This week, we feature an insider’s look at the Nixon administration and a chilling novel illuminating the terrors of the Soviet regime.
Fiction A Study in Provincial Life
‘Middlemarch’
By George Eliot
“Middlemarch” (1871–72) is considered Eliot’s masterpiece. Set in the early 19th century, the novel explores views on art, religion, science, and politics. Brilliant portraits are painted of characters dealing with stymied love, and idealistic goals and their loss.
Wordsworth Editions, 1998, 736 pages A Novel of Deadly Ideologies
‘A Postcard From the Volcano: A Novel of Pre-War Germany’
By Lucy Beckett
Here, we follow the young Prussian aristocrat Max von Hofmannswaldau, his family, and his friends between the world wars as they encounter the ideologies that came into play during this period. We see the results of the horrors of war, concentration camps, and totalitarianism that killed tens of millions of people. Professor of literature Lucy Beckett brings all her talents to bear in this intelligent and deeply moving story of the devastating effects of these conflicts on countries and on individual lives….