Agitrons,Waftaroms, and Neoflects, Oh My!
Beetle Bailey creator Mort Walker’s Lexicon of Comicana—a lovingly ironic send-up of comic-strip conventions—remains the gold standard, 50 years on
Deadly Pleasures to Read and Watch
Two mystery books unfolding on either side of the Atlantic, and a new Maigret TV show set in present-day Paris
Matisse vs. the Nazis
Despite a teaching post in San Francisco and a visa to Rio de Janeiro, the artist chose to stay in France and pursue his “degenerate” art during W.W. II
Fawlty Reasoning
How has Fawlty Towers, one of the most offbeat, provincial, inappropriate, and heavily excoriated shows of all time, remained popular for 50 years? Nobody quite knows …
The Man Who Would Be Rockefeller
On this week’s podcast, Jonathan Alter takes us inside the story of the con man who grifted his way into the American establishment
Emily Fairn
With roles opposite Martin Freeman and Willem Dafoe under her belt, the 26-year-old Liverpudlian is now starring in House of Guinness
Downton and Out
With the last of the Downton Abbey movies in theaters, Lily James, Matthew Goode, and other cast members recall working with Maggie Smith and how Downton-mania spread across the pond
Editor’s Picks
This week, don’t miss a look into the year that defined World War II, a children’s book about Indian cuisine, and a biography of an American nature writer
On the Basis of Sexuality
The little-known story of the gay Black Korean War veteran who sued the state of Florida in 1961 for firing him due to his sexuality—and won
Maria Veerasamy’s Guide to Stockholm
The C.E.O. of the Swedish interior design company Svenskt Tenn shares her favorite spots in her adopted city
Spark of Genius
Muriel Spark, one of the most admired British novelists of the 20th century, led a mystically charged life that uncannily melded fact and fiction
Darling, Death Becomes You!
On this week’s podcast, a look at how funerals have become a scene for the new social climbing
Renaissance Woman
In Milan, Italy’s first-ever Leonora Carrington show traces the influence of the country’s old masters on the British-Mexican Surrealist
The Bard of Britain
At 77, Ian McEwan hopes to be remembered for more than Atonement
The Unlikely Rise and Inevitable Fall of Vice
Once hailed as the “Millennial CNN,” Vice rode hipster shock journalism to a $5.7 billion valuation—before hubris, big business, and the fleeting currency of cool brought it all crashing down
A Lighter Shade of Darren Aronofsky
His movies—Black Swan, The Wrestler, Requiem for a Dream—are notoriously heavy. But the director’s latest, Caught Stealing, is a romp around the East Village of the 1990s
Ken Follett’s World Without End
The Welsh thriller author on producing such a vast archive—and the lure of Stonehenge, the subject of his latest book
Mrs. Dalloway at 100
A century on, Virginia Woolf’s breakthrough novel remains modern
