Here are some links to other websites which will aid classroom or home study using Real Reads drama books.
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General
Scholarly information on all aspects of Victorian life, including literature, history and culture, with a useful section on the French Revolution if you are studying A Tale of Two Cities.
www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians
The BBC’s interactive site about Victorian Britain, with a wide range of information and activities for all ages.
Anna Karenina
www.online-literature.com/tolstoy
This site includes a summary of Tolstoy’s life and links to many of his books, essays and other writings.
Charles Dickens
Home of the Dickens Museum in London, with details about exhibits, events and lots of helpful links.
A labour of love dedicated to Dickens, with information about his life and his novels. Many useful links. The page about A Tale of Two Cities has a useful map of Paris.
www.barnardos.org.uk/who-we-are/our-history
An interesting description of the conditions in Victorian London that inspired Dr Barnardo to devote his life to helping poor children.
www.schoolhistory.co.uk/industrial/french-revolution
Some useful classroom resources, relevant to A Tale of Two Cities.
www.bbc.co.uk/history/trail/victorian_britain
A site offering source materials and guidance in how to use them, as well as a wealth of information. It contains a section on using Bleak House as source material.
Facts, figures and true stories about England’s workhouses. Particularly useful if you a studying Oliver Twist
George Eliot
www.maggieblanck.com/Land/WE.html
A step-by-step guide to the cloth-making process.
www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/eliot_george.shtml
A very brief summary of George Eliot’s life.
Jane Austen
Home of the Jane Austen Centre in Bath, England.
Home of the Jane Austen Society. Includes summaries of, and brief commentaries on, her novels.
A very enthusiastic site for Jane Austen enthusiasts.
www.jane-austens-house-museum.org.uk
Jane Austen’s home in Hampshire is now a wonderful museum. Here, she wrote Mansfield Park, Persuasion and Emma, and revised her other novels. Well worth a visit to increase your understanding of Jane Austen.
www.literaryhistory.com/19thC/AUSTEN.htm
A selective and helpful guide to links to other Jane Austen sites.
www.bbc.co.uk/drama/prideandprejudice
Accessible information about the book, along with photographs and clips from the highly successful TV drama.
Jane Eyre
www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Eyre
Provides useful information about the text and its author.
Mark Twain
The official website of Mark Twain’s estate.
The Victorian mansion of the Clemens family in Hartford, Connecticut, is a fascinating museum of the author’s life and era.
Hannibal, Missouri has preserved the Clemens and ‘Thatcher’ family homes, as well as other sites made immortal in Mark Twain’s books.
The Missouri Historical Society – search here for ‘Mark Twain’.
Search for ‘Underground Railroad’ for a list of historical sites connected with the secret escape routes and safe houses used by abolitionists to assist the liberated refugees.
www.missouricaves.com/team/mark-twain-cave
The Missouri Caves Association site has photos of the actual Mark Twain Cave, just south of Hannibal, the childhood home of Sam Clemens, on which he based Tom’s St Petersburg.
Moby Dick
www.whale-world.com/facts-aboutwhales-for-kids.html
Good basic information about whales.
Based in New Bedford, Massachusetts, which replaced Nantucket as the principal whaling port on the North American east coast. This site covers all aspects of whaling.
My Brilliant Career
www.perpetual.com.au/milesfranklin/about-miles-franklin
The official website of the Miles Franklin Award, Australia’s most prestigious award for authors, which was established through Miles Franklin’s will.
The State Library of New South Wales site has a fascinating collection of documents, pictures and maps that tell the history of Australia, with a section on Australian agricultural and rural life.
Robinson Crusoe
www.bbc.co.uk/history/scottishhistory/europe/oddities_europe.shtml
The story of Alexander Selkirk.
www.travellinghistorian.com/crusoe.html
A very good site which brings together Selkirk, Robinson Crusoe the book, and information about the historical context and the places described in the book.
Seven Little Australians
adb.anu.edu.au/biography/turner-ethel-mary-8885
This interesting article on Ethel Turner’s life and works, by noted biographer and literary critic Brenda Niall, comes from the Australian Dictionary of Biography, produced by the Australian National University.
This educational website contains a wealth of material on the history of Australia. You can learn about the stages in Australia’s story using the site’s ‘decade timeline’ – look up the 1880s and 1890s for some background to Seven Little Australians and Ethel Tuner.
The Awakening
www.katechopin.org/the-awakening
The Kate Chopin International Society’s page for materials and links relating to The Awakening.
edsitement.neh.gov/curricula/kate-chopins-awakening
A three-lesson plan with resources, created by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
www.lpb.org/programs/kate-chopin-a-re-awakening
Information about Kate Chopin from an award-winning documentary on her life and work produced by Louisiana Public Television.
The Brothers Karamazov
www.online-literature.com/dostoevsky
This site includes a summary of Dostoyevsky’s life and links to his most famous books.
The Call of the Wild
www.biography.com/writer/jack-london
A biography of Jack London
maps.google.com – The Call of the Wild
A themed Google map showing the places mentioned in The Call of the Wild.
The Great Gatsby
www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1564.html
This page, part of a wider US history site, concentrates on the Roaring Twenties and provides excellent background information about American society at the time of The Great Gatsby.
This ‘Historical Snapshot of Life in the 1920s’ offers a chance to learn about many aspects of life – from science to popular films to hairstyles – in that hectic decade.
This site, produced by Ohio State University, gives the background to Prohibition in the United States. It also examines how successful the move was in stamping out alcohol, how it was enforced and why it was repealed.
www.biography.com/writer/f-scott-fitzgerald
The Biography Channel site devoted to F. Scott Fitzgerald provides an excellent overview of the author’s life and lasting influence.
www.halloweencostumes.com/a-guide-to-the-roaring-20s
This page gives an excellent overview of the Roaring Twenties in America.
In Search for the Great Gatsby House on Long Island (+Map)
One family’s adventure to find Gatsby’s house! (Credit with thanks to Anna and family)
The Scarlet Letter
This is the fascinating interactive site of Plimoth Plantation, a ‘living museum’ that recreates the settlement established by seventeenth-century English colonists in Massachusetts.
teacher.scholastic.com/researchtools/researchstarters/plymouth
Information about the Plymouth Colony, including links to details of Boston and the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
An excellent resource for information on the famous Witch Trials, and about life in colonial Massachusetts.
Thomas Hardy
The Thomas Hardy Society: a website dedicated to anyone who likes or studies Thomas Hardy.
Victor Hugo
www.online-literature.com/victor_hugo
Details of Victor Hugo’s life and work, with links to some of his best known books.
William Shakespeare
Good general introduction to Shakespeare’s life. Contains information and pictures of the houses linked to him in and around Stratford.
Lots of information including details about Elizabethan daily life.
www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare
See the original texts side by side with a modern English translation.
Wuthering Heights
www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuthering_Heights
Provides useful information about the text and its author.