Oh, look, the Paris Review freed Zadie Smith’s “Big Week” from the clutches of their paywall. (Bonus: you can subscribe to a dual subscription to both the Paris Review and the London Review of Books all summer long.)
Zadie Smith’s Big Week
Secret Identity
Elena Ferrante’s introduction to the Folio edition of Sense and Sensibility is available at The Guardian. She describes the experience of reading Jane Austen as a girl. “At the time, I was enthralled by the great male adventure novels, with their stories that ranged all over the world, and I wanted to write such books myself: I couldn’t resign myself to the idea that women’s novels were domestic tales of love and marriage. I was past 20 when I returned to Austen. And from that moment not only did I love everything she had written but I was passionate about her anonymity.”
“Not Exactly a Hermit”
Everything we think about Henry David Thoreau is wrong.
Oh Boris
At the LRB, Jonathan Coe reviews The Wit and Wisdom of Boris Johnson, a book that delves into the satirical gold mine that is the Mayor of London.
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