Charlotte Brontë's Rejected Novel 'The Professor'
On this day in 1816, Charlotte Brontë was born! So, it is only fitting that I recently completed my reading of the first novel she ever...
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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 24, 2021
Reviewing One of the First English Novels
How do you review a book that is 300 years old? The grammar, punctuation, and narrative structure are not like anything we see in today's...
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
- Jan 31, 2021
What Makes a Literary Classic?
Is it the amount of time that has passed? A wide readership? Originating from an ancient civilization? Defining a 'Classic' There is 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 13, 2020
Holiday Giving 2020: A Gift Guide for Avid Readers (that doesn't include another tote bag!)
Love bookish gifts, but don’t need another blanket, mug, or candle? Prefer people didn't add to your presonalized TBR pile? I’ve got you...
Marisa
- Nov 11, 2020
Remembrance Day 2020 #CanadaRemembers
You may be familiar with his words, but do you know the man who wrote ‘In Flanders Fields’? John McCrae was a Canadian military surgeon...
Marisa
- Oct 30, 2020
The Gothic Bluebook: Terrifying the Masses
While reading Franz J. Potter’s book The History of Gothic Publishing, 1800-1835 Exhuming the Trade (2005), I recently stumbled upon the...
Marisa
- Oct 22, 2020
Review of the Netflix Adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s 'Rebecca'
“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again” (1). Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier has one of the most iconic opening lines in literature,...
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
- Oct 6, 2020
Exploring the Tradition of the English Gothic Novel
Horace Walpole (Castle of Otranto, 1764) and Ann Radcliff (Mysteries of Udolpho,1794) are generally considered the mother and father of...
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 2, 2020
Distance Learning During Covid-19: Teaching Classic Literature to your Teen
Back to school this year looks a lot different for many students with parents having to step into roles traditionally filled by their...