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What Submersibles Reveal About the Violent Underbelly of the Human Psyche

What Submersibles Reveal About the Violent Underbelly of the Human Psyche

Matthew Gavin Frank Explores the Dark Side of Our Desire to Explore the Ocean’s Depths

By Matthew Gavin Frank | June 12, 2025

Charlotte Perkins Gilman on Why She Wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper”

Charlotte Perkins Gilman on Why She Wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper”

From the Penguin Classics Collection “Twelve Stories by American Women”

By Literary Hub | March 19, 2025

“Moonstruck.” How Myths of Lunar Power Continue to Fascinate Us

“Moonstruck.” How Myths of Lunar Power Continue to Fascinate Us

Kate Golembiewski Explores the Long History of Associating Madness With the Full Moon

By Kate Golembiewski | November 20, 2024

Why Horror Needs Humor

Why Horror Needs Humor

Tyler Malone Wonders If Laughter is the Best Medicine or the Worst Disease

By Tyler Malone | October 31, 2024

Vacation Mode: On the Literary Relationship Between Travel and Madness

Vacation Mode: On the Literary Relationship Between Travel and Madness

Kate Preziosi on Recent Books by Rachel Lyon, Scarlett Thomas, and Kimberly King Parsons

By Kate Preziosi | July 24, 2024

Intertwined in Madness: On Turning Yourself into a Character in a Novel

Intertwined in Madness: On Turning Yourself into a Character in a Novel

Alana Saab on Sharing a Mental Breakdown With Your Protagonist

By Alana Saab | June 26, 2024

Best Reviewed
Books of the Week

When Cate Blanchett Played Tennessee Williams’s Greatest Character

By Nancy Schoenberger | April 7, 2023

“I Wanted to Be on Fire.” On the Connection Between Art and Self-Destruction

By Bridget Collins | May 19, 2021

On the Relationship Between Motherhood and Madness in Victorian Literature

By Kyra Wilder | April 21, 2021

The Madness of King Trump: On Being Unfit to Serve

The Madness of King Trump: On Being Unfit to Serve

King Lear... and the 25th Amendment">Chaya Bhuvaneswar Rereads King Lear... and the 25th Amendment

By Chaya Bhuvaneswar | January 8, 2021

The Poet-Publisher Who Scorned Death by Pursuing It

The Poet-Publisher Who Scorned Death by Pursuing It

Ben Mazer on the Wild and Profligate Life of Harry Crosby

By Ben Mazer | June 22, 2020

The Reporter Who Went Undercover at an Asylum

The Reporter Who Went Undercover at an Asylum

Nellie Bly Committed Herself to the Infamous Blackwell Island Asylum Just to Get the Story

By Susannah Cahalan | November 7, 2019

American Gothic: The Woman Who Escaped the Asylum

American Gothic: The Woman Who Escaped the Asylum

On the 19th-Century Invention of the Madwoman

By Troy Rondinone | October 31, 2019

Panic is Worse Than Pain: How Fiction Failed Me After Trauma

Panic is Worse Than Pain: How Fiction Failed Me After Trauma

Jenn Ashworth on the Aftereffects of Surgery

By Jenn Ashworth | October 18, 2019

On the Most Dangerous Building in South Africa, and an Unexpected Pregnancy

On the Most Dangerous Building in South Africa, and an Unexpected Pregnancy

Katharine Kilalea Wonders About the Temptations We Fail to Resist

By Katharine Kilalea | August 1, 2018

How Women Experience Beauty: A Reading List

How Women Experience Beauty: A Reading List

The Book of Judith, Recommendations
from Sofi Oksanen ">From Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to The Book of Judith, Recommendations
from Sofi Oksanen

By Sofi Oksanen | September 6, 2017