Influence of classic literature on writers declining, study claims
Modern authors are stylistically influenced by their contemporaries rather than writers from the 18th and 19th centuries, according to word-frequency study of classic literature
The Blockade Runners by Jules Verne – review
Jules Verne's little-known American civil war adventure cuts a dash, writes Philip Womack
Book dedications: Up and down
What goes up must come down – even John Buchan can't escape the laws of gravity
Caractacus: Britain’s Osama bin Laden?
Iron Age Britain's most celebrated resistance leader to Roman rule was Caractacus, who evaded capture for nine years by melting away into the Welsh mountains
Mary Beard: the classicist with the common touch
Profile: Her current TV series on the Romans has occasioned unkind remarks about her appearance, when, in fact, we should be celebrating her erudition and ability to animate her subject
The Ancient Guide to Modern Life by Natalie Haynes – review
Standup comic Natalie Haynes offers a bracing guide to the classics, writes Jessica Holland
Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? by Philip K Dick – review
Philip K Dick's sci-fi masterpiece, the source text for Blade Runner, has stood the test of time, writes Ben East
Twilight v Dracula: vampires – readers’ responses
If vampires once represented a fear of sexuality, what do they mean to our more liberated era? It's got something to do with designer clothes, apparently
Pigeon Pie by Nancy Mitford – review
Nancy Mitford honed her satirical edge with this witty spy story written in the first days of the second world war, writes Helen Zaltzman
The Saturday interview: Professor Mary Beard
With her new TV series about the lives of ordinary Romans, Professor Mary Beard wants to tackle history differently. The nation's new favourite classicist talks to Stuart Jeffries
The Gold-Rimmed Spectacles by Giorgio Bassani – review
Bassani's elegiac 1958 novella about the trials of a gay doctor during Italy's slide into fascism has lost none of its power, writes Ben Hutchinson
Ernest Hemingway letters reveal painful late years of affection and loss
Remarkable correspondence between Hemingway and friend Gianfranco Ivancich showcases the author's sentimental side
The Alexandria Quartet: revelations
It's the final week of our discussion about Lawrence Durrell's masterpiece. What have we learned? And what is left?
A new chapter for rare book collecting
Rick Gekoski: Book dealing was once, as Graham Greene told me, a 'treasure hunt'. But the internet has made it all about pots of gold
Silver: Return to Treasure Island by Andrew Motion – review
Andrew Motion's imagined sequel to Stevenson's swashbuckling classic is a literary companion piece in its own right, says Daisy Hay
Parent files police complaint after teacher reads Ender’s Game to pupils
A teacher in South Carolina is on adminstrative leave after the parent of a 14-year-old complained that Orson Scott Card's classic novel was 'pornographic'
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner – review
This early feminist classic is also an enchanting tale, writes Lucy Scholes
Mother’s Day: Mum’s the word as we celebrate literary mothers
From Queen Gertrude to Mrs Bennet, literature is full of mothers – both good and bad (and worse). Here, Review editor Lisa Allardice surveys what books have said about our closest bond
Sob stories: classic books I’m too cowardly to finish
Imogen Russell Williams: Hardy's Tess, To Kill a Mockingbird, all of Steinbeck – these are the canonical works I can't complete due to the horrors incurred by blameless characters. Which are yours?
Divine Comedy is ‘offensive and discriminatory’, says Italian NGO
Human-rights organisation calls for Dante's 'racist, Islamophobic and antisemitic' epic poem to be removed from classrooms
My literary lifespan project is nearly complete – can you help?
Wayne Gooderham: For the last three years I've been selecting a pair of classic fiction extracts (male and female) to represent each age up to 70. Now all I need is a 69-year-old man …
The President by Georges Simenon – review
This 1958 novella is an astute psychological study of a politician in possession of the means to bring down a government, says Kristen Treen
Less Than One by Joseph Brodsky – review
Russian exile Joseph Brodsky's powerful essays attest to the poet's fascinating life, writes Nicolas Stavros Niarchos
A Small Circus by Hans Fallada – review
Hans Fallada's 1931 chaotic comedy of a provincial German town unwittingly reveals a country ripe for Nazism, says Ben Hutchinson
The Death of King Arthur by Simon Armitage – review
Kate Kellaway is thrilled by this extravagant poetic riff on an alliterative Arthurian epic
Faithful Ruslan by Georgi Vladimov – review
Vladimov's slender 1979 dissident novel is a masterclass in dark, ironic humour, writes Sophia Martelli
Real-life Charles Dickens characters traced
Historian finds many of literature's best-known names in the London streets of Dickens's teenage years
The Cruise of the Rolling Junk by F Scott Fitzgerald – review
F Scott Fitzgerald's picaresque memoir reflects the American obsession with the automobile, writes Lettie Ransley
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾ by Sue Townsend – review
Anna Trench welcomes a 30th anniversary edition for Sue Townsend's enduring comic creation
Winter read: The Midnight Bell by Patrick Hamilton
David Barnett: The pub at the centre of Patrick Hamilton's The Midnight Bell is the perfect haven on a winter's evening
The Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt – review
Colin Burrow enjoys a flawed but dazzling study of the origins of the renaissance
A Simple Story by Leonardo Sciascia – review
Leonardo Sciascia is by turns polemic and playful in this brace of short stories, writes Helen Zaltzman
The Campus Trilogy by David Lodge – review
David Lodge's trilogy of novels about a fictional English university are solidly crafted pieces of comedy, the last oddly prescient about academic life and British society, writes Natasha Tripney
The Company She Keeps by Mary McCarthy – review
Mary McCarthy's debut collection of short stories caused a sensation in 1942 and is no less vibrant today, writes Sophia Martelli
My Kind of Girl by Buddhadeva Bose, translated by Arunava Sinha – review
Buddhadeva Bose's story in which men waiting for a train recall their past loves loses something in translation, writes Helen Zaltzman