Word: smile
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...smile never wavers and her hands are in constant motion as she explains her research on medieval China. Though the walls of her office on the second floor of the Harvard-Yenching Library are lined with all sorts of heavy volumes—in both Chinese and English—her demeanor is light and unpretentious...
Even at the beginning of the 20th century - before mass reproductions, package tours to France and The Da Vinci Code - Mona Lisa was different from other pictures. The woman with the enigmatic smile got so many love letters that her portrait was the only artwork at the Louvre to have its own mailbox. A heartbroken suitor once shot himself to death in front...
...surprise that somebody finally eloped with her? On the morning of Aug. 21, 1911, Mona Lisa - arguably the world's most famous picture - was stolen from the Louvre. Who took her, how and why, is all part of the story told in two new books this spring. Vanished Smile: The Mysterious Theft of Mona Lisa by R.A. Scotti (Knopf; 239 pages) sticks closely to the case and relates it luxuriously. In places it reads like a prose poem with narrative gallop. The Crimes of Paris: A True Story of Murder, Theft, and Detection by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler (Little, Brown...
What Scotti does with the story is no better. She opens Vanished Smile with the Marqués arriving in the U.S. to peddle his forgeries, a gimmick that will lead unsuspecting readers to suppose that this imaginary character will somehow turn out to be the real man behind the crime. But the Marqués disappears from her book until the final chapter, where Scotti lays out Decker's account and then details the reasons why it's probably hooey...
...word “what” eight times in about 20 seconds), but they do little to expand on the heavy-handed screenplay. Each seems to latch onto a particular physical characteristic—Art’s slightly furrowed eyebrows, Jane’s girl-next-door smile, Cleveland’s carefree gaze—as if it were the only way to access a real character. Rather than an impression of a summer, “The Mysteries of Pittsburgh” is like an impression of a summer movie. All the elements are there?...