Books Miss Havisham: A History
Carrie Frye on Miss Havisham, one of Dickens's most memorable characters, who presides over Great Expectations "like a great, ill-willed fairy queen."
literature
Books 
Books How To Tell If You Are In A J.R.R. Tolkien Book
You have angered a tree. This ends poorly for you.
Books Discovering Emma Lathen: On Fear, Family, and Comfort Reading
On Emma Lathen's John Putnam Thatcher mysteries, and the comfort they brought the author.
Books Two Linguists Explain Pseudo Old English in The Wake
In which Gretchen McCulloch, The Toast's resident linguist, teams up with medievalist and linguist Kate Wiles to discuss pseudo Old English in THE WAKE.
Books Women Writers You Should Know: Alice Dunbar-Nelson
An ongoing series by Anne Boyd Rioux on women writers in danger of being forgotten.
Books “Yet I’ll Speak”: Othello’s Emilia, A Rebuke to Female Silence
Caitlin Keefe Moran on the defiant Emilia, who "even in the face of brutality . . . is a rebuke to the idea of female silence."
Books Women Writers You Should Know: Constance Fenimore Woolson
The first in Anne Boyd Rioux's series on women writers in danger of being forgotten.
Books On Blindness and the Portrayal of Marie-Laure in All the Light We Cannot See
Sheri Wells-Jensen, a blind writer and professor, on why she is so troubled by the character of Marie-Laure LeBlanc in Anthony Doerr's novel.
Books Great House Therapy: Mistress Mary’s Melancholic Manor and Secret Outdoor Space
"Yorkshire, England, where the wind is always wutherin’": THE SECRET GARDEN's Misselthwaite Manor gets the Great House Therapy treatment.
Books In Search of Sylvia: A Literary Pilgrimage to Heptonstall
Emma Pfeiffer visits York and Heptonstall to pay her respects to Sylvia Plath.
Books How to Tell if You’re in a Raymond Chandler Story
"You self-identify as a henchman."
Books How To Tell If You’re In a Viking Saga
"You have a very muted reaction to losing your limbs."
Books In Which Three Adults Discuss The Hero and the Crown Seriously and At Length
Two brilliant nerds and an editor sit down to talk about Robin McKinley's high fantasy novel THE HERO AND THE CROWN.
Books “Readers are willing to follow writers into risky territory”: Alexander Chee on Writing and The Queen of the Night
Alexander Chee chats with The Toast about researching and writing his new novel, THE QUEEN OF THE NIGHT.
Books Eight Classic Female Bildungsromane You Should Know About If You Don’t Already
Anne Boyd Rioux on the importance of the female bildungsroman and eight classic examples from the genre.
