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How Les Misérables Became Lee's Miserables

How Les Misérables Became Lee's Miserables

05/13/2019 in Virginia by Mark Jones

When Victor Hugo's novel Les Misérables was published in the spring of 1862, it took the world by storm. Within weeks, American audiences began devouring a five-volume translation by renowned classicist Charles E. Wilbour. As the Civil War raged, soldiers on both sides of the lines gobbled up copies and carried them into battle. But here's the thing: Confederate soldiers weren't actually reading the same book as their Northern adversaries, and that was by design.

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DC
Art as Protest: Angelina Weld Grimké's "Rachel"

Art as Protest: Angelina Weld Grimké's "Rachel"

04/02/2019 in DC by Blake Wilson

In 1915, The Birth of a Nation was a controversial blockbuster and a D.C. schoolteacher, Angelina Weld Grimké, was a writer unafraid to use her art as form of protest.  This is the story of "Rachel," an acclaimed anti-lynching play written in Washington, D.C.

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DC

Impressions of Washington: Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1862

05/03/2013 in DC by Claudia Swain

Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of The Scarlet Letter, visited Washington, D.C. in 1862, as the Capital was gearing up for war against the Confederacy. If you remember Hawthorne at all from school, you won’t be surprised to find he had a lot to say.

He was particularly taken by the artist Emmanuel Leutze's painting "Westward the Course of the Empire Takes Its Way" in the U.S. Capitol and lamented what might happen to the work and the nation should the Union lose the war.

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DC
Shine Bright Like Oscar Wilde

Shine Bright Like Oscar Wilde

04/25/2013 in DC by Claudia Swain

You know who was just too fabulous for Washington. D.C. to handle? Oscar Wilde. This fellow caused quite a stir when he visited in the January of 1882 as part of a lecture tour on the “Philosophy of Aestheticism”.

The general theory of ‘aestheticism’ seemed to be living in beauty, and Oscar Wilde practiced what he preached; half of any article about him was devoted to his devilish style. Newspaper reporters practically fawned over him, and we’re not going to blame them.

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Boundary Stones explores local history in Washington, D.C., suburban Maryland and northern Virginia. This project is a service of WETA and is supported by contributions from readers like you.

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