In “The Upside-Down World,” Benjamin Moser roams the galleries of the Netherlands in search of clues to the artists’ biographies. A portrait of Margaretha van Haexbergen, by the Dutch master ...

Back when the mountains were taller because there hadn’t been as much erosion, I learned the lore of the “upside-down” phone book as a young police reporter on the Chicago Tribune’s city desk.

Probably they are right—the book isn’t upside-down at all—but Chatterbox will pursue this matter until he’s certain.] Correction, April 6, 2004: An earlier version of this column ...

At least sometimes, at least for a few minutes, I could choose which reality to inhabit.” In The Upside-Down World, we are right there with him on his journey, as 16th-century Holland comes to ...