Watch This: Lost in Austen

Fancy meeting you here…..
There’s nothing deep or literary about Lost in Austen. It’s a time travel tale that incorporates all the standard glitches, as 21st century Amanda tries to navigate her way around the style and conventions of the 19th century. Because she curls up with Austen every time she feels stressed, Amanda [...]

It’s a Mystery: The Pale Blue Eye, by Louis Bayard

Blue eyed girl
As 2009 is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Edgar Allan Poe, it’s fitting that the interests of several novelists have turned to him. Louis Bayard chose to depict Poe in a little known segment of his life, his tenure as a cadet at West Point. The mystery revolves around the [...]

Monday Morning Poem: Requiescat

by Oscar Wilde

Tread lightly, she is near
Under the snow,
Speak gently, she can hear
The daisies grow.
All her bright golden hair
Tarnished with rust,
She that was young and fair
Fallen to dust.
Lily-like, white as snow,
She hardly knew
She was a woman, so
Sweetly she grew.
Coffin-board, heavy stone,
Lie on her breast;
I vex my heart alone,
She is at rest.
Peace, peace, she cannot [...]

Historical Horror Fiction: The Turn of the Screw

by Henry James

Long before DaVinci Code, Turn of the Screw was generating all sorts of controversy. The haunting of two Victorian era children by their former governess and servant is one of literature’s first genuine gothic chillers. Since its publication 1898, all sorts of interpretationshave been applied to this ambiguous puzzler. Are [...]

Historical Fiction: The Dark Tower, by Louis Bayard

Tour de force
It has generally been accepted that the son of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI was murdered shortly after the executions of his parents. Now, more than 200 years later, Louis Bayard has taken another look at the fate of the dauphin. Could he have been saved? Could he have lived to become [...]

Monday Morning Poem: Summer begins to have the look

by Emily Dickenson
Summer begins to have the look
Peruser of enchanting Book
Reluctantly but sure perceives
A gain upon the backward leaves –
Autumn begins to be inferred
By millinery of the cloud
Or deeper color in the shawl
That wraps the everlasting hill.
The eye begins its avarice
A meditation chastens speech
Some Dyer of a distant tree
Resumes his gaudy industry.
Conclusion is the course [...]

Classic Lit: Lorna Doone, by R.D. Blackmore

4.0 out of 5 stars John’s coming of age
As a very young child, John Ridd encounters the equally young Lorna while fishing in Doone territory. The Doones, born noble, were deprived of their birthright, and now live in a fortress above the Somerset moors, sometimes emerging to pillage the countryside for food, money, and [...]

Historical Fiction: The Wet Nurse’s Tale, by Erica Eisendorfer

Working woman
Susan Rose has been brought up by an abusive drunk of a father and a mother forced into wet-nursing to keep hearth and home together. When Susan, in service at the manor house, finds herself pregnant by the master’s son, she is forced by her father into following in her mother’s footsteps, only [...]

Summer Traditions: Salt Water Taffy

As a kid, whenever we spent a day at the beach, I couldn’t resist a sack of salt water taffy. Sweet, sticky summer stuff! But I always wondered about the “salt water” part of its name, as there isn’t so much of a hint of salt lurking below its many flavors. Today I’ll try to [...]

The Resting Place of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain

Just about a year ago, long time friend Ken generously agreed to post an photo essay about scenes from the Civil War, then and now. This has deservedly become one of the most popular posts on You’re History, and if you missed it, you can find it here. This summer, Ken and Eileen made [...]