What Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice Teaches Readers
The author frequently satirized those with bad literary habits—and, in her novels, gave audiences a model for how to read well.
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Hugh Thomson / Hulton Archive / Getty What Flannery O'Connor's College Journal Reveals
The brief diary shows an aspiring writer struggling to overcome doubt and anxiety.
AP Why Walt Whitman Called America the ‘Greatest Poem’
The 19th-century writer believed that the power of poetry and democracy came from an ability to make a unified whole out of disparate parts.
Library of Congress Jane Eyre and the Invention of the Self
Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 novel helped introduce the idea of the “modern individual”—a surprisingly radical concept for readers at the time.
20th Century Fox When T.S. Eliot Invented the Hipster
The original cuffed-trouser urbanite on the hunt for authenticity—and undercutting it with his own self-consciousness—was J. Alfred Prufrock.
AP / Kara Gordon / The Atlantic What's Lost in Not Recognizing Campus Religious Groups
California State University's recent decision to strip InterVarsity Christian Fellowship chapters of their school affiliation undermines its ability to teach pluralism.
'Empathetically Correct' Is the New Politically Correct
The movement for "trigger warnings" in college classrooms is part of a troubling trend toward protecting people from their own individual sensitivities.
Why Shakespeare Belongs In Prison
The incarcerated may be the Bard's ideal modern audience.
AP I Learned Everything I Needed to Know About Marriage From Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen’s classic is 200 years old, but longtime spouses and relationship experts alike stand by the principles it presents.
Penguin Books The New, Old Way to Tell Stories: With Input From the Audience
New "transmedia" works like The Lizzie Bennet Diaries let viewers participate in their stories via Twitter and Facebook, but multi-platform storytelling dates back as far as 1740.
