Around the Web: Sylvia Plath's Letters, Shakespeare's Food, Jane Austen and Christmas, and T

Happy Friday, readers! The CDP team will be on holiday next week, so we’re hard at work making sure we’ve got everything in order before we go. We hope you’re all getting some down time in during this busy time of the year as well.

Hopefully, that down time will include reading. (I know I plan to tackle a few titles on my TBR list.) Here’s a few things to get you started.

Sylvia Plath’s Letters

Sylvia Plath’s death is one of the most famous suicides in the literary world. A collection of her letters reveals details of the writer’s life, and Summer Pierre shares her reflections on these letters in comic form for the New Yorker, finding both inspiration and tragedy in Plath’s work ethic.

Shakespeare’s Food References

Feasts and banquets are often backdrops for action in Shakespeare’s plays, but they play another role. Gastro Obscura delves into Shakespeare’s use of food to show characters’ moods and motivations. Check it out and be sure to share with any students who’ll be studying the bard soon.

Pride and Prejudice and Christmas

Recent trends in books and Hallmark movies would have you believe that Jane Austen’s most famous novel has something to do with Christmas. But Pride and Prejudice only mentions the holiday a few times, and the Christmases of Austen’s time had little resemblance to present day North American Christmas celebrations. So why do Austen and Christmas keep getting mashed up? Author Devoney Looser takes a look at this phenomenon for Lit Hub.

Idioms and Show Title

Breaking Bad, Arrested Development, Saved by the Bell—all are popular television shows that take their names from common sayings. Dictionary.com looks at these shows and more, exploring the original meaning of the idioms and speculating on why they make fitting names.

What did you read this week? Share in the comments.