Kafka’s Faith

Franz Kafka is one of the key figures in modern fiction – a status he earned through just a handful of unfinished novels and a series of enigmatic short stories. His influence can be found in all sorts of places in the work of contemporary writers, wherever they venture to grapple with themes of dystopian [...]

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The Lord of the Ring? Tolkien and Wagner

J.R.R. Tolkien once wrote, responding to comparisons between The Lord of the Rings and Richard Wagner’s Ring cycle, that: ‘Both rings were round, and there the resemblance ceased.’ Clearly the comparison irked him, the inventor of a truly unique work of creative genius, but his response seems overly dismissive and simplistic at best. This essay [...]