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This week: A fresh look at Dickens’s London, a website decodes Dante, and a visit to Frederic Edwin Church’s home.

Fiction: Life Drawing by Robin Black (Random House): Owen and Augusta have recently moved to a farmhouse far from the hustle and bustle of Philadelphia. When Allison moves in next door, Augusta quickly befriends her. Tensions arise, however, when Allison’s twenty-year-old daughter returns home and instantly takes an interest in Owen. Augusta’s past infidelities and the reappearance of Allison’s abusive ex-husband escalate the situation as the families search for the peace and tranquility they hoped to find by moving to the countryside.  BPK

Nonfiction: The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens’ London by Judith Flanders (Thomas Dunne Books): The life and work of Charles Dickens are cast in a new light in this overview of Victorian London. Diving into the history and composition of a variety of neighborhoods, Flanders examines everything from water systems to cemetaries to eplore Dickens’s life in London and the city’s influence on his writing. BPK

Poetry: The Princeton Dante Project: Here is one of the best poetry resources on the web: The Princeton Dante Project. Created by the Dante scholar Robert Hollander, it offers the complete works of Dante in Italian and English, audio of the entire Comedia read in Italian, and an extensive critical apparatus, including commentary dating back to Boccaccio. And it’s free!  DY

Art: Olana: At the spiritual heart of the Hudson River School is Olana, the homestead of Frederic Church, located on a 250-acre hilltop outside Hudson, New York. Thanks to the long-term efforts of the Olana Partnership, Chuch's theatrical house, designed in a colorful blend of Middle-Eastern styles, joins the grounds in a remarkable state of preservation. With sweeping views of the Hudson River and the Catskill Mountains, Olana is best appreciated in summer, when it feels like you are walking inside a lush nineteen-century landscape.  JP

Music: Mostly Mozart’s free preview concert (Saturday): The Mostly Mozart Festival returns to Lincoln Center and will begin in earnest next week. This Saturday, though, you can catch their annual "free preview concert" at Avery Fisher Hall. Louis Langrée leads the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra in Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique and the final scene from Gluck's Don Juan. The program opens with the unforgettable overture to Mozart's Don Giovanni. Ticket's will be distributed at the Avery Fisher Hall box office on a first-come, first served basis beginning at 10:00 AM on Saturday. ECS

Other: Jacob’s Pillow: Jacob's Pillow, the legendary summer dance festival founded in Becket, Massachusetts by Ted Shawn in 1933, has had a steller start to 2014. In "Ballet 2014," directed by principal dancer Daniel Ulbricht, several stars of the New York City Ballet explored the romance of pas de deux in contemporary works, followed by the "three to two" of Jerome Robbins's "Fancy Free." This week Dorrance Dance continues its sold-out run of tap as the Mark Morris Dance Group arrives on the main stage at the Ted Shawn Theatre.  JP

From the archive: The anatomy of murder by Theodore Dalrymple, February 2003: Considering murder in literature and life.

From our latest issue: Down the Rabbit hole by Carl Rollyson: A review of Adam Begley’s new John Updike bio.

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