Literature

The new adaptation of The Decameron is “like a medieval ‘Love Island,’ and it descends into Lord of the Flies chaos,” says actor Tanya Reynolds.

The Real Story Behind Netflix's 'The Decameron'

Loosely based on Giovanni Boccaccio's 14th-century collection of short stories, the series follows a group of Italian nobles and servants who flee to the countryside to escape the Black Death

The blade, known as Durandal, was embedded in rock more than 30 feet above the ground.

Fabled Sword From Medieval French Folklore Disappears

Known as the "French Excalibur," the blade is said to have hung from a rock face in the village of Rocamadour for 1,300 years

Aphra Behn's The Amorous Prince, or, The Curious Husband was staged this month for the first time in 350 years.

Aphra Behn, the First Englishwoman to Earn a Living With Her Writing, Is Finally Getting Her Due

A year-long event series aims to champion the pioneering 17th-century writer's legacy

Tiana's Bayou Adventure is now open to the public.

What the Change of a Disney Park Ride Reflects About How America Sees Itself

Splash Mountain, originally based on the film ‘Song of the South,’ has become Tiana’s Bayou Adventure

Aspen, Colorado gets around 300 days of sunshine per year.

The 15 Best Small Towns to Visit in 2024

From a bluegrass capital in Virginia to a laid-back surf town in Hawaii, these spots are beckoning to tourists this year

The correspondence is undated, but experts think Kafka wrote it in the spring of 1920.

An Ailing Franz Kafka Curses Writer's Block in This Handwritten Letter to a Friend

"I haven't written anything for three years," he admitted in the note, which will go to auction this summer

Edmond O'Brien and Jan Sterling during the filming of a 1956 adaptation of George Orwell's 1984

What Does George Orwell's '1984' Mean in 2024?

Now 75 years old, the dystopian novel still rings alarm bells about totalitarian rule

The original illustration for the cover of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone will go to auction in June.

Spellbinding Cover Art for 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' Could Break Auction Record

The original watercolor illustration of a young wizard boarding the Hogwarts Express was artist Thomas Taylor's first professional commission

Poetry lovers can call 503-928-7008 to hear a new daily poem through the end of April.

Call Oregon's Poetry Hotline to Hear a New Poem Every Day This Month

The hotline, created by the state's poet laureate, has already received thousands of callers

After its century-long disappearance, the book was returned in good condition earlier this year.

Overdue Book Returned to Colorado Library After 105 Years

The Fort Collins library waived the fine, which totaled over $14,000 when adjusted for inflation

The Crosby-Schøyen Codex is part of the Schøyen collection, one of the largest private manuscript collections in the world.

One of the World's Oldest Surviving Books Is for Sale

The rare early Christian text was written in a monastery in Egypt between 250 and 350 C.E.

The handwritten manuscript of The Sign of the Four, Arthur Conan Doyle's second Sherlock Holmes novel

Arthur Conan Doyle Agreed to Write 'The Sign of the Four' at a Fateful Dinner in 1889

The handwritten manuscript he produced is going to auction, where it could become the most expensive item associated with the mystery writer ever sold

Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer: A Memoir topped the list, followed by George M. Johnson’s All Boys Aren’t Blue.

These Were the Most Challenged Books in America Last Year

Titles with LGBTQ themes dominated the American Library Association's newly released list

Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe was the ALA's most challenged book in both 2021 and 2022. 

Book Banning Attempts Are at Record Highs

A new report from the American Library Association found that the number of challenged titles increased by 65 percent in 2023

Writer Gabriel García Márquez died in 2014 at the age of 87.

Gabriel García Márquez's Sons Publish Novel the Author Wanted to Destroy

The famed novelist had instructed his family never to publish drafts of "Until August," written as he struggled with dementia during his final years

Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy in the 1995 BBC series "Pride and Prejudice"

Mr. Darcy's Famous Wet Shirt Sells for $25,000

Actor Colin Firth’s costume from the BBC's “Pride in Prejudice” doubled auction house estimates

The Return of the Buffalo Herd, painted by Edward and Charles Detmold, hangs at Bateman's in East Sussex in honor of the book's 130th anniversary.

Rare 'Jungle Book' Watercolor Goes on Display at Rudyard Kipling's Home in England

"The Return of the Buffalo Herd" is one of only four surviving illustrations from the book

The novel is set during the early days of the pandemic, when New Yorkers applauded from their windows each night for medical staff and essential workers.

36 Famous Authors Co-Wrote a Pandemic Novel. Can You Guess Who Drafted Each Section?

Margaret Atwood, R.L. Stine and John Grisham are among the writers who collaborated on "Fourteen Days," which follows a group of New Yorkers who gather on a Manhattan rooftop to swap stories beginning in March 2020

Hiroyuki Sanada as Lord Yoshii Toranaga, a fictionalized version of the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, in FX's "Shogun"

The Real History Behind FX's 'Shogun'

A new adaptation offers a fresh take on James Clavell's 1975 novel, which fictionalizes the stories of English sailor William Adams, shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu and Japanese noblewoman Hosokawa Gracia

Some of the women diarists featured in the new anthology. Top row, left to right: Ada Blackjack, Anne Clifford, Florence Nightingale, Fanny Burney and Anna Dostoyevskaya. Bottom row, left to right: Elizabeth Fry, Cynthia Asquith, Beatrice Webb, Charlotte Forten Grimké and Virginia Woolf 

What Is the Dominant Emotion in 400 Years of Women's Diaries?

A new anthology identifies frustration as a recurring theme in journals written between 1599 and 2015

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