Twelve-year-old Nunzio Paradiso is sprawled beneath a wrecked 1973 Pontiac Bonneville, hooking it up for towing, when he hears someone speak in Italian. “Dio,” the voice says. A moment later it comes again. “Dio.” The explanation... Read More

Vegetarians have been perceived as the Calvinists of the culinary world. Their ascetic approach to food is taken as an affront to the high partisans of meat eating. Vegetarians are not hated for what they do-benignly eat fruit,... Read More

Who was Cleopatra, really? An intellectual stateswoman? An alluring seductress? A living deity? A greedy manipulator? An incestuous hedonist? Cleopatra VII, daughter of the line of Ptolemy, deliberately promoted all these impressions of... Read More

The Victorian England of tinted memory—a proud, prosperous nation committed to piety in the home, long hours in the workplace and enlightened rule throughout the empire—has long since lost its luster. The dutiful Victoria may draw... Read More

Galileo Galilei had three children with Marina Gamba, his mistress of twelve years. Because he never married Marina, his children were illegitimate. Galileo’s son Vincenzo was eventually legitimized by the Grand Duke Cosimo II; but his... Read More

What if, during the height of the Cold War, the defense plans of Western Europe and the United States had been compromised—and the Soviet Bloc had attacked successfully? A scary thought, but from 1983 to 1994 this scenario was not as... Read More

Miller, who along with her husband Jordan Miller founded Academy Chicago Publishers, a small independent publisher, presents her side of a protracted 1998 lawsuit between their publishing house and the Cheever family over Academy Chicago... Read More