Critics on the Classics

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

“Titanic” raises the stakes of the spectacular.

By Anthony Lane

December 7, 1997

How the drama of Toni Morrison’s “Beloved” engages us in history.

By Judith Thurman

October 25, 1987

By Donald Malcolm

November 1, 1958

J. D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye.”

By S. N. Behrman

August 4, 1951

George Orwell’s “1984” predicts a state of things far worse than any we have ever known.

By Lionel Trilling

June 10, 1949

M-G-M’s Technicolor production “The Wizard of Oz” displays no trace of good taste, imagination, or ingenuity.

By Russell Maloney

August 12, 1939

A god, talking in his sleep, might have written “Finnegans Wake.”

By Clifton Fadiman

April 28, 1939

Our recurrent hero, Winnie-the-Pooh.

By Dorothy Parker

October 12, 1928