Breakfast with the Britz.

I brought it up at Book Club the other night but was drowned out by Fashion Herald's bitching about my drinking all her red wine, but what's up with European literature being so into breakfast? I've noticed it in any and all British Victorian lit, specifically Elizabeth Gaskell, who couldn't seem to go two pages without someone eating an egg and piece of toast for breakfast. Meanwhile, one of the most memorable passages of L'Etranger (sorry - The Stranger, you fucking hicks) was Camus sensuously writing about making a fried egg. Staying in France for a a second, Proust mentions breakfast throughout Swann's Way. Finally, one of the first things Heinrich Boll tells us about Leni in Group Portrait with Lady is what she likes to eat for breakfast, an obsession for her the author returns to it throughout the book. So that's England, France and Germany.

Maybe I've always missed it, but I can't seem to remember breakfast playing such a part in American Lit. Is this a European thing? - XMASTIME

Hugh Laurie gets it re: the Brits do know their breakfast.