Category: Books

Books · Jane Austen · Literature

Jane Austen and her “Best Literary Sex Scene”

BookLady Deb7 Comments

It seems that on almost a daily basis Jane Austen makes some list or other. Yesterday, The Guardian offered up a list of the “Best Literary Sex Scenes: Writers’ Favourites” and there she is yet again, despite claims that there is no sex in Austen – read here what Howard Jacobson (his The Finkler Question won the 2010 Man Booker Prize) has to say:

Softcore porn is the literary equivalent of those feathery wimp-whips and talcum’d cufflinks you see in the windows of sex toy shops. If you’re going to torture your lover, at least break the skin, I say. You would expect me, therefore, to chose the scene I find most erotic from the pages of De Sade or Bataille. But as far as writing goes, the best sex is the most implicit. So I nominate the scene in Persuasion in which Captain Wentworth wordlessly, and with none of their past grievous history resolved, assists a fatigued Anne Elliot into a carriage. There is no overt sexuality, no titillatory play with power and dependence – he helps her in and that’s that. “Yes – he had done it. She was in the carriage and felt that he had placed her there, that his will and his hands had done it.” Anne might tell herself that the kindness proceeds from what remains of “former sentiment”, but Wentworth’s hands have been on her body, and we never doubt that it’s her body that receives the shock of the contact as much as her mind.

 I couldn’t agree more … what might your favorite sex scene in Jane Austen be?

You can read about the other titles and scenes here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/06/best-literary-sex-scenes-writers-favourites

***********************

And also check out John Mullan’s latest “10 of the Best” – Jane Austen appears on most of his lists it seems!  this week is about “wills” and of course, what would be the plot of Sense and Sensibility without that pesky will:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/06/john-mullan-ten-of-best-wills

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. The novel is shaped by a will. Henry Dashwood’s uncle leaves his wealth not to his own family, but to his son by a previous marriage and a four-year-old grandson. His wife and daughters, who have attended on the old man for years, are disinherited in favour of a child who has gained his affections by “an imperfect articulation, an earnest desire of having his own way, many cunning tricks, and a great deal of noise”.

[Master Harry Dashwood – image from Austenprose]

You can link to Mullan’s other weekly lists here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/series/10ofthebest

c2012 Jane Austen in Vermont
Books · Jane Austen · Jane Austen Popular Culture · Publishing History

Jane Austen’s Persuasion ~ 1960s Style

BookLady Deb11 Comments

I am always on the search for old paperbacks of Jane Austen’s works, usually for the introductions by various scholars, but very often for the cover art, always the tell-tale sign of the time of publication.  This is one of my favorites, along with the book synopsis inside the front cover – with such a cover and description, one wonders if this is Jane Austen’s Persuasion at all!

Are we in a time-warp here? – whatever is the Captain wearing? and can this Sophia Loren-look-alike really be Anne Elliot?!  One is afraid to open the book! but aah!, all is ok – we still find Sir Walter Elliot immersed in his Baronetage on page one … and the note of Mary’s marriage to Charles Musgrove is still there, taking place on December 16, 1810 [anyone ever wonder why Jane Austen had the oft-suffering Mary marry on her birthday?!] It is all there, unabridged, thankfully untouched by 1960s sensibilities…

To go along with this cover, here is the publisher’s blurb:

A WOUNDED LOVE… 

     Captain Wentworth had no fortune. He had been lucky in his profession, but spending freely what had come freely, had realized nothing. But he was confident he would soon be rich. That he would soon have a ship and soon be on a station that would lead to everything he wanted. He had always been lucky. 

     Such confidence had been enough for Anne; but Lady Russell saw it differently. In his sanguine temper and fearlessness of mind, she saw but an aggravation of the evil. He was brilliant, he was headstrong. Lady Russell had little taste for wit. She deprecated the connection in every light.

     Thus, eight years before, Anne’s heart had been broken. 

     And now Captain Wentworth had returned.

*******************

Persuasion, by Jane Austen
Magnum Easy Eye Books / Lancer Books, 1968
Cover illustration by Julio Freire

On a side note, completely unrelated to Jane Austen – Freire did a number of book illustrations, but here is one to share – the BOMC edition of Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor, a book banned in 14 states upon its publication in 1944 – I don’t think I knew that when I read it in 1972, pregnant with my first-born – I actually gave my daughter “Amber” as a middle name…! – but this a topic far afield of the 1968 cover art for Persuasion … though interesting to me it may well be.

Your thoughts? and what are some of your favorite vintage covers on Austen’s works?

