insanity
A house of secrets: Where Are the Kings, by Donal Ryan, reviewed
When his mother’s suicide and father’s insanity leave young Jack effectively orphaned, other family members take him in. But will he always be haunted by whispers of scandal and ‘bad blood’?
Ignorance, madness or folly – what exactly constitutes stupidity?
In a picturesque ramble through world civilisation, Stuart Jeffries proposes some answers
The making of Van Gogh as an artist came at a terrible cost
In the manic years 1886-88 when he lived with his brother in Paris, Vincent worked at fever-pitch, exhausting himself and Theo and driving them both towards insanity
Satirical pulp: The Possessed, by Witold Gombrowicz, reviewed
The 1939 Gothic pastiche which the author was at pains to distance himself from is now considered a delightfully devious work of Polish modernism
Tortured genius
Andrew Motion describes the inner turmoil of the neglected poet Ivor Gurney
The second-worst journey in the world
The epic story of the Antarctic voyage of the Belgica (1897-9) has all the ingredients of a truly glorious misadventure:…
Things left undead
In the afterword to this sixth book, Aleksandar Hemon dedicates a word of thanks to his agent for keeping a…
The unstable element
Madness is an ancient, evidently inscrutable mystery, often regarded with superstitious fear, yet can provide a refuge from reality. Sometimes,…
