the Movies · 30 August 2018

• Conversations with Myself: Fernando Pessoa · 19 July 2018

  • The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa, translated by Margaret Jull Costa

• At the Movies · 21 June 2018

• At the Movies · 24 May 2018

• At the Movies · 26 April 2018

• Vileness: Di Benedetto’s Style · 5 April 2018

  • Zama by Antonio Di Benedetto, translated by Esther Allen
  • Nest in the Bones by Antonio Di Benedetto, translated by Martina Broner

• At the Movies · 22 March 2018

• At the Movies · 22 February 2018

  • Phantom Thread directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

• At the Movies · 25 January 2018

  • Memories of Underdevelopment directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea

• The Fantastic Fact: John Banville · 4 January 2018

  • Mrs Osmond by John Banville

• No Room for Losers: ‘Proust and his Banker’ · 14 December 2017

  • Proust and His Banker: In Search of Time Squandered by Gian Balsamo

• At the Movies · 30 November 2017

  • Murder on the Orient Express directed by Kenneth Brannagh

• At the Movies · 2 November 2017

  • Blade Runner 2049 directed by Denis Villeneuve

• At the Movies · 21 September 2017

  • Detroit directed by Kathryn Bigelow

• The French are not men: L’affaire Dreyfus · 7 September 2017

  • Lettres à la marquise: correspondance inédite avec Marie Arconati Visconti by Alfred Dreyfus, edited by Philippe Oriol

• At the Movies · 17 August 2017

  • Dunkirk directed by Christopher Nolan

• At the Movies · 13 July 2017

  • Wonder Woman directed by Patty Jenkins

• We Laughed, We Clowned: Diana Trilling · 29 June 2017

  • The Untold Journey: The Life of Diana Trilling by Natalie Robins

• At the Movies · 15 June 2017

  • Alien: Covenant directed by Ridley Scott

• At the Movies · 18 May 2017

  • Blow-Up directed by Michelangelo Antonioni

• Empson’s Buddha · 4 May 2017

• Fritz Lang and the Life of Crime · 20 April 2017

• Video: Fritz Lang’s Use of Sound · 5 April 2017

• At the Movies · 30 March 2017

  • The Salesman directed by Asghar Farhadi

• At the Movies · 16 February 2017

  • Moonlight directed by Barry Jenkins

• At the Movies · 19 January 2017

  • La La Land directed by Damien Chazelle

• At the Movies · 15 December 2016

  • Napoléon directed by Abel Gance

• On His Trapeze: Roland Barthes · 17 November 2016

  • Barthes: A Biography by Tiphaine Samoyault, translated by Andrew Brown

• At the Movies · 17 November 2016

  • The Innocents directed by Anne Fontaine

• At the Movies · 20 October 2016

  • De Palma directed by Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow

• At the Movies · 22 September 2016

• At the Movies · 11 August 2016

  • Muriel directed by Alain Resnais

• Nothing Is Unmixed: Shakespeare’s Vows · 28 July 2016

  • Shakespeare’s Binding Language by John Kerrigan

• At the Movies · 14 July 2016

  • Nostalghia directed by Andrei Tarkovsky

• At the Movies · 16 June 2016

  • Captain America: Civil War directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo

• At the Movies · 19 May 2016

  • Miles Ahead directed by Don Cheadle

• Kinks on the Kinks: Plots · 5 May 2016

  • Plots by Robert Belknap

• At the Movies · 21 April 2016

  • Anomalisa directed by Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson

• At the Movies · 17 March 2016

  • Hail, Caesar! directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

• At the Movies · 18 February 2016

  • The Big Short directed by Adam McKay

• We do it all the time · 4 February 2016

• At the Movies · 21 January 2016

  • Le Mépris directed by Jean-Luc Godard

• At the Movies · 17 December 2015

• At the Movies · 19 November 2015

  • Mulholland Drive directed by David Lynch

• At the Movies · 22 October 2015

  • The Martian directed by Ridley Scott

• At the Movies · 24 September 2015

• It didn’t look like a bird: The New Formalism · 27 August 2015

  • Forms: Whole, Rhythm, Hierarchy, Network by Caroline Levine

• At the Movies · 30 July 2015

  • Touch of Evil directed by Orson Welles

• At the Movies · 2 July 2015

  • The Long Good Friday directed by John Mackenzie

• At the Movies · 4 June 2015

• At the Movies · 7 May 2015

  • Force Majeure directed by Ruben Östlund
  • Clouds of Sils Maria directed by Olivier Assayas

• At the Movies · 9 April 2015

  • It Follows directed by David Robert Mitchell

• At the Movies · 5 March 2015

• What is concrete?: Erich Auerbach · 5 March 2015

  • Time, History and Literature: Selected Essays of Erich Auerbach by Erich Auerbach, edited by James Porter, translated by Jane Newman

• At the Movies · 5 February 2015

  • Inherent Vice directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

• At the Movies · 8 January 2015

  • Leviathan directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev

• Nothing but the Worst: Paul de Man · 8 January 2015

  • The Paul de Man Notebooks edited by Martin McQuillan
  • The Double Life of Paul de Man by Evelyn Barish

