THE LOST MEMOIRS OF JANE AUSTEN by Syrie James boasts a classic set-up: a hidden trunk discovered in the attics of Chawton House Library is found to contain a ring and a batch of manuscript booklets that read like memoirs and journals. The first chapter sets the scene well: Jane confesses why she writes these memoirs, then relates the occasion of her well-known swoon after Mama Austen announces their removal from Steventon upon Papa Austen’s retirement. When you read these few pages in the bookstore, or online, you want this novel. Continue reading “The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen (a review)”
Author: Janeite Kelly
My ties to Jane Austen began about the time I "discovered" England, British movies & TV (thanks, PBS, CBC), and cups of tea with a nice Marks & Spencer digestive on the side. A solo trip to London, when aged nineteen, segued into a weekend in Cornwall (home of Daphne du Maurier and Winston Graham's Poldarks) -- which resulted in a missed flight home.... Those three weeks abroad undoubtedly brought into my life women like Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie, Beatrix Potter, Somerville and Ross, the Brontës, Mrs Trollope, Jane Welsh Carlyle, Dorothy Wordsworth, Sarah Ponsonby and Eleanor Butler (collectively, The Ladies of Llangollen), and -- of course, Jane Austen. I joined JASNA in the fall of 2006 when my research meandered down an Austen-path; and I spent two months during the summer of 2007 in Winchester, transcribing diaries & letters relating to Emma Smith (aka: Mrs James-Edward Austen-Leigh, 1801-1876) and her friend, neighbour, "sister of the heart" and eventual sister-in-law, Mary Gosling (aka: Lady Smith, 1800-1842). Several articles written since this trip appear in JASNA's journal, PERSUASIONS / Persuasions On-Line, and LOCAL PAST, the Newsletter of the Alcester and District Historical Society (Warwickshire, England).
Games People Play
WHIST is a card game well associated with the 18th and 19th centuries. But here is a game which sounds so much more up Jane Austen’s alley; it is called Conversation. The description of the game comes from the two-volume set of diaries (edited by Andrew Oliver) of Samuel Curwen. Curwen was an American, but he spent much time in England – hence the name of the book published by Harvard University Press in 1972: The Journal of Samuel Curwen, Loyalist.
It is March 1784, and Curwen is in London:
28. Fair but very cold sharp air… Dined at Mr. Charles Brand’s in Lambs Conduit street with our whole family, by invitation given 10 days ago. Drank tea and passed evening till near 12 o’clock there, the younger part playing at a game called Conversation Cards, which is done in the following manner. To each person is dealt 9, by 3 at each time, on each card is inscribed a word as King, Queen, Gentleman, Lady, Night, Morning, or any short sentence. The person on the dealer’s left hand throws one and addresses or speaks it, and so each peson successively adding some pertinent as he can invent till all being out of hand, the cards are [one word {ie, illegible or missing word; I wonder: gathered?} ] and the person who first threw a card down forms a story from his hand taking the words on his card for the text filling up the interval in the best manner he can till each has told his story; these being laid aside a new parcel is dealt as before &c. &c.
— The Journal of Samuel Curwen, Loyalist (vol 2), pp. 979-80
Conversation Cards, anyone??
Cassatt/Austen
“As I find my pose, I think about how, when I first met Degas, he gave me the impression of an intelligent but fierce dog…
And yet, something else emerged as he asked me questions. ‘Had I begun to feel better?,’ he asked, and ‘What was I reading?’ When I told him, ‘Jane Austen,’ he looked curious. ‘Ah, lequel?’ ‘Persuasion,’ I said, and then, surprisingly, his eyes lit on mine. A feeling connected us, quickly and with an absorbing depth.” (pp. 16-17)
I have just finished Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper by Harriet Scott Chessman. It is a small book, but I read slowly … to savor it.
It is a book I bought (used) some years ago (published date is 2001) after having read a library copy. It tells the compelling story of Mary Cassatt and her sister Lydia, through Lydia’s words and strung out in scenes centering on her modeling for several of Mary’s paintings. One of the paintings lends it name to the book: Lydia is shown reclining in a green chair, reading the newspaper. But this quiet little story has great depth. Lydia (like Austen one might be tempted to say) faces her past, her present, and the shortness of her future – for the action begins in September 1878, ends in June 1881, and Lydia died (of Bright’s disease) in November 1882. So it confronts death, sisterly-affection, sibling-rivalry, lovers lost and gained. An exquisite book.
It is particularly a propos at this moment, for the Shelburne Museum (Shelburne, VT) is hosting a Cassatt exhibition. Entitled “Mary Cassatt: Friends and Family,” the retrospective offers more than 60 works, gathered together from many sources. The guest curator is Cassatt ‘authority’, Dr. Nancy Mowll-Mathews. Highly recommended, and on until 26 October 2008.
