Love and war may be huge themes, but Sebastian Faulks approaches them from a microscopic perspective. He detects love in the minute movements of a woman's fingers; in a man's manner of crawling through trenches, he captures fear and torment. Faulks is involved in a romance with detail, charging every

Epic, Intense, Pathos, Realist fiction, Sensual, Violent

Dark, Gritty, Pathos, Political, Realist fiction, Sincere, Urban, Victorian

Some works of art effortlessly draw the core of their subject to surface. William Blake, the great predecessor to the Romantics, understood this well. Whether in a lyrical, allegorical poem like "The Echoing Green" or in the almost futuristic engravings for "The Book of Urizen," he exemplified the ar

18th century poetry, Lyrical, Pathos, Sensual, Sublime

As both a conductor and a virtuoso pianist, Daniel Barenboim approaches each of his projects from a dual perspective: he sees a piece as both a physical, sonorous expression and as a structural whole. For Barenboim, integrating the two perspectives is essential to making good music. "The element of p

20th-century music, Eclectic, Elegant, Pathos, Sophisticated