• At the Movies · 20 November 2014

  • Playtime directed by Jacques Tati

• Dear Poochums: Letters to Véra · 23 October 2014

  • Letters to Véra by Vladimir Nabokov, edited and translated by Olga Voronina and Brian Boyd

• At the Movies · 23 October 2014

  • Gone Girl directed by David Fincher

• At the Movies · 25 September 2014

  • A Most Wanted Man directed by Anton Corbijn

• At the Movies · 16 August 2014

• At the Movies · 17 July 2014

  • Judex directed by Georges Franju

• At the Movies · 19 June 2014

  • Fading Gigolo directed by John Turturro

• At the Movies · 22 May 2014

  • An Autumn Afternoon directed by Yasujirō Ozu

• Beat the carpets later!: Proust’s Noisy Neighbours · 8 May 2014

  • Lettres à sa voisine by Marcel Proust, edited by Estelle Gaudry and Jean-Yves Tadié

• At the Movies · 17 April 2014

  • The Grand Budapest Hotel directed by Wes Anderson

• At the Movies · 6 March 2014

  • The Wolf of Wall Street directed by Martin Scorsese

• At the Movies · 6 February 2014

  • 12 Years a Slave directed by Steve McQueen

• Report from the Interior: Fredric Jameson · 9 January 2014

  • The Antinomies of Realism by Fredric Jameson

• At the Movies · 9 January 2014

  • The Innocents directed by Jack Clayton

• At the Movies · 5 December 2013

  • To Be or Not to Be directed by Ernst Lubitsch

• Living Dead Man: Operation Massacre · 7 November 2013

  • Operation Massacre by Rodolfo Walsh, translated by Daniella Gitlin

• At the Movies · 24 October 2013

  • Blue Jasmine directed by Woody Allen

• At the Movies · 26 September 2013

  • Upstream Colour directed by Shane Carruth

• At the Movies · 29 August 2013

  • Only God Forgives directed by Nicolas Winding Refn

• Frazzle: Chinese Whispers · 8 August 2013

  • Multiples edited by Adam Thirlwell

• At the Movies · 8 August 2013

  • Cleopatra directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz

• Real isn’t real: Octavio Paz · 4 July 2013

  • The Poems of Octavio Paz edited and translated by Eliot Weinberger

• At the Movies · 4 July 2013

  • Behind the Candelabra directed by Steven Soderbergh

• At the Movies · 6 June 2013

  • Journey to Italy directed by Roberto Rossellini

• At the Movies · 9 May 2013

  • The Servant directed by Joseph Losey

• From a Summer to an Autumn: Julian Barnes · 9 May 2013

  • Levels of Life by Julian Barnes

• Thinking about Death: Why does the world exist? · 21 March 2013

  • Why Does the World Exist?: An Existential Detective Story by Jim Holt

• At the Movies · 21 March 2013

  • The Gospel According to Saint Matthew directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini

• At the Movies · 21 February 2013

  • Zero Dark Thirty directed by Kathryn Bigelow

• At the Movies · 24 January 2013

  • Django Unchained directed by Quentin Tarantino

• At the Movies · 20 December 2012

  • Lincoln directed by Steven Spielberg

• Protests with Parasols: Proust, Dreyfus, Israel · 20 December 2012

  • Proust among the Nations: From Dreyfus to the Middle East by Jacqueline Rose

• At the Movies · 22 November 2012

  • Skyfall directed by Sam Mendes

• At the Movies · 11 October 2012

  • The Master directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

• Not What Anybody Says: James Fenton · 13 September 2012

  • Yellow Tulips: Poems 1968-2011 by James Fenton

• At the Movies · 30 August 2012

  • The Lodger directed by Alfred Hitchcock

• Complicated System of Traps: Geoff Dyer’s ‘Zona’ · 19 July 2012

  • Zona: A Book about a Film about a Journey to a Room by Geoff Dyer

• At the Movies · 5 July 2012

  • Prometheus directed by Ridley Scott

• At the Movies · 7 June 2012

  • The Dictator directed by Larry Charles

• At the Movies · 10 May 2012

  • Once upon a Time in Anatolia directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan

• At the Movies · 5 April 2012

  • The Bad and the Beautiful directed by Vincente Minnelli

• Proust and His Mother · 22 March 2012

• At the Movies · 8 March 2012

  • A Dangerous Method directed by David Cronenberg

• At the Movies · 9 February 2012

  • The Artist directed by Michel Hazanavicius

• Eaten by Owls: Mervyn Peake · 26 January 2012

  • Peake’s Progress: Selected Writings and Drawings of Mervyn Peake edited by Maeve Gilmore
  • The Illustrated Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake
  • Titus Awakes by Maeve Gilmore and Mervyn Peake
  • Complete Nonsense by Mervyn Peake
  • A Book of Nonsense by Mervyn Peake

• At the Movies · 5 January 2012

  • Mysteries of Lisbon directed by Raúl Ruiz

• Must we pay for Sanskrit? · 15 December 2011

• At the Movies · 1 December 2011

  • The Ides of March directed by George Clooney

• At the Movies · 3 November 2011

• At the Movies · 6 October 2011

  • Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy directed by Tomas Alfredson

