A new edited collection of Italo Calvino’s letters appeals more to lovers of the Italian’s work than to the general reader, but is still deeply rewarding

Thomas Pynchon’s new novel displays all the bravura imagination of the rest of his oeuvre, but sees the elusive writer finally coming to terms with the world

The American mythologist Joseph Campbell is to blame for the rise of moral relativism in the movie world — as Thomas Mann observed

George Herbert is the poet's poet. John Drury's biography is at times infuriatingly simplistic, but succeeds in its scholarship