English country dancing was not, as the name suggests, a rural pastime eschewed by city-dwellers. The term derives from the French “contre-danse”, describing a form of dance which typically began with two longs row of men and women standing opposite each other. A lead couple would prance down the row, with other couples following suit. Dances were often elaborate, involving… Read more →
Category: Odds & Ends
Les Miserables Movie Musical
Here’s an extended first look at the movie musical version of Les Misérables coming out this Christmas. It is directed by Tom Hooper, who won an Academy Award for The King’s Speech, and stars Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway and Amanda Seyfried. The Cozy Classics version of Les Misérables comes out in early 2013, but is available for pre-sale… Read more →
Happy Birthday Moby Dick!
Moby Dick is seemingly everywhere these days. And today, millions upon millions of people are going to think about Moby Dick as the 161st anniversary of the UK publication of Melville’s masterpiece is commemorated by a new Google doodle. Happy birthday, Moby Dick. We hope it’s a cozy one! Read more →
Doedemee – 100 Book Covers to Fight Illiteracy
Belgian graphic design studio beshart united 100 artists from 28 countries in a unique co-creation project, (re)designing the covers for “The 100 Greatest Novels of All Time” (The Observer, 2003). Their mission: raise awareness for the problem of illiteracy. The full online gallery, which includes the Moby Dick image above by UK artist Shelley Revill, can be found here. Here’s… Read more →
Cetology 101: Then and now
Herman Melville entitled Chapter 32 of Moby Dick “Cetology”, which is the branch of zoology dealing with whales and dolphins. In Chapter 32, Melville cited a number of passages from the “best and latest authorities” of the day on the subject of cetology, including Captain Scoresby (1820) and Surgeon Beale (1839). Melville also remarked that those who have written on… Read more →
Jane Austen: The Literary Child of Richardson and Fielding
Jane Austen was a fan of two important 18th century novelists, Samuel Richardson and Henry Fielding. Richardson was famous for writing epistolary novels—that is, novels told through journals, letters, and other documents—like Pamela (1740) and Clarissa (1748). Fielding, best known for the novel Tom Jones (1749), satirized Richardson in novels like Shamela (1741) and Joseph Andrews (1742). Austen liked the… Read more →
Jane Austen and… literary neuroscience (!)
Dammit, Jane! Not only do you send our hearts a-flutter with your tales of romance among the landed gentry, you apparently train our brain cells now, too! According to Futurity.org, neurobiological researchers at Stanford have conducted experiments with participants reading Jane Austen in an MRI machine. First, experiment participants were asked to skim a passage leisurely as they might do… Read more →
Moby Dick Big Read
The stars are aligning for Moby Dick — literally. The Guardian reports that notables such as David Cameron, Tilda Swinton, Stephen Fry and Simon Callow have jumped aboard an ambitious project to broadcast Herman Melville’s classic novel in its entirety – 135 chapters over 135 days. The readings are being broadcast daily online at Moby Dick Big Read (with each… Read more →
Cozy Classics goes international
We’re a few months away from Cozy Classics hitting store shelves, but we’ve already gone international. Cozy Classics has made it to an Italian blog under the headline “Classici in inglese per bambini 0-3 anni”, and with the opening line “Guardate che carini!!!!” (“Look how cute this is!”). Below is a tweet in Italian (which doesn’t require Google Translate to… Read more →