In a recent post on her website, my wonderful daughter-in-law reflects on whether she and Darien will have children. The reflection was occasioned by our Iowa Thanksgiving where she saw all of her husband’s cousins having children (and I mean all, the only exceptions being those who are in college or younger). So Betsy compiles […]
Monthly Archives: December 2009
On the Logic of Having Babies
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Children, Dashiell Hammett, Jane Austen, Maltese Falcon, Marriage, Persuasion Comments closed
Moral Verse for Bad Little Children
When I was a child, I was a great fan of the tongue-in-cheek “cautionary verses” of English poet Hilaire Belloc. I have written in the past about how, in the Alice books, Lewis Carroll took off after those heavy-handed Victorian moralists who tried to scare children into good behavior. Belloc did more of the same, […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Cautionary Verses, Children, Hilaire Belloc, Moral Instruction Comments closed
“My Habits . . . Would Assassinate You”
As a change of pace, I turn today’s column over to my very good friend and department chair, Mark Twain expert Ben Click. Ben is a 6’6″ Texan who is the funniest man I know and a kind of Mark Twain figure himself. His courses on the man who called himself “the American” have […]
But What If Daddy’s Wrong about Him?
Frances Burney The fascinating conversations with my students about father-daughter relationships and Frances Burney’s Evelina continued yesterday. The class had a range of reactions to how Evelina should respond when her guardian tells her to override her growing affection for Lord Orville. He has a number of reasons to be nervous. Lord Orville (they both […]
