The September/October issue of Jane Austen’s Regency World magazine is out now and will be mailed to subscribers this week. In it you can read about:
Northanger Abbey with strings: the Gothic puppet show that gripped the Edinburgh Festival and is heading to Bath and London
JASNA AGM preview: an exclusive look at September’s gathering in Minneapolis
The importance of being George: the new royal baby has a very Austen name
Trafalgar and Nelson: how the press reported the great Naval victory – plus Nelson’s funeral remembered
Remembering the Burneys: a new plaque in unveiled in memory of Fanny
Plus News, Letters, Book Reviews and information from Jane Austen Societies in the Netherlands, UK and Australia
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To subscribe now click here: http://janeaustenmagazine.co.uk/subscribe/ – and make sure that you are among the first to read all the news from Jane Austen’s Regency World.
I welcome today JASNA member Janeite Bonnie, as she offers us the tale of her time-travel adventure at Jane Austen Summer Camp, sponsored by the JASNA-Connecticut Region on July 26-28, 2013. Bonnie was, alas! without a working camera, and it is with thanks that I use fellow camper Tess Quinn’s photographs! [Tess is the author most recently of Pride Revisited.]
Enjoy all – so sorry I was not there – hopefully next year! [I was at the Middletown Inn a few years ago for a wedding, and I can attest to it being the perfect setting for anything to do with Jane Austen!]
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I was a last-minute registrant for the Jane Austen Summer Camp, and registered for only the second half of the weekend, taking a miss on the workshops on Saturday morning because I had either attended similar workshops before or had skills that did not require workshops such as were offered. I drove down from VT to Middletown, CT on Saturday afternoon wondering what to expect in terms of the area in which the event took place, since such things do tend to color my experience. As I turned onto Main Street, I spied a row of 18th century clapboard houses across the street, and I thrilled to the sight. When I pulled up to the gate of the Inn at Middletown, I was immediately favorably impressed. The Inn at Middletown has the look of an early 19th century manor house, with wings, snubby portico, and miniature curved drive. When I walked inside, the Inn continued to enchant me with its central curved staircase, immense chandelier, fireplace, and patterned marble floor. The room I shared with my friend Shari was tasteful, but I barely had time to enjoy it before I had to begin my transformation into a Regency lady.
Middletown Inn [Wikipedia]
Our Saturday evening began with gathering in the second floor lobby, where alcoholic beverages were dispensed to those willing with shillings. Some faces were familiar; we have crossed paths at other JASNA, time-travel, and dance events. Most of us, I am gratified to report, were dressed in period outfits, and we exchanged compliments and admiring looks.
Dinner before the Ball!
When we entered the conference room for dinner, I was pleasantly surprised to see it looking period-appropriate, too, with nicely painted woodwork, wallpaper, double-hung windows dressed up in patterned draperies, wall sconces, a boarded-up fireplace (well, it *is* summer) with a mantel and mirror above, and a sideboard in a recess with a mirror overhanging it. Of course, I made my way to the center table so that I could have a great seat for the lecture after dinner by Irene Urban, who is known to me through Regency dance. She is a maven of Regency cookery, but more of her soon.
Table setting
The table was dressed up with a sweet urn of colorful flowers, and everyone had gifts of a sandalwood fan and chocolates in front of her place setting. Lovely chocolates, by the way: They looked like cameos, with a milk chocolate base and a silhouette Jane Austen silhouetted in white chocolate. We started off dinner with a delicious cold soup of Lord-knows-what, but the ingredient I do remember is champagne. More alcohol — terrific for loosening the joints and inhibitions for dancing! Everyone enjoyed their main course, too. I had already heard praise of the Inn at Middletown’s cuisine, but tasting was believing. The presentation was also quite lovely. Well done!
