A page from Casanova's original manuscript, The Story of My Life, now on display at the Bibliotheque Nationale.
I would just love to see Casanova’s handwritten memoirs, “The Story of My Life,” now being shown at the Biblioteque Nationale in France, where more than 3700 pages of his papers are kept. “Worthy or not,” he wrote… (...Please continue reading...)
Jacques Pépin demonstrates his controversial new omelette making technique in the New York Times.
Master chef Jacques Pépin has changed breakfast around here, and has challenged Encyclopedia of the Exquisite‘s entry on omelet-making. After reading this article in the New York Times, the ground shook. Unlike Julia Child, who gently tossed her eggs… (...Please continue reading...)
The grand beekeeping tradition.
All summer long I’d been meaning to write about how much I love beekeeping. We got a hive in July and I could sit and watch those little ladies dart in and out with their bags of pollen all afternoon long. We started too late in the season to harvest any honey… (...Please continue reading...)
What a taste sensation! One-bite blancmange…
What could be so newsworthy as to break my non-blogging habit? Nothing other than my newest invention: one-bite blancmange drizzled with fresh raspberry puree. I used the blancmange recipe for this creamy, almond-y treat as found in Encyclopedia of the Exquisite, but instead of casting one big mold, we… (...Please continue reading...)
Sketches of sailing craft from Shelley's notebooks.
It’s been too long! I just wanted to drop a line here on an article about Keats and Shelley meeting at Lake Geneva in the New York Times (See it here), as described in Encyclopedia of the Exquisite‘s entry on Tempests. The two loved sailing, and… (...Please continue reading...)
Anne-Marie Mallik as Alice in Wonderland in the outrageous 1966 BBC production.
I do like Lewis Carroll, but I love director Jonathan Miller‘s 1966 film “Alice in Wonderland,” based on that fateful down the rabbit hole. It was made for the BBC and it is everything that you could hope for, with Peter Sellers as… (...Please continue reading...)
Hot cross buns right out of the oven. Happy Easter!
It’s that time of year. Last spring, when I started this blog, one of my first posts was about the tradition of baking Hot Cross Buns around Easter-time. Needless to say, I can never get enough of a good thing. So this year… (...Please continue reading...)
The Kumari's temple in Kathamandu. She appeared in the top right-side window.
The Kumari’s temple in Kathmandu, Nepal is one of the favorite places I’ve visited, probably because while I was standing in the courtyard the young, kohl-eyed Kumari herself—as described in Encyclopedia of the Exquisite—appeared in the temple window like a scowling, red-lipped Lolita… (...Please continue reading...)
One of Harvard University's glass flowers, a Devil's bit with butterfly.
How is it possible that I have yet to visit Harvard’s glass flowers? My husband has been trying to get me there for years. People I hardly know insist that I go. I’ve read all about the collection and it’s been on my mind… (...Please continue reading...)
The medieval Japanese scholar Kenko, idling away his hours at the inkstone.
I’ve been too busy, so today I looked back at Essays in Idleness, by the medieval Japanese monk and scholar Yoshida Kenko (1283-1352). I need Kenko to remind me what it’s all about. “What a strange, demented feeling it gives me when I realize I… (...Please continue reading...)
Encyclopedia of the Exquisite, Jessica Kerwin Jenkins' first book, published by Nan A. Talese, includes
100 entries, each exploring a different way to be happy, whether that means wearing a top hat, eating a luscious pear, luxuriating in a bath full of warm milk, or keeping a singing cricket as a pet.
It's a lifestyle guide for the Francophile and the Anglomaniac, the gourmet and the style maven, the armchair traveler and the art-lover.
The author's search for the exquisite continues here. Please enjoy!
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