Category: The Novel

The Loyal Husband

Mr Glegg, being of a reflective turn, …had much wondering meditation on the peculiar constitution of the female mind as unfolded to him in his domestic life: and yet he thought Mrs Glegg’s household ways a model for her sex: it struck him as a pitiable irregularity in other women if they did not roll up their table-napkins with the same tightness and emphasis as Mrs Glegg did, if their pastry had a less leathery consistence, and their damson cheese a less venerable hardness than hers: nay, even the peculiar combination of grocery and drug-like odours in Mrs Glegg’s private cupboard impressed him as the only right thing in the way of cupboard smells.  
                                                                                  (George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss) 

Continue reading “The Loyal Husband”

Rout cakes – part 2

In my last post I wrote about rout cakes in Jane Austen’s Emma (1815) and Vanity Fair by Thackeray (1847-48).  Rout cakes were small rich cakes, flavoured with dried fruit and alcohol, which were commonly eaten at large parties and evening assemblies.  Continue reading “Rout cakes – part 2”

A Jane Austen Summer Party

The idea was to host a summer picnic party in my North London garden – a 21st century version of the Box Hill party in Jane Austen’s Emma, but hopefully minus the ‘downright dullness’ that Emma feels and recklessly seeks to overcome by participating in Frank Churchill’s cruel games which lead to the humiliation of the annoying, but harmless, Miss Bates and Emma being soundly reprimanded by Mr Knightley.  The food –  like all the food in my blog – would be inspired by food and meals referenced in Austen novels, though with a 21st century twist on them and an adaptation for vegetarians, whose needs are not recognized in early 19th century novels! Continue reading “A Jane Austen Summer Party”