• Stupidly English: Julian Barnes · 22 September 2011

  • The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

• At the Movies · 8 September 2011

  • Project Nim directed by James Marsh
  • Rise of the Planet of the Apes directed by Rupert Wyatt

• At the Movies · 28 July 2011

  • The Tree of Life directed by Terrence Malick

• At the Movies · 14 July 2011

  • Senna directed by Asif Kapadia

• At the Movies · 16 June 2011

• I really mean like: Auden’s Likes and Dislikes · 2 June 2011

  • The Complete Works of W.H. Auden: Prose Vol. IV, 1956-62 edited by Edward Mendelson

• At the Movies · 28 April 2011

  • Battleship Potemkin directed by Sergei Eisenstein

• At the Movies · 31 March 2011

  • The Tempest directed by Julie Taymor

• At the Movies · 3 March 2011

  • Les Diaboliques directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot

• Before They Met: Dr Zhivago · 17 February 2011

  • Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky

• At the Movies · 3 February 2011

  • True Grit directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

• At the Movies · 6 January 2011

  • The Shop around the Corner directed by Ernst Lubitsch

• Quashed Quotatoes: Finnegans Wake · 16 December 2010

  • Finnegans Wake by James Joyce, edited by Danis Rose and John O’Hanlon
  • Joyce’s Disciples Disciplined edited by Tim Conley

• At the Movies · 2 December 2010

  • The Peeping Tom directed by Michael Powell

• At the Movies · 4 November 2010

  • The Social Network directed by David Fincher

• At the Movies · 7 October 2010

  • Certified Copy directed by Abbas Kiarostami

• Memories of Frank Kermode · 23 September 2010

• At the Movies · 9 September 2010

  • Five Easy Pieces by Bob Raphelson

• Losing the Light: Memories of Camus · 19 August 2010

  • L’Eté by Albert Camus
  • Albert Camus: Solitaire et Solidaire by Catherine Camus
  • Albert Camus: Elements of a Life by Robert Zaretsky
  • Albert Camus: Fils d’Alger by Alain Vircondelet

• At the Movies · 22 July 2010

  • Breathless directed by Jean-Luc Godard

• The Unreachable Real: Borges · 8 July 2010

  • The Sonnets by Jorge Luis Borges, edited by Stephen Kessler
  • Poems of the Night by Jorge Luis Borges, edited by Efraín Kristal

• At the Movies · 24 June 2010

  • Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans directed by Werner Herzog

• This is America, man: ‘Treme’ and ‘The Wire’ · 27 May 2010

  • The Wire created by David Simon
  • Treme created by Eric Overmyer and David Simon

• At the Movies · 22 April 2010

  • The Ghost Writer directed by Roman Polanski
  • The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo directed by Niels Arden Oplev

• The Paranoid Elite: DeLillo · 22 April 2010

  • Point Omega by Don DeLillo

• At the Movies · 25 March 2010

  • Alice in Wonderland directed by Tim Burton

• At the Movies · 25 February 2010

  • Yasujiro Ozu Season

• At the Movies · 28 January 2010

  • Avatar directed by James Cameron

• What happened to Flora?: Nabokov’s Cards · 7 January 2010

  • The Original of Laura: (Dying is Fun) A Novel in Fragments by Vladimir Nabokov

• The Subtleties of Frank Kermode · 17 December 2009

• At the Movies · 17 December 2009

  • A Serious Man directed by Ethan Cohen and Joel Cohen

• A Lot of Travail: T.S. Eliot’s Letters · 3 December 2009

  • The Letters of T.S. Eliot, Vol. II: 1923-25 edited by Valerie Eliot and Hugh Haughton

• Presence of Mind: Barthes · 19 November 2009

  • Carnets du voyage en Chine by Roland Barthes
  • Journal de deuil by Roland Barthes

• At the Movies · 5 November 2009

• At the Movies · 8 October 2009

  • District 9 directed by Neill Blomkamp

• Short Cuts: Delete! · 24 September 2009

• At the Movies · 10 September 2009

  • Inglourious Basterds directed by Quentin Tarantino

• Eskapizm: Oblomov · 6 August 2009

  • Oblomov by Ivan Goncharov, translated by Marian Schwartz

• At the Movies · 6 August 2009

  • The Taking of Pelham One Two Three directed by Tony Scott

• At the Movies · 9 July 2009

  • North by Northwest directed by Alfred Hitchcock

• Let’s Cut to the Wail: The Oresteia according to Anne Carson · 11 June 2009

  • An Oresteia translated by Anne Carson

• At the Movies · 11 June 2009

  • Synecdoche, New York directed by Charlie Kaufman

• At the Movies · 14 May 2009

  • Let the Right One In directed by Tomas Alfredson

• A Preference for Torquemada: G.K. Chesterton · 9 April 2009

  • Chesterton and the Romance of Orthodoxy: The Making of GKC 1874-1908 by William Oddie
  • The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton

• At the Movies · 9 April 2009

  • The International directed by Tom Twyker
  • Duplicity directed by Tony Gilroy

• At the Movies · 12 March 2009

  • The Class directed by Laurent Cantet

• More like a Cemetery: The Part about Bolaño · 26 February 2009

  • Nazi Literature in the Americas by Roberto Bolaño, translated by Chris Andrews
  • 2666 by Roberto Bolaño, translated by Natasha Wimmer

