Part One: Making Time to Read as a Parent
I often hear from people, in conversations and in DMs, about how difficult it can be to get back into (and maintain) reading once having...
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Marisa
- Dec 21, 2021
The Nutcracker Ballet vs. The Original Story
After years of cancelled or postponed in-person cultural events due to Covid-19, I recently had the delight to attend a performance of...
Marisa
- Jul 26, 2021
A Historic Glimpse of the French Literary Salons
What is a literary salon? Literary salons have their origins in the Renaissance idea of gathering for debate in the courts of Italy and...
Marisa
- Jul 13, 2021
Six Facts About the Brontës
With three literary geniuses in the family—Charlotte, Emily, and Anne—the Brontës certainly secured themselves a (rightful) place in the...
Marisa
- May 13, 2021
A Jane Austen-inspired Cocktail Recipe from Toronto’s Famous Last Words Bar
I am so thrilled to bring you a cocktail from the amazing literary-themed bar in Toronto, Ontario, Famous Last Words (FLW)! Over the past...
Marisa
- May 10, 2021
Could she have meant that?! Sexual Innuendos in Jane Austen’s ‘Emma’
Academic research has a way of opening up the subtext of a work, where the reader can gain a deeper understanding of a reference or turn...
Marisa
- Apr 11, 2021
School Textbooks Reflect our Societal Values
I recently wrote a post about What Makes a Literary Classic in which I was thinking about what we culturally consider a ‘classic’ and how...
Marisa
- Mar 18, 2021
Literary Cocktail: Miss Cathy's Whip
"Wuthering Heights is the name of Mr. Heathcliff's dwelling, 'wuthering' being a significant provincial adjective, descriptive of the...
Marisa
- Feb 11, 2021
The French Kiss Cocktail and a Romance Novel: A Perfect Match!
'Tis the season to read steamy romance novels and clink a glass (or two) with a valentine! This month Le Salon is diving into a close...
Marisa
- Feb 9, 2021
Classic F#@*ing Literature
Not typical classroom vocabulary, but a historical lesson nonetheless! That oft used F word can be a noun, an adjective, a verb, an...
Marisa
- Jan 14, 2021
Literary Cocktail: Pairing The Clover Club with 'Anne of Green Gables'
"...so I won't tell you what [Marilla] said we could have to drink. Only it begins with an r and a c and it's bright red colour. I love...
Marisa
- Jan 3, 2021
Finding Their Voice: The Female Bildungsroman
"Bildungsroman" is a German word meaning novel of education or formation. The term has become a literary category for written works whose...
Marisa
- Dec 14, 2020
Creating Christmas Traditions with Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol (1843) continues to be read, watched and performed after more than 175 years, and is enjoyed by all...
Marisa
- Dec 10, 2020
Literary Cocktail: A Christmas Carol's Smoking Bishop
“A merrier Christmas, Bob, my good fellow, than I have given you, for many a year! I’ll raise your salary, and endeavour to assist your...
Marisa
- Nov 25, 2020
Tipple in a Teacup: The Lady and Leaf Cocktail
Today I have a cocktail recipe that will be both your after-dinner dessert and your cup of tea (pun intended)! I have the absolute...
Marisa
- Oct 16, 2020
Mary Shelley’s “hideous progeny”: Authorial Intent of 'Frankenstein'
Battle of the Editions: 1818 vs. 1831 Many are aware of the myth of how Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) came about: one stormy summer...
Marisa
- Oct 15, 2020
Tracing the Vampiric Roots of Bram Stoker's 'Dracula'
When we think of the vampire of popular culture, we tend to conjure images of aristocrats, seducers, wanderers. Even the sparkling...
Marisa
- Oct 8, 2020
A Feminist Legacy: Looking at the Lives and Sorrows of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley
Charlotte Gordon’s biography Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley is an excellently...
Marisa
- Sep 14, 2020
Jane Austen’s “Spicy Allusions”
“...‘unbecoming conjunction’, a term Austen uses to describe what happens when two ideas or images or people, set side by side, reveal...
Marisa
- Sep 7, 2020
Jane Austen: Romance Authoress or Social Radical?
Readers around the world love her works, but how well do we really know Jane Austen? In her book Jane Austen The Secret Radical (2016),...