Democracy & political naivety
by Kenneth Minogue
What is the major problem with democracy?
Most popular
Features
What Auden believed
by David Yezzi
On Auden’s religious beliefs, and Arthur Kirsch’s “Auden & Christianity.”
A satyr against mankind
by Stefan Beck
On Michel Houellebecq’s commercialized despair.
Revolution for the rich: James’s “Princess Casamassima”
by Mark Falcoff
On Henry James’s great political novel.
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Poems
Reconsiderations
Bang or whimper?
by Theodore Dalrymple
On the Centre Pompidou’s “Creation and Destruction in Twentieth-Century Art.”
Naughts & crescents
by Martin Gardner
On G. K. Chesterton’s least successful novel.
A MESSAGE FROM THE EDITORS
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Theater
The Wendy chronicles
by Mark Steyn
On the passing of the playwright Wendy Wasserstein.
Art
Cézanne in Provence
by Karen Wilkin
On “Cézanne in Provence” at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Exhibition note
by Hilton Kramer
“David Smith: A Centennial” at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
Gallery chronicle
by James Panero
On Edvard Munch at MoMA and the Scandinavia House; Kentridge at the Marian Goodman; William Nicholson at Paul Kasmin; Jake Berthot at Betty Cuningham & Lois Dodd at Alexandre Gallery.
out of interstitials
Music
New York chronicle
by Jay Nordlinger
On the latest in the New York music scene.
The media
Warlord rules
by James Bowman
Why the BBC is wishing peace on the Prophet.
Books
Duff Cooper’s game book
by Ben Downing
On the newly released Duff Cooper diaries.
Analyzing evil
by Maxwell Goss
Simious seductions
by Eric Ormsby
Dissed & dismissed
by Leslie Lenkowsky
Lynne Truss’s “Talk to the Hand” reviewed.
Shorter notice
by John Simon
Margo Jefferson’s “On Michael Jackson” reviewed.
Shorter notice
by James Panero
Rodolphe Rapetti’s “Symbolism” reviewed.
Shorter notice
by David Yezzi
Michael Donaghy’s “Safest” reviewed.
Shorter notice
by Alexandra Mullen
Liza Picard’s “Victorian London: The Tale of a City” reviewed.
Shorter notice
by Stefan Beck
“The Portable Benjamin Franklin” reviewed.
Shorter notice
by Courtney Andree
Claire Harman’s “Myself and the Other Fellow: A Life of Robert Louis Stevenson” reviewed.
out of interstitials
Notebook
Susan Sontag: discord & desire
by Cynthia Ozick
The legacy of Susan Sontag.
Notes & Comments
Craven at the BBC
by The Editors
A curious practice at the BBC.
Business as usual at CPB
by The Editors
What’s wrong with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting?
Larry Summers, sacrificial beast
by The Editors
On the (former) president of Harvard.