• At the Movies · 12 February 2009

  • Slumdog Millionaire directed by Danny Boyle

• Responses to the War in Gaza · 29 January 2009

• Sink or Skim: ‘The Alexandria Quartet’ · 1 January 2009

  • Justine by Lawrence Durrell
  • Balthazar by Lawrence Durrell
  • Mountolive by Lawrence Durrell
  • Clea by Lawrence Durrell

• At the Movies · 1 January 2009

  • Milk directed by Gus Van Sant

• After the Movies · 4 December 2008

  • Histoire(s) du cinéma directed by Jean-Luc Godard

• Double Thought: Kafka in the Office · 20 November 2008

  • Franz Kafka: The Office Writings edited by Stanley Corngold, Jack Greenberg and Benno Wagner, translated by Eric Patton and Ruth Hein

• At the Movies · 6 November 2008

  • Blindness directed by Fernando Meirelles

• At the Movies · 9 October 2008

• At the Movies · 11 September 2008

  • Man on Wire directed by James Marsh

• Yeats and Violence: on ‘Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen’ · 14 August 2008

• At the Movies · 14 August 2008

  • The Dark Knight directed by Christopher Nolan

• At the Movies · 3 July 2008

• At the Movies · 5 June 2008

  • Le Diable, probablement directed by Robert Bresson

• Crabby, Prickly, Bitter, Harsh: Tolstoy’s Malice · 22 May 2008

  • War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky

• At the Movies · 8 May 2008

  • Stop-Loss directed by Kimberly Peirce

• At the Movies · 20 March 2008

  • The Conformist directed by Bernardo Bertolucci

• At the Movies · 21 February 2008

  • No Country for Old Men directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

• At the Movies · 24 January 2008

  • Lust, Caution directed by Ang Lee

• Marvellous Money: Eça de Queirós · 3 January 2008

  • The Maias: Episodes from Romantic Life by José Maria Eça de Queirós, translated by Margaret Jull Costa

• At the Movies · 13 December 2007

  • American Gangster directed by Ridley Scott

• At the Movies · 15 November 2007

  • Eastern Promises directed by David Cronenberg

• At the Movies · 18 October 2007

  • 3.10 to Yuma directed by James Mangold
  • 3.10 to Yuma directed by Delmer Daves

• In a Cold Country: Coetzee’s Grumpy Voice · 4 October 2007

  • Diary of a Bad Year by J.M. Coetzee
  • Inner Workings: Essays 2000-2005 by J.M. Coetzee

• At the Movies · 20 September 2007

• Understanding Forwards: William James · 20 September 2007

  • William James: In the Maelstrom of American Modernism by Robert Richardson

• At the Movies · 16 August 2007

  • The Simpsons Movie directed by David Silverman

• At the Movies · 19 July 2007

• Beetle bonkers in the beams: Tony Harrison · 5 July 2007

  • Collected Film Poetry by Tony Harrison
  • Collected Poems by Tony Harrison

• At the Movies · 21 June 2007

  • L’Armée des ombres directed by Jean-Pierre Melville

• At the Movies · 24 May 2007

  • Spider-Man 3 directed by Sam Raimi

• At the Movies · 26 April 2007

  • 300 directed by Zack Snyder

• At the Movies · 22 March 2007

  • The Lives of Others directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

• Don’t you care?: Richard Powers · 22 February 2007

  • The Echo Maker by Richard Powers

• At the Movies · 22 February 2007

  • Yojimbo directed by Akira Kurosawa

• At the Movies · 25 January 2007

  • Babel directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu

• Humming along: The Amazing Thomas Pynchon · 4 January 2007

  • Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon

• At the Movies · 14 December 2006

  • The Prestige directed by Christopher Nolan

• At the Movies · 16 November 2006

  • The Departed directed by Martin Scorsese

• At the Movies · 19 October 2006

  • Odd Man Out directed by Carol Reed

• At the Movies · 21 September 2006

  • Volver directed by Pedro Almodóvar

• At the Movies · 17 August 2006

  • Miami Vice directed by Michael Mann

• At the Movies · 20 July 2006

  • Rebecca directed by Alfred Hitchcock

• There is no cure: Freud’s Guesswork · 6 July 2006

  • The Penguin Freud Reader edited by Adam Phillips

• At the Movies · 8 June 2006

  • The Da Vinci Code directed by Ron Howard

• At the Movies · 11 May 2006

  • Inside Man directed by Spike Lee
  • V for Vendetta directed by James McTeigue

• At the Movies · 6 April 2006

  • L’Enfant directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne
  • Caché directed by Michael Haneke

• Chasing Kites: The Craziness of Ved Mehta · 23 February 2006

  • The Red Letters: My Father’s Enchanted Period by Ved Mehta
  • Remembering Mr Shawn’s ‘New Yorker’ by Ved Mehta
  • Dark Harbour by Ved Mehta

