Books: Neapolitan Peep Show

MONA LISA (Vols. I, 2, 3; 1,267 pp.] —Tiffany Thayer—Dlal ($12.50).

Heaven only knows how many women have despairingly practiced the Mona Lisa smile since Leonardo da Vinci painted her around 1505. And what was she smiling about anyway? Sixteen years ago Tiffany

Thayer, a writer of meretricious bestsellers (Call Her Savage, Thirteen Women), accepted the challenge to find out. The years passed, and with advertising copywriter jobs (now Pall Mall cigarettes) to keep him from want, Author Thayer learned Italian and let his fancy run riot. It ran to 47,000 handwritten pages. A more...

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