The English Teacher

 

Book menu for The English Teacher by Lily King

Food mentioned in The English Teacher:
Cookies, 5
Cider, 5
Coca Cola, 9
Champagne, 14
Toast, 33, 236
     Raisin toast, 172
Bacon, 33, 236
French toast, 37
Coffee, 37-39,  59, 65-67, 198, 201, 213
Reuben sandwiches, 38
French fries, 38, 63-64
Beer, 38,128,130, 142
Smoked salmon, 59
Croissants, 59
     Chocolate croissants, 61
Muffins, 59-60
     Banana muffins, 61
Fruit, 59
Rum and Cokes, 60
Egg salad sandwiches, 68
Lemonade, 68, 133
Bourbon and soda, 72, 100, 173, 176
Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, 74
Sweet potatoes with brown sugar and pecans, 87
Pumpkin pie, 88
Wine, 92
Frappes, 94
Scrambled eggs, 110
Chicken with cashews, 115
Shrimp lo mein, 115
Fried rice, 115
Beef and broccoli, 115
Pizza, 133
Brownies, 134
Cheese popcorn, 146
Shepherd's pie, 163
Wax beans, 163
Sponge cake, 163-164
Martinis, 170
Fish sticks, 180
Hamburgers, 188
Pink coconut cupcakes, 188
Peanuts, 194
Onion rings 198
Doughnuts, 201
Tea, 213
Ice cream sundaes, 218
Bananas, 225, 231
Hard-boiled eggs, 231
Pancakes, 236
Scrambled eggs, 236
Ham and cheese sandwiches, 239

Books/Authors mentioned in The English Teacher:
"The Waves" / Virginia Woolf, epigraph
T.S. Eliot, 176
Ralph Waldo Emerson, 4
William Shakespeare, 66, 154
     King Lear, 14
     Macbeth, 65
     Othello, 108
Thomas Hardy, 109, 153
     Tess of the d'Ubervilles, 35, 37-39, 46-48, 51, 54-59, 68, 84-86, 106, 151
        153, 159-162, 194, 203, 216, 242
     "The Well-Beloved", 105-106, 161
George Eliot
     Middlemarch, 40, 121
     Daniel Deronda, 219
Ernest Hemingway, 48-49
     The Sun Also Rises, 59
Herman Melville, 154
     Moby-Dick, 49
"Innesfree" (poem) / William Butler Yeats, 63
Prometheus Unbound / Percy Shelley, 66
"Annabel Lee" / Edgar Allan Poe, 110
Pride and Prejudice / Jane Austen, 113, 138
Leo Tolstoy, 118
     Anna Karenina, 227
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, 121
The Thorn Birds / Colleen McCullough, 147, 151, 239
Theodore Dreiser, 154
The Brontës, 154
Nathaniel Hawthorne, 154
Willa Cather, 154
William Faulkner, 154, 226
Ralph Waldo Emerson, 168
James Joyce, 215, 232
     The Dubliners, 178
The Portrait of a Lady / Henry James, 202
Madame Bovary / Gustave Flaubert, 202
D.H. Lawrence, 226


Music mentioned in The English Teacher:
"Beast of Burden" / The Rolling Stones, 8
"In the Gloaming" / Annie Fortescue Harrison, 217

Discussable passages from The English Teacher:
Was this how marriage was, bewilderment giving way to reassurance giving way to more bewilderment? Was it possible in any relationship to not disappoint, to do anything more than only briefly rekindle the initial fatal illusion? (Chapter 5, p.105)

The books on the shoulder-level shelf across from them could be found on the shelf of any high school English teacher in any state across the country: Norton anthologies, the Riverside Shakespeare, Melville, Dreiser, Brontë, Hawthorne, Cather, Faulkner. Nothing contemporary, nothing edgy, nothing out of print, nothing in translation. Not even a slight leaning toward a theme, a preference of gender or time period. The passionless shelf embarrassed her. (Chapter 7, p.154)

Instead of shutting you up in classrooms for twelve years, why didn't schools just put you on a bus and show you the world? He'd never known how cramped and ugly New England was until now.
(Chapter 8, p.190)

Page numbers refer to the hardcover edition (ISBN 0871138972)

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