On this day in 1816, Charlotte Brontë was born! So, it is only fitting that I recently completed my reading of the first novel she ever...

I recently wrote a post about What Makes a Literary Classic in which I was thinking about what we culturally consider a ‘classic’ and how...

"Wuthering Heights is the name of Mr. Heathcliff's dwelling, 'wuthering' being a significant provincial adjective, descriptive of the...

Not Just Jane: Rediscovering Seven Amazing Women Writers Who Transformed British Literature (2016) by Shelley DeWees is a delightful...

How do you review a book that is 300 years old? The grammar, punctuation, and narrative structure are not like anything we see in today's...

Not typical classroom vocabulary, but a historical lesson nonetheless! That oft used F word can be a noun, an adjective, a verb, an...

Is it the amount of time that has passed? A wide readership? Originating from an ancient civilization? Defining a 'Classic' There is an...

Is there such a thing as a female bildungsroman? I break it down for you (including some suggested reading!).

Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol (1843) continues to be read, watched and performed after more than 175 years, and is enjoyed by all...

“A merrier Christmas, Bob, my good fellow, than I have given you, for many a year! I’ll raise your salary, and endeavour to assist your...

While reading Franz J. Potter’s book The History of Gothic Publishing, 1800-1835 Exhuming the Trade (2005), I recently stumbled upon the...

Discover the Corpse Reviver No. 2, a classic cocktail perfect for spooky season. Learn why Corpse Reviver No. 2 pairs with a Halloween read!

“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again” (1). Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier has one of the most iconic opening lines in literature,...

Battle of the Editions: 1818 vs. 1831 Many are aware of the myth of how Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) came about: one stormy summer...

When we think of the vampire of popular culture, we tend to conjure images of aristocrats, seducers, wanderers. Even the sparkling...

Charlotte Gordon’s biography Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley is an excellently...

A brief overview of the English Gothic novel, with recommended reading. Want more info? Check out series 1 of the Le Salon podcast.

Jane Austen wrote more than romance! A review of Austen's Unbecoming Conjunctions by Heyday-Stevenson looks at what Austen was really saying

Jane Austen is so much more than a romance writer. In The secret Radical, Helena Kelly dives into how Austen wrote about politics and more.

If you are struggling with a teen who has to tackle classic literature in their English class, here are 5 tips to support them.