This is where the modern definition of the word “restaurant” comes from.ĭespereaux is one of many children’s books featuring mice as protagonists. At that point, soup-which was referred to as “restaurant,” meaning “something restoring”-was sold by street vendors as the cure for exhaustion. Soup’s cultural status as something healing and restorative has its roots in 16th century France. (prior to developing the techniques for making watertight vessels, soup simply wasn’t possible to make). Soup, meanwhile, has been around for millennia-scientists have found clay vessels capable of holding soup that they’ve dated to as early as 20,000 B.C.E. The vision of the chivalrous knight riding around to defend damsels in distress emerged as part of the medieval European literary tradition and was later amplified and popularized by writers and artists during the Romantic era. It’s worth noting that Despereaux’s conception of the knight in shining armor is rooted in 19th century Romantic ideas about what medieval knights were and how they behaved toward women-real medieval knights certainly wore armor, but they were often frightening figures known for looting cities and raping women. The Tale of Despereaux takes place in an entirely fictional world, but the story draws heavily on the idealized “knight in shining armor” trope and more generally on medieval imagery.
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