I wanted to find out if chocolate had ever been used to kill someone, outside of adding poison to the drink. But you’re lucky today, because instead of that macabre subject, while reading Chocolate, a Global History by Sarah Moss … Continue reading
In fiction about the 19th century, you see them everywhere: they’re carrying tea trays, opening doors, serving dinner, or wandering about decoratively at balls wearing powdered wigs and knee-breeches with silk stockings, carrying trays of champagne glasses. I’m referring, of … Continue reading
I was rereading Benedetta Craveri‘s biography, Madame du Deffand and her World, and when I hit the chapter about her St. Joseph’s convent salon, the parallels between the eighteenth century French salons and the evolving blogosphere gave me this mental image of one … Continue reading
Once upon a time in the 19th century… Lady Agatha Crumpwhistle is now nearly five. Her devoted nurse, Mrs. Hoggett, has taught her to not make messes and behave nicely and to be respectful of her elders, but there’s a … Continue reading
The idea of using fans as a semaphore system is instant story fodder for a lot of storytellers. For me as a young writer it certainly was, but not until decades later, when I invented more complicated social histories that … Continue reading
They’re a stock figure in fiction in and about the 19th century, from Charlotte Bronte to Georgette Heyer, who populated many of her stories with ludicrous examples of them. And though in books they might be either the villainess or … Continue reading
These days there has been a lot of talk about daring narrative voices and experimental playing with fiction and truth (as in real life experience, to skirt around the gigantic elephant of what constitutes “truth”), and it’s great that more … Continue reading
Ah, holiday customs. At my house, we’ve developed a new one over the last few years: after exchanging presents and eating Christmas dinner and pulling crackers (we lurrrrve Christmas crackers!) and nibbling at dessert, we usually play a rollicking game … Continue reading
Via a book on nineteenth century dancing, I ran across a marvelous series of lists on the secret language of silent communication using objects that every proper young lady of the Victorian era usually had with her, at least most … Continue reading
I love reading up on odd words and phrases used at different times in the 19th century; my copy of The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue is battered and dog-eared, as are several other similar reference books in my … Continue reading