We did not enjoy a last course of dessert because that was saved for the break during the ball. However, Irene Urban’s lecture on Regency dining was a delicious treat for the mind, and I would have willingly gone back for seconds and thirds, but it was all too quickly over, with no Q and A session. Irene dropped tantalizing tidbits such as what was stocked in a Regency larder, including all the dead animals, which she accompanied with an etching of the same. I would imagine that if cruel Regency parents had wanted to punish their naughty little ones, they could have locked them in a dark pantry for an hour. Irene is not an all-talk-and-no-action lady; if you have ever attended an event with which she is connected, you are treated to period delights created from recipes that she has adapted from vague original recipes in her collection of period cookbooks.
Susan de Guardiola and her Soldiers
Next up was the ball, which was called by Susan de Guardiola, a Regency dance expert. The dances were simple to suit those who had never danced period dances before. The room was splendidly lit up, quite full of company, but not insufferably hot, so we were spared the trials of E. and M. The crowd organized into two longways sets, and off we went, balancing, dos-a-dosing, slipping, turning, gazing, flirting, and attending. I think we all acquitted ourselves rather well, and as a reward were treated to sumptuous desserts during the break, as well as the raffling off of two splendid gift baskets and several smaller gifts.
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Sunday’s activities began with a promenade to a local historical house museum [the General Mansfield House]. Many folks chose to dress up again, and I believe we looked fresh and charming in our day gowns, bonnets, reticules, and parasols. We gathered in the lobby, then strolled out through the front courtyard, crossed the street, and there we were. The docent of the museum greeted us on the steps, then spent the next twenty minutes lecturing about the history of the house and its occupants while we stood, wilting. An older woman required a chair, which my friend Shari borrowed and brought to her, and still the lecture continued! We were finally allowed to tour the house and the grounds, which were not extensive but had a few suitable places for photo ops.
After the museum, we returned to the hotel to check out and have brunch: yummy cheese blintzes and vegetable quiche. After brunch, Dr. Mark Schenker, associate dean of Yale College, presented a lecture titled “The Richness of ‘Ordinary Life’ in Austen’s Novels”. While my author friends on either side of me scribbled away, I just sat in bliss. Dr. Schenker, while having ample notes, frequently put them down and wove witty and insightful incidental observations into his structured lecture. He is the type of speaker who leaves you glowing with happiness after you’ve been privileged to hear him. I am embarrassed to admit that, although I
Dr. Schenker – “Is that _really_ all you can remember?!
thoroughly enjoyed the lecture (and it made me wish that I had come for the full weekend so that I could have heard his other lecture Friday night), the only thing he said that I can quote was that he referred to Jane and Charles Bingley as the couple downstairs, the Mertzes of Jane Austen’s couples! What a thing to remember.
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The weekend was capped with an ice cream social, the raffling off of two more marvelous gift baskets and smaller gifts, and the screening of the soon-to-be released film Austenland. I do believe that this movie is haunting me. I had already sat through the initial free preview for JASNA-NY members at the Sony screening room in New York and felt I had wasted two hours of my life. I had even squeezed it into my tight schedule when it was offered because, of course, it was a one-time-only experience. However, two or three more free previews were offered after that to JASNA-NY members. This past weekend, all the way up in mid-Connecticut I thought I could enjoy a good Austen movie with other Janeites, when, lo and behold, Austenland again popped up and put a pin in my Austen euphoria. N.B. I just received an e-mail from JASNA-NY about yet one more free preview of Austenland, to take place on Tuesday, July 30, in Manhattan!
Austenland company
I left very glad that I had made the effort to drive for four and one-quarter hours the 260 miles from my home to the Inn at Middletown. Everyone with whom I spoke was positive about all aspects of the gathering, from the venue to the food, from the workshops to the lectures, from the ball to the gift baskets and the camp store, all were praised. It is testament to the tremendous concerted efforts of all the organizers of this event, and I hope to see it repeated and expanded in two years.
