Robert Pogue Harrison | The New York Review of Books

Interminable Ignorance

Why has the will to ignorance become so virulent in our time?

Ignorance and Bliss: On Wanting Not to Know

by Mark Lilla

On Not Knowing: How to Love and Other Essays

by Emily Ogden

April 9, 2026 issue

At Ease Amid the Ruins

Costica Bradatan and Geoff Dyer explore the virtues of failure and humility in the face of the next-to-nothingness of human existence.

In Praise of Failure: Four Lessons in Humility

by Costica Bradatan

The Last Days of Roger Federer and Other Endings

by Geoff Dyer

March 7, 2024 issue

Labors of Love

Inspired new translations of Dante’s Purgatorio are faithful to its message of rehabilitation, reconciliation, and redemption.

Purgatorio

by Dante Alighieri, translated from the Italian and with an introduction and notes by Mary Jo Bang

Purgatorio

by Dante Alighieri, translated from the Italian and with commentary by D.M. Black, with a preface by Robert Pogue Harrison

After Dante: Poets in Purgatory: Translations by Contemporary Poets

edited by Nick Havely with Bernard O’Donoghue

Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno

by Rachel Owen, edited by David Bowe

December 16, 2021 issue

The Nothing Beyond Nothing

Maurice Blanchot: A Critical Biography

by Christophe Bident, translated from the French by John McKeane

March 12, 2020 issue

The Prophet of Envy

On the enduring relevance of René Girard’s thought to our social and political realities

Evolution of Desire: A Life of René Girard

by Cynthia L. Haven

Evolution and Conversion: Dialogues on the Origins of Culture

by René Girard, with Pierpaolo Antonella and João Cesar de Castro Rocha

Deceit, Desire, and the Novel

by René Girard, translated from the French by Yvonne Freccero

Violence and the Sacred

by René Girard, translated from the French by Patrick Gregory

Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World

by René Girard, translated from the French by Stephen Bonn and Michael Metteer

A Theater of Envy: William Shakespeare

by René Girard

Battling to the End: Conversations with Benoît Chantre

by René Girard, translated from the French by Mary Baker

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December 20, 2018 issue

The True American

New books examine the many contradictions of Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau: A Life

by Laura Dassow Walls

Walden

by Henry David Thoreau, with an introduction and annotations by Bill McKibben

Expect Great Things: The Life and Search of Henry David Thoreau

by Kevin Dann

Thoreau’s Animals

by Henry David Thoreau, edited by Geoff Wisner and illustrated by Debby Cotter Kaspari

Thoreau and the Language of Trees

by Richard Higgins, with a foreword by Robert D. Richardson and photographs by Richard Higgins

The Boatman: Henry David Thoreau’s River Years

by Robert M. Thorson

This Ever New Self: Thoreau and His Journal

an exhibition at the Morgan Library and Museum, New York City, June 2–September 10, 2017; and the Concord Museum, Concord, Massachusetts, September 29, 2017–January 21, 2018

When I Came to Die: Process and Prophecy in Thoreau’s Vision of Dying

by Audrey Raden

Bird Relics: Grief and Vitalism in Thoreau

by Branka Arsić

Thoreau’s Wildflowers

by Henry David Thoreau, edited by Geoff Wisner and illustrated by Barry Moser

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August 17, 2017 issue

Letter

Henrik Otterberg

Thoreau In Translation

October 26, 2017 issue

Dante: He Went Mad in His Hell

Dante: The Story of His Life

by Marco Santagata, translated from the Italian by Richard Dixon

October 27, 2016 issue

The Ultimate Reader

Curiosity

by Alberto Manguel

October 22, 2015 issue

Dante on Trial

Dante and the Limits of the Law

by Justin Steinberg

Reading Dante: From Here to Eternity

by Prue Shaw

February 19, 2015 issue

Our Animal Hell

For the animal world at large, the human race represents nothing less than a natural disaster.

January 5, 2015

The Silicon Prison

Our silicon age, which sees no glory in maintenance, but only in disruption, makes it extremely difficult for us to imagine how, in past eras, those who would change the world were viewed with suspicion and dread.

July 17, 2014

Dante: The Most Vivid Version

Inferno

by Dan Brown

Inferno

by Dante, translated from the Italian by Mary Jo Bang, with illustrations by Henrik Drescher

The Divine Comedy

by Dante, translated from the Italian by Clive James

October 24, 2013 issue

Letter

Antony Shugaar

Oy!

November 21, 2013 issue

A New Kind of Woman

The Lives of Margaret Fuller

by John Matteson

Margaret Fuller: A New American Life

by Megan Marshall

April 25, 2013 issue

America: The Struggle to Be Reborn

The Republic of Nature: An Environmental History of the United States

by Mark Fiege, with a foreword by William Cronon

October 25, 2012 issue

The Book From Which Our Literature Springs

Pen of Iron: American Prose and the King James Bible

by Robert Alter

The Wisdom Books: Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes

translated from the Hebrew and with commentary by Robert Alter

The Rise and Fall of the Bible: The Unexpected History of an Accidental Book

by Timothy Beal

The Shadow of a Great Rock: A Literary Appreciation of the King James Bible

by Harold Bloom

Bible: The Story of the King James Version, 1611–2011

by Gordon Campbell

The Apocryphal Gospels: Texts and Translations

edited by Bart D. Ehrman and Zlatko Pleše

On Eagles' Wings: The King James Bible Turns 400

edited by Liana Lupas

Manifold Greatness: The Making of the King James Bible

edited by Helen Moore and Julian Reid

Majestie: The King Behind the King James Bible

by David Teems

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February 9, 2012 issue

The Faith of Harold Bloom

The Anatomy of Influence: Literature as a Way of Life

by Harold Bloom

October 13, 2011 issue

Saved by the Vision of Beatrice

La Vita Nuova

by Dante Alighieri, translated from the Italian by David R. Slavitt, with an introduction by Seth Lerer

May 26, 2011 issue

The Magic of Leopardi

Canti

by Giacomo Leopardi, translated from the Italian and annotated by Jonathan Galassi

February 10, 2011 issue

Emerson: The Good Hours

Selected Journals, 1820–1842

by Ralph Waldo Emerson, edited by Lawrence Rosenwald

Selected Journals, 1841–1877

by Ralph Waldo Emerson, edited by Lawrence Rosenwald

October 28, 2010 issue

A Great Conservationist, by Jingo

The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America

by Douglas Brinkley

The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America

by Timothy Egan

November 5, 2009 issue