Arts & Culture
The women of midcentury moral philosophy
Two new books explore the intertwined scholarship and friendship of Philippa Foot, Elizabeth Anscombe, Iris Murdoch, and Mary Midgley.
Tom Stoppard gets personal
Leopoldstadt grapples with the 86-year-old playwright’s Jewish roots and his fear about the direction of our society.
It’s me, Margaret’s mom
Judy Blume’s gift to the world is her insistence that young people can be trusted as capable moral agents.
Science fiction writers imagine the way out
Jesus’ parables give us space to see that something else is possible. Writers of new worlds put flesh on these bones.
Meet Gil, the protector
The protagonist of Lydia Millet’s new novel is like a mother hen, both to his neighbors and to the birds.
The woman behind tarot’s strange beauty
I wonder how Pamela Colman Smith worked it out in reverse, led by her own creativity straight to the Catholic Church—the place I’ve tried to leave.
A complex story of relationships and religion
The protagonist of Alice Elliott Dark’s novel gives readers the flawed heroine they crave.