Exilium Vita Est: The Island Home of Victor Hugo By Emma Jacobs Feature Emma Jacobs takes us on an illustrated journey of Hugo’s writing life in exile on Guernsey, where he completed Les Misérables.
The Ugly History of Beautiful Things: Mirrors By Katy Kelleher Feature Mirrors are sparkly and shiny and hypnotic. They’ve fascinated us for thousands of years. And they might show us a lot more about our society’s misplaced priorities than we care to see.
Queens of Infamy: Josephine Bonaparte, from Malmaison to More-Than-Monarch By Anne Thériault Feature In fraught games of power politics, sometimes the best revenge is not being exiled to die alone on an island in the South Atlantic.
Queens of Infamy: Josephine Bonaparte, from Martinique to Merveilleuse By Anne Thériault Feature Even the Reign of Terror was no match for a determined young woman with a pug and a prophecy on her side.
How Diderot’s Encyclopedia Challenged the King By Longreads Feature The encyclopedists’ plan to catalog knowledge seemed harmless enough. But what they intended was far more subversive: to restructure knowledge itself.
Queens of Infamy: The Reign of Catherine de’ Medici By Anne Thériault Feature When your husband and male heirs are too useless or too dead to rule, you have to take matters into your own poison-gloved hands.
Queens of Infamy: The Rise of Catherine de’ Medici By Anne Thériault Feature Kings and popes thought she was their pawn. The Merchant’s Daughter begged to differ.
Queens of Infamy: Eleanor of Aquitaine By Anne Thériault Feature Life gets busy when you have empires to build and marriages to annul.
Why Did a Young Woman Broadcast Her Death? By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight An 18-year-old Parisian woman streams her suicide on social media.
The Other National Pastime: Unusual Baby Names By Ben Huberman Highlight “Brayden” and “Nevaeh” have got nothing on their 17th-century predecessors, “Waitstill” and “Supply.”
#FrenchGirlGoals: Artful Dishevelment and Animal Fats By Michelle Weber Highlight There’s big money for fashion and beauty companies in encouraging the women of the world to emulate the French Girl.
The Aristocratic Chef: An Interview with Daniel Le Bailly de La Falaise By Longreads Feature Daniel Le Bailly de La Falaise on private caterings for celebrities, the sexuality of a peach, and how the simplicity of food is the ultimate luxury.
How the Descendants of the Marquis de Sade Became Champions of His Once Taboo Legacy By Julia Wick Highlight “For five generations, the marquis’ name was taboo in our family,” Hugues marveled. “It was as if there was an omertà (conspiracy of silence) against him! The family no longer even used the title marquis.”
