The Pasha loves Konstanze and wants to add her to his Turkish harem, but not by force, only if she can return his love. She, a shipwrecked Spanish noblewoman stranded on an alien shore, has already given her heart to another and resolves to be faithful to her Belmonte, even though the […]
We knew nothing of Madame outside the walls of our convent school.
The nuns were a French order. Madeleine Sophie Barat founded the order to teach the daughters of the upper middle class during the French Revolution. Religious education was forbidden during Robspierre’s Reign of Terror and Madeleine Sophie went to […]
Manguel, Alberto. A History of Reading. Viking, 1996.
For most of us, reading is an act of pleasure—entertainment, an absorbing quest for knowledge. A good book can provide a break from our humdrum routine or from difficult emotional or physical demands. According to Alberto Manguel, reading is not an entirely innocuous activity.
A […]