I spent a lot of time this week getting ready for my presentation. I needed to find author, background and periodical information. It took a lot of reading, but I found some good stuff.
The first thing I tried to focus on was the background for my story. Since, my short story contained characters from other written works, I had to research those sources as well. Polyphemus was fairly easy to find information on because he appears in “The Odyssesy”, which is still widely read today. I knew the story, and I knew the class would too. Hop o’ my Thumb was a bit harder. His story is less known. You would think Cinderella would be easy to find information on, and it was to a certain point. The problem with that story is that it has such a rich history there really is no solid way of tracing it. It has numerous origins and versions. I just stuck with the famous version we know today written by Charles Perrault.
The Strand was a very popular magazine so it has numerous websites and books dedicated to its history. Jules Lemaitre was harder to find information on, though. The major flaw with my story is that is was originally printed in French, so it’s difficult for me to find/read the primary sources associated with it. Most of the info about Lemaitre and the things he wrote are in French, so I ran into some issues there. Fortunately, though, I found some things about Lemaitre and his life (even a picture), so I think I was fairly successful.