The Dead Toreador, by Édouard Manet, c. 1864. National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

The Dead Toreador, by Édouard Manet, c. 1864. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

Death

Volume VI, Number 4 | fall 2013

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"The Antiquary's Last Will and Testament" from The English Dance of Death, by Thomas Rowlandson, 1814.

Preamble

Memento Mori

By Lewis H. Lapham

Learning how to die, as Michel de Montaigne once rightly said, is the unlearning of how to be a slave.

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Hunting Dogs with Dead Hare, by Gustave Courbet. 1857.

Mournful Creatures

By Virginia Morell

Humans may be the only animals who understand our mortality, but when it comes to grieving, we are not so unique.

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Map

Departures

A million ways to die.

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Miscellany

Titus Andronicus is William Shakespeare’s bloodiest play; the body count reaches fourteen. Rounding out the top-three deadliest plays are Richard III (eleven) and King Lear (ten).

1862 | Virginia

Eve of Battle

Clara Barton reports from the frontline.More

1842 | Philadelphia

Plague Party

Edgar Allan Poe welcomes Death to the party.More

1849 | Filey

Gone Like Dreams

Charlotte Brontë grieves for her brother and sisters.More

Charts & Graphs

Spoiler Alert

Murders, accidents, and suicides from novels and films.

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Joseph Heller

Black and white photograph of English poet and librarian Philip Larkin.

Color image of English novelist Charlotte Brontë with book in hand.

Engraving of the medieval Arab traveler Ibn Battuta.

Black and white photograph of American writer James Agee.

Engraving of a bust of Lucretius.

Photograph of American science writer Virginia Morell with dog.

Black and white photograph of American surgeon and author Sherwin Nuland.

A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest.

—Book of Proverbs, c. 350 BC

Black and white photograph of English writer Virginia Woolf.

Black and white photograph of French writer and film director Marguerite Duras.

Virginia Woolf & Marguerite Duras

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