History | Le Salon 2/3

Sep 27, 2021

Who's Who in 'The Sun Also Rises'

It is no secret that Ernest Hemingway drew on his personal experiences attending the bullfights in Pamplona to draft his 1926 novel The...

The Hemingway Special Cocktail (Papa Doble)

Marisa

Sep 20, 2021

The Hemingway Special Cocktail (Papa Doble)

While Ernest Hemingway's oeuvre speaks for itself—The Sun Also Rises (1926), A Farewell to Arms (1929), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940),...

Marisa

Sep 18, 2021

The Lost Generation in Literature

In his memoir titled A Moveable Feast (1964), Ernest Hemingway recounts how writer Gertrude Stein first heard the term “génération...

Marisa

Aug 17, 2021

10 Facts About Jane Austen’s ‘Emma’

1. Aware of her growing popularity, Austen had anxiety over how Emma would be received by the reading public, writing: “My great anxiety...

A Historic Glimpse of the French Literary Salons

Marisa

Jul 26, 2021

A Historic Glimpse of the French Literary Salons

What is a literary salon? Literary salons have their origins in the Renaissance idea of gathering for debate in the courts of Italy and...

Marisa

Jun 30, 2021

Book Diversity in Canadian Literature

Traditionally Canadian Literature, or CanLit, has highlighted voices of European settlers, been divided along English versus French...

A Jane Austen-inspired Cocktail Recipe from Toronto’s Famous Last Words Bar

Marisa

May 13, 2021

A Jane Austen-inspired Cocktail Recipe from Toronto’s Famous Last Words Bar

I am so thrilled to bring you a cocktail from the amazing literary-themed bar in Toronto, Ontario, Famous Last Words (FLW)! Over the past...

Capturing the Gothic Life of Shirley Jackson on Film

Marisa

Apr 28, 2021

Capturing the Gothic Life of Shirley Jackson on Film

I finally had the time to sit down and watch the 2020 movie Shirley (currently on Amazon Prime), based on a novel of the same name by...

Charlotte Brontë's Rejected Novel 'The Professor'

Marisa

Apr 21, 2021

Charlotte Brontë's Rejected Novel 'The Professor'

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...

School Textbooks Reflect our Societal Values

Marisa

Apr 11, 2021

School Textbooks Reflect our Societal Values

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...

Marisa

Mar 18, 2021

Literary Cocktail: Miss Cathy's Whip

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

Filling the Literary Gaps: English Female Writers 1750 - 1915

Marisa

Mar 8, 2021

Filling the Literary Gaps: English Female Writers 1750 - 1915

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

Reviewing One of the First English Novels

Marisa

Feb 24, 2021

Reviewing One of the First English Novels

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...

Marisa

Feb 9, 2021

Classic F#@*ing Literature

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

Marisa

Jan 31, 2021

What Makes a Literary Classic?

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

25 Books to Help with your Lockdown Wanderlust

Marisa

Jan 20, 2021

25 Books to Help with your Lockdown Wanderlust

Usually with the flip of the calendar to the New Year, we all begin looking ahead, planning for new adventures. But this year is so...

Finding Their Voice: The Female Bildungsroman

Marisa

Jan 3, 2021

Finding Their Voice: The Female Bildungsroman

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

Creating Christmas Traditions with Charles Dickens

Marisa

Dec 14, 2020

Creating Christmas Traditions with Charles Dickens

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

Literary Cocktail: A Christmas Carol's Smoking Bishop

Marisa

Dec 10, 2020

Literary Cocktail: A Christmas Carol's Smoking Bishop

“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...

Marisa

Nov 11, 2020

Remembrance Day 2020 #CanadaRemembers

You may be familiar with his words, but do you know the man who wrote ‘In Flanders Fields’? John McCrae was a Canadian military surgeon...

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