Emma Woodhouse has just lost her former governess and favorite friend to marriage, and she is now a bored, lonely matchmaker looking for her next project. Harriet Smith is an agreeable, obedient acquaintance attending the local boarding school, with no known family or influences—the perfect pliable pupil. Emma tries to set her up with a…
Category: Period piece
“The Notebook” Book Discussion and Cherry Coke Chocolate Cupcakes Recipe
Noah is an elderly man in a nursing home, his hands crippled by arthritis, who still, every morning, picks up a notebook, and carries it with him to his wife’s room, where he will tell her their story, hoping her Alzheimer’s won’t stop her from remembering them, even just for a little while. He makes…
“The Princess Bride” Book Discussion and Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting Recipe
Buttercup is an “impossibly lovely” milkmaid living on a farm in the fictional city of Florin. There is a farm boy named Westley who loves her, and says so with every utterance of his famous quote “As you wish.” He travels to America to obtain a fortune so he can marry her, but his ship…
“Far From the Madding Crowd” Book Discussion and Bacon, Ham, and Cheddar Biscuit Recipe
Bathsheba Everdeen is a stubborn but hardworking young woman who inherits her grandfather’s farm just as her once-dear friend falls into personal tragedy. Independently making a living in a man’s world leads her to arrogance and in doubt of ever finding marriage. She thinks love to be a joke and plays a foolish trick on…
“Pride and Prejudice” Book Discussion and Peach Cupcake Recipe
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” —such is the philosophy of Mrs. Bennet, mother to five daughters, including the opinionated, fond-of-walking Elizabeth Bennett, Lizzie to her sisters. When a wealthy, attractive young man by the name of Mr….
“Rebecca” by Daphne du Maurier Book Discussion and Blackberry Victoria Sponge Cupcakes
“Last night I dreamed I went to Manderley again…” Rebecca is perhaps the greatest and most haunting Gothic novel, the one to which all others written since have been compared. (Image of “Manderley” created with ChatGPT) Set in the English countryside in the 1920’s, in a mansion by the sea, Maxim de Winter lives with…
“I Capture the Castle” Book Discussion and Cherry Hot Chocolate Cupcakes Recipe
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith This story is unlike any other coming of age tale. Subtly humorous, set in a castle inhabited by a very poor family in the 1930s, I Capture the Castle is reminiscent of other Gothic novels in that there are two sisters living in an ancient castle in the…