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The TLS front page from the issue dated Exile and otherness. Issue number
Biography|

Exile and otherness

    

The bond between Joyce and his biographer Richard Ellmann

By Eimear McBride
The TLS front page from the issue dated . Issue number

This week’s issue

May 23, 2025

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The TLS front page from the issue dated The past is not a foreign country. Issue number
Autobiography|

The past is not a foreign country

Geoff Dyer’s memoir of family and English identity in the light of the Californian present

By Norma Clarke
The TLS front page from the issue dated Wagner’s march on Moscow. Issue number
European politics|

Wagner’s march on Moscow

How ‘Putin’s Chef’ led a mercenary mutiny that shook the Kremlin

By Amy Knight
Social & cultural studies|

From woke to comrade

Should class solidarity trump identity politics?

By Robert Bevan
Afterthoughts|Book Review

Move fast and break people

Kafka and the American state

By Regina Rini
History of philosophy|

Arendt in modern eyes

A critique of the philosopher’s ‘colour blindness’ to race

By Steven E. Aschheim
Visual arts|

Artists in turbulent times

The shared struggles of Hieronymous Bosch, Max Beckmann and William Kentridge

By Gabriel Josipovici
The TLS podcast
The TLS Podcast
Editors and writers join Alex Clark and Lucy Dallas to talk through the week's issue. Subscribe for free via iTunes and other podcast platforms
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The TLS front page from the issue dated . Issue number
May 22, 2025

Vagabond Hearts

Eimear McBride is captivated by the life and work of Joyce's biographer; Mark Nayler is hot on the trail of the wolf who walked alone

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Collection

Among the stacks

Explore the best of the TLS: Libraries past, present and future

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Explore the TLS

Browse the magazine

Explore the TLS

Browse the magazine

Fiction

Our critics review new novels, stories and translations from around the world
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The TLS front page from the issue dated This is parenthood. Issue number
Fiction|

This is parenthood

Love, care and uncertainty in a salt-washed Brighton

By Alice Wadsworth
The TLS front page from the issue dated Keeping a critical distance. Issue number
Fiction|

Keeping a critical distance

Romance and clever conversation in the run-up to the 2012 Olympics

By Michael LaPointe
The TLS front page from the issue dated Of hope and calculation. Issue number
Fiction|

Of hope and calculation

Tales of love, conflict, survival – and betrayal

By Russell Williams

Arts

Up-to-date reviews and essays on exhibitions, theatre, opera and more
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The TLS front page from the issue dated Waves of hope and horror. Issue number
Film|Arts Review

Waves of hope and horror

David Attenborough on the future of our oceans

By Helen Scales
The TLS front page from the issue dated Trials by fire. Issue number
Visual arts|Arts Review

Trials by fire

Creation and destruction, death and rebirth: Anselm Kiefer at eighty

By Boyd Tonkin
The TLS front page from the issue dated Performing the law. Issue number
Theatre|Arts Review

Performing the law

A theatrical examination of ‘immediate trials’

By Harrison Stetler

Original poems

New and previously unpublished poetry by leading and emerging poets
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The TLS front page from the issue dated Litotes. Issue number
Original poems

Litotes

By Paul Muldoon
The TLS front page from the issue dated Bright Night. Issue number
Original poems

Bright Night

By Jana Prikryl
The TLS front page from the issue dated Jessie’s fragment. Issue number
Original poems

Jessie’s fragment

By Imogen Cassels

Afterthoughts

Our columnists offer a sideways glance at intellectual and cultural life
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The TLS front page from the issue dated A graveyard shift. Issue number
Afterthoughts|Column

A graveyard shift

On finding chicken bones in cemeteries

By Ian Sansom
The TLS front page from the issue dated Women and men. Issue number
Afterthoughts|Column

Women and men

Elena Ferrante and identity

By Tim Parks
The TLS front page from the issue dated Making a name for herself. Issue number
Afterthoughts|Column

Making a name for herself

In search of Marie de France

By Irina Dumitrescu

In Brief

Reviews that get straight to the point
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The TLS front page from the issue dated Domestic ideology. Issue number
In Brief|In Brief Review

Domestic ideology

A novel about the condition of being a daughter

By Isabella Greenwood
The TLS front page from the issue dated Sombre miscellanies. Issue number
In Brief|In Brief Review

Sombre miscellanies

Mary Shelley's writings, from ‘Frankenstein’ to anxious letters

By Janet Todd
The TLS front page from the issue dated From the absorbatory. Issue number
In Brief|In Brief Review

From the absorbatory

Appreciating the Umwelt of birds

By Esther Woolfson
A Don’s life
Mary Beard: A Don’s life
Our Classics editor muses on things ancient and modern
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The TLS front page from the issue dated . Issue number
May 22, 2025

The Melsonby Hoard

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Online series

The ethics of today’s world, profiles of the great thinkers and unique, original essays, exclusive to the website

Online series

The ethics of today’s world, profiles of the great thinkers and unique, original essays, exclusive to the website

Poem of the week

We revisit original poetry, first published in the TLS, with a new introduction
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The TLS front page from the issue dated ‘The Woman in the Harbour’. Issue number
Poem of the week

‘The Woman in the Harbour’

‘What time the ship broke this embrace / I do not know, / Moving like a man / Out into morning’ – James Simmons

The TLS front page from the issue dated ‘Op. posth. No.13’. Issue number
Poem of the week

‘Op. posth. No.13’

‘In the chambers of the end we’ll meet again’ – John Berryman

The TLS front page from the issue dated ‘Thomas Spence: “Pig’s Meat”’. Issue number
Poem of the week

‘Thomas Spence: “Pig’s Meat”’

‘Let rich men and rulers learn / to drink with their eyes’ – Rodney Pybus

From the Archive

We republish essays and reviews from our full historic Archive, stretching back to 1902
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The TLS front page from the issue dated A novelist’s experiment. Issue number
From the Archive|Book Review

A novelist’s experiment

A review by Arthur Sydney McDowall of Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, first published May 21, 1925

The TLS front page from the issue dated Who is Athene?. Issue number
From the Archive|Book Review

Who is Athene?

A review of The Summer After the Funeral by Jane Gardam, first published in the TLS of November 23, 1973

The TLS front page from the issue dated He got rhythm. Issue number
From the Archive|Book Review

He got rhythm

A review by Francis Wyndham of Ira Gershwin: Lyrics on several occasions, first published in the TLS of March 11, 1977

Footnotes to Plato

We appraise the works and legacies of the great thinkers and philosophers
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The TLS front page from the issue dated Bergson: Time is not space. Issue number
Footnotes to Plato|Essay

Bergson: Time is not space

Henri Bergson’s bold and sweeping conception of a panpsychic world charged with élan vital

By Mark Sinclair
The TLS front page from the issue dated Friedrich Nietzsche: The truth is terrible. Issue number
Footnotes to Plato|Essay

Friedrich Nietzsche: The truth is terrible

Examining Nietzsche's conception of what makes life worth living

By Brian Leiter
The TLS front page from the issue dated Hannah Arendt and the hierarchy of human activity. Issue number
Footnotes to Plato|Essay

Hannah Arendt and the hierarchy of human activity

The ‘epistemological cubism’ of the great German-American theorist

By Finn Bowring