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Photo by Giraudon/Art Resource, N.Y.

ON THE COVER. A seductive Eve appears to tempt the Serpent—a variation on the old theme—in this 1896 pastel by the French Art Nouveau artist Lucien Levy-Dhurmer. Though tradition has long presented the Serpent as the guilty one, acclaimed international author and Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel asks what, precisely, did he do wrong? (see “Supporting Roles: The Serpent”) As the “shrewdest of all beasts,” wasn’t the Serpent doing exactly what he had been created to do?