Lillian Marek's Blog, page 4
March 24, 2015
A Romantic Tale and a Screwball Comedy
In the early 19th century there were four Tree sisters, all of whom went on the stage. (If there were three of them, one could probably create a nice tongue twister, but there were four.) Ellen Tree, who married the noted actor Charles Kean, was the only one who remained in the theater, performing with her husband as Mrs. Charles Kean until his death.
A Romantic Tale—and a Screwball Comedy
In the early 19th century there were four Tree sisters, all of whom went on the stage. (If there were three of them, one could probably create a nice tongue twister, but there were four.) Ellen Tree, who married the noted actor Charles Kean, was the only one who remained in the theater, performing with her husband as Mrs. Charles Kean until his death.
March 10, 2015
My Next Hero
Thank you for dropping by. I hope that last week you met Linda Ford's lonely cowboy hero, Blue Lyons. If you missed him, you can catch up at http://lindaford.org/blog/?p=2983. He will be appearing in one of Linda's Love Inspired historicals. And special thanks to Debora Dale (http://www.deboradale.com/) who organized this blog tour.
March 3, 2015
A Dickensian Childhood
A Dickensian childhood. The phrase conjures up images of small children working in coal mines or cotton mills, ragged urchins huddled in a doorway, Oliver Twist asking for more gruel. But you didn’t have to be poor to have a Dickensian childhood. Consider Augustus Hare.
February 17, 2015
Playing with Time
When I was a child, I was fascinated by cuckoo clocks. One of my aunts had one, and whenever we visited, I would sit there, waiting for the hour to strike so that the little bird would pop out and do its chirping.
There are less purely cheerful animated clocks, of course. Not long ago, Sotheby’s had an erotic 18th century clock. It looked quite innocent—the naughty bits were hidden behind a painting of a duck. (Don’t get your hopes up. It was more ludicrously comic than erotic.)
February 4, 2015
The Worth of Fashion
Since Fashion Week is almost here, thoughts turn to fabulous clothes and their designers, people with names like Balenciaga, Givenchy, Dior, Versace, Saint Laurent, Armani.
Do you notice anything odd about that list? They are all men. Well, all right, Chanel ought to be there too, but that doesn’t change the fact that for the past hundred years and more, the famous couturiers have been men.
January 28, 2015
A-Banting We Will Go
William Banting was huffing and puffing by the time he reached the top of the first flight of stairs, or so the story goes. He said to himself, “I need to lose some weight.”
He was probably right about that.
At five feet five inches, Banting was not a tall man—but in his mid-60s he weighed in at about 200 pounds.
December 1, 2014
Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!
After the marathon of cooking and eating last week, soup has tremendous appeal.
November 24, 2014
Galla Placidia, Empress of Rome
Galla Placidia is one of the most fascinating historic figures I know, partly because so much about her life is shrouded in mystery, starting with the date of her birth, sometime around 390. What is known has all the makings of an epic novel.
November 10, 2014
Buried Treasure: Alaric's Gold
In 410 AD Alaric and his Visigoths sacked Rome.
Back when I was in high school, that date marked the Fall of the Roman Empire. Next came the Dark Ages, followed by the Middle Ages (they began in 800, with Charlemagne being crowned Holy Roman Emperor) and Modern Europe (1492—you know that date).
Do you suppose anyone noticed at the time?
