From Host, the notion of the canon in Czech literary studies is being challenged by a relativist, postmodern approach to history. Its proponents claim this constitutes a revolution, though literary critic Pavel Janousek is sceptical. Established schemas are predominantly an illusion. From TLS, a review of The Same Solitude: Boris Pasternak and Marina Tsvetaeva by Catherine Ciepiela. Authors in couples make for unhappy endings: Writers are often drawn to each other romantically, but very often a sorry tale ensues. A review of Mrs Woolf and the Servants: the Hidden Heart of Domestic Service by Alison Light. 

From Harper's, European conservatism is an important, even compelling, intellectual tradition. But also a problematic one. And a poem by German Romanticist Clemens Brentano demonstrates its promise and its

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