A striking photo of the Brontё sisters is not, in fact, a photo of the Brontё sisters. The women in the photo look a lot like them, but their hometown didn’t have much in the way of photography in the 1840s, and there isn’t any record of the Brontёs getting their photo taken. So how did the picture become known for being something it isn’t? At the LRB’s blog, Alice Spawls explains why. Pair with our own Edan Lepucki on Jane Eyre’s Mr. Rochester.
False Negative
Reading at Wimbledon
Though it's long been known as the gentleman's sport, tennis seems to be slipping a little bit in its cultural refinement. Melville House has a blog post on the reading habits of elite players, and they're spotty at best, though Dostoyevsky, Nietzsche and Camus are all mentioned, as are J.K. Rowling, Tolkien and, simply, "newspapers."
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Introducing Our New Interns!
We're pleased as punch to introduce Millions readers to our new interns, Carolyn Quimby and Ariana Valderrama. Arianna is originally from Chicago but is currently based in Washington, D.C. where she works in communications. In high school she started a book blog, Reading in Color, where she reviewed over 200 middle grade and young adult books about people of color. On her nightstand right now: Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America by James Forman Jr. and White Teeth by Zadie Smith. Carolyn works in academic publishing by day and is a freelance writer and book reviewer by night. Sometimes she dreams about going on a road trip solely dedicated to visiting bookstores, but mostly she tweets at @CarolynQuimby. Currently on her nightstand: Goodbye Vitamin by Rachel Khong and Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. We couldn't be happier to have Carolyn and Ariana on board!
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Il Maestro
Everyone knows that Joyce grew up in Dublin, but few people know that he spent much of his life in Italy. At Open Letters Monthly, you can read a long piece on his years in the city of Trieste. (You can also try your hand at our quiz.)
West of Here
Recommended Listening: Brad Listi in conversation with Stewart O’Nan.
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Tuesday New Release Day: Wray; Tennant-Moore; Wink; Sorrentino; de Kerangal; Gustine; Barbery; Silva; Warlick; Enrigue; Amdahl
Out this week: The Lost Time Accidents by John Wray; Wreck and Order by Hannah Tennant-Moore; Dog Run Moon by Callan Wink; The Fugitives by Christopher Sorrentino; The Heart by Maylis de Kerangal; You Should Pity Us Instead by Amy Gustine; The Life of Elves by Muriel Barbery; Square Wave by Mark de Silva; The Arrangement by Ashley Warlick; Sudden Death by Álvaro Enrigue; and The Daredevils by Gary Amdahl. For more on these and other new titles, go read our Great 2016 Book Preview.
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Two Chapters of Train Dreams
You can read the first two chapters of Denis Johnson's latest novel Train Dreams on his Facebook page.
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What He Showed
“Thinking about his films while watching an American film leads to a sobering realization: all the things that Abbas Kiarostami could not show in his films became the only things Hollywood filmmakers chose to show in theirs. What he showed in his films were the things abandoned by Hollywood: conversation, friendship, understanding, compassion, and empathy.” A. S. Hamrah discusses Abbas Kiarostami’s legacy at n+1.
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The Most Important Scene in CMBYN
Some people may not have realized the Oscar nominated Call Me By Your Name was originally a novel. André Aciman wrote an essay for Vanity Fair on the process of watching his novel adapted into film, in particular what it was like watching the scene he calls the most important come to life. Read the essay plus what author Martha Southgate had to say about the novel for her 2007 Year in Reading essay. And then go see the film!