The Land of the Rising Sun’s eight female rulers are all but forgotten, but their lives and reigns were filled with drama

© HEADER DRAWINGS BY MICHAEL HADDAD/HEART Leaves Byung-Chul ...

The Ear of the Beholder Huon Mallalieu (Thomas ...

A daughter comes to terms with a mother’s lack of love

The Tale of Genji , the Japanese novel that dazzled the West

Johannes Vermeer brightened his native Delft with luminous pictures of women caught in intimate moments, but the serenity of his work, of which he produced remarkably little, is at odds with a life mired in debt, as Carla Passino discovers