As winter deepens in Pollard, Illinois, agoraphobe Francis Falbo is holed up in his attic apartment, recovering from a series of traumas: his mother's death, his wife's desertion, and his once-ascendant rock band's break-up. Francis hasn't shaved in months and hasn't changed out of his bathrobe for [...]

On a summer day in 1674, in the small Dutch city of Delft, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek a cloth salesman, local bureaucrat, and self-taught natural philosopher gazed through a tiny lens set into a brass holder and discovered a never-before imagined world of microscopic life. At the same time, in a nearby [...]

Born in Sinaloa, Mexico, Julia Pastrana (1834-1860) was a gifted singer, musician and dancer who could converse in English, Spanish and French. She also suffered from one of the most extreme cases of hypertrichosis lagunigosa on record and severe gingival hyperplasia: her face and body were covered [...]

A collection of great journalistic pieces includes Maike Sager's account of stalking Marlon Brando in Tahiti, Scott Anderson's exploits as a war correspondant, and Bill Plaschke's story about a woman suffering from cerebral palsy who runs a Los Angeles Dodgers Web site. Original.[...]

Bruce Wayne may have returned, but when an aging but wealthy technology developer comes to Gotham with his beautiful daughter, it turns out he's in search of a joint project with WayneTech. DNA tracking is the name of his game, and there are others interested in his proposal. But when the developer [...]

In The Eye and the Beholder the author singles out a topic already touched upon in her previous book, Colour in Sculpture. By raising the question of how significant the colouring of the eye is to figurative representations of the late medieval and early modern period, Hannelore Hagele examines the [...]

Stephen Leeds, also known as 'Legion', has a unique mental condition. He can become an expert on any subject in hours . . . and with every new area of expertise a new 'aspect' of Stephen is created.Is he schizophrenic? Possibly. Does that make him an incredible intelligence agent? Definitely. And th[...]

By the early 17th century the Scientific Revolution was well under way. Philosophers and scientists were throwing off the yoke of ancient authority to peer at nature and the cosmos through microscopes and telescopes. In October 1632, in the small town of Delft in the Dutch Republic, two geniuses wer[...]

The Eye of the Beholder is a cult Noir classic that inspired both French and English film adaptations.[...]