Fictitious Dishes

A Blog about Books + Food

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“Eat me” cake from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.  Lovely illustration by Amber Alexander. 

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Babar, Celeste, and Arthur eat pastries in Paris. From The Story of Babar by Jean de Brunhoff, 1931. 

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The Fictitious Dishes Shop is now open — prints for sale!

Come and visit at shop.fictitiousdishes.com

(Shown above: print of John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces)

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In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines
 Lived twelve little girls in two straight lines
. In two straight lines they broke their bread And brushed their teeth and went to bed… ―from Madeline,1939  Text and Illustrations by Ludwig Bemelmans

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1963 cover design by Shirley Tucker.

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Illustration by Paul Thurlby.

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“‘Gracious alive, Cal, what’s all this?’ He was staring at his breakfast plate. Calpurnia said, ‘Tom Robinson’s daddy sent you along this chicken this morning. I fixed it.’ ‘You tell him I’m proud to get it—bet they don’t have chicken for breakfast at the White House.’”

From To Kill a Mockingbird, which is now (finally) an e-book, hooray!

Photo from Fictitious Dishes.

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From Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist. Illustration by George Cruikshank.

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A is for Austen, B is for Brönte, C is for Cather...

Penguin Drop Cap series Art Director: Paul Buckley; Type Designer: Jessica Hische

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Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward in 1959

Photographer unknown.

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STILL LIFE WITH WATERMELON, NEW YORK, 1947  Irving Penn

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ROASTBEEF; MUTTON; BREAKFAST; SUGAR; CRANBERRIES; MILK; EGGS; APPLE; TAILS; LUNCH; CUPS; RHUBARB; SINGLE; FISH; CAKE; CUSTARD; POTATOES; ASPARAGUS; BUTTER; END OF SUMMER; SAUSAGES; CELERY; VEAL; VEGETABLE; COOKING; CHICKEN; PASTRY; CREAM; CUCUMBER; DINNER; DINING; EATING; SALAD; SAUCE; SALMON; ORANGE; COCOA; AND CLEAR SOUP AND ORANGES AND OAT-MEAL; SALAD DRESSING AND AN ARTICHOKE; A CENTRE IN A TABLE. —Gertrude Stein, Tender Buttons (1914) Illustration by Lisa Congdon from Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons: Objects (Chronicle Books, 2013).

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‘It is usual, I think, to begin with bread-and-butter,’ he said to Jane and Michael, ‘but as it’s my birthday, we will begin the wrong way – which I always think is the right way – with the Cake!’ –from Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers

Illustration by Mary Shepard

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Candyland board, c. 1949.

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Plat du Jour or Foreign Food by Patience Gray and Primrose Boyd (Penguin, 1959). Illustration by David Gentleman.

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Audry Hepburn in 1953. Photography by Mark Shaw.

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Lunchtime! Photograph by Sabine Timm.