Back in early 2015, the second year of this blog, I wrote about ‘bread’ in literature, focusing on one of the earliest novels in English, Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, which was published in 1719. Continue reading “Bread – take 2”
Category: 18th century literature
Pancakes
Mix a pancake,
Stir a pancake,
Pop it in the pan;
Fry the pancake,
Toss the pancake—
Catch it if you can. (Christina Rossetti, ‘Mix a pancake’)
Today is Shrove Tuesday, the day of the year on which pancakes are traditionally eaten (hence its more common name of Pancake Day). Continue reading “Pancakes”
Venison Pasties
This summer I went to see The Beaux’ Stratagem at the National Theatre, one of my favourite London haunts. The play, which was first performed in 1707, less than two months before the death of its author, the Irish playwright, George Farquhar, is a late Restoration play. Continue reading “Venison Pasties”
Food and Social Status
From the groaning tables of King Arthur’s court in the fourteenth century poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight through to Mrs Portman’s pea soup in Thackeray’s short story, “A Little Dinner at Timmins” , food has been used by writers as an indicator of wealth and social status. Continue reading “Food and Social Status”