The Making of Charlotte Brontë
How a controversial biography of the Jane Eyre author overcame accusations of slander from the novelist’s hellish former headmaster, her critics, and even her father to establish her enduring myth
Editor’s Picks
This week, don’t miss a new history of China’s path to Communism, a re-examination of the Bernie Goetz subway shooting, and McNally Editions’ reprint of a forgotten dark comedy
Jenner Tomaska and Katrina Bravo’s Guide to Chicago
The husband-and-wife team behind Esmé restaurant share their favorite places to eat in the city they call home
Hot and Wuther-ed
Heathcliff and Catherine go full B.D.S.M. in Emerald Fennell’s new film adaptation of Emily Brontë’s timeless gothic novel
Melania Mon Amour
Canceled filmmaker Brett Ratner’s documentary on the First Lady transcends propaganda, or even slopaganda
The Singular Power of Avedon
Gabriel García Márquez, Samuel Beckett, Louise Nevelson … an exhibition in Montreal showcases the photographer’s intimate portraits of aging, honing in on our universal mortality through wrinkles, follicles, and blemishes
The Movie Brats
For the past 50 years, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, and Steven Spielberg have been collaborators, competitors, critics, and, most incredibly, close friends
The Offensive Line
Inside the love-hate relationship between two of the most powerful men in the N.F.L.—Patriots owner Robert Kraft and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones—and the media
Editor’s Picks
This week, don’t miss the secret history of the fund that reshaped American democracy, a memoir by Andrew Cuomo’s divorce attorney, and a chronicle of the fight to save the Siberian tiger
Sibella Court’s Guide to Sydney
The interior designer shares her go-to spots in the city she calls home
Hot Takes
A handy digest of recent media coverage concerning the Epstein files
The Alternative Super Bowl Halftime Show
Turning Point USA is hosting a conservative alternative to the Bad Bunny–headlining Super Bowl halftime show. AIR MAIL has all the details
The Last Great Media Mogul
At 94, Rupert Murdoch—who just launched a new tabloid, California Post—is the last vestige of the golden age of press barons, from Hearst to Pulitzer
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
After documenting the Vietnam War and the Biafra conflict, the underbelly of London and the Beatles, the British artist Don McCullin turned to antiquity. His photographs of classical statues are now featured in a new exhibition in England
The Empress Has No Clothes
Sir Edmund Backhouse, the author of a highly influential book on the Qing empress dowager Cixi, claimed affairs with everyone from Oscar Wilde to the empress herself—but was any of it true?
Editor’s Picks
This week, don’t miss a study of John Cheever’s short stories by his daughter, a fresh look at the siege of Leningrad, and an analysis of plagiarism for the age of A.I.
Tina Seidenfaden Busck’s Guide to Copenhagen
The founder of the Apartment design gallery shares her go-to spots in her hometown
Cézanne’s Final Act
With more than 70 works, an exhibition in Switzerland pays tribute to the revolutionary Post-Impressionist’s late period