• His Shoes: Joan Didion · 5 January 2006

  • The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

• Why praise Astaire?: Stanley Cavell · 20 October 2005

  • Philosophy the Day after Tomorrow by Stanley Cavell

• Dynamite for Cologne: James Meek · 21 July 2005

  • The People’s Act of Love by James Meek

• We offered them their chance: Henry James and the Great War · 2 June 2005

  • The Ivory Tower by Henry James

• Haunted by Kindnesses: The Project of Sanity · 21 April 2005

  • Going Sane by Adam Phillips

• The Thing: Versions of Proust · 6 January 2005

  • In Search of Lost Time: Vol. I: The Way by Swann’s by Marcel Proust, edited by Christopher Prendergast, translated by Lydia Davis
  • In Search of Lost Time: Vol.II: In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower by Marcel Proust, edited by Christopher Prendergast, translated by James Grieve
  • In Search of Lost Time: Vol. III: The Guermantes Way by Marcel Proust, edited by Christopher Prendergast, translated by Mark Treharne
  • In Search of Lost Time: Vol. IV: Sodom and Gomorrah by Marcel Proust, edited by Christopher Prendergast, translated by John Sturrock
  • In Search of Lost Time: Vol. V: ‘The Prisoner’ and ‘The Fugitive’ by Marcel Proust, edited by Christopher Prendergast, translated by Carol Clark and Peter Collier
  • In Search of Lost Time: Vol. VI: Finding Time Again by Marcel Proust, edited by Christopher Prendergast, translated by Ian Patterson
  • The Proust Project edited by André Aciman

• Just Folks: Philip Roth’s counter-historical bestseller · 4 November 2004

  • The Plot against America by Philip Roth

• Dressed as an Admiral: Neruda’s Hocus Pocus · 2 September 2004

  • Memoirs by Pablo Neruda, translated by Hardie St Martin
  • Isla Negra: A Bilingual Edition by Pablo Neruda, translated by Alastair Reid
  • The Essential Neruda: Selected Poems edited by Mark Eisner

• Jasmines in the Hallway: García Márquez tells his story · 3 June 2004

  • Living to Tell the Tale by Gabriel García Márquez, translated by Edith Grossman

• What Henry didn’t do: ‘The Master’ · 18 March 2004

  • The Master by Colm Tóibín

• What Henry Knew: Literature and the Taste of Knowledge · 18 December 2003

• Diary: in the City of Good Air · 20 November 2003

• On Edward Said: Edward Said · 23 October 2003

• ‘Mmmmm’ not ‘Hmmm’: Katharine Hepburn · 11 September 2003

  • Kate Remembered by A. Scott Berg

• Most Sincerely, Folks: Andrew O’Hagan · 5 June 2003

  • Personality by Andrew O’Hagan

• Things I Said No To: Italo Calvino · 17 April 2003

  • Hermit in Paris: Autobiographical Writings by Italo Calvino

• Impossible Wishes: Thomas Mann · 6 February 2003

  • The Cambridge Companion to Thomas Mann edited by Ritchie Robertson
  • Thomas Mann: A Biography by Hermann Kurzke, translated by Leslie Willson

• Karel Reisz Remembered · 12 December 2002

• Tricky Minds: Dostoevsky · 5 September 2002

  • Dostoevsky: The Mantle of the Prophet 1871-81 by Joseph Frank

• Memories of a Skinny Girl: Mario Vargas Llosa · 9 May 2002

  • The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa, translated by Edith Grossman
  • The Decline and Fall of the Lettered City: Latin America in the Cold War by Jean Franco

• Start thinking: The aphorisms of Karl Kraus · 7 March 2002

  • Dicta and Contradicta by Karl Kraus, translated by Jonathan McVity

• Just one of those ends · 13 December 2001

  • Apocalypse Now Redux directed by Francis Ford Coppola
  • Marlon Brando by Patricia Bosworth

• Viscounts Swapping Stories: Jacques Derrida · 1 November 2001

  • The Work of Mourning by Jacques Derrida, translated by Pascale-Anne Brault
  • A Taste for the Secret by Jacques Derrida and Maurizio Ferraris, translated by Giacomo Donis

• 11 September · 4 October 2001

• Freedom to Tango: contemporary Indian English novels · 19 April 2001

  • Babu Fictions: Alienation in Contemporary Indian English Novels by Tabish Khair
  • An Obedient Father by Akhil Sharma
  • The Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri
  • The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh

• Six Scotches More: Anthony Powell · 8 February 2001

  • A Writer's Notebook by Anthony Powell

• J. xx Drancy. 13/8/42: Patrick Modiano · 30 November 2000

  • The Search Warrant by Patrick Modiano, translated by Joanna Kilmartin

• That Wooden Leg: Conversations with Don Luis · 7 September 2000

  • An Unspeakable Betrayal: Selected Writings of Luis Buñuel translated by Garrett White

• The Man without Predicates: Goethe · 20 July 2000

  • Goethe: The Poet and the Age. Volume II: Revolution and Reunciation, 1790-1803 by Nicholas Boyle
  • Faust: The First Part of the Tragedy by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, translated by John Williams

