LITERATURE 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF Telephone: 020 7782 5000 Fax: 020 7782 4966 [email protected] 3 Francesca Wade Christina Petrie LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 6 HISTORY 7 ‘Consciousness Regained’, English Welsh, Commas, etc Sarah Wise Houman Barekat T he British seem not as grateful for their police as once they were. Rarely does a week go by without a newspaper story of untruths and distrust, excessive surveillance and failure to find terrorists, excessive tolerance of Asian gangs grooming children for sex, excessive intolerance of black youths going about their legitimate business. To those yearning for a golden age when gratitude for law enforcement was greater than suspicion, a new six-volume collection of documents, The Making of the Modern Police (1780–1914), offers a useful corrective. As Sarah Wise points out this week, the perceived purposes of a police force have always ranged from corrupt oppression of the poor by the propertied class to trusted protector of the citizenry from random injustice. Some have seen a “social-control model” by which the “lower orders” are forced into “an accommodation with capitalism”. Documentary evidence of day-to-day policing in the books under review suggests that this was one of many inadequate explanations. If a woman is reluctantly facing the prospect of an “arranged marriage”, she can these days call the police – and, in the light of renewed sensitivity to such issues, may even attract sympathy and support “down at the station”. In the eighteenth century, when the law took less interest in “domestics”, there was a fashion for “beast bridegroom” fairy stories which, as Francesca Wade notes, could be used to reassure unwilling brides that “they will come to love their husband even if he at first seems unattractive”. Wade is reviewing five books, including Marina Warner’s Once Upon a Time, a short history of the fairy tale, and a new edition of the vicious narratives of sex and childhood promulgated by the Brothers Grimm. Henry VIII’s abused wives are often what is most known about the man whom John Guy dubs “the most remarkable ruler ever to sit on the English throne”. His son, Edward VI (pictured), died too soon to have a wife. Charles I, George V and George VI had one wife each. All are subjects of very short histories reviewed by A. N. Wilson. Alexander Marr argues for the identification of a new portrait of Descartes. PS BIOGRAPHY 10 A. N. Wilson David Waller LITERARY CRITICISM 12 Jack Zipes, editor and translator The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm – The complete first edition; Illustrated by Andrea Dezsö. Kimberly Lau Erotic Infidelities – Love and enchantment in Angela Carter’s ‘The Bloody Chamber’. Marina Warner Once Upon a Time – A short history of fairy tale. Walter de la Mare Told Again; Illustrated by A. H. Watson. Naomi Mitchison The Fourth Pig Carol Levine, editor Living in the Land of Limbo – Fiction and poetry about family caregiving Leo A. Lensing Stephen Burt Paul Lawrence, general editor The Making of the Modern Police, 1780–1914 Tommy Dickinson Curing Queers – Mental nurses and their patients, 1935–74 Mark Kishlanksy Charles I – An abbreviated life. John Guy Henry VIII – The quest for fame. Stephen Alford Edward VI – The last boy king. David Cannadine George V – The unexpected king. Philip Ziegler George VI – The dutiful king Ben Russell James Watt – Making the world anew George Prochnik The Impossible Exile – Stefan Zweig at the End of the World. Stefan Zweig The Society of the Crossed Keys; Translated by Anthea Bell Donald J. Childs The Birth of New Criticism – Conflict and conciliation in the early works of William Empson, I. A. Richards, Robert Graves and Laura Riding COMMENTARY 14 Alexander Marr Alan Brownjohn Then & Now Crowned with harmless fire – A new look at Descartes Freelance TLS June 29, 1933 – Awfully cool ARTS 17 Adam Mars-Jones Thea Lenarduzzi Tales of Hoffmann (Varous cinemas) Italian Film Festival (London, Edinburgh and Glasgow) FICTION 19 Stuart Kelly Lara Pawson Mark Thompson Chigozie Obioma The Fishermen José Luandino Vieira Our Musseque; Translated by Robin Patterson Aleksandar Gatalica The Great War; Translated by Will Firth. Aleksandar Tišma The Use of Man; Translated by Bernard Johnson Julia Franck West; Translated by Anthea Bell Rebecca K. Morrison HISTORY 21 George Bornstein Molly Guptill Manning When Books Went to War – The stories that helped us win World War II CLASSICS & PHILOSOPHY 22 Armand D’Angour Christopher Frey Armand Marie Leroi The Lagoon – How Aristotle invented science Anna Marmodoro Aristotle on Perceiving Objects LAW & HISTORY 23 Gary L. McDowell Richard A. Epstein The Classical Liberal Constitution – The uncertain quest for limited government Eric Nelson The Royalist Revolution – Monarchy and the American Founding Mark G. Spencer RELIGION 24 Peter Webb Keith Kahn-Harris Robert G. Hoyland In God’s Path – The Arab conquests and the creation of an Islamic empire Geoffrey Alderman British Jewry Since Emancipation NATURAL SCIENCE 25 IN BRIEF 26 LITERATURE 28 Philip Ross Bullock Lesley Chamberlain Isaac Babel Red Cavalry; Translated by Boris Dralyuk Zofia Nalkowska Choucas; Translated by Ursula Phillips FOOD 30 Carolin C. Young Katie and Giancarlo Caldesi Venice – Recipes lost and found. Laura Zavan Venice – Cult recipes Barri J. Gold Esther Menell Loose Connections. Annie Ernaux A Woman’s Story. Robert Macfarlane Landmarks. Adam Michnik The Trouble with History. Jürgen Wasim Frembgen and Paul Rollier Wrestlers, Pigeon Fanciers and Kite Flyers. J. L. Granatstein The Greatest Victory. William Collins Donahue and Martha B. Helfer, editors Nexus. Judith E. Smith Becoming Belafonte This week’s contributors, Crossword 31 NB 32 Heidi C. M. Scott Chaos and Cosmos – Literary roots of modern ecology in the British nineteenth century J. C. Talking in Monaco, Blurb babble, Poetic monks Cover image: Detail from “The Young Bride and the Dead Wives, from ‘Bluebeard’ by Charles Perrault” by Daniel Cacouault © The Bridgeman Art Library; p3 © Antonio Castaneda/AP Photo; p8 © The Bridgeman Art Library; p10 © DeAgostini/Getty Images; p12 © Imagno/Getty Images; p13 (left) © 2006 John Hedgecoe/TopFoto; p13 (second right) © Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images; p14 Courtesy Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen; p15 Courtesy The Louvre; p19 © Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP/Getty Images; p25 © Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums/The Bridgeman Art Library The Times Literary Supplement (ISSN 0307661, USPS 021-626) is published weekly except a double issue in August and December by The Times Literary Supplement Limited, London UK, and distributed in the USA by OCS America Inc., 195 Anderson Avenue, Moonachie, NJ 07074-1621. Periodical postage paid at Moonachie NJ and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: please send address corrections to TLS, P0 Box 3000, Denville, NJ 07834, USA. USA and Canadian retail newsstand copies distributed by Kable Distribution Services, 14 Wall Street, Suite 4C New York, New York 10005 TLS MARCH 13 2015