Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
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By Pietro Bellotti (1625-1700), via the Dallas Museum of Art and Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
When literary critics decide that a book is not worthy of their notice they expect the public to follow their lead, but ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’ was different.
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By Poliphilo, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
In the thirteenth century, wealthy English homeowners began to think more about the inside of their stately homes.
© Michael Garlick, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
In January 1807, newspapers breathlessly reported that Napoleon Bonaparte’s rampage across Europe was at an end — but was it true?
© mags, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
When Saint-Mars arrived to take over as warden of the Bastille in 1698, staff at Paris’s most famous prison had eyes only for his prisoner.
Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov (1848–1926)
The interminable squabbling among the Slavic peoples around the southeast Baltic prompted their leaders to drastic action.
By Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Trapped in Crete with his son Icarus, the craftsman and inventor Daedalus realises a bold and desperate plan to get away.