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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Death on a battlefield, atop a horse riding towards the left, wearing a hat with many feathers, other figures of Death battling to left and right in the background, by Stefano della Bell

Squeak & Gibber

By John Crowley

Humanity’s greatest feat of rationality lies in the explanations we use to grapple with our own mortality.

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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).

c. 1360 | Shiraz

The Caged Bird Sings

Hafez seeks a heavenly home.More

c. 1573 | Aquitaine

Living at Life’s Expense

Montaigne considers death and life.More

c. 500 | Persia

To the Dogs and the Birds

The Zoroastrian way of death.More

Charts & Graphs

Spoiler Alert

Murders, accidents, and suicides from novels and films.

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Sculpture bust of Greek historian Herodotus.

Black and white image of Persian lyric poet Hafez.

Portrait bust of Greek dramatist Aeschylus.

Engraving of a bust of Lucretius.

Black and white photograph of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung seated with legs crossed.

There is no man so fortunate that there shall not be by him when he is dying some who are pleased with what is going to happen.

—Marcus Aurelius, c. 175

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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