![]() ![]() She was educated: she wrote in Anglo-Norman and was apparently familiar with Latin, Middle English, and Breton (a Celtic language spoken in France’s northwest peninsula), because Breton lais, or lays (short, rhyming tales), were the basis for the Anglo-Norman verse narratives that became known as The Lais of Marie de France. Others have speculated that she was an abbess somewhere in England.) Scholars have also identified her as the first woman to author verse in French. (In fact, some have speculated that she was King Henry’s sister-but given that the name “Marie” was so common, it’s almost impossible to know for sure. Though apparently born in France, she lived in England and probably lived and wrote in a royal court, but which one is uncertain-possibly King Henry II’s and Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine’s (reigning in the late 12th and early 13th centuries). ![]() Besides calling herself “Marie” in her manuscripts, the author reveals nothing else about herself. ![]() In one of her works, she refers to herself as “Marie from France,” and that’s how scholars and readers have identified her ever since. ![]()
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![]() Read ExcerptĢ93 Cartoons That Were Too Dumb, Too Dark, or Too Naughty for The New Yorker One can almost hear Eustace Tilley sniffing, We are not amused. There’s no question why these were rejected, and it’s not for lack of laughs. Lots of couples in bed, quite a few coffins, wise-cracking animals-an obsessive’s plumbing of the weird, the scary, the off-the-wall, and done so without restraint.Įvery week The New Yorker receives 500 cartoon submissions, and rejects a great majority-mostly, of course, for not being funny enough. Bring your daughter to work day cartoons (the stripper, the prison guard on death row). The Rejection Collection brings together some of The New Yorker’s brightest talents-Roz Chast, Gahan Wilson, Sam Gross, Jack Zeigler, David Sipress, and more-and reveals their other side. It’s the best of the worst: 293 of the funniest cartoons rejected by The New Yorker but luckily for us, now in paperback and available to enjoy. ![]() ![]() I read this historical children’s novel (the first in Welch’s Carey series, currently being reissued by Slightly Foxed) back in January and was so impressed I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. The Song Collector (2015) – Natasha SolomonsĪ lovely, gently-paced novel about love, aging, and music. It took fierce concentration to get the list down to ten but here they are:ġ0. Most of which I unfortunately never got around to writing about. That said, hidden among the comfort reads and mindless fluff that typified my reading this year were some truly excellent books. ![]() Or, some months, any reading at all (I only managed to finish two books in September). ![]() With friends and family falling ill and passing away with alarming frequency, this was not a year for intensive reading. ![]() I had a productive year but it was a tiring and sombre one. ![]() |