For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn? –Jane Austen
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[Note: all pictures c2013 Tess Quinn, with thanks!, unless noted otherwise]
Our JASNA Vermont reading group recently discussed Georgette Heyer’s Frederica. A skeptical member asked the question: why should we read Heyer? Georgette Heyer is a prolific 20th century novelist known for writing Historical Fiction, Regency Romances, and Mysteries. Frederica is one of the Regency Romances. (Think Harlequin not Hawthorne….) So, why should a thoughtful group of Austen devotees choose a Heyer Romance? Below are some of the answers from our group’s discussion.
Reason # 7:It’s summer. Let’s face it, we don’t have to read Tolstoy, Dickens, or even Austen all year. Go to the beach and relax!
Reason #6: Heyer, as mentioned above, is prolific. If you like one of her Regency Romances, you have 33 more to choose from.
Reason #5: Heyer researched and included wonderful Regency detail. She described the carriages, dress, and food, for example, in specific detail. You can read about phaetons and curricles, neck-cloths and laces, and jellies and sauces. If you have any interest in the Regency period, it is both fun and informative to have such specifics included in the novels.
Reason #4: Ditto for Regency language, cant, lingo, etc. Heyer used Regency cant in all of her Romances. What does it mean if someone is a “nodcock” or a “ninnyhammer”? What about if someone is trying to “gammon” another person? Usually the meanings of the expressions are clear from the context; however, members of our group also mentioned further Regency reading to fill in more information about the period. Two of the books were Jennifer Kloester’s Georgette Heyer’s Regency World, and Carolly Erickson’s Our Tempestuous Day.
Reason #3: Heyer’s dialogue. She used dialogue extensively. Her dialogue is witty, but it is also artfully constructed to expose and develop character.
Reason #2: Heyer’s characterization. While her main characters are usually from the aristocracy (these are Romances after all!), they are not two dimensional ladies and gentlemen. Within the structure of the Romance, Heyer adeptly fills in the motivations, foibles, and flaws, of her main characters. Her writing usually depends on the characters to move the books forward. In the following excerpt, you can see both the characterization and dialogue at work. This is from an early episode of Frederica in which Frederica and Lord Alverstoke have their first meeting. Frederica begins by responding to him:
“I see. You don’t wish to recognize us, do you? Then there isn’t the least occasion for me to explain our situation to you. I beg your pardon for having put you to the trouble of visiting me.”
At these words, the Marquis, who had every intention of bringing the interview to a summary end, irrationally chose to prolong it. Whether he relented because Miss Merriville amused him, or because the novelty of having one of his rebuffs accepted without demur intrigued him remained undecided, even in his own mind. But however it may have been he laughed suddenly, and said, quizzing her: “Oh, so high! No, no, don’t hold up your nose at me: it don’t become you!”
Reason #1: Her books provide both escape and solace. One of our members mentioned that she read Heyer while she was undergoing chemotherapy. She said that during this difficult time in her life, Heyer made her laugh and gave her a place to retreat to for comfort and solace. For Janeites this is very familiar ground!
So…if your interest has been piqued by our reasons to read Heyer, we’d suggest that you start with Frederica. Just about all of our group members enjoyed it. And remember, unlike Austen, there are many, many more novels to choose from for those lazy summer days or for times when you just need to escape. Don’t be a ninnyhammer, try one.
UPDATE: Mr Darcy’s [a.k.a Laurence Olivier] jacket sold for $6,500. – estimate was $1500. – $2000. Russell Crowe’s Gladiator tunic sold for $7500!
There is a Hollywood auction taking place today in California – the Profiles in History auction house has a number of Hollywood artifacts being offered at their Hollywood Auction 56, the costumes for the Sound of Musicmovie for starters. But here is one item of interest to Jane Austen followers, a pure piece of Austen and movie memorabilia to grace anyone’s closet:
Lot 422: Laurence Olivier screen-worn “Mr. Darcy” jacket from Pride and Prejudice.