[The Forever Amber cover from CheekyChicago.com ]

@2012 Jane Austen in Vermont 
Austen Literary History & Criticism · Books · Jane Austen · Jane Austen Popular Culture · Regency England

Hot off the Press! ~ Jane Austen’s Regency World Magazine No. 58

BookLady DebLeave a comment

The July/August issue of Jane Austen’s Regency World magazine is published this weekend and will be mailed to subscribers next week. In it you can read about: 

*A Royal Affair: a new film depicts the scandal that rocked a European monarchy 

*Olympic Jane: as the 2012 Games open in London, we look at the sports that Jane might have played

*Bath Jane Austen Festival: an exclusive preview of the fun planned for September

*Stand and deliver! the terror of highwaymen that threatened Jane’s friends and family

*Gothic horror: how Jane Austen satirised the latest literary fashion

*Plus News, Letters, Book Reviews and information from Jane Austen Societies in the US, UK and Australia

To subscribe now click here – and make sure that you are among the first to read all the news from Jane Austen’s Regency World.

Text and image from JARW – you can now read more about Jane’s world on the magazine’s new website, blog, and facebook pages here:

@2012 Jane Austen in Vermont
Auctions · Books · Jane Austen · Publishing History · Rare Books · Uncategorized

Austen on the Block! ~ Results of Today’s Christie’s Auction

BookLady Deb4 Comments

June 13, 2012: the results are in on today’s Christie’s auction I posted about last month – the sale of a first edition of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey and Persuasion:

Lot 169. AUSTEN, Jane (1775-1817). Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. With a Biographical Notice of the Author [by Henry Austen]. London: C. Rowarth [vols I-II], and T. Davison [vols III- IV] for John Murray, 1818 [but ca. 20 December 1817].

Hammer price: £5,625 ($8,696)
Estimate £5,000 – £8,000 ($7,730 – $12,368)

There were a number of other items of interest under the hammer today – you can review the results here at the Christie’s website.

There were three Humphry Repton titles  – this one took the highest prize:

Lot 118. REPTON, Humphry (1752-1818). Sketches and Hints on Landscape Gardening. London: W. Bulmer and Co., for J. & J. Boydell, [1795].

Hammer price: £17,500  ($27,055)
Estimate £8,000 – £12,000 ($12,368 – $18552)

[Images from the Christie’s website]

@2012 Jane Austen in Vermont
Books · Jane Austen · Literature · Museum Exhibitions · News · Social Life & Customs · Women Writers

In My Mailbox! ~ The Female Spectator Spring 2012

BookLady DebLeave a comment

The Female Spectator, (Vol. 16, No. 2, Spring 2012), the newsletter of the Chawton House Library, showed up last week in my mailbox – this 12 page newsletter always offers something new and exciting to be discovered and shared!: 

1. “Chawton Chronicles: A Letter from the CEO” – Stephen Lawrence talks about what has been accomplished at the Library since its inception in 2003, especially the academic initiatives and activities and the Visiting Fellowship Programme.  And he writes of the upcoming Spring Gala of the JASNA-Greater Chicago Region where Sandy Lerner, Elizabeth Garvie, Lindsay Ashford, and Stephen will all be in attendance for the “Chawton Comes to Chicago” event [which took place on May 5 – visit the website for a photo gallery of the event – accessible to members only I’m sorry to say!]

2. A lovely tribute to Vera Quin, author of In Paris with Jane Austen (2005) and Jane Austen in London (2008), by Gillian Dow – you can read my blog post on Ms. Quin here. 

3.  “Talking Portraits at CHL” – by Sarah Parry – about the project to bring to life with actors in full costume the various portraits housed in the Library: the portraits of Mary Robinson, Elizabeth Hartley, and Catherine (Kitty) Clive were the portraits chosen for this first effort. 

[Image of  Catherine “Kitty” Clive from CHL at the BBC Collection]

4. “Curious Consumption: Cookery Books at CHL” – by Lindsey Phillips. An essay on her research into the exchange of culinary information and recipes between Britain and the West Indies; included is a recipe for “pepper pot” from Maria Eliza Ketelby Rundell’s American Domestic Cookery (ed. of 1823), which you can find here at Google Books. 

5. “The Day the Descendants Came to Tea: Revelations and Connections from a Chawton House Fellowship” – by Katharine Kittredge, on the author’s study of Melesina Trench (1768 – 1827), an Irish writer, poet and diarist, and Kittredge’s connection with her relatives after her research was published in Aphra Behn Online. [her article in ABO can be found here.]  And click here for Kittredge’s biography of Trench on the CHL website.

