The Penny Post Weekly Review
June 11, 2011
Some goodies for this week – have you found anything of interest you would like to share? – please do!
News and Gossip:
*Don’t miss this! – June 11 with Rick Steves: A Proper English Hour: Home, High Tea, and Jane Austen’s England — Bill Bryson examines private life during the Victorian age; London guide Britt Lonsdale explains how to enjoy a proper afternoon tea service; and screenwriter Andrew Davies [soon to be the JASNA AGM in Fort Worth!] shares his appreciation for the works of Jane Austen.
Click here to find where it airs in your area [alas! In Vermont, nowhere!] http://www.ricksteves.com/radio/whereitairs.htm
But, thankfully, beginning on June 12, the show will also be available to download any time from their website archives at this page: http://www.ricksteves.com/radio/archive.htm
*Masterpiece Theatre announces its fall lineup: watch for Bill Nighy, Rachel Weisz, Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson, Ralph Fiennes and more! http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/schedule/fall_2011.html
*The Jane Austen Regency Week in the UK has several events worth either attending OR lamenting if you are on the wrong side of the pond: http://www.basingstokegazette.co.uk/leisure/general/9071636.Jane_Austen_s_Women_brought_to_life_by_Eastleigh_actress/
*For those of us who are on the western shore of the Atlantic, there is the fabulous JASNA Louisville 4th annual Jane Austen Festival July 9 – 10, 2011: information and registration here: http://www.jasnalouisville.com/
*see LimogesBoxCollector.com at https://www.limogesboxcollector.com/product_info.php?products_id=2183&osCsid=m86f91l6la8d4g1th82filhu66 for your very own Jane Austen bookshelf [$249.00]:
– the latest issue of Jane Austen’s Regency World mentions a Pride & Prejudice Limoges Box, which was announced by Limoges in March 2011 – only the above box appears on the Limoges website, so perhaps they are sold out? – here are the two boxes in the announcement – let me know if you bought one!:
Blogs, websites, and such:
Elizabeth Montague by Edward Haytley
*Elizabeth Montague and the Bluestocking Circle: http://elizabethmontaguletters.co.uk/home
Their project to put all her letters online: Our goal is to prepare a fully annotated electronic edition of Elizabeth Montagu’s correspondence. The author and bluestocking salonnière (1718-1800) was the leading woman of letters and artistic patron of her day. The 8,000 extant letters, ‘among the most important surviving collections from the eighteenth century’ (Schnorrenberg) is held in the British Library, the Bodleian and the Huntington Library, the latter of which holds 6,000 of them. Less than a quarter of these documents has been previously published and then in partial archaic print selections.
*Oxford Bookworms, where Pride and Prejudice is a bestseller in its Stage 6 series: http://www.oup-bookworms.com/oxford-bookworms.cfm
*World Digital Library, http://www.wdl.org/en/about/site.html – a joint venture of the Library of Congress and other world libraries – alas! no Austen, but this growing database is worth searching – in a quick look I find the Gutenberg Bible, William Blake’s The Book of Urizen http://www.wdl.org/en/item/201/?ql=eng&s=william+blake&view_type=gallery
and an abundance of Robbie Burns!: http://www.wdl.org/en/search/gallery?ql=eng&s=robert+burns
*Angela Thirkell – For lovers of Trollope in need of more Barset stories, you should add Angela Thirkell to your book shelf – there is also yet another Society to join! http://www.angelathirkell.org/
*Lit Lists: an interesting blog for lovers of lists – here, all literary ones: http://litlists.blogspot.com/ – an example? – “Five Best New Ways of Portraying Lives” which includes Claire Harman’s Jane’s Fame http://litlists.blogspot.com/2011/06/five-best-new-ways-of-portraying-lives.html
* The recently established Fresno Area Regency England Fellowship http://fresnoarearegency.com/ has a nice website, where you can sign up for their monthly newsletter and facebook page.
Books – Reviews – Recommendations:
*A book review: Laura Miller at Salon.com on A Jane Austen Education:
*Miranda Seymour at the NYTimes on A Jane Austen Education and Rachel Brownstein’s Why Jane Austen?: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/books/review/book-review-a-jane-austen-education-and-why-jane-austen.html
*Reading lists: I have found two perfect reading lists for what to read when you have read all of Jane Austen:
- The publisher Pickering & Chatto Women’s Studies Collection is a great starting point: http://www.nlx.com/collections/158
- the Chawton House Library list of books at their online gift shop at Amazon.com: http://astore.amazon.co.uk/chawhouslibr0b-21
Other recommendations to add to your Austen Library:
- An Englishwoman in California: The Letters of Catherine Hubback 1871-76, ed. Zoe Klippert. The Bodleian Library [image] – Hubback was Jane Austen’s niece and an author in her own right… http://www.amazon.com/Englishwoman-California-Letters-Catherine-Hubback/dp/1851243445
- Conduct Books for Girls in Enlightenment France, by Nadine Berenguier, University of New Hampshire. Ashgate, 2011. http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9780754668756
- History and the Construction of the Child in Early British Children’s Literature, by Jackie C. Horne [Simmons College] http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9781409407881
- Constancy & the Ethics of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, by Joyce Kerr Tarpley http://cuapress.cua.edu/books/viewbook.cfm?Book=TACE
Museums / Exhibitions:
The Musee McCord in Montreal – considered the leading collection of Canadian dress and the second most important collection of costume in Canada, this collection has grown since 1957 to contain some 18,845 items of dress and accessories – the Museum has the following 19th century fashion-related games online: [with thanks to JASNA-New Jersey http://cnjjasna.blogspot.com/ for this link]
- http://www.musee-mccord.qc.ca/en/keys/games/7
- http://www.musee-mccord.qc.ca/en/keys/games/8
- http://www.musee-mccord.qc.ca/en/keys/games/9
Also in Musee des Beaux-Arts de Montreal: an exhibit of the Museum’s collection of Napoleon artifacts: http://www.mbam.qc.ca/en/expositions/exposition_134.html
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To close, I append a quote [and not even from Jane!] I found on a listserv – from Steven Wright [I love Steven Wright!]
“I was reading the dictionary. I thought it was a poem about everything.”
– Steven Wright, comedian (1955- )
He must have been reading Johnson’s Dictionary!
Jane Austen in Vermont 
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