Writ Large

There is only one surviving copy of The Life and Passion of William of Norwich, but its story continues to haunt us. When 12th-century monk Thomas of Monmouth learned of a young boy’s murder in his community, he accused his Jewish neighbors of the heinous crime. Over the course of two decades, he wrote a seven-volume conspiracy theory, building out the accusation and cementing it in history. Stanf...

When French author Jules Verne wrote Around the World in 80 Days in the late 1800s, scheduled global travel was practically science fiction, and 80 days seemed impossibly fast. But his techno-futurist novel inspired everyday adventurers to traverse the globe by boat, train, bike, and foot—and beat his protagonist’s record. Harvard professor Joyce Chaplin discusses what we can learn from Jules Vern...

What is the world without literature? It’s hard to imagine. We’d lose novels, sure. But we’d also lose the philosophies, politics, and religions of today because these all grew out of literature. There would be no sacred texts, no newspapers, not even TV shows. This is how Martin Puchner’s 2018 book The Written World begins. Martin Puchner is a professor of English and Comparative Literature at Ha...