A Jane Fairfax Conundrum
Over the weekend I read Penny Gay’s thought-provoking Persuasions article: “Jane Fairfax and the ‘She Tragedies’ of the Eighteenth Century.” But I am curious as to where a statement (not footnoted) comes from; can anyone out there help ???
Dr Gay makes a wonderful case for Jane Fairfax to be compared with the type of characters portrayed so well onstage by Sarah Siddons; these characters usually went mad, killed themselves, or simply died. To sustain the proposed connection page 128 has the following parenthetical claim: Austen, of course, knew well where Jane [Fairfax] really belonged as a character: she told her family that Jane did not long survive her marriage to Frank [Churchill].
Told her family made me conclude that A Memoir of Jane Austen was the source; but that cannot be, for here are all the statements regarding the ‘future’ of Austen’s characters in the 1871 edition:
“She [Jane Austen] certainly took a kind of parental interest in the beings whom she had created, and did not dismiss them from her thoughts when she had finished her last chapter. … She would, if asked, tell us many little particulars about the subsequent career of some of her people. In this traditionary way we learned that Miss Steele never succeeded in catching the Doctor; that Kitty Bennet was satisfactorily married to a clergyman near Pemberley, while Mary obtained nothing higher than one of her uncle Philip’s clerks, and was content to be considered a star in the socitey of Meriton; that the ‘considerable sum’ given by Mrs. Norris to William Price was one pound; that Mr. Woodhouse survived his daughter’s marriage, and kept her and Mr. Knightley from settling at Donwell, about two years; and that the letters placed by Frank Churchill before Jane Fairfax, which she swept away unread, contained the word ‘pardon.’ Of the good people in ‘Northanger Abbey’ and ‘Persuasion’ we know nothing more than what is written…” (pp. 148-9)
Did Dr Gay mix up Mr Woodhouse’s demise with the Frank-Jane ‘pardon’?? Or does a more extensive list of what happened to Jane Austen’s characters after the book(s) ended exist elsewhere??
I do have Le Faye’s Reminiscences of Caroline Austen to check, but see nothing there in a cursory look; I do not own Caroline’s My Aunt Jane Austen, but have searched through MA Austen-Leigh’s Personal Aspects of Jane Austen and find no mention of ‘fairfax’ or ‘churchill’ – so I throw open the question for discussion:
Did Jane Fairfax, according to Jane Austen, not long survive her marriage??
JASNA-Vermont on Vermont Public Radio 2
Deb and I had a delightful time talking with VPR listeners and Vermont Edition host Jane Lindholm today at noon. If you missed the broadcast, hear it online. If you wish to continue the conversation on this blog: post a comment!
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Please see the following page for more information on the various portraits of Austen (this question came up in the interview, so what follows is some explanation…), as well as some comments… Continue reading “JASNA-Vermont on Vermont Public Radio 2”
JASNA-Vermont on Vermont Public Radio!
Tune in on Thursday July 3rd to your local Vermont Public Radio station (107.9 in the Burlington area) and hear JASNA and our own local chapter discussed on Vermont Edition, with host Jane Lindholm. The program will air beginning approximately 12:08 pm (after the noon news and weather); a call-in show, our Vermont Edition segment will last until approximately 12:40.
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UPDATE (July 2nd): Deb and I spoke via phone to Vermont Edition producer Sarah Ashworth today, anticipating our segment on tomorrow’s show (see their website for a Jane-preview!). One question we were asked was, ‘Who is your favorite Austen couple?’ Having just this morning watched the Knightley-Macfadyen Pride and Prejudice, my thoughts immediately flew to Elizabeth and Darcy. B-U-T… taking a second to think about it, can anything grab a reader more than love recaptured. The idea of a second chance when you believed yourself to have been passed by… That, of course, leads to a discussion of Anne Elliot and Capt. Wentworth in Austen’s last completed novel, Persuasion. Not only a love story, Persuasion gives us all hope that life, in the end, does sometimes work out happily. What better legacy could Austen have left us with?
If you have thoughts and observations on Austen, her novels, the films give a call to VPR tomorrow during our show: 1-800-639-2211 or email vermontedition@vpr.net.
Should you miss our segment, you too will get a second chance: look up the online podcast at www.vpr.net.
His Cunning or Hers: A Postscript to PERSUASION
Checking out the JASNA website (www.jasna.org) I was treated to the delightful online edition of “His Cunning or Hers“, an AGM Publication (Lake Louise, Alberta; 1993) by June Menzies, with illustrations by Juliet McMaster. Brew a cup of tea, and settle in…
Austen’s Last Wishes
Some may think this morbid, but: Searching the Public Record Office, I came across a ‘sample’ will – and it was that belonging to JANE AUSTEN! So I just had to put a link in the blog, for those who might be interested in seeing the actual document.
