William H. McNeill, "The Doges of War," WSJ, 4 February, reviews Roger Crowley's City of Fortune: How Venice Ruled the Seas. Marina Warner, "Monsters, magic and miracles," TLS, 8 February, reviews Wes Williams's Monsters and Their Meanings in Early Modern Culture: Mighty magic.

Claire Harman, "What an amazing man!" TLS, 8 February, reviews Jenny Hartley, ed., The Selected Letters of Charles Dickens. Michael Levenson, "Read Dickens Now!" Slate, 7 February, reviews Claire Tomalin's Charles Dickens: A Life; and Robert Douglas-Fairhurst's Becoming Dickens: The Invention of a Novelist. Catherine Peters, "Sparkler of Albion," Literary Digest, February, reviews other important additions to Dickens scholarship.

Dwight Garner, "A Chinese Civil War to Dwarf All Others," NYT, 6 February, reviews Stephen R. Platt's Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War.

Daniel Johnson, "Wandering Jew," Literary Digest, February, reviews Michael Hofmann, ed. & trans., Joseph Roth: A Life in Letters.

Mark Schmitt, "Ancient History," The Book, 9 February, reviews Geoffrey Kabaservice's Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, From Eisenhower to the Tea Party.

Dwight Garner, "Writers at the Ramparts in a Gay Revolution," NYT, 2 February, reviews Christopher Bram's Eminent Outlaws: The Gay Writers Who Changed America.