• A Kind of Slither: Woody Allen · 27 April 2000

  • The Unruly Life of Woody Allen by Marion Meade

• Scentless Murder: Billy Wilder · 2 March 2000

  • Conversations with Wilder by Cameron Crowe

• Other Ways to Leave the Room: Antonio Machado · 25 November 1999

  • The Eyes: A Version of Antonio Machado by Don Paterson

• Four Thousand, Tops: Headlong by Michael Frayn · 14 October 1999

  • Headlong by Michael Frayn

• Quite a Night!: Eyes Wide Shut · 30 September 1999

  • Eyes Wide Open: A Memoir of Stanley Kubrik and ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ by Frederic Raphael
  • Dream Story by Arthur Schnitzler, translated by J.M.Q. Davies

• Capital W, Capital W: women writers · 19 August 1999

  • Women Writers at Work edited by George Plimpton
  • Just as I Thought by Grace Paley

• What Kind of Guy?: W.H. Auden · 10 June 1999

  • Later Auden by Edward Mendelson

• A Talent for Beginnings: Musil starts again · 15 April 1999

  • Diaries 1899-1942 by Robert Musil, translated by Philip Payne

• Productive Mischief: Borges and Borges and I · 4 February 1999

  • Collected Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges, translated by Andrew Hurley

• ‘Tiens! Une madeleine?’: the Comic-Strip Proust · 26 November 1998

  • À la recherche du temps perdu: Combray by Marcel Proust, edited by Stéphane Heuet
  • Proust among the Stars by Malcolm Bowie

• The Problem of Reality: Primo Levi · 1 October 1998

  • Primo Levi: The Tragedy of an Optimist by Myriam Anissimov, translated by Steve Cox

• Don’t tell nobody: Cuba · 3 September 1998

  • Cuba Libre by Elmore Leonard
  • Havana Dreams by Wendy Gimbel

• Cheerfully Chopping up the World: Film theory · 2 July 1998

  • The Material Ghost: Films and Their Medium by Gilberto Perez
  • On the History of Film Style by David Bordwell
  • Gilles Deleuze's Time Machine by D.N. Rodowick
  • The Aesthetics and Psychology of the Cinema by Jean Mitry, translated by Christopher King
  • Signs and Meaning in the Cinema by Peter Wollen

• Out of the Lock-Up: Wallace Stevens · 2 April 1998

  • Collected Poetry and Prose by Wallace Stevens, edited by Frank Kermode and Joan Richardson

• Post-Paranoid: Underworld by Don Delillo · 5 February 1998

  • Underworld by Don DeLillo

• Round up the usual perverts · 1 January 1998

  • L.A. Confidential directed by Curtis Hanson

• Living in the Enemy’s Dream · 27 November 1997

  • The Cattle Killing by John Edgar Wideman
  • Brothers and Keepers by John Edgar Wideman

• Sounds like hell to me · 13 November 1997

  • Duchamp: A Biography by Calvin Tomkins
  • The Complete Works of Marcel Duchamp by Arturo Schwartz

• Sympathy for the Devil · 16 October 1997

  • The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, translated by Diana Burgin and Katherine Tiernan O’Connor
  • The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky

• When the Balloon Goes up · 4 September 1997

  • Enduring Love by Ian McEwan

• You see stars · 19 June 1997

  • The House of Sleep by Jonathan Coe

• Life on the Town · 22 May 1997

  • The Farewell Symphony by Edmund White

• I just worked it out from the novel · 24 April 1997

  • Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me by Javier Marías, translated by Margaret Jull Costa
  • The Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte, translated by Sonia Soto

• Not Saluting, but Waving · 20 February 1997

  • Evita directed by Alan Parker
  • The Making of ‘Evita’ by Alan Parker
  • In My Own Words by Eva Perón, translated by Laura Dail
  • Santa Evita by Tomás Eloy Martínez, translated by Helen Lane

• Tiff and Dither · 2 January 1997

  • Diaries. Vol. I: 1939-60 by Christopher Isherwood, edited by Katherine Bucknell

• Nice Guy · 14 November 1996

  • The Life and Work of Harold Pinter by Michael Billington

• Family Values · 17 October 1996

  • The Last Don by Mario Puzo

• Misinformed about Paradise · 5 September 1996

  • Reading in the Dark by Seamus Deane

• His affairs with women were intense, literary and dominated by the word ‘soul’ · 22 August 1996

  • Life of a Poet: Rainer Maria Rilke by Ralph Freedman
  • Uncollected Poems by Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Edward Snow
  • Rilke’s ‘Duino Elegies’: Cambridge Readings edited by Roger Paulin and Peter Hutchinson

• The Life of the Mind · 20 June 1996

  • Fargo directed by Joel Coen
  • Fargo by Ethan Coen and Joel Coen

• A Sort of Nobody · 9 May 1996

  • Not Entitled: A Memoir by Frank Kermode

• Like Apollinaire · 4 April 1996

  • Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids by Kenzaburo Oë, translated by Paul St John Mackintosh and Maki Sugiyama
  • A Personal Matter by Kenzaburo Oë, translated by John Nathan
  • Hiroshima Notes by Kenzaburo Oë, translated by David Swain and Toshi Yonezawa

• Going Wrong · 7 March 1996

  • Casino directed by Martin Scorsese
  • Heat directed by Michael Mann
  • Seven directed by David Fincher

