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Books

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Goya and His Women

An exhibition at Washington’s National Gallery of Art takes a fresh look at one of Spain’s most celebrated artists and the women he painted

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Behind the Lines: Role Models

Our writers explore new worlds in time and space

Ao dais make striking uniforms for four university students heading home after classes. Long gloves and hats provide welcome protection from the sun in a land where a suntan is not considered fashionable; masks serve as barriers to dust and exhaust.

Silk Robes and Cell Phones

Three decades after Frances FitzGerald won a Pulitzer Prize for Fire in the Lake, her classic work on Vietnam, she returned with photojournalist Mary Cross

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Around the Mall & Beyond

Author Unknown: On the Trail of Anonymous

Don Foster Has a Way With Words

Uncovered a Shakespeare elegy, confirmed Ted Kaczynski wrote the Unabomb Manifesto and identified Eric Rudolph as a suspect in the 1996 bombing

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Narrow Escapes in Literature

Curl up under a blanket and enjoy these whirlpool-inspired excerpts from works by Poe, Verne, Homer and others. Hot chocolate is recommended.

A 15th-century manuscript of the Odyssey

Excerpt from Homer’s Odyssey

At every chance the gods throw up mighty obstacles to prevent him from getting home even as the Lady Circe gives him the advice he needs to survive

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Lost Labyrinth

Versailles’ labyrinth, which we’ve reconstructed for your virtual pleasure.

View of the Orangerie in 1695 as painted by Étienne Allegrain and Jean-Baptiste Martin

A Garden to Defy the Seasons

Enjoy a chapter of a translated fictional account of the Sun King’s kitchen gardenerâ—and peek into the intrigues of high society in 17th-century France

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The Pleasure of the Rare Book

Treasures from the Smithsonian Libraries—a Wright brothers bio, a repoussé prayer book—can be savored in a new show

Fire on the Mountain: The True Story of the South Canyon Fire

Fire on the Mountain

Bonding through Books

A good read gives mothers and daughters much more to talk about than just the plot

Journal of Arnold Bennett

Bedtime Reading

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