English poet, essayist, playwright, and novelist Thomas Love Peacock was born on 18 October 1785 in Weymouth, Dorset, into a lower-middle class family. From there he rose to become both an admired writer and wealthy, “a rare instance of a man improved by prosperity.” While working as a clerk with Ludlow Fraser Company in London,… Read more The Laughing Philosopher, Thomas Love Peacock
First, let me just say I love the name Mungo. I’ve loved it forever. I first loved it when I found the name St Mungo in a book of Scottish folk tales and saints that I read in high school. I loved it when it popped up in the Harry Potter series as St Mungo’s… Read more Mungo Park, I presume?
William Wilberforce, the spearhead and focal point of the English abolitionists, as well as one of my favorite historical personages, was born in Hull, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, on 24 August 1759. He was the only son of Robert Wilberforce, whose family had become wealthy thanks to maritime trade with Baltic countries,… Read more William Wilberforce, a Truly Great Man
Napoleon Bonaparte, the future Emperor of the French and one of the greatest military leaders Western civilization has ever known, was born on 15 August 1769 in Ajaccio, the capital of the island of Corsica, to Carlo Maria di Buonaparte and Maria Letizia Ramolino. He was the fourth child the stork brought to Casa Buonaparte,… Read more Happy Birthday to Napoleon Bonaparte, the Corsican Who Transformed the Modern World
The worst thing about Jane Austen dying on 18 July 1817, when she was only 41 and should have had decades of writing ahead of her, is that those of us – and we are legion – who love her work must be content with the few novels and scattered essays she left us. We… Read more For the Love of Jane Austen, Peeress of Prose
Jane Austen tragically died at the young age of 41 on 18 July 1817, leaving behind a grieving family and an astonishing literary legacy. Her family was grateful that she did not suffer, or become disoriented, even at the very end of her life. Her brother Henry reported that she, “retained her faculties, her memory,… Read more The Last Thing Austen Ever Wrote
Jane Austen actively detested the Prince Regent, as many people did. In her case it was particularly acute, because she not only found him lacking in moral rectitude or any worthy quality she admired, he was a decided political thorn in the side of the Tory party, which the Austen family strongly favored over the… Read more Jane Austen and the Prince Regent
The only thing in the world that Napoléon Bonaparte loved as much as coffee and military victory was his first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais. Napoleon’s love was born on 22 June 1763, the eldest daughter of a French Creole sugar plantation owner in the Caribbean, either at his estate on Martinique or the one on… Read more A Rose Named Joséphine
The climax of Jane Austen’s third novel, Mansfield Park, revolves around Easter. First, the heroine, Fanny Price, suffers because of the holiday. She cannot return “home” to Mansfield Park and her loved ones among the Bertrams until her Uncle Bertram says so, and she was told that he wouldn’t send for her until after Easter… Read more Easter in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park
William Henry Cavendish Cavendish-Bentinck was born on 14 April 1738, the eldest son and heir of William Bentinck, 2nd Duke of Portland and Margaret Cavendish-Harley. The newborn had an illustrious future ahead of him. Not only would he be the 3rd Duke of Portland, he would hold every title of British nobility – Duke, Marquess,… Read more Happy Birthday to the Queen’s Ancestor, Regency Era Prime Minister William Cavendish-Bentinck