Literary Feasts: Recipes from the Classics of Literature

by Barbara Scrafford

A collection of insightful essays on food accompanied by a host of recipes, Literary Feasts explores the significance of food in literature. Each featured meal-from Madame Bovary's wedding feast of chicken fricassee, to Doc's beer milkshake from Cannery Row-has been set down in recipe form as authentically as possible so readers may duplicate them at home.Drawing on the culinary traditions of the times and cultures at the center of each novel, the author serves up an eggplant epiphany from Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera, jam tarts from D.H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers, to Mrs. Ramsay's famous boeuf en daube dinner in Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse, and much more. Accompanying thought-provoking essays define the role of food in each as a part of a larger metaphor, in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man; as a way of depicting character, like the bland diet of the dull Mr. Woodhouse in Jane Austen's Emma; as a means of adding vivid detail in Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth.Readers can sample the foods featured Tolstoy's Anna KareninaCharlotte Bronte's Jane EyreSaul Bellow's HerzogTheodore Dreiser's Sister CarrieEarnest Hemingway's A Moveable FeastKate Chopin's The Awakeningand more.Literary Feasts is sure to please book lovers and gourmets alike.

Genres: Cookbooks, Food, Cooking, Books About Books, Food and Drink, Food Writing

168 pages, Paperback

First published December 13, 2004

Reviews

[Felicity Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating reading. Whilst not a lover of the classics and certainly, not by any stretch of the imagination, a cook I can, hand on heart, say reading this I'm tempted to read several of the novels featured whilst getting Mr T to rustle up one or two of the less exotic recipes; recipes that the author 'has tried to make as accurate to the time and place of each novel as possible' given that some of the dishes featured may not have actually existed at all and some of the older recipes are often vague when it comes to weighing ingredients, that what was thought palatable then may not be considered so today.

Copyright ... Felicity Grace Terry @ Pen and Paper

[Hannah Fielding · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was bought this as a Christmas present by a friend who knows how I love both books and fine foods. What a wonderful idea for a book! Interesting recipes brought up-to-date sufficiently that I can cook them. But better yet, it has made me think more, as I write, about how I describe foods, so it has enriched my writing. Although, on the down side, now a description of a romantic meal between a hero and a heroine can send me rummaging in the kitchen for a snack as I've made myself hungry just writing!