Melesina Trench – wikipedia

6.  “The Language of Women’s Fiction, 1750-1830” – a conference report by Christina Davidson – one hopes the papers discussed will be published at some point…?

7. “‘Not in All Things Perfect’: The North Welsh Gentry in Fiction and History” –  Mary Chadwick shares her research on a collection of English-language manuscript letters, poems, etc. written by members of a North Welsh gentry community and collected by one family, the Griffiths of Garn, and how this compares to the writing of the various novelists who set their tales in Wales (including Jane Austen in her Juvenilia!), in particular Elizabeth Hervey’s The History of Ned Evans (1796) [and recently re- published in the CHL / Pickering & Chatto series.

 ******************

And reasons to be at the CHL, and a continuing source of depression for those of us who cannot! : 

Lectures:

June 7 [today!]: Dr Laura Engel on “Much Ado About Muffs: Actresses, Accessories, and Austen”

June 20. Professor Elizabeth Kowaleski Wallace on “‘Penance and Mortification for Ever’: Jane Austen and Catholicism.”

June 25. Evening Talk and Book Launch: Dr. Katie Halsey “‘A Pair of Fine Eyes’: Sight and Insight in Jane Austen’s Novels.”

When Mr. Darcy meditates on the pleasure bestowed by “a pair of fine eyes” in Pride and Prejudice, he does so because eyes are so very expressive. In this talk, Dr Katie Halsey explores the relationship between the physical eye and the eyes of the mind in Austen’s novels.

This talk is part of Alton’s Jane Austen Regency Week, and the launch of Katie Halsey’s new book: Jane Austen and her Readers, 1786 – 1945 [and soon to be added to my bedside table…]

 Exhibition:

“Jane Austen’s Bookshop: An Exhibition” 18 June – 6 July, 2012

This exhibition explores how readers and writers in Winchester shared printed material (books, playbills, engravings &c). Men and women, young and old, gentry and middle classes, rich and poor, Protestant and Catholic – all participated. The Austen family purchased literature from the bookshop of John Burdon (today still a bookshop), while scholars at Winchester College published their works in their own city. The newly founded hospital produced annual reports, and local newspapers such as the Hampshire Chronicle promoted all kinds of publications in advertisements and reviews.

Come to Chawton House Library to learn more about book production and circulation. Find out what kind of material was published in Hampshire in the eighteenth century, and just what the Austen family might have read.

You can receive The Female Spectator from CHL by becoming a member / friend – information is here: I heartily recommend it!

@2012 Jane Austen inVermont
Austen Literary History & Criticism · Books · Jane Austen · Jane Austen Popular Culture · JASNA-Vermont events · News

Reminder! JASNA-Vermont ~ June 3, 2012 ~ Rachel Brownstein on Why Jane Austen?

BookLady DebLeave a comment

Read my interview with Professor Brownstein here:
Part I and Part II

You are Cordially Invited to JASNA-Vermont’s June Meeting 

~ ‘Why Jane Austen?’ ~

with 

Rachel Brownstein* 

What do we want from Jane Austen? ~
Why do we want it? ~
and What do we get from the movies, the fan fiction,
and the Novels?  

*****
Sunday, 3 June 2012, 2 – 4 p.m. 

 Champlain College, Hauke Conference Center
375 Maple St Burlington VT  

~Free & Open to the Public~
 ~Light refreshments served~ 

For more information:   JASNAVermont@gmail.com  
Please visit our blog at: http://JaneAustenInVermont.wordpress.com

the June 3 2012 flyer: share with your friends!

****************************

*We are honored to welcome Professor Rachel Brownstein, author of Becoming a Heroine (1982), Tragic Muse: Rachel of the Comedie-Francaise (1993), and Why Jane Austen? (2011). Films, feminism, and popular fetishes are among the subjects of her new work,  an engaging treasure-filled meditation on Jane Austen as writer, woman, social commentator, and 21st-century icon. But most of all it is about reading, which Brownstein has been encouraging people to do, at Brooklyn College and the Graduate School of CUNY, for several decades. 

**********************

Please Join Us!

*********************************

~ Upcoming in 2012 and beyond ~

Sept. 23: Burlington Book Festival: ‘An Afternoon with Jane Austen’: authors Elsa Solender on Jane Austen in Love: An Entertainment,
 Stuart Bennett on The Perfect Visit; and
Hope Greenberg on “Dressing Jane”!

Dec. 2: Annual Birthday Tea with Paul Monod of Middlebury College on
                “The Royal Navy in the Age of Nelson, 1775-1815”

Mar. 2013 [TBA]: “’Fifty Miles of Good Road’: Travelling in Jane Austen” with Deb Barnum

Auctions · Austen Literary History & Criticism · Books · Jane Austen · News · Rare Books

Austen On the Block! ~ Northanger Abbey and Persuasion 1st edition

BookLady Deb14 Comments

Auction Alert! 