A really interesting page is that which explains wills (never before knew of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, until I came across it in a will), and also a section on deciphering the handwriting you might find if you order a will. The glossary is useful.
In the mailbox…
Finally, on Tuesday, PERSUASIONS (the annual journal of the Jane Austen Society of North America) hit the mailbox. And what a wonderful array of articles – with so many more online!
I’ve not had a lot of time, and definitely haven’t read the journal cover to cover, but a few interesting tidbits have already surfaced. On page 10, Marcia Huff alludes to 2006’s AGM (in Tucson), which of course was on Mansfield Park. In just a few sentences, she has made me reassess Fanny Price and her role in this novel. Living in Vermont, which has its corn crop and apple crop, as well as the celebrated maple-sugaring season, I was most intrigued to see how Shannon Campbell would ‘vindicate’ Jane Austen’s allusion to an apple orchard in blossom in July (for which Jane’s brother took her to task) — but what an entertaining article! It must, indeed, have been fascinating to work with the National Fruit Collection at Brogdale. And I personally am grateful to have some hints of where to look for meteorological information on London in 1814…
I met Alice Villaseñor in Winchester last summer, and was particularly interested to read about her finds at the Chawton House Library; she studied the contents of the Knight Collection, which is currently housed there; it formed part of the library of books owned by Jane’s brother, Edward Knight. I had a chuckle over the conclusions drawn by Phyllis Ferguson Bottomer – though I ask: must everyone be diagnosed with some syndrome nowadays??
One of the most noteworthy of the articles read so far has to be Douglas Murray and his routing out several ‘portraits’ of George, the Prince of Wales in the novel dedicated (reluctantly?) to him: Emma. Fascinating. And, very a propos to our June 22nd meeting: a persuasive article by Tenille Nowak on one of the ‘horrid novels’ in Northanger Abbey. Recommended reading for anyone planning to attend our meeting in a couple weeks.
I am in the middle of an eye-opening look at Mr Knightley written by Theresa Kenney. And next up, I think, must be Margie Burns‘ look at ‘George and Georgiana’, aka: Mr Wickham and Miss Darcy.
While I hesitate to toot my own horn (but who else will, if I don’t?), I do want to say that I hope readers find some interest in the courtship of Emma Smith and James-Edward Austen (Jane’s nephew), as well as Emma’s possible involvement, a la Emma Woodhouse, in the courtship of her own brother Sir Charles Joshua Smith and his second wife, Mary Gosling. The article is ‘Edward Austen’s Emma Reads Emma.’ I’ve just begun a blog of my own, relating to Emma and Mary, as I try to track down more diaries and letters of all the families involved (Emma and Mary both came from substantial families).
A full table of contents for Persuasions, vol. 29 (2007) is available online at JASNA. And don’t forget the offerings at Persuasions-Online, including the ‘new’ vol. 28, No. 2 issue: Global Jane Austen. There is also Barry Roth’s 2006 Jane Austen bibliography, if you’re looking for something new to read on JA.
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Also in the mailbox: a copy of Jane Odiwe‘s Lydia Bennet’s Story. Right now, Lydia has just hit the town of Brighton – and she seems to have an eye for a certain young man who is NOT Mr Wickham… It is fun to read the little hints of what has been going on in Pride and Prejudice (so I would say a knowledge of that book is useful), but Ms. Odiwe goes her own direction with this storyline and it can certainly be enjoyed on its own terms. Will post a full review of the book once it’s been read.
Housewife, 49
Not really having anything to do with Jane Austen, I write today about Housewife, 49 – which I first heard about when actress and writer Victoria Wood won a BAFTA for her role as Nella Last just about this time last year. (The show also took the best drama award.)
Housewife, 49 tells the true story of Nella Last, a woman who sent in diary entries to the Mass Observation Archive, as part of a government effort to hear the voices of the average people on the homefront. This has truly moving performances by all the actors (especially Wood; David Threlfall as her taciturn husband; Christopher Harper as their younger son), and a nicely-observed script by Wood. There is a JA connection in that Sylvestra Le Touzel, who plays Nella’s rather ferocious Mrs Lynch, played Mrs Allen in the 2007 Northanger Abbey — which book, of course, is a focal point at JASNA-Vermont’s next meeting, on June 22nd.
If you love British drama, enjoy wartime stories, and are wanting to see something very uplifting in the transformation of dear Nella over the war years, then I heartily recommend Housewife, 49. Can’t wait for the book to be returned to the library…
Jane Austen in Vermont 