Reviews

Significant works reviewed by Engelsberg Ideas writers.

Illustration of the 'Triumph of death over chastity' from Petrarch.
Review

Wild stories of medieval women

Four remarkable medieval women writers challenge a world dominated by male voices, offering vivid insights into female power, creativity, spirituality, and ambition in an era that ..

Helen Carr December 10, 2024
A statue of Augustus the Strong in Dresden.
Review

The spectacular disasters of Augustus the Strong

One of the 18th-century’s most colourful princes, Augustus 'the Strong' combined disastrous military expeditions with an instinct for art and culture.

Luka Ivan Jukic December 3, 2024
Nicholas Hoult stars in Clint Eastwood's Juror 2.
Review

Clint Eastwood’s Puritan morality tale

In Clint Eastwood's latest film, Juror 2, the 94-year old director reworks themes of sin, redemption and guilt, intrinsic to the complex foundations of the American idea.

Muriel Zagha December 2, 2024
Max Ernst's L'Ange du Foyer.
Review

Surrealism — a monstrous creation

A 'comprehensive' exhibition devoted to Surrealism at the Centre Pompidou deprives the movement of its most essential characteristic: its willingness to confront the world of dream..

Alexander Lee November 29, 2024
Tirzah Garwood's Train Journey, a wood engraving from 1929.
Review

The magic of Tirzah Garwood

Tirzah Garwood's work is characterised by strangeness, meditative intensity and precision, and a deep sense of play.

Mathew Lyons November 26, 2024
Georg Elser, who tried to assassinate Adolf Hitler, featured on a commemorative post stamp.
Review

The other plot to kill Hitler

Georg Elser came within minutes of assassinating Adolf Hitler in 1939. Had he succeeded, the 20th century might have run a very different course.

Malcolm Forbes November 25, 2024
British railway poster.
Review

The restless brilliance of Britain’s railways

Britain's railways are more than just machines. They are a miniature civilisation in their own right, teeming with human experience and bound together by shining ribbons of steel.

Richard Bratby November 20, 2024
'The Interview of the Apostate Shaxton Bishop of Salisbury with Anne Askew' by Windus William Lindsay
Review

Ghospelling and ghossiping

Through the religious turbulence of the early modern period, women played an essential role in shaping, challenging, converting, and resisting Christian beliefs across Europe and t..

Katherine Harvey November 19, 2024
Nine kings gathered at Windsor Castle for the funeral of Edward VII in May 1910. From left to right standing: King Haakon VII of Norway, Tsar Ferdinand of the Bulgarians, King Manuel II of Portugal and the Algarve, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and Prussia, King George I of the Hellenes, King Albert I of the Belgians. Seated from the left: King Alfonso XII of Spain, King George V of the United Kingdom, King Frederick VIII of Denmark.
Review

The Monarchy International

Monarchs once formed a thin, global network of people who slept in one another’s palaces and wore one another’s medals. But if their relationships are interesting, were they import..

Michael Ledger-Lomas November 18, 2024

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