Christie’s Sale 5334: Valuable Printed Books and Manuscripts
13 June 2012, London, King Street

Lot 169: 

Austen, Jane.  Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. With a Biographical Notice of the Author [by Henry Austen].London: C. Rowarth [vols I-II], and T. Davison [vols III- IV] for John Murray, 1818 [but ca. 20 December 1817].

Estimate: £5,000 – £8,000  ($7,975 – $12,760) Price Realized: £5,625 ($8,696)

Description

4 volumes, 12° (172 x 103mm). (Some light spotting, without half-titles in vols. II-IV and final blanks P7-8 in vol. IV.) Near contemporary half calf over marbled boards by J. Seacome, Chester, with his yellow or pink ticket in each volume, flat gilt spines divided by greek key rolls between double fillets, and with red morocco lettering-pieces in two compartments (extremities lightly rubbed, spine heads slightly chipped, minor paper loss to one cover). Provenance: Jane Panton (early inscriptions on all titles, trimmed by binder) — Bernard Quaritch, bookseller (pencilled collation note at the end of vol. I).

FIRST EDITION OF BOTH NOVELS IN AN EARLY 19TH-CENTURY BINDING BY J. SEACOME OF CHESTER. According to the author’s sister, Cassandra, Northanger Abbey was written in the years 1798-1799, although it has been suggested ‘a first version may have been written as early as 1794’ (Gilson, p. 82). This gentle parody* of the gothic novel represents her style in its earliest public form. Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, though earlier in origin, were far more drastically revised before publication. In 1803 she had sold the novel then entitled Susan, to Richard Crosby and Son, a London publisher, for £10. When it failed to appear after six years, she asked Mr Crosby for information, to be told that he was under no obligation to publish it, and that she could have it back for the amount he had paid her. The novelist waited until 1816 to accept the offer, but despite preparing the manuscript for publication once more, and changing the title from Susan to Catherine, still held it back. As a result, it only appeared posthumously with Persuasion in December 1817, the eventual title possibly supplied by Henry Austen. Persuasion, her last novel, was begun on 8 August 1815 and completed a year later. The two works were printed in varying specimens of Caslon Pica roman, and published by John Murray in an edition of 1750 copies. Gilson A9; Keynes 9 (collation corrected by 1931 errata); Sadleir 62e. (4)

___________________________________

  • Text and image from the Christie’s website
  • Click here for the full sale catalogue: there is a Dickens (David Copperfield) and also three works by Humphry Repton, who was read by Jane Austen:

Lot 119: REPTON, Humphry (1752-1818). Observations on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening.London: T. Bensley for J. Taylor, 1803.

Estimate: £4,000 – £6,000 ($6,380 – $9,570)

Description:

FIRST EDITION OF REPTON’S ‘MOST IMPORTANT WORK’ (RIBA). Repton’s second treatise reflects the increasing refinement of his theories on landscape and architecture, and answers the criticisms of Uvedale Price and Payne Knight. ‘Perhaps [Repton’s] most significant and influential publication overall’ (Archer). It contains information from several ‘Red Books’ now lost. Abbey, Scenery, 390; Archer 279.1; RIBA 2734 (second edition); Tooley 399.

The other two Repton works are:

Lot 118: REPTON, Humphry (1752-1818). Sketches and Hints on Landscape Gardening.London: W. Bulmer and Co., for J. & J. Boydell, [1795]. Estimate  £8,000 – £12,000 ($12,760 – $19,140)

Lot 120: REPTON, Humphry (1752-1818) & John Adey REPTON (1775-1860). Fragments on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening. Including some remarks on Grecian and Gothic Architecture.London: T. Bensley & Son for J. Taylor, 1816. Estimate: £6,000 – £9,000 ($9,570 – $14,355)

_____________________________

*Would you call Northanger Abbey “a gentle parody”?

Copyright @2012 Jane Austen in Vermont
Books · Jane Austen · Jane Austen Popular Culture · Publishing History

Jane Austen’s Emma ~ Borner Cover Short-Listed by the V&A

BookLady Deb9 Comments

This cover to Jane Austen’s Emma has been short-listed by the V&A in the “Book Jacket and Cover”  category for its 2012 Illustration Awards.  The cover was designed by Petra Borner and published by Bonnier in 2011.

 

The Swedish paperback series Albert Bonniers klassiker has long been around. But the entire series has gotten a facelift with graphic designer Petra Börner’s new covers to Jane Austin’s Emma, Hjlmar Söderberg’s The Serious Game, Marguerite Duras’ The Lover and John Fowle’s The French Lieutenant’s Woman. The books are published by sister publisher Bonnier Pocket and the theme is romance. And with the new release, the publisher has started a campaign in social media that’s already shown results.

[from the Bonnier website]

I shall forgive them for the misspelling of “Austin’s” name, because the cover is so lovely… but really, the publisher’s website has this wrong??!

Further Reading:

@2012 Jane Austen in Vermont
Books · Jane Austen · Jane Austen Popular Culture · News

All Around the World with Jane! ~ a photo contest from Sourcebooks

BookLady DebLeave a comment

This just in from Beth at Sourcebooks! – get your camera ready and off you go!…

Hi there!  In the June memoir, All Roads Lead to Austen the author Amy Elizabeth Smith took Jane Austen’s works along with her as she traveled to foreign countries. Her goal was to see if the magic of Jane Austen could hold its power across borders, languages and cultures.  Amy took Jane to far off countries – and we need your help to take her even further! We are holding a contest called All Around the World with Jane! Join us on our Austen love fest by printing out our Jane Austen “flat Stanley.” [see below] – Take pictures of yourself with Jane in your hometown or on your vacation, and submit it from April 30th – June 30th! 

We will award the following prizes to the individuals with the most creative picture: 

1 Grand Prize Winner will receive:

  • An E-reader with all of our available Austen sequels/continuations downloaded on to it
  • A signed copy of All Roads Lead to Austen by Amy Elizabeth Smith
  • A Skype session with Amy Elizabeth Smith

3 Second Place Winners will receive:

  • A signed copy of All Roads Lead to Austen by Amy Elizabeth Smith
  • A choice of 5 Jane Austen sequels/continuations from Sourcebooks

5 Third Place Winners will receive:

  • A signed copy of All Roads Lead to Austen by Amy Elizabeth Smith 

You can then submit your pictures on the All Around the World with Jane Facebook page or email your submission to landmark@sourcebookspr.com. 

Below are some examples of where Jane has been already (Times Square, The Jane Austen Centre in Bath, and the Sourcebooks offices!) and attached is the flat Stanley that you can print off (also available on the Facebook page).  

One more thing! Barnes & Noble is offering this title as a NOOK First! The eBook is being offered early now and at only $6.99 for a limited time!  Please pass this along! We want to see Jane go as many places as possible! 

Thank you!

Beth     
Beth PehlkeAssociate Publicist | Sourcebooks, Inc.

 

Books · Domestic Arts · Fashion & Costume · Social Life & Customs

A Textile Bibliography ~ with free online access

BookLady DebLeave a comment

Exciting news for those interested in Textiles:

The Center for Social Research on Old Textiles [CSROT] is a research project founded in 1986 in France whose purpose is to contribute to the critical study of the history of textiles, especially by means of research concerning its bibliographic history. Its bibliographic publication, the Bibliographica Textilia Historiae, the first and only annotated general bibliography attempting to document all facets of the world history of textiles, contained over 5,000 titles —printed books and pamphlets, serials, articles and offprints, dissertations, royal decrees and laws— published in all languages, but mostly European, since the late fifteenth century to date, treating all aspects of the history of handwoven textiles, including woven and printed textiles, embroidery, lace, tapestry, dyeing, carpets, weaving and fiber technology, pattern books, and costume, among many other subjects.

This Bibliographica Textilia Historiae was published in the late 1990s and has been since enlarged to contain over 9,000 records with over 25,000 individual entries of authors, articles, reviews and books, of which over 500 titles are pre-1800. This enlarged database has now been catalogued with a full indexing program and is now available on this website as an free open-access database fully-searchable by multple keywords and criteria.


[Text and images from the CSROT website]

You can search the online database here: Bibliographica Textilia Historiae

For eg.: if your interest is in Georgian textiles, search “georgian” for a listing of sources in the bibliography, or if like Henry Tilney, your thoughts run to “muslin” – here is a book that Jane Austen would likely have known:

* PACKER, Thomas. The dyer’s guide; being a compendium of the art of dyeing linen, cotton, silk, wool, muslin, dresses, furniture &c. &c. with the method of scouring wool, bleaching cotton &c. and directions for ungumming silk and for whitening and sulphuring silk and wool …. Second edition, corrected and materially improved.  London: Sherwood, Gilbert and Piper, 1830. [ 1st edition: 1816]

The main website is here:  Stichting Egress Foundation

Copyright @2012 Jane Austen in Vermont