• Semi-Happy · 22 February 1996

  • James Whale: A Biography by Mark Gatiss

• In Love · 25 January 1996

  • Essays in Dissent: Church, Chapel and the Unitarian Conspiracy by Donald Davie

• Top-Drawer in Geneva · 30 November 1995

  • Belle du Seigneur by Albert Cohen, translated by David Coward

• I am disorder · 19 October 1995

  • Sabbath’s Theater by Philip Roth

• Shenanigans · 7 September 1995

  • The Moor’s Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie

• Crazy Don · 3 August 1995

  • The History of that Ingenious Gentleman Don Quijote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, translated by Burton Raffel

• My Kind of Psychopath · 20 July 1995

  • Pulp Fiction by Quentin Tarantino
  • Reservoir Dogs by Quentin Tarantino
  • True Romance by Quentin Tarantino
  • Natural Born Killers by Quentin Tarantino

• It Rhymes · 6 April 1995

  • The Wild Party by Joseph Moncure March, with drawings by Art Spiegelman

• Secession · 23 March 1995

  • The Stone Raft by José Saramago, translated by Giovanni Pontiero

• The Heart’s Cause · 9 February 1995

  • The Beginning of the Journey: The Marriage of Diana and Lionel Trilling by Diana Trilling

• Time of the Assassin · 26 January 1995

  • Proust and the Sense of Time by Julia Kristeva, translated by Stephen Bann
  • Le Temps sensible: Proust et l’expérience littéraire by Julia Kristeva
  • The Old Man and the Wolves by Julia Kristeva, translated by Barbara Bray

• Wonder · 10 November 1994

  • The Love of the Last Tycoon: A Western by F. Scott Fitzgerald, edited by Matthew Bruccoli
  • The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, edited by Matthew Bruccoli
  • Scott Fitzgerald: A Biography by Jeffrey Meyers

• Yossarian rides again · 20 October 1994

  • Closing Time by Joseph Heller

• Where the hell? · 6 October 1994

  • The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy

• Instant Depths · 7 July 1994

  • The Cryptogram by David Mamet
  • A Whore’s Profession: Notes and Essays by David Mamet

• Sad Nights · 26 May 1994

  • The Conquest of Mexico by Hugh Thomas
  • The Conquest of Mexico by Serge Gruzinski, translated by Eileen Corrigan

• So sue me · 12 May 1994

  • A Frolic of His Own by William Gaddis

• Why the birthday party didn’t happen · 10 March 1994

  • Short Cuts directed by Robert Altman
  • Short Cuts: The Screenplay by Robert Altman and Frank Barhydt
  • Short Cuts by Raymond Carver, introduced by Robert Altman

• The man who missed his life · 10 February 1994

  • The Age of Innocence directed by Martin Scorsese
  • The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, introduced by Peter Washington

• Betrayal · 6 January 1994

  • Tina Modotti: A Fragile Life by Mildred Constantine
  • Tina Modotti: Photographer and Revolutionary by Margaret Hooks

• Never for me · 2 December 1993

  • Corona, Corona by Michael Hofmann

• A Faint Sound of Rust · 21 October 1993

  • ‘The Pit’ and ‘Tonight’ by Juan Carlos Onetti, translated by Peter Bush
  • The Shipyard by Juan Carlos Onetti, translated by Nick Caistor
  • ‘Farewells’ and ‘A Grave with No Name’ by Juan Carlos Onetti, translated by Peter Bush
  • Body Snatcher by Juan Carlos Onetti, translated by Alfred MacAdam
  • A Brief Life by Juan Carlos Onetti, translated by Hortense Carpentier
  • Cuando ya no importe by Juan Carlos Onetti

• Unreal City · 7 October 1993

  • Paris and the 19th Century by Christopher Prendergast

• Let’s not overthink this · 9 September 1993

• The Prisoner · 10 June 1993

  • Genet by Edmund White

• St Malcolm Martyr · 25 March 1993

  • Malcolm X directed by Spike Lee
  • By Any Means Necessary: The Trials and Tribulations of the Making of ‘Malcolm X’ by Spike Lee and Ralph Wiley
  • Malcolm X: The Great Photographs compiled by Thulani Davis and Howard Chapnick

• Scenes in the Sack · 11 March 1993

  • Memories of the Ford Administration by John Updike

• Loving Dracula · 25 February 1993

  • Bram Stoker’s Dracula directed by Francis Ford Coppola
  • Suckers: Bleeding London Dry by Anne Billson

• Regrets · 17 December 1992

  • The Art of Cinema by Jean Cocteau, André Bernard and Claude Gauteur, translated by Robin Buss
  • Jean Renoir: A Life in Pictures by Célia Bertin, translated by Mireille Muellner and Leonard Muellner
  • Jean Renoir: Projections of Paradise by Ronald Bergan
  • Malle on Malle edited by Philip French
  • Republic of Images: A History of French Film-Making by Alan Williams

• Homage to the Provinces · 28 May 1992

  • Barcelona by Robert Hughes
  • Barcelonas by Manuel Vazquez Montalban, translated by Andrew Robinson
  • Cities of Spain by David Gilmour
  • Red City, Blue Period: Social Movements in Picasso’s Barcelona by Temma Kaplan

