Banned, burned and reviled: what was so radical about Edna O’Brien’s The Country Girls?
The story of one of the most famous, infamous and beloved Irish novels of the 20th century.
By
Rereadings
Latest in
Rereadings
Virginia Woolf’s politics of peace
Published between the wars, Woolf’s essay Three Guineas still has lessons for today’s conflict-ravaged world.
By
Stephen King’s Carrie and the horror of girlhood
The triumph of the writer’s debut novel, published 50 years ago, is its understanding of a teenage girl’s destructive anger.
By
Cormac McCarthy’s art of war
In Blood Meridian the author reaches the dark heart of the American novel – where violence is timeless.
By
Simone de Beauvoir and the art of loss
Sixty years ago, the French writer’s unflinching memoir of her mother’s death tested the limits of her existentialism.
By
The Virgin Suicides is a defining text of adolescent pain
Both Jeffrey Eugenides’ novel and Sofia Coppola’s film have endured through the decades, resonating with new generations of teenagers.
By