Please send an email to literature2life@yahoo.com to request more information, pricing,
​or a printed copy of the lecture catalog. 


Your Night,
Your Novel
What a fun way to start off a book club event! Choose from any of the classic novels listed below; it will be enthusiastically presented in general terms and with lots of interesting information about the characters and (when available) the author. Sloane will always be dressed in a costume from the setting of the novel. In your home or a banquet room, for 5 people or 50, it is your night and the novel of your choice. Enjoy!!


Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Dracula by Bram Stoker
The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, David Copperfield, Bleak House by Charles Dickens
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stephenson
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
1984 by George Orwell
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Fahrenheit 451, Selected short stories by Ray Bradbury
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Wolf
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Sweeney Todd or The String of Pearls by Anonymous
Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
The collected works of the Brothers Grimm
The collected works of Edgar Allan Poe
The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde
Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie
The collected works of Hans Christian Anderson
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
​


Once Upon a Tea Time
​A cultural event for the young and young-at-heart! Set up your own beautiful tea setting and enjoy a presentation about classic works from children's literature! Play dress up with the young ones in your life (or your adult book-loving friends!) and experience an event that could inspire a life-long love of reading!
Approximately an hour long, you will learn the history behind the novel (did you know that as a child, Charles Dickens worked in a blacking factory with a boy named Fagin?), hear interesting details about the characters (did you know Dorothy's shoes were actually silver?) and even a dramatic reading of an excerpt from the story. Revive your love for (or be introduced to) classic stories in their original text. 

Choose from the following classic novels:
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie
The Brothers Grimm fairy tale collection
Hans Christian Anderson collection
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'engle
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

(Since you set up the tea, let your imagination run wild! Have fun creating a theme! You could even make a different table setting for each character in the book! Who wouldn't want to sit at the Mad Hatter's table?!)
​

​Naughty Women,
Lovely Tea
​A wonderful combination of Literature and Lore! Enjoy the setting of a lovely Victorian tea served with a juicy presentation of two notorious Victorian women: one from real life and one from literature! This is your opportunity to play dress-up and revel in the company of your lovely (and maybe a little naughty) friends. Approximately an hour long, the presentation includes a brief history of the Victorian era followed by a description of the two chosen Victorian women and what made them so naughty. Be sure to prepare lots of tasty treats to eat. Scandal does seem to make one hungry!
Choose from the following naughty pairings or request a special combination to fit your occasion.

"Pick Your Poison"
Miss Christiana Edmunds: 'Death by chocolate' got a little too literal when this jilted lady decided to poison her lover's wife with strychnine-laced chocolates.
Emma Bovary (from Madame Bovary): When all of her delusions of grandeur turned to disappointments, Emma decided to end it all by taking a mouthful of arsenic.

"Chopped"
Lizzie Borden: We all know the song... Lizzie Borden took an axe... or did she?
Mrs. Lovette (from Sweeney Todd or The String of Pearls): As the 'business partner' of the barbaric barber, Mrs. Lovette chopped up his victims and served them with a smile!

"Imitation of Life"
Lucy Audley (from Lady Audley's Secret): When George Talboys returns after 3 years in Australia, he learns his wife has died in his absence. Mourning, he goes to visit a friend, Robert Audley, who has recently wed a beautiful young lady... George Talboys' supposedly dead wife! Oops! And for some reason, pushing hubby #1 down a well doesn't fix all her problems. Go figure!
The 'real life' pairing to this book is its own author, Mary Elizabeth Braddon! In 1862, when Lady Audley's Secret was published, Mary Elizabeth had moved in with John Maxwell, her publisher. Too bad he was still married to his 1st wife. Oops! Naughty naughty!!

"Arsenic and Old Lace"
We all know the beloved Hollywood movie. But did you know it was inspired by a true story? Amy Archer-Gilligan ran a home for the elderly and infirmed. You could say she loved her residents to death!
The Woman of the World is an absolute Victorian melodrama jewel! First published as a Penny Dreadful, it was adapted for the stage in 1859 And featured the naughty antics of Lisa Selby, a young lady who had deadly high ambitions.
As a bonus, we will also learn about Madeleine Smith, a beautiful Scottish socialite who was accused of murdering her lover with arsenic!