• There’s Daddy · 13 February 1992

  • Flying in to Love by D.M. Thomas
  • JFK directed by Oliver Stone

• Watching a black man in the shower · 12 September 1991

  • Young Soul Rebels directed by Isaac Julien
  • Diary of a Young Soul Rebel by Isaac Julien and Colin MacCabe

• Doing blow · 25 July 1991

  • You’ll never eat lunch in this town again by Julia Phillips

• Kundera’s Man of Feeling · 13 June 1991

  • Immortality by Milan Kundera, translated by Peter Kussi
  • Storm 2: New Writing from East and West edited by Joanna Labon

• White Man’s Heaven · 7 February 1991

  • Talking at the Gates: A Life of James Baldwin by James Campbell
  • James Baldwin: Artist on Fire by W.J. Weatherby

• Lost in the rain · 24 January 1991

  • The General in his Labyrinth by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, translated by Edith Grossman

• Making movies in England · 13 September 1990

  • My indecision is final by Jake Eberts and Terry Ilott

• Bonded by the bottle · 14 June 1990

  • Writers in Hollywood by Ian Hamilton

• Well done, Ian McEwan · 10 May 1990

  • The Innocent by Ian McEwan

• Who takes the train? · 8 February 1990

  • Letters by François Truffaut, edited by Gilles Jocob, Claude de Givray and Gilbert Adair

• Hanging out with Higgins · 7 December 1989

  • Silent Partner by Jonathan Kellerman
  • ‘Murder will out’: The Detective in Fiction by T.J. Binyon
  • Devices and Desires by P.D. James
  • Killshot by Elmore Leonard
  • Trust by George V. Higgins
  • Polar Star by Martin Cruz Smith

• Problem Parent · 17 August 1989

  • Memories of Amnesia by Laurence Shainberg
  • We find ourselves in Moontown by Jay Gummerman
  • The Russia House by John Le Carré
  • My Secret History by Paul Theroux

• Looking away · 18 May 1989

  • First Light by Peter Ackroyd
  • The Chymical Wedding by Lindsay Clarke
  • The Northern Lights by Howard Norman

• What time is it? · 16 February 1989

  • Dreams of Roses and Fire by Eyvind Johnson, translated by Erik Friis
  • Women in a River Landscape by Heinrich Böll, translated by David McLintock
  • The Standard Life of a Temporary Pantyhose Salesman by Aldo Busi, translated by Raymond Rosenthal

• The Horror of Money · 8 December 1988

  • The Pink and the Green by Stendhal, translated by Richard Howard
  • Stendhal’s Violin: A Novelist and his Reader by Roger Pearson

• The Meaninglessness of Meaning · 9 October 1986

  • The Grain of the Voice: Interviews 1962-1980 by Roland Barthes, translated by Linda Coverdale
  • Writing Degree Zero and Elements of Semiology by Roland Barthes, translated by Annette Lavers and Colin Smith
  • The Fashion System by Roland Barthes, translated by Matthew Ward and Richard Howard
  • The Responsibility of Forms: Critical Essays on Music, Art and Representation by Roland Barthes, translated by Richard Howard
  • The Rustle of Language by Roland Barthes, translated by Richard Howard
  • A Barthes Reader edited by Susan Sontag
  • Barthes: Selected Writings edited by Susan Sontag
  • Roland Barthes: A Conservative Estimate by Philip Thody
  • Roland Barthes: Structuralism and After by Annette Lavers
  • Barthes by Jonathan Culler

• Fine Chances · 5 June 1986

  • Literary Criticism by Henry James, edited by Leon Edel
  • Henry James: The Writer and his Work by Tony Tanner

• Theory with a Wife · 3 October 1985

  • Mr Palomar by Italo Calvino, translated by William Weaver
  • Parrot’s Perch by Michel Rio, translated by Leigh Hafrey
  • Light Years by Maggie Gee

• The event that doesn’t occur · 4 April 1985

  • The Man from the USSR, and Other Plays by Vladimir Nabokov, translated by Dmitri Nabokov

• Are women nicer than men? · 21 February 1985

  • The Dark Hole Days by Una Woods
  • Superior Women by Alice Adams
  • The Collected Stories by Frank Tuohy
  • The Apple in the Dark by Clarice Lispector, translated by Gregory Rabassa
  • Family Ties by Clarice Lispector and Giovanni Pontiero

• Stories of Black and White · 4 October 1984

  • In Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women by Alice Walker
  • Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter
  • Democracy by Joan Didion

• Chances are · 7 July 1983

  • O, How the wheel becomes it! by Anthony Powell
  • Brilliant Creatures by Clive James
  • Pomeroy by Gordon Williams

• Patriotic Gore · 19 May 1983

  • Duluth by Gore Vidal
  • Pink Triangle and Yellow Star and Other Essays 1976-1982 by Gore Vidal

• Dishonoured · 5 May 1983

  • The Rapes of Lucretia: A Myth and Its Transformation by Ian Donaldson
  • The Rape of Clarissa by Terry Eagleton
  • Samuel Richardson: A Man of Letters by Carol Houlihan Flynn

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