No escape
One would think that reading a nineteenth century classic English novel would offer the reader sufficient escape from the headlines blasting our eyeballs in today's news. One would apparently be wrong. I am currently reading Barchester Towers , the Anthony Trollope novel first published in 1857. I'm reading the Penguin Books edition and I was happily getting into the story and learning the myriad characters when I hit page 51 of the book. There I met "Mr Quiverful, the rector of Puddingdale, whose wife still continued to present him from year to year with fresh pledges of her love, and so to increase his cares and, it is to be hoped, his happiness equally. Who can wonder that a gentleman, with fourteen living children and a bare income of 400 L. a year, should look after the loaves and fishes..." Quiverful? Quiver ful??? As in Quiver Full? Haven't I seen that in those screaming headlines recently? Oh, indeed I have! Yep, that's the philosophy espoused by the...