As you know, this tends to be an incredibly busy time of the year. Considering you have Halloween, then Thanksgiving, and then Christmas, it’s a wonder anyone can do anything other than run around squawking like a chicken with its head cut off. (Or is that just how I feel at this time of year?… Read the full blog post …
” . . . When [Jane] was only fifteen, there was a man at my brother Gardiner’s in town so much in love with her that my sister-in-law was sure he would make her an offer before we came away. But, however, he did not. Perhaps he thought her too young. However, he wrote… Read the full blog post …
I think we are all quite aware that Austen’s writing is of a rather formal sort. Based on her writing style and on how people of the upper classes spoke, that means that sometimes, the conversation seems quite stilted to our modern eyes. In Pride and Prejudice, the following conversation between Jane and Elizabeth particularly… Read the full blog post …
Well, I had my baby five weeks early, but he is a real trooper! He didn’t have to spend any time in NICU and has been doing great. (Now, if he would only let me sleep at night instead of forcing me to be a vampire who sleeps during the day! Ha!) Naturally, any time… Read the full blog post …
As I have been put on bedrest for preterm labor issues, I am writing this post a bit in advance. I do not know when baby boy will get here, and the wait seems interminable! But he does need to bake a little longer. I began re-reading Pride and Prejudice recently to see what might… Read the full blog post …
I have recently started having limericks on my mind. It started with a battle with Alexa. Some text on my television screen suggested that I ask Alexa to tell me a Star Wars limerick. Naturally, being a Star Wars fan, I did so. Unfortunately, this led me into a battle with my Amazon Fire Cube, as it… Read the full blog post …
I had begun to reread Pride and Prejudice recently when it struck me just how impressive the first chapter is. At less than 1,000 words, you would expect it to be a mere toe-dip in the ocean of the novel, but it is actually quite masterful. Take that masterful first line: “It is a truth universally… Read the full blog post …
I suppose this cannot be called a character study so much as a textual study. I’m here to assist in taking a look at the text of Pride and Prejudice as it pertains to Mrs. Long. Her name occurs 14 times in the novel, and though we do not truly see her as a… Read the full blog post …
Unfortunately, my morning sickness seems to be clinging to me for longer than I had hoped, but life must carry on. I thought this time I would take a textual look at Charlotte Lucas in Pride and Prejudice. I think she is an often-underutilized character whose practicality and keen eye are quite remarkable. In some… Read the full blog post …
I am starting to get my appetite back and am hoping this whole morning sickness thing might be over in a week or two. Please keep your fingers crossed for me on that! I thought for my blog post I would reach back in time and post an excerpt from my short story “A Prince’s… Read the full blog post …
Greetings, all. I have been facing rather bad morning sickness which has made it such that effort of any sort is quite difficult. It started at Christmas, and based on previous pregnancies, I rather expect it to continue until mid- to late-March. My weeks consist of work, a very small amount of laundry, and trying… Read the full blog post …
I know there are dangers to oversimplifying characters and losing some of those all-important nuances, but please forgive me for doing so here. I’m here with regard to the “Mr. Darcy” Archetype. You know, the rich snob with a heart of gold who is at odds with the less financially fortunate female lead but falls… Read the full blog post …
Here you can behold a mighty dragon playing the game of Snap-dragon! This image is from the Book of Days by Robert Chambers (1879). In “The Matchmaking Schemes of Anne de Bourgh,” a short story in the Mistletoe and Mischief anthology that I co-authored with Jann Rowland and Colin Rowland last Christmas, I featured the… Read the full blog post …
