A Feast of Words For Lovers of Food and Fiction
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, September 17, 1996.
Edition: First
Book Condition: New
Binding: Hardcover
ISBN: 039303979X / 9780393039795
An unusual cookbook for literature lovers with delicious recipes inspired by great scenes in literature. Literature is nourishment. The author has created inventive menus to accompany the pleasures of reading Proust, Isak Dinesen, and Charlotte Brontë. Along with tempting your palate with luscious cuisine, you'll find over fifty recipes that show how central food is in Anna Karenina, Moby-Dick, Jane Eyre, and Marjorie Morningstar. If there were no joint of meat in Roald Dahl's "Lamb to the Slaughter," the philandering husband would be living happily with his new love. Without the dirty cup of tea in Doris Lessing's A Good Neighbor, Jane Somers might never wake up to love, and Rose in Alice Munro's "Royal Beatings" might be able to resist her stepmother if she could resist salmon sandwiches. A perfect gift to bring to a dinner party. Included are recipes for Queso Relleno (Serenade); Chicken Tarragon (The Sweet Dove Died); Quail with Potatoes and Grapes ("Babette's Feast"); Lamb Ó la Mode (David Copperfield); and Meat Tart (Ethan Frome). Menu inspired by The Magic Mountain: Roast Duck with Cranberry Conserve, Fresh Spinach Sauteed in Olive Oil & Nutmeg Mix of Brown and Wild Rice, Creamed Turnip Casserole, Pear Conserve with Vanilla Ice Cream and Crumbled Amaretti
Review
If you're reading this, odds are you agree with Anna Shapiro that books are the staff of life. "A Feast of Words" is not an ordinary cookbook, or even primarily a cookbook. It is a banquet for the soul, cooked with imagination and served with style by a writer who knows that fiction, like food, is not merely necessary to life, but the essence of life. --Ellen Feldman, Newsday
The passages [of literature] are, for the most part, delightful, whether the pieces were old, familiar parts of long-loved stories or little appetizers of works one hasn't met before. And while I'll never attempt to make persimmon pudding or parsnips with pomegranate seeds . . . how does honey and orange bread sound to you? --Catherine Foster, American Reporter
Anna Shapiro loves food and knows literature, and in this charming volume . . . she is a fine critic and an especially fine summarizer and condenser of character and plot. She has lovingly chosen and carefully provided readers with great chunks of the actual text, in several instances, complete scenes and stories. --The Boston Globe
About the Author
Price: $24.97