In the 1884 French novel “Against Nature,” the eccentric nobleman Des Esseintes cuts himself off from a society he finds both distasteful and disenchanting. Shutting himself in on the outskirts of ...

“In the supreme importance that we place on intimate relationships, have we overlooked the deep, sustaining power of solitude in human life?” That question was posed by the psychiatrist Anthony Storr ...

Share your memories of reading García Márquez’s books here. One of the great things about revisiting a classic is hearing from readers about how they first stumbled upon a beloved author and the ...

Bill Gates is known for his solitary “think weeks.” The painter Georgia O’Keeffe often spent days alone walking and working at her ranch in New Mexico. And the poet Emily Dickinson wrote often about ...