MarisaDec 21, 2021The Nutcracker Ballet vs. The Original StoryAfter years of cancelled or postponed in-person cultural events due to Covid-19, I recently had the delight to attend a performance of...
MarisaJul 27, 2021A Historic Glimpse of the French Literary SalonsWhat is a literary salon? Literary salons have their origins in the Renaissance idea of gathering for debate in the courts of Italy and...
MarisaJul 13, 2021Six Facts About the BrontësWith three literary geniuses in the family—Charlotte, Emily, and Anne—the Brontës certainly secured themselves a (rightful) place in the...
MarisaMay 13, 2021A Jane Austen-inspired Cocktail Recipe from Toronto’s Famous Last Words BarI am so thrilled to bring you a cocktail from the amazing literary-themed bar in Toronto, Ontario, Famous Last Words (FLW)! Over the past...
MarisaMay 10, 2021Could 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...
MarisaApr 12, 2021School Textbooks Reflect our Societal ValuesI recently wrote a post about What Makes a Literary Classic in which I was thinking about what we culturally consider a ‘classic’ and how...
MarisaMar 18, 2021Literary Cocktail: Miss Cathy's Whip"Wuthering Heights is the name of Mr. Heathcliff's dwelling, 'wuthering' being a significant provincial adjective, descriptive of the...
MarisaFeb 11, 2021The 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...
MarisaFeb 9, 2021Classic F#@*ing LiteratureNot typical classroom vocabulary, but a historical lesson nonetheless! That oft used F word can be a noun, an adjective, a verb, an...
MarisaJan 14, 2021Literary 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...
MarisaJan 3, 2021Finding 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...
MarisaDec 14, 2020Creating Christmas Traditions with Charles DickensCharles Dickens' A Christmas Carol (1843) continues to be read, watched and performed after more than 175 years, and is enjoyed by all...
MarisaDec 10, 2020Literary 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...
MarisaNov 26, 2020Tipple in a Teacup: The Lady and Leaf CocktailToday I have a cocktail recipe that will be both your after-dinner dessert and your cup of tea (pun intended)! I have the absolute...
MarisaOct 16, 2020Mary 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...
MarisaOct 15, 2020Tracing 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...
MarisaOct 8, 2020A Feminist Legacy: Looking at the Lives and Sorrows of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary ShelleyCharlotte Gordon’s biography Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley is an excellently...
MarisaSep 15, 2020Jane 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...
MarisaSep 7, 2020Jane 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),...