Tara Blair

Tara Blair is a Digital Marketing Specialist for Gale, a Cengage Company. In her spare time, she is a total crime junkie and spends her days listening to podcasts—especially those of the unsolved.

Deconstructing Mr. Darcy: Just how rich was he?

| By Jennifer Albers-Smith |

I took this awesome class in college at University of Michigan that–10 years later–still resonates with me. It focused exclusively on Jane Austen and her contemporaries. We read all of Austen’s novels as well as Radcliffe, Burney, and Wollstonecraft, and it was easily the best four months of my academic career. The professor was really innovative and brought in one of her colleagues, Kathryn Dominguez, from the Economics department to do a lecture on what things cost in Jane Austen’s time.  She put together this great PowerPoint deck that I still have to this day because I thought it was so intriguing.

Numbers pop up all the time in Austen’s novels, but the reader really has no sense of how rich Bingley and Darcy are or how “poor” the Bennets are by comparison.

Read moreDeconstructing Mr. Darcy: Just how rich was he?

In Other News: March Madness

A look at a current news item through the lens of different titles available on GVRL.

By Michelle Eickmeyer

Spring is in the air… or at least its on the calendar. And so are the sounds of fans cheering, odds shifting, brackets crashing and extra-squeaky shoes on the gym floor. (I mean seriously, how do they get those shoes to be so loud?!) Bracket-betting, foam finger throwing tantrums meets unbridled school spirit and athleticism. It’s the NCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball Tournament! And its the 75th one! That’s kind of a big deal.

Read moreIn Other News: March Madness

Featured Partner: Wiley

An ongoing look at the partner publishers available through GVRL.

By Michelle Eickmeyer

In it’s nearly 210 years, Wiley has done more than just stand the test of time. John Wiley and Sons was founded by Charles Wiley, John’s father, in 1807. (John took over the family business upon his father’s death in 1826.) First established as a Manhattan-based printer, Wiley was the first U.S. publisher to have an office in London. Interestingly, much of the company’s early success was in the publishing of literature but such notable writers as Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Nathaniel Hawthorne and many others.

Read moreFeatured Partner: Wiley

True Confessions of a Jane Austen Fan Girl

By Jennifer Albers-Smith

From the moment I read Pride and Prejudice in high school, I was hooked. I love Jane Austen’s novels, particularly Pride and Prejudice, with Sense and Sensibility coming in a distant second. I have read P&P over 10 times, watched multiple mini-series and movie adaptations, joined the Jane Austen Society of North America, and, still, I just can’t get enough.

Recently, I went to a library book sale in my hometown, and was browsing the adult fiction section. My sister happened across two books that had “Mr. Darcy” as part of the title, grabbed them, and handed them over. Of course, I purchased them and read them both the same week. One, Mr. Darcy’s Diary by Amanda Grange, was pretty good – better than most JA fan fiction novels. The other, though, left me completely bereft after reading – Mr. Darcy and the Secret of Becoming a Gentleman by Maria Hamilton. I loved it. The first thing I did after finishing it was look to see if there was a sequel.

Read moreTrue Confessions of a Jane Austen Fan Girl

In Other News: the Oscar Pistorius Trial

By Michelle Eickmeyer

A look at a current news item through the lens of different titles available on GVRL.

March 21, 2014 – The Oscar Pistorius Trial

Whether you knew him as the first athlete to compete in the Olympics with prosthesis (it’s impossible to call him disabled) or for his current trial for the shooting death of his former girlfriend, Oscar Pistorius has spent much time in the international spotlight. The highest of high and lowest of lows. At just 27 he has accomplished much, and as his trial moves forward it remains to be seen what the future holds for him.

Here are five titles which look at the Oscar Pistorius trial from different perspectives:

Read moreIn Other News: the Oscar Pistorius Trial

Featured Partner: Encyclopedia Britannica

An ongoing look at the partner publishers available through GVRL.

By Michelle Eickmeyer

For many of us, Encyclopedia Britannica has long represented the place to go to find information on just about everything. While the look of the book has changed, and how students and your community interact with it have changed, the standard of excellence has not. Founded nearly 250 years ago, Encyclopedia Britannica is still a trusted source of all kinds of information.

Read moreFeatured Partner: Encyclopedia Britannica

Rats Fleeing the Sinking Ship! Saving the Daily Mail Atlantic Edition for Prosperity

By Seth Cayley

The Atlantic Edition

In 2013, Cengage Learning released the Daily Mail Historical Archive 1896-2004, the complete archive of what the New Yorker has described as “the newspaper that rules Britain”. During our research into the project, we discovered a long-forgotten treasure of the newspaper’s history. In the 1920s and 1930s, the Daily Mail published an “Atlantic Edition”; a completely separate version of the newspaper for sale on the transatlantic liners that sailed between New York and Southampton.

Read moreRats Fleeing the Sinking Ship! Saving the Daily Mail Atlantic Edition for Prosperity