Balzac: A Biography

Graham Robb. W. W. Norton & Company, $25.95 (576pp) ISBN 978-0-393-31387-1

British critic Robb's biography reveals the mass of contradictions and excesses at the heart of one of the great French novelists. (Dec.)

Featured Nonfiction Reviews

Tao Leigh Goffe

In this roving, erudite debut study, Goffe, a professor of literary theory and cultural history at Hunter College, traces the attitudes and beliefs that undergird today’s Continue reading »

Ethan Kross

Far from being the enemy of rational thought, emotions are actually valuable “guides through life’s most consequential moments,” according to this illuminating guide. Continue reading »

Kari Ferrell

Ferrell debuts with a raw and riveting account of how she became infamous for scamming New York City’s hipsters. Adopted from South Korea as a five-month-old by Mormons in Salt Continue reading »

Gerald Easter, Mara Vorhees

Indigenous resistance in Alaska was so fierce that it thwarted the Russian empire’s colonial ambitions in North America, profoundly impacting the continent’s destiny, according Continue reading »