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Before the Big Screen

A hundred years of great writing, curated for The New Yorker’s centenary.

Gogol

“He hates that his name is both absurd and obscure, that it has nothing to do with who he is, that it is neither Indian nor American but, of all things, Russian.”

A Room at the Normandy

Brokeback Mountain

“They never talked about the sex, let it happen, at first only in the tent at night, then in the full daylight.”

Push

Orchid Fever

How seductive are orchids? Connoisseurs spare nothing for a rare bloom—the issue in a battle between Florida, the Seminoles, and a man with a passion.

Barn Burning

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Even before the official opening of her prime, Miss Brodie’s colleagues in the Junior School had been gradually turning against her.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty