Stuff You Missed in History Class

When Madame Bovary was written in the 1850s, it fell under the accusing eye of the French government for its perceived immorality. Flaubert recognized that the trial would only stoke interest, and that it would set the tone for his career.
Research:
Barzun, Jacques. “Gustave Flaubert.” Encylopedia Brittanica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gustave-Flaubert
Blakemore, Erin. “What Madame Bovary Revealed About the Freedom of the Press.” JSTOR Daily. Dec. 16, 2016. https://daily.jstor.org/what-madame-bovary-revealed-about-the-freedom-of-the-press/
Brown, Frederick. “Flaubert: A Biography.” Harvard University Press. 2007.
CREASY, MATTHEW. “INVERTED VOLUMES AND FANTASTIC LIBRARIES: ‘ULYSSES’ AND ‘BOUVARD ET PÉCUCHET.’” European Joyce Studies, vol. 19, 2011, pp. 112–27. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44871308
Flaubert, Gustave, and Christopher Moncrieff, tr. “Madame Bovary: Newly Translated and Annotated.” Alma Classics. 2010.
Haynes, Christine. “The Politics of Publishing During The Second Empire: The Trial of Madame Bovary Revisited.” French Politics, Culture & Society. Oxford Journals. June 1, 2005. https://doi.org/10.3167/153763705780980083
LaCapra, Dominick. “Madame Bovary on Trial.” Cornell University Press. 1982.
“The Public vs. M. Gustave Flaubert.” Project Gutenberg. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10666/pg10666.txt
Steegmuller, Francis. “Flaubert and Madame Bovary: A Double Portrait.” New York Review of Books. 1966.
Steegmuller, Francis. “The Letters of Gustave Flaubert.” New York Review of Books. 1980.
Thurman, Judith. “A Unsimple Heart.” The New Yorker. April 29, 2002. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/05/06/an-unsimple-heart?_sp=0c026da2-f3c5-4709-9ac8-8214e0cc3278.1772403467294


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Journalist and writer Elizabeth Bisland was sent on a trip around the world in 1889, in a sort of race against Nellie Bly. But that was not something she wanted to be known for.
Research:
Bisland, Elisabeth. “At the Sign of the Hobby Horse.” Houghton, Mifflin and Co. Riverside Press. 1910. https://archive.org/details/atsignofhobbyhor0000eliz/page/n12/mode/1up
Bisland, Elizabeth, 1861-1929. “A Candle of Understanding: a Novel.” New York and London: Harper & brothers, 1903.
Bisland, Elizabeth. “In Seven Stages: A Flying Trip Around the World.” New York. Harper & Brothers. 1891. https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/bisland/stages/stages.html
Bisland, Elizabeth. “Societies for Minding One's Own Business.” The North American Review. 11/1/1910.
Bisland, Elizabeth. “The Art of Travel.” From The woman's book, dealing practically with the modern conditions of home-life, self-support, education, opportunities, and every-day problems. 1894. https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_LBEhBEGmUq4C/
Bisland, Elizabeth. “The Truth About Men and Other Matters.” New York. Avondale Press. 1927.
Britannica Editors. "Lafcadio Hearn". Encyclopedia Britannica, 22 Sep. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lafcadio-Hearn. Accessed 18 February 2026.
Codrescu, Andrei. “The Many Lives of Lafcadio Hearn.” The Paris Review. 7/2/2019. https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2019/07/02/the-many-lives-of-lafcadio-hearn/
“Foley, Alethea "Mattie",” Notable Kentucky African Americans Database, accessed February 19, 2026, https://nkaa.uky.edu/nkaa/items/show/300004770.
Goodman, Matthew. “Elizabeth Bisland’s Race Around the World.” Public Domain Review. 10/16/2013. https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/elizabeth-bislands-race-around-the-world/
Harrison-Kahan, Lori and Karen E. H. Skinazi. “The Girl Reporter in Fact and Fiction: Miriam Michelson's New Women and Periodical Culture in the Progressive Era.” American Quarterly , Jun., 2002, Vol. 54, No. 2 (Jun., 2002). https://www.jstor.org/stable/30041927
Heitman, Danny. “Lafcadio Hearn in New Orleans.” HUMANITIES, May/June 2012, Volume 33, Number 3. https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2012/mayjune/feature/lafcadio-hearn-in-new-orleans
New York Times. “MRS. E.B. WETMORE, AUTHOR, DIES IN SOUTH; Former Elizabeth Bisland of This City to Be Buried in Woodlawn Today.” 1/19/1929. https://www.nytimes.com/1929/01/09/archives/mrs-eb-wetmore-author-dies-in-south-former-elizabeth-bisland-of.html
Christopher Goodwin & Associates, Inc. “Historical and Archaeological Investigations of Fort Bisland and Lower Bayou Teche, St. Mary Parish, Louisiana.” June 1991. https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA242489.pdf
Roggenkamp, Karen. “Dignified Sensationalism: ‘Cosmopolitan,’ Elizabeth Bisland, and Trips around the World.” American Periodicals , 2007, Vol. 17, No. 1 (2007). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20770967
Rose, Alex. “Elizabeth Bisland: Around the World in 76 Days.” Science Museum Group. 1/30/2023. https://blog.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/rare-globe-celebrates-elizabeth-bislands-voyage-around-the-world/
Science Museum Group. “Elizabeth Bisland 1861-1929.” https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/people/cp172999/elizabeth-bisland
Tutwiler, Julia R. “The Southern Woman in New York.” The Bookman: A Magazine of Literature and Life. February, 1904. https://archive.org/details/the-bookman-1895-1933/1900-1909/1904/The%20Bookman%20v18n06%20%281904-02%29%20%28unz%29/page/624/mode/1up
Tutwiler, Julia R. “The Southern Woman in New York: Part 2.” The Bookman: A Magazine of Literature and Life. March, 1904. https://archive.org/details/bookmanareviewb05unkngoog/page/50/mode/1up
Vatican Apostolic Library. “Elizabeth Bisland.” En Route Project. https://enrouteproject.com/en/the-research/the-female-travelers/elizabeth-bisland/
Williams, Susan Millar. “L’enfant Terrible: Elizabeth Bisland and the South.” The Southern Review; Oct 1, 1986; 22, 4; ProQuest pg. 680.
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This 2019 episode explores the difficult-to-study work of Laurencin. In addition to her work not quite falling in line with the artists who were her contemporaries, her personal papers are difficult to access, are censored, and have strict limitations put on their use.
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Tracy talks about how the show's recording schedule meant that this week's Monday episode got revised repeatedly to reflect current events. Holly talks about the way theater performances during portions of heavy censorship in France incorporated audience participation.
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“Le Chat Noir” is one of the most famous pieces of late 19th century European art, but the artist behind it was also very active in France's anarchist and socialist political groups of the time.
Research:
Asimakis, Magdalyn. “War, Socialism, and Cats: Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen's Political Artistic Practice.” The Met. Nov. 2, 2017. https://www.metmuseum.org/perspectives/theophile-alexandre-steinlen-cats-socialism-world-war-i
Budge, A. “Arts & Decoration Combined with the Spur.” Volumes 19-20. 1923. Accessed online: https://books.google.com/books?id=joAyAQAAIAAJ&vq=steinlen&source=gbs_navlinks_s
“Charles Matlack Price letters 1917-1947 [bulk 1918-1923].” The New York Public Library – Archives and Manuscripts. https://archives.nypl.org/mss/18567#:~:text=His%20career%20trajectory%20was%20briefly,to%20friends%2C%20and%20his%20work
“Declaration of the Rights of Man – 1789.” Yale Law School. https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/rightsof.asp
Fau-Vincenti, Véronique. “STEINLEN Théophile, Alexandre.” Le Maitron. Nov. 4, 2009. https://maitron.fr/steinlen-theophile-alexandre/
Gegout, E. and Ch. Malato. “Prison fin de siècle : souvenirs de Pélagie.” Paris. G. Charpentier et E. Fasquelle. 1891. https://digital-research-books-beta.nypl.org/read/7581051
Glass, Chloe. “Printmaker Theophile Steinlen Used Art to Advocate for Social Change in 1900s France.” Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. https://crystalbridges.org/blog/printmaker-theophile-steinlen-used-art-to-advocate-for-social-change-in-1900s-france/
Goldstein, Robert Justin. “Fighting French Censorship, 1815-1881.” The French Review, vol. 71, no. 5, 1998, pp. 785–96. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/398913
Guthrie, Christopher E. “History of Censorship in France.” EBSCO. 2023. https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/politics-and-government/history-censorship-france
Kagan, Étienne, et al. “GEGOUT Ernest.”Le Maitron. April 7, 2014. https://maitron.fr/gegout-ernest-charles-joseph-ernest-dit-dictionnaire-des-anarchistes
Olsen, Annikka. “The Surprising Story of the Cat-Obsessed Artist Behind the Famed ‘Le Chat Noir’ Poster.” Artnet News. Oct. 28, 2024. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/theophile-alexandre-steinlen-tournee-du-chat-noir-2417712?amp=1
Stefiuk, Eleanor. 2022. “Villiers de L’Isle-Adam’s Anarchism: A Legacy of the Paris Commune.” Dix-Neuf26 (1): 1–17. doi:10.1080/14787318.2021.2010167
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