From Mrs Bennet in Pride and Prejudice who complains constantly about her “nerves” and is “taken ill immediately” when she is informed of Lydia’s elopement with Mr Wickham, to the never present but much discussed Mrs Churchill in Emma, whose illnesses the narrator notes “never occurred but for her own convenience”, hypochondriacs frequently appear in Jane Austen’s novels. Continue reading “What Do Hypochondriacs Eat?”
Category: 19th century literature
Muffins
The English muffin – the yeasty bread-like concoction as opposed to the American cupcake version that is more widely consumed nowadays – dates back more than two hundred years. Continue reading “Muffins”
Pea Soup
One of the starters at the First World War Supper Club has a long and distinguished history in literature. Pea soup – which appears in May Byron’s Pot-luck, our source recipe book for our 1914-inspired menu – is mentioned in the Ancient Greek play, The Birds, by Aristophanes (first performed 414BC). The servant of Tereus, an Athenian prince who has been turned into a bird, explains how he must serve his master and bring him all types of food: “Again he wants some pea-soup; I seize a ladle and a pot and run to get it.”
Continue reading “Pea Soup”