English Literature – Page 32

It’s Elementary! A Sherlock Holmes Rosenbacchanal

Date / Time

May 4, 2017
6:00 pm - 10:00 pm

The Rosenbacchanal is the Rosenbach’s annual gala. Proceeds from the Rosenbacchanal benefit our incredible collection and help us continue to provide exciting exhibitions and programs that explore and celebrate it. This year we celebrate the intricate mysteries crafted by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in collaboration with our Clever Criminals and Daring Detectives exhibition. To learn more or purchase tickets, please call Kelsey Bates at 215-732-1600 x122, or email at [email protected].

Reading Group: Jane Austen

Date / Time

February 15, 2017
6:00 pm - 7:45 pm
February 22, 2017
6:00 pm - 7:45 pm
March 1, 2017
6:00 pm - 7:45 pm
March 22, 2017
6:00 pm - 7:45 pm

The first of her novels to be completed, Northanger Abbey is both homage to and affectionate parody of the gloomy gothic stories Jane Austen loved to read. Guided by Edward G. Pettit, who also led the Jane Austen Reading Group last summer, this Reading Group will explore both Northanger Abbey and the “horrid novels” referenced in the book.

Scams in Austenland

Sara DavisJanuary 6, 2017March 24, 2017

Sense and Sensibility was the first of Jane Austen’s novels to be published. Released in 1811 by Thomas Egerton, Sense and Sensibility—along with three other novels during Austen’s short lifetime—was published anonymously. This humorous first novel by “A Lady” had a higher-than-normal print run of 750 copies, and those sold out by 1813, prompting a …

The Curious Appeal of Sherlock Holmes

Sara DavisDecember 16, 2016March 24, 2017

This post was cross-posted at the Free Library of Philadelphia blog, where our affiliates have been celebrating their One Book One Philadelphia selection, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Christopher Boone’s investigation into the death of a neighborhood dog is inspired by …

Robert Louis Stevenson’s Baby Book

Kathy HaasNovember 18, 2016September 12, 2017

I remember as a child being fascinated with my baby book; I would periodically pull it off the shelf in my mother’s study to look at it and compare it with my brother’s. When I became a parent, I, in turn, bought baby books for my children, although I wasn’t always consistent in filling them …

You’ve heard about group tours, now get ready for: troupe tours!

Sara DavisOctober 21, 2016February 22, 2017

The Rosenbach collection has numerous connections with the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. Our library houses some manuscripts of poems by William Butler Yeats, who was a co-founder of the Abbey Theatre. Yeats became close to an Irish-American lawyer and arts patron, John Quinn, who was the defense lawyer in the obscenity trial over the …

The curious Sir Thomas Browne

Patrick RodgersSeptember 2, 2016September 16, 2017

It was a time of increasing globalization, sectarian conflict, and political polarization. No, I’m not talking about the U.S. today, but about Europe in the 1630s, when the Continent was tearing itself apart in the Thirty Years War and England was drawing the battle lines of its own Civil War, which erupted in 1642. In …

Jane Austen in Philadelphia

Edward PettitJuly 15, 2016September 16, 2017

The first American publication of a Jane Austen novel was an edition of Emma published by Matthew Carey in Philadelphia in 1816. The novel, Austen’s fourth, had been published in London in December 1815, but dated 1816 on its cover page. American readers did not have to wait long to read the novel that Sir Walter …

The End of Alice

Kathy HaasMay 6, 2016September 19, 2017

There’s only a little over a week left to see our exhibits Down the Rabbit Hole: Celebrating 150 years of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Camera Lens: the Photograph of Charles Dodgson, so if you haven’t seen them, or if you’ve been meaning to see them again, come on by before they close on …

R.I.P. Cervantes and Shakespeare

Kathy HaasApril 22, 2016September 19, 2017

2016 marks the 400th anniversary of the deaths of both William Shakespeare (whose 450th birthday we celebrated two years ago) and Miguel de Cervantes. Traditionally it has been claimed that both men died on the same date: April 23, 1616, but modern scholars have thrown a wrench into the works by suggesting that Cervantes probably …