Sunday Notes

Michael Dirda reviews Brian Jay Jones's Washington Irving: An American Original for the Washington Post, 20 January.

Michèle C. Cone,"The Last Sensualists," artnet, December, reviews Alyce Mahon's Eroticism & Art, Amy Lyford's Surrealist Masculinities, André Salmon's L'êrotisme dans l'art contemporain, and Italo Calvino's Hermit in Paris.

Michael Getler,"Sins of the Son," Washington Post, 20 January, reviews Jacob Weisberg's The Bush Tragedy.

Joseph Ellis,"‘The Better Angels' Side with Obama," LA Times, 19 January, argues that Barack Obama's appeal runs deep in the American political tradition.