Archive - Prufrock

Wednesday Links

John Updike’s letters, in praise of “Train Dreams,” a life of Hans Holbein, Lisa Carver goes swimming, and more.

Nov 26 •

The Other Chekhov

Also: God and consciousness, a history of the medieval horse, the first job ad, and more.

Nov 24 •

The work of Grandma Moses, the best translation of Thucydides’s “Peloponnesian War,” the bad science behind cognitive dissonance, a new history of…

Nov 22 •

Gustav Klimt’s Female Figures

Also: Icelandic is dying, stupidity is increasing, the Louvre’s problems continue, and more.

Nov 19 •

Why Did Sylvia Plath Put Her Head in a Gas Oven?

Carl Rollyson on Plath’s suicide. Also: Franz Kafka’s “The Trial” at 100, Jane Clark Scharl’s new verse play, visiting Netflix House, and more.

Nov 17 •

Margaret Atwood’s shit-list, the return of Lafayette, George Gissing’s “New Grub Street,” Charles Dickens’s contemporary critics, and more.

Nov 15 •

Walker Percy’s Pilgrimage

Also: Matthew Gasda’s new novel, around the world in 50 Irish pubs, Gutenberg’s first texts, the return of VistaVision, and more.

Nov 13 •

John Searle’s Prescient “Campus War”

Also: A gifted chef turns to robbing banks, Tennessee's oldest bookstore, new fiction in review, Germany's overrated U-boats, and more.

Nov 10 •

King Hezekiah’s debt, Thomas McGuane’s novels, Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein,” in defense of the disordered family, and more.

Nov 3 •

October 2025

Plot, Not Politics, Is Where It’s At

John Wilson reviews “Pariah” and “The Proving Ground”

Oct 31 •

Translating Baudelaire

Also: The final days of Gene Hackman, King Tut’s crumbling tomb, editing Jack Kerouac, the making of “The Magic Mountain,” and more.

Oct 29 •

First Things’s 10th Annual Poetry Reading

Also: The Erie Canal at 200, T.S. Eliot’s prose, Mendelsohn’s new translation of “The Odyssey,” Wayne Thiebaud’s Americana, and more.

Oct 27 •

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