This week`s contents page

LITERATURE
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3
Francesca Wade
Christina Petrie
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
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HISTORY
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‘Consciousness Regained’, English Welsh, Commas, etc
Sarah Wise
Houman Barekat
T
he British seem not as grateful for their
police as once they were. Rarely does a
week go by without a newspaper story of
untruths and distrust, excessive surveillance
and failure to find terrorists, excessive tolerance of Asian gangs grooming children for sex,
excessive intolerance of black youths going
about their legitimate business. To those yearning for a golden age when gratitude for law
enforcement was greater than suspicion, a new
six-volume collection of documents, The Making of the Modern Police (1780–1914), offers a
useful corrective. As Sarah Wise points out this
week, the perceived purposes of a police force
have always ranged from corrupt oppression of
the poor by the propertied class to trusted protector of the citizenry from random injustice.
Some have seen a “social-control model” by
which the “lower orders” are forced into “an
accommodation with capitalism”. Documentary evidence of day-to-day policing in the
books under review suggests that this was one
of many inadequate explanations.
If a woman is reluctantly facing the prospect
of an “arranged marriage”, she can these days
call the police – and, in the light of renewed sensitivity to such issues, may even attract sympathy and support “down at the station”. In the
eighteenth century, when the law took less
interest in “domestics”, there was a fashion for
“beast bridegroom” fairy stories which, as
Francesca Wade notes, could be used to reassure unwilling brides that “they will come to
love their husband even if he at first seems unattractive”. Wade is reviewing five books, including Marina Warner’s Once Upon a Time, a short
history of the fairy tale, and a new edition of the
vicious narratives of sex and childhood promulgated by the Brothers Grimm.
Henry VIII’s abused wives are often what is
most known about the man whom John Guy
dubs “the most remarkable ruler ever to sit
on the English throne”. His son, Edward VI
(pictured), died too soon to have a wife.
Charles I, George V and George VI had one
wife each. All are subjects of very short histories reviewed by A. N. Wilson. Alexander
Marr argues for the identification of a new
portrait of Descartes.
PS
BIOGRAPHY
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A. N. Wilson
David Waller
LITERARY CRITICISM
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Jack Zipes, editor and translator The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of
the Brothers Grimm – The complete first edition; Illustrated by Andrea
Dezsö. Kimberly Lau Erotic Infidelities – Love and enchantment in
Angela Carter’s ‘The Bloody Chamber’. Marina Warner Once Upon a
Time – A short history of fairy tale. Walter de la Mare Told Again;
Illustrated by A. H. Watson. Naomi Mitchison The Fourth Pig
Carol Levine, editor Living in the Land of Limbo – Fiction and poetry
about family caregiving
Leo A. Lensing
Stephen Burt
Paul Lawrence, general editor The Making of the Modern Police,
1780–1914
Tommy Dickinson Curing Queers – Mental nurses and their patients,
1935–74
Mark Kishlanksy Charles I – An abbreviated life. John Guy Henry
VIII – The quest for fame. Stephen Alford Edward VI – The last boy
king. David Cannadine George V – The unexpected king. Philip
Ziegler George VI – The dutiful king
Ben Russell James Watt – Making the world anew
George Prochnik The Impossible Exile – Stefan Zweig at the End of
the World. Stefan Zweig The Society of the Crossed Keys; Translated
by Anthea Bell
Donald J. Childs The Birth of New Criticism – Conflict and
conciliation in the early works of William Empson, I. A. Richards,
Robert Graves and Laura Riding
COMMENTARY
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Alexander Marr
Alan Brownjohn
Then & Now
Crowned with harmless fire – A new look at Descartes
Freelance
TLS June 29, 1933 – Awfully cool
ARTS
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Adam Mars-Jones
Thea Lenarduzzi
Tales of Hoffmann (Varous cinemas)
Italian Film Festival (London, Edinburgh and Glasgow)
FICTION
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Stuart Kelly
Lara Pawson
Mark Thompson
Chigozie Obioma The Fishermen
José Luandino Vieira Our Musseque; Translated by Robin Patterson
Aleksandar Gatalica The Great War; Translated by Will Firth.
Aleksandar Tišma The Use of Man; Translated by Bernard Johnson
Julia Franck West; Translated by Anthea Bell
Rebecca K. Morrison
HISTORY
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George Bornstein
Molly Guptill Manning When Books Went to War – The stories that
helped us win World War II
CLASSICS & PHILOSOPHY
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Armand D’Angour
Christopher Frey
Armand Marie Leroi The Lagoon – How Aristotle invented science
Anna Marmodoro Aristotle on Perceiving Objects
LAW & HISTORY
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Gary L. McDowell
Richard A. Epstein The Classical Liberal Constitution – The uncertain
quest for limited government
Eric Nelson The Royalist Revolution – Monarchy and the American
Founding
Mark G. Spencer
RELIGION
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Peter Webb
Keith Kahn-Harris
Robert G. Hoyland In God’s Path – The Arab conquests and the
creation of an Islamic empire
Geoffrey Alderman British Jewry Since Emancipation
NATURAL SCIENCE
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IN BRIEF
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LITERATURE
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Philip Ross Bullock
Lesley Chamberlain
Isaac Babel Red Cavalry; Translated by Boris Dralyuk
Zofia Nalkowska Choucas; Translated by Ursula Phillips
FOOD
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Carolin C. Young
Katie and Giancarlo Caldesi Venice – Recipes lost and found. Laura
Zavan Venice – Cult recipes
Barri J. Gold
Esther Menell Loose Connections. Annie Ernaux A Woman’s Story.
Robert Macfarlane Landmarks. Adam Michnik The Trouble with
History. Jürgen Wasim Frembgen and Paul Rollier Wrestlers, Pigeon
Fanciers and Kite Flyers. J. L. Granatstein The Greatest Victory.
William Collins Donahue and Martha B. Helfer, editors Nexus.
Judith E. Smith Becoming Belafonte
This week’s contributors, Crossword
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NB
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Heidi C. M. Scott Chaos and Cosmos – Literary roots of modern
ecology in the British nineteenth century
J. C.
Talking in Monaco, Blurb babble, Poetic monks
Cover image: Detail from “The Young Bride and the Dead Wives, from ‘Bluebeard’ by Charles Perrault” by Daniel Cacouault © The Bridgeman Art Library; p3 ©
Antonio Castaneda/AP Photo; p8 © The Bridgeman Art Library; p10 © DeAgostini/Getty Images; p12 © Imagno/Getty Images; p13 (left) © 2006 John
Hedgecoe/TopFoto; p13 (second right) © Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images; p14 Courtesy Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen; p15 Courtesy The
Louvre; p19 © Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP/Getty Images; p25 © Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums/The Bridgeman Art Library
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TLS MARCH 13 2015