The Pug Who Bit Napoleon U.S. Release Day!
Today is the United States release of my non-fiction animal history book The Pug Who Bit Napoleon: Animal Tales of the 18th and 19th Centuries! The paperback is now available in the U.S. and can be purchased at Amazon and other online or brick and mortar booksellers.
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The Pug Who Bit Napoleon eBook Worldwide Release Day!
It’s release day for the eBook version of my non-fiction animal history book The Pug Who Bit Napoleon: Animal Tales of the 18th and 19th Centuries! The eBook is available worldwide and can be purchased for Kindle, Nook, or other eBook reading device. The paperback version has, unfortunately, been delayed until early next month.[…]Continue Reading
Charles Dickens and Timber Doodle, the Flea-Ridden Dog
(Bowes Museum)
In the mid-nineteenth century, Charles Dickens had a small, shaggy Havana spaniel named Timber Doodle. Dickens had acquired Timber during a visit to America and the little dog soon became his constant companion, even accompanying him on his travels. It was during one of these foreign excursions that Timber suffered from a very severe infestation of fleas. The solution was extreme. As Dickens relates in an 1844 letter:[…]Continue Reading
Authentic Victorian Christmas Pudding
“In half a minute Mrs. Cratchit entered—flushed, but smiling proudly—with the pudding, like a speckled cannon-ball, so hard and firm, blazing in half of half-a-quartern of ignited brandy, and bedight with Christmas holly stuck into the top.”
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, 1843.
A 19th century Christmas feast would not be complete without a Christmas pudding. Comprised of dried fruit, suet, egg, flour, and other basic ingredients, it was a popular holiday dish in both the Regency and Victorian eras. Naturally, there are many historical recipes available for such an old favorite, but when looking for the simplest, and the best, you need search no further than Mrs. Beeton’s 1861 Book of Household Management. Below is what Mrs. Beeton refers to as “A Plain Christmas Pudding for Children.” It is the most basic historical Christmas pudding recipe I could find and perfect for those of us whose only experience with cooking a Christmas pudding comes from reading about Mrs. Cratchit fretting over the copper in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.[…]Continue Reading
Literary Obituaries: Death Notices for Austen, Byron, Brontë, and Dickens
Today, Jane Austen, Lord Byron, Charlotte Brontë, and Charles Dickens are generally recognized as four of the greatest authors in English literature. But how did their contemporaries view them? Were their works appreciated? And how did the 19th century public feel when three of them, still in their prime, met an untimely end? To discover the answers to these questions, one might delve into the legions of biographies written over the years or have a look at their letters, journals, or contemporary reviews of their poems and novels. However, since it is less than a week until Halloween, I thought we might instead take a brief look at their obituaries.[…]Continue Reading
