Who was a model for Mary Shelley’s protagonist? Candidates include a 17th-century alchemist and Charles Darwin’s grandfather.

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When Captain George Pollard Jr.’s ship was rammed by a whale, he had no idea it would help make literary history.
‘The Gashlycrumb Tinies’ author was born 100 years ago on February 22—here’s what you need to know about him, from what classic book he found boring to how much he really helped with PBS’s show ‘Mystery!’
The star-crossed lovers captured in these Gothic romance books will give you a new reason to hate Valentine’s Day.
He wrote the book partially in response to European writers like Joseph Conrad, who Achebe said depicted Africa “as ‘the other world,’ the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civilization.”
The novel, which turns 100 this year, was so successful that it allowed Woolf to put in a bathroom she called “Mrs. Dalloway’s closet.”
Peter Weir’s Australian New Wave classic turns 50 this year. Here’s what you need to know about the film, from the off-limits question Weir asked book author Joan Lindsay to the spooky stuff that happened on set.
Ahead of Robert Eggers’s adaptation of ‘Nosferatu,’ here’s a breakdown of the differences and similarities between the two iconic bloodsuckers.
These gifts made a huge impact.
Buy a water bed—you might need to drink it.
Jólabókaflóðið, Iceland's long-running Christmas tradition, involves books, bed, and chocolate—all our favorite things.
Propstore is auctioning off tons of James Bond items, including hand-made posters and props.
He got the idea from a story his wife told him while they were visiting her parents: “I joked, ‘This would be good for a novel. I am going to write a novel based on this.’ ”
In 1985, Chief Wiley went for a swim and was never seen or heard from again. What he left behind shocked his community.