Laurence Olivier screen-worn “Mr. Darcy” jacket from Pride and Prejudice. (MGM, 1940).
A beautiful smoking jacket, screen-worn by Laurence Olivier as “Mr. Darcy” in the epic film adapted from the classic Jane Austen novel, Pride and Prejudice. Consisting of crimson, corded silk jacket with wide quilted satin lapels, black braid brocade loop and cloth-covered button front closure, integral sash with black fringed ends, crème-colored pleats peeking from sleeve cuffs and dark maroon satin lining throughout. MGM internal bias label on inside collar with “Larry Olivier” handwritten in black ink. This striking costume exhibits barely detectable age and wear. Fabric remains fresh with colors vibrant. Overall in vintage fine condition.
and view the various other pieces of Hollywood history that are available, 988 lots in total, from Marilyn Monroe to the Von Trapps – the catalogue itself a work of art and collectible for any movie nut. Here is the link to the flipbook – Mr. Darcy’s jacket is on page 141, right next to Gary Cooper’s costume from Sergeant York and opposite Judy Garland Wizard of Oz posters…
It all goes live this morning 11:00 am. PST!
p.s.: do you think Mr Darcy SMOKED??
p.s. 2: just so you don’t think that my other fantasies are not touched on in this auction, if you go to page 298-300, you will find the following:
Lot 803: Russell Crowe’s Maximus tunic from Gladiator.
Estimated Price: $2,000 – $3,000
Description:
Russell Crowe’s Maximus tunic from Gladiator. (DreamWorks, 2000) This tunic was worn by Russell Crowe as “Maximus” in Gladiator. The sleeveless, knee-length tunic is constructed from studio-distressed, unbleached cotton homespun fabric and lined with a light weight muslin reinforcement lining. A bias tag with “Max” written in black ink is sewn under the muslin lining at the back of the neck. “Max” wears this tunic when he is abducted from his destroyed home by Roman slave traders and taken to Zucchabar, a Roman city in North Africa. There, he is bought by the trader “Proximo” and forced to become a gladiator. Accompanied by a letter of authenticity from the costumer.
[Note: Bidding for this item begins on July 29, 2013, 11:00 am PST]
Well, this is everywhere so only posting this so everyone knows I am actually paying attention. The UK seems to be in the news an awful lot this week, and while I find this quite funny:
I don’t agree! I am unashamedly an Anglophile of the highest order [my parents were born there], and I had Tea every day as soon as I got home from school and have never changed the habit, and so all this stuff is just sort of ingrained…
So very excited this week, both about the Royal Baby AND the £10 note to feature Jane Austen.
So first a hearty congratulations to all in the Royal Family about George Alexander Louis – after George Knightley I am assuming, and a fine model for any young man (not to mention his great-grandfather)…
And then Jane takes front-row seat after several weeks of mind-boggling discussion and various petitions on who shall grace the next issue of the £10 note, a woman it was to be, and Jane Austen it is – we can assume the Bank of England was a tad nonplussed by all of Jane Austen fandom raving for her to be chosen…
Here are the details – though they will not be in circulation until 2017 – I do wonder if they are concerned that any such Austen covered notes appearing shall just as quickly disappear into people’s scrapbooks and they shall have to start all over again – I cannot even imagine SPENDING this money, can you??
The portrait of Jane Austen, which will appear on the banknote, is adapted from a sketch drawn by her sister Cassandra Austen. Other features include:
• A quote from Pride and Prejudice – “I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!”
• An illustration of Elizabeth Bennet, one of the characters in Pride and Prejudice
• An image of Godmersham Park in Kent – the home of Jane Austen’s brother, Edward Austen Knight, and the inspiration for a number of novels
• A central background design of the author’s writing table which she used at home at Chawton Cottage in Hampshire
Fellow writers William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens have appeared on banknotes in recent times. Dickens was on the £10 note [Jane Austen shall be replacing Charles Darwin who is currently on the £10 note] and Shakespeare on the £20 note.
