CONTENTS

THIS MONTH’S PULPITis written by Claire Harman, writer and critic. Her biography of Robert Louis Stevenson came out in paperback last year and she is currently writing a book about Jane Austen’s fame. www.claireharman.com

JOHNGRAYis the author of Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and The Death of Utopia(Allen Lane).

RICHARDSENNETT’s new book, The Craftsman, will be published by Penguin in February.

CAROLEANGIERis a biographer of Jean Rhys and Primo Levi. The Double Bond: Primo Levi, A Biographyis available in paperback from Penguin.

EDWARDNORMANis Emeritus Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge, and Curate of the St James Garlickhythe Church in the City of London.

VIRGINIAIRONSIDE’s No! I Don’t Want to Join a Bookclub: A Diary of Growing old Disgracefullyis available in paperback from Penguin.

DONALDRAYFIELDis Emeritus Professor of Russian and Georgian at Queen Mary University of London, and author of Stalin and his Hangmen(Penguin, 2005).

PETERMCDONALD’s controversial 2002 study, Serious Poetry: Form and Authority from Yeats to Hill, is republished in paperback by OUP in November.

RALEIGHTREVELYANis the author of Rome ’44: The Battle for the Eternal City and The Companion Guide to Sicily.

RUTHDUDLEYEDWARDS’s satire on literary prizes is Carnage on the Committee; her most recent crime novel is Murdering Americans.

PULPIT

LITERARY LIVES

HISTORY

A SPECIAL

RELATIONSHIP

RUSSIA

BIOGRAPHY &

MEMOIRS

11

CLAIREHARMAN

44

66

881100

1111

PETERMCDONALD Ezra Pound: Poet, Volume I – The Young Genius, 1885–1920 A David Moody PIERSPAULREAD Graham Greene: A Life in Letters (Ed) Richard Greene ALLANMASSIE Madame Proust: A Biography Evelyne Bloch-Dano SAMLEITH Harold Robbins: The Man Who Invented Sex Andrew Wilson CHARLES OSBORNE Agatha Christie: An English Mystery Laura Thompson

1122

1133

1155

1177

1188

2200

SAULDAVID The Decline and Fall of the British Empire, 1781–1997 Piers Brendon RICHARDOVERY Nemesis: The Battle for Japan, 1944–1945 Max Hastings RALEIGHTREVELYAN The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943–1944 Rick Atkinson ADAMLEBOR A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility Taner Akççam ANDREWROBERTS Napoleon’s Wars: An International History, 1803–1815 Charles Esdaile EDWARDNORMAN Luck and The Irish: A Brief History of Change, 1970–2000 R F Foster Ireland: The Politics of Enmity 1789–2006 Paul Bew

2222

2233

DOMINICSANDBROOK Old World, New World: The Story of Britain and America Kathleen Burk PAULJOHNSON 1812: War with America Jon Latimer

2255

2266 2277

DONALDRAYFIELD The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin’s Russia Orlando Figes The Voices of the Dead: Stalin’s Great Terror in the 1930s Hiroaki Kuromiya JOHNMCEWEN Vitebsk: The Life of Art Aleksandra Shatskikh NICOLERUDICK Song Without Words: The Photographs and Diaries of Countess Sophia Tolstoy Leah Bendavid-Val

2299 3300

3322

RICHARDSENNETT Rudolf Nureyev: The Life Julie Kavanagh ALEXANDERWAUGH Bright Young People: The Rise and Fall of a Generation, 1918–1940 D J Taylor PETERLAWRENCE Avoid Boring People: And Other Lessons from a Life in ScienceJames D Watson

Editor: NANCYSLADEK Deputy Editor: TOMFLEMING Editor-at-Large: JEREMYLEWIS Assistant Editor: PHILIPWOMACK General Assistant: CASSIEBROWNE

Contributing Editors: ALANRAFFERTY, SEBASTIANSHAKESPEARE Advertising Manager: TERRYFINNEGAN Classified Advertising: DAVIDSTURGE Founding Editor: DRANNESMITH Founding Father: AUBERONWAUGH Cover illustration by Chris Riddell Issue no. 348

LITERARY REVIEW October 2007

2