contents
november 2021 • issue 502
Editor Nancy Sladek Deputy Editor Tom Fleming Assistant Editors Frank Brinkley • David Gelber Contributing Editors Jonathan Beckman Michael Burleigh • Sara Wheeler • Philip Womack Editorial & Marketing Assistant Michael Delgado Marketing Manager Constance Watson Advertising Manager Terry Finnegan Classified Advertising David Sturge Founding Editor Dr Anne Smith Cover Illustration Chris Riddell
The Literary Review, incorporating Quarto, is published monthly from: 44 Lexington Street, London W1F 0LW • ISSN 0144 4360 Tel: 020 7437 9392 • editorial@literaryreview.co.uk letters@literaryreview.co.uk All subscription enquiries and changes of address to: Literary Review Subscriptions, The Maltings, West Street, Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9PH • Tel: +44 (0) 1778 395 165 subscriptions@warnersgroup.co.uk All advertising enquiries to: Terry Finnegan, Literary Review, 44 Lexington Street, London W1F 0LW • Tel: 020 7437 9392 terry@literaryreview.co.uk • david.sturge@btopenworld.com Print by: CPUK Print Publishing Ltd, www.cp-uk.co.uk Distributed to newsagents worldwide by: Seymour Distribution Ltd • Tel: 020 7429 4000 Distributed to bookshops by: Central Books, 99 Wallis Road, London E9 5LN • Tel: 020 8986 4854 Designed by Cog Design Literary Review is set in Adobe Caslon and Janet. The latter is a digitisation of an engraved typeface designed by the artist and typographer Reynolds Stone, and named after his wife.
Literary Review | november 2021 2
diary 1 Allan Massie
literary lives 6 Oliver Ready
The Sinner and the Saint: Dostoevsky, a Crime & Its Punishment Kevin Birmingham 8 Robert Douglas-Fairhurst
The Young H G Wells: Changing the World Claire Tomalin 9 Donald Rayfield
Disenchanted Wanderer: The Apocalyptic Vision of Konstantin Leontiev Glenn Cronin
art 11 Charles Darwent
Magritte: A Life Alex Danchev, with Sarah Whitfield 13 Norma Clarke
Sybil & Cyril: Cutting Through Time Jenny Uglow 14 Rosalind P Blakesley
Morozov: The Story of a Family & a Lost Collection Natalya Semenova
in europe 16 Anthony Pagden
Conquering Peace: From the Enlightenment to the European Union Stella Ghervas 18 Roderick Bailey
Mud Sweeter than Honey: Voices of a Communist Albania Margo Rejmer • Free: Coming of Age at the End of History Lea Ypi 19 Piers Brendon
The Dream of Europe: Travels in the Twenty-First Century Geert Mak 21 Thomas Kielinger
The Chancellor: The Remarkable Odyssey of Angela Merkel Kati Marton 23 Sara Wheeler
Athens: City of Wisdom Bruce Clark
biography & memoir 25 Daniel Rey
Benedict XVI: A Life – Volume Two Peter Seewald 26 Bijan Omrani
Afghan Napoleon: The Life of Ahmad Shah Massoud Sandy Gall 27 Tom Whyman
I Live a Life Like Yours Jan Grue