Bank of England notes can be spent throughout the UK. In addition, three banks in Scotland and four in Northern Ireland are authorised to issue banknotes.
On Twitter, Mr Osborne wrote: “[Incoming Bank of England governor] Mark Carney’s choice of Jane Austen as face of £10 note is great. After understandable row over lack of women, shows sense and sensibility.”
[Good to know someone knows their Austen…]
[Quoting from BBC News, where you can find a list of all the previous banknotes with famous faces…]
Well, not sure if an ebook can be termed “on my bookshelf” but no matter – this new book out today by Austen scholar Janet Todd has already made its way to my kindle, so a virtual bookshelf it is … and I shall drop all my other reading and begin this immediately!
Professor Todd has taken on Jane Austen‘s Lady Susan in her fictional account Lady Susan Plays the Game – this is from the Bloomsbury website:
A must-read for any devotee of Jane Austen, Janet Todd’s bodice-ripping reimagining of Austen’s epistolary novel Lady Susan will capture your literary imagination and get your heart racing.
Austen’s only anti-heroine, Lady Susan, is a beautiful, charming widow who has found herself, after the death of her husband, in a position of financial instability and saddled with an unmarried, clumsy and over-sensitive daughter. Faced with the unpalatable prospect of having to spend her widowed life in the countryside, Lady Susan embarks on a serious of manipulative games to ensure she can stay in town with her first passion — the card tables. Scandal inevitably ensues as she negotiates the politics of her late husband’s family, the identity of a mysterious benefactor and a passionate affair with a married man.
Accurate and true to Jane Austen’s style, as befits Todd’s position as a leading Austen scholar, this second coming of Lady Susan is as shocking, manipulative and hilarious as when Jane Austen first imagined her.
Published: 15-07-2013
Format: EPUB eBook
ISBN: 9781448213450
Imprint: Bloomsbury Reader
RRP: £6.99 [ in the US, the kindle price is $7.19 : Amazon.com
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You can read a post by Janet Todd here at the Bloomsbury Reader blog – where she “tells us her thoughts on writing, language, and the pressure of re-imagining Jane Austen:”
Anne Elliot, virtuous heroine of Persuasion, was ‘almost too good’ for Jane Austen. ‘Pictures of perfection… make me sick and wicked,’ she remarked towards the end of her life. All Austen’s novel heroines are indeed ‘good’: two of them initially hazard improper or injudicious remarks—Elizabeth Bennet and Emma—but later they learn to repress such high spirits.
Now look at Jane Austen’s own letters. Recollect that most of them address her beloved Cassandra who, after Jane’s death, guarded her sister’s image by burning anything she deemed unsuitable—not so much for the public, since Jane was not yet famous enough to have her private correspondence of general interest, but for the younger members of the extended family now living in high Victorian rather than racy Regency times. Yet even the unburnt letters show a woman very different from the fictional heroines, a woman with a naughty propensity sometimes to laugh at the virtuous, the vulnerable or the just plain unfortunate—a wife with an uncomely husband experiencing a still birth or young girls lacking beauty and unable to compensate for it. This Jane Austen emerges very fully in a little work she wrote just as she was entering adulthood and long before she’d published any of her masterly novels: ‘Lady Susan’….
Janet Todd is an internationally renowned scholar of early women writers. She has edited the complete works of England’s first professional woman writer, Aphra Behn, and the Enlightenment feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, as well as novels by Charlotte Smith, Mary Shelley and Eliza Fenwick and memoirs of the confidence trickster Mary Carleton. She is also the general editor of the 9-volume Cambridge Edition of the Works of Jane Austen and editor of Jane Austen in Context and the Cambridge Companion to Pride and Prejudice. Among her critical works are Women’s Friendship in Literature, The Sign of Angellica: Women, Writing and Fiction 1660-1800 and the Cambridge Introduction to Jane Austen. She has written four biographies: of Aphra Behn and three linked women, Mary Wollstonecraft, her daughter, and her aristocratic Irish pupils.
