Camus, Sartre, and Beauvoir were misread, misunderstood, and misperceived by English-speaking readers due to interventions of publishers and editors.

A hash-smoking, cross-dressing woman traveling the Sahara in the early 1900s, Eberhardt unpicked the fabric of society just by being herself.

Napoleon didn't like sitting for portraits, and yet artists and mass market prints helped cement his legendary status.

Before Judith Butler's 1990 book Gender Trouble, the influential gender theorist wrote a series of essays that offer easier access to her ideas.

John Houston takes a less melodic look at the transformation of the Battle of Waterloo from "fact to myth," from history to literature.