Fav Period Dramas

Gianlorenzo Bernini, 1619 Sleeping Hermaphroditos details

Some Hollywood hotties – past and present – reading books.

1) Marlon Brando.

2) Benedict Cumberbatch reading Love’s Labour’s Lost.

3) Tony Perkins reading Look Homeward Angel.

4) Charlie Hunnam reading… anything.

5) Joseph Gordan-Levitt reading Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon.

6) Paul Newman reading The Garrick Year, by Margaret Drabble.

7) Gregory Peck, not surprisingly, posed with To Kill a Mockingbird.

8) Farley Granger reading The Edge of Doom, by Leo Grady. (Farley starred in the 1950 film.)

9) River Phoenix reading War and Peace.

10) James Dean reading poetry by James Whitcomb Riley.

LIVRES CENSURÉS PAR LES AUTORITÉS À TRAVERS LES SIÈCLES

BOOKS CENSORED BY LEGAL AUTHORITIES OVER THE YEARS PART V

Salomé - Oscar Wilde (1891)

Histoire d'O - Pauline Réage a.k.a. Dominique Aury (1954)

Mademoiselle La Quintinie - George Sand a.k.a Amantine Aurore Lucile Dupin (1863)

Cubitum eamus?

Another Country (1984) | Maurice (1987) | The History Boys (2006) | Brideshead Revisited (1981) | Dead Poets Society (1989)

This book in Hannibal’s kitchen is Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck, volume 1.

Mastering the Art of French Cooking is the result of a collaboration among Julia Child , Simone  Beck, Louisette Bertholle, illustrator Sidonie Coryn, and Paul Cushing Child (Child’s husband), and was the impetus for Child’s long and successful career as a pioneering television chef. 

Julia Child’s goal was to adapt classic French cuisine for mainstream Americans. The collaboration of this cookbook proved groundbreaking and has since become a standard guide for the culinary community. Mastering Volume 1 was originally published in 1961 after some early difficulties. Volume 1 was a broad survey of French flavors and techniques, and grew out of the work the three women had done for their Paris cooking school, “L'École des trois gourmandes”. Mastering Volume 2, released in 1970, again a collaboration between Julia Child and Simone Beck but not Louisette Bertholle with whom the professional relationship had ended, expanded on certain topics of interest that had not been covered as completely as the three had planned to in the first volume (particularly baking and charcuterie). 

Taken together, the two volumes are considered one of the most influential works in American cookbook history. Julia Child has long been accorded near-universal respect in the cooking world, in part due to the influence of these books.

Sending love and puppies to xshiromorix for identifying the book. :-)

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All books in Hannibal are here.

Il materiale di origine: @lilygavin, @montassaralaia @rupertfriend, @emmanuelle.seigner (Instagram) / Photos from the set of At Eternity’s Gate filmed in Arles, Provence, and Saint-Rémy, France. (2017) #myedit

The Native Cinema Renaissance: Films

Dido Belle and Jane Austen's Fanny Price

With the critical success of the new film Belle, there’s a lot of interest in the life of its heroine, Dido Belle. Many have even hailed the movie as as Austen-esque, with it being centered around a headstrong, 18th century woman who doesn’t quite fit in with her stuffier surroundings. And yet, there is quite a bit of (circumstantial) evidence that suggests that it was Jane Austen who was inspired by Dido’s story for her novel, Mansfield Park.

About a year ago, I wrote a research paper on the historical and literary events that may have influenced Austen’s Mansfield Park. If you’re interested in the subject, here’s some excerpts from that paper, including some of the sources I used:

“Historically speaking, the characters of Fanny Price and the Lord and Lady Betram seem to have been loosely based on the life of Dido Belle, the illegitimate daughter of a British Admiral and African slave, who was sent to live with her uncle in England…

There is evidence to back up the fact that Austen knew about the life of Dido Belle and the Mansfield family. Lord Mansfield was a Lord Chief Justice and a distinguished figure of society, whose “public image…[was] of a brilliant judge and a man of impeccable integrity… famous for his silver-tongued oratory” (Adams 1). In 1772, he made a controversial decision in the case of a black man, James Somerset, who was being forced to leave England to be sent back the American colonies as a slave. Lord Mansfield ruled in Somerset’s favor, essentially freeing the man from his enslaved state. This case became “widely interpreted to mean that all enslaved people in England must be ‘discharged’… [giving] great momentum to the movement of abolition”(Jones). The circumstances of this case is believed to have partially influenced William Cowper’s poem The Task, a poet whom Austen is known to have read and alluded to in several of her books, including Mansfield Park (Pemberly). Christine Kenyon Jones, in her essay “Ambiguous Cousinship: Mansfield Park and the Mansfield Family,” sees the following lines as evidence of Mansfield’s ruling as being influential in Cowper’s writing: We have no slaves at home—then why abroad? And they themselves, once ferried o’er the wave That parts us, are emancipate and loosed. Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs Receive our air, that moment they are free, They touch our country and their shackles fall. (2.37-42) The imagery of the first line compares “slaves at home” to slaves “abroad,” making the case that it is hypocritical to want one’s own immediate surroundings to have the appearance of moral uprightness, while simultaneously profiting from slavery abroad and away from view. One can apply this to Mansfield’s own household, as well as Sir Thomas’ in Mansfield Park: once Sir Thomas returns from his plantation in Antigua that he desires to treat Fanny as an equal instead of as the kind of servant she is used to being treated as; likewise, it was widely speculated at the time that Mansfield’s ruling was partly influenced by the presence of his niece, Dido, who was, after all, the product of his own nephew’s capture of a slave woman and taking sexual advantage of her. That is, his first-hand experience with slavery and its effects may have given him a fuller perspective of the horrors of enslaving human beings.

In addition to the possibility of Austen being influenced by Cowper’s poem and Lord Mansfield’s reputation, she was also acquainted with Lady Elizabeth Finch-Hatton, who was the cousin and childhood companion of Dido Elizabeth Bell. Citing Austen’s letters as evidence, Jones suggests that her association with Lady Elizabeth inspired the “elegant-but-dumb” character of Lady Bertram of Mansfield Park and even Lady Middleton from Sense and Sensibility. In a letter to her sister Cassandra, Austen imparts her meeting of the Hattons in August of 1805: “Fortune was also very civil to me in placing Mr. E. Hatton by me at dinner. I have discovered that Ly. Elizth for a woman of her age & situation, has astonishingly little to say for herself…” (CE, #45). Jones believes that Austen’s remarks suggest that “she was aware of Lady Elizabeth’s ancestry and origins, and was disappointed not to find her a more interesting person or forthcoming I conversation.” In her later letters, however, this disappointment in Lady Elizabeth’s lack of personality becomes amusement for Jane and Cassandra, just as Lady Bertram’s presence in Mansfield Park provides comic relief. In another letter, Austen briefly mentions her with some mocking: “Lady Eliz. Hatton & Anna-maria called here this morng;-Yes, they called,-but I do not think I can say anything more about them. They came & they sat & they went” (CE, #91). Here, Lady Elizabeth’s presence is mute and unremarkable; yet despite her seeming lack of personality, Austen mentions her several times in her letters in much the same way, suggesting that while colorless and dull, she was worth mentioning for this same reason. In Mansfield Park, nearly every mention of Lady Bertram is irrelevant and unrelated to the plot—she is referenced as a side note or afterthought.

Austen often mentions her in terms of her non-presence, as in her unenthusiastic, almost lifeless responses to the events that occur around her. Often, “Lady Bertram [makes] no objection” (89), “[makes] no opposition”(41) or is “perfectly quiescent and contented, and with no objections to make” (264). Austen seems to be consciously making correlations between Lady Elizabeth and Lady Bertram. The luxurious lifestyle of both women contrasts greatly next to their relationship with their less fortunate relatives, Dido and Fanny, and the similarities of their stories do not seem coincidental. It is almost a certainty that Austen knew of Dido Belle’s story, and makes use of it in her creation of the character of Fanny Price.

Dido Belle and Fanny Price have a lot in common. Both begin life with disadvantages. While Fanny is born into a poor, overcrowded household, Dido was born to a slave. Both girls were sent to live with wealthy relatives who could better provide for them. Because of her mixed-race status, Dido’s role at Kenwood was rather unclear, much like Fanny’s presence at Mansfield. When Fanny arrives to Mansfield, she is made to believe herself unequal to her cousins, and is treated like a servant by Mrs. Norris and Lady Bertram. An invitation to live with rich relatives should have been a privilege to appreciate, but as Christine Kenyon Jones points out, Fanny is, at first, made to feel reliant on their benevolence. Jones explains that though Fanny receives “the advantages of comfort, wealth, and education…Fanny was a poor relation whose status at Mansfield was unregulated and totally dependent upon the good-will and affection of those around her.” Dido Belle, while given better treatment than most slaves or even servants, was still considered unequal to her cousin, Lady Elizabeth, who also lived at Kenwood. Thomas Hutchinson, an American who visited Kenwood, made detailed observations of Dido Belle in a 1779 diary entry. At one point, he speculates that Dido is some kind of glorified servant: “And she was called upon by my Lord every minute for this thing and that, and shewed the greatest attention everything he said” (Adams). Jones concludes her argument for the connection between Dido and Fanny: “While neither the novel nor the painting is ‘about’ slavery, both evidently allude to its effects and probe the uncomfortable realities of inequality, power, and obligation concealed beneath the smooth surface of family representation.” Austen’s allusion to Dido’s life adds depth to Mansfield Park beyond its rags-to-riches storyline.”

Works Cited:

Adams, Gene. “Dido Elizabeth Belle: A Girl at Kenwood.” Camden History Review 12 (1988). Web.

 Jones, Christine Kenyon. “Ambiguous Cousinship: Mansfield Park and the Mansfield Family.” Persuasions Online 31.1 (2010). Web.

 Slavery and Justice at Kenwood House. n.d. Web.

(To cite my essay, please refer to MLA handbook and use “Violet Pamplempousse” as the author)

21.3.1930-30.3.2016 Animator Butyrin