In the 1970s Janet Todd taught in the USA, during which time she began the first journal devoted to women’s writing. Back in the UK in the 1990s she co-founded the journal Women’s Writing. Janet has had a peripatetic and busy life, working at universities in Ghana, the US, and Puerto Rico, as well as England and Scotland. She is now an emeritus professor at the University of Aberdeen and lives in Cambridge.
Colin Firth’s memorable wet shirt scene in Pride and Prejudice has been recreated thanks to a giant statue of Mr Darcy which has been built in The Serpentine.
The fibreglass sculpture, which closely resembles Firth, stretches 12ft out of the water at London’s Hyde Park. The image of Firth emerging dripping wet from the lake at Lyme Park, Cheshire featured in the 1995 BBC adaption of the Jane Austen novel. The scene, which caused a stir at the time, recently topped a viewers’ poll of the most memorable TV moments ever.
The model of Darcy took a team of three sculptors in excess of two months to design, construct and paint. Lead sculptor Toby Crowther said: “The challenge for us was capturing the spirit of Darcy as handsome and noble but also aloof and proud. The Mr Darcy sculpture is a real mix of the many portrayals of Jane Austen’s most famous hero.” The sculpture will tour a number of locations before being installed in Lyme Park, where it will remain until February.
Adrian Wills, general manager of Drama, said: “Jane Austen spent a lot of time walking in Hyde Park and along the banks of the Serpentine, so we would like to think she would have approved of our new dashing Darcy.”
The statue has been built to celebrate today’s launch of new UKTV channel Drama, a free-to-air station on Sky and Freeview.
The July/August 2013 (No 64) edition of Jane Austen’s Regency World magazine is now out – watch out for it in your mailbox over the next few weeks. In the new issue you can read about:
Austenland: we speak to Jerusha Hess about her new film depicting one woman’s amazing hunt for her Mr Darcy
Read our exclusive preview of this year’s Jane Austen Festival in Bath
The Countess of Jersey, serial adulteress and debauchee is this issue’s Regency Rogue
Letters from Jane: a look at Austen’s correspondence
Plump cheeks and thick ankles: Jane Austen used appearance to size up her characters
A social reformer and a place called Harmony: the tale of Robert Owen
Subscribe today to Jane Austen’s Regency World, the full-colour, must-read, glossy magazine for fans of the world’s favourite author – delivered to your doorstep every two months direct from Bath, England. Plus reports from Austen societies in the UK, US and Australia; news, letters, book reviews, quiz and much, much more!
There are Jane Austen events all over the place this summer, as a number of previous posts have shown, and thankfully I can post on a few that are right here in Vermont! – so mark your calendars!
Enjoy the company of like-minded enthusiasts on Saturday July 20 for a Garden Party at Inn Victoria’s Secret Garden:
If you wish you may dress in period costume
Enjoy book readings
High Tea in an elegant & peaceful garden setting
Evening movie [a Jane Austen of course!] on the 8′ x 12′ screen
You can reserve for the day [events begin about 1pm and go through the evening movie and will cost $35. / person], or you can call to Reserve for the day and a room to spend the night….802-875-4288
Inn Victoria Chester Vermont
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The Governor’s House in Hyde Park Vermont continues its series of Jane Austen weekends with two events this August:
Governor’s House – The English Room
Pride and PrejudiceWeekend on August 2 – 4, 2013 [and if you cannot make this weekend, you can also try September 13 – 15, 2013 or January 10 – 12, 2014!]:
A leisurely weekend of literary-inspired diversions has something for every Jane Austen devoteé. Imagine a literary retreat that will slip you quietly back into Regency England in a beautiful old mansion where Jane herself would feel at home. Take afternoon tea. