Word: arnoldii
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Winchester is an extraordinarily graceful writer. He may be the world's greatest crafter of smooth transitions, and he has the good sense never to resist an irresistible digression. His footnotes feature, among other gems, cameos by the world's largest flower (the yard-wide Rafflesia arnoldii) and the world's longest book (the Javanese Book of Kings, 6 million words long). Above all, Winchester is delightfully alert to history's ironies and synchronicities. The destruction of Krakatoa occurred just as the global net of telegraph cables--the Victorian version of the Internet--was being completed, and the disaster became...
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