tuberculosis
Two young men in flight: Partita and A Winter in Zürau, by Gabriel Josipovici reviewed
Kafka, spitting blood, escapes Prague to join his sister in Bohemia, and a fictional lover flees the wrath of an outraged husband in Josipovici’s delightful two-in-one trick
Another mistress for Victor Hugo: Célina, by Catherine Axelrad, reviewed
A young chambermaid joins the Hugo household in Guernsey and soon finds herself summoned at night to her master’s adjoining bedroom
The important business of idle loafing
Alain Corbin describes how rest, once seen as a prelude to eternal life, began to assume a therapeutic quality in the 19th century, as a guard against burnout and a cure for TB
Death was everywhere for the Victorians, but it was never commonplace
In a society obsessed with the trappings of grief, funerals were often elaborate occasions, with commemorative medals struck and strict rules applied to the period of mourning
Life’s dark side: the catastrophic world of Stephen Crane
Long before Ernest Hemingway wasted his late career playing the he-man on battlefields and in fishing boats, or Norman Mailer…
This is not a natural disaster, but a manmade one
Should our future permit an occupation so frivolous, historians years from now will make a big mistake if they blame…
Your immune system’s war isn’t Saving Private Ryan — it’s Homeland
Before I read this book, I imagined the immune system as a defensive force, like the Germans on the beaches…
