Because the recent novel brought Dickens to mind, here's my absolutely favourite essay about Dickens as a writer, by George Orwell. It's not just insightful about Dickens' novels, it reminds me how literary criticism, or, to use an internet term, meta can be - neither bashing rant nor uncritical rave, but with an appreciation for the qualities and ( Read more... )

Update on the Book Fair Fail: the Frankfurt Book Fair proper doesn't start until next month - it's always an October event - but the advance symbosium (theme: "China and the world"), the debate to which two dissident authors (also originally planned as guests for the book fair itself) were first invited, then disinvited upon Chinese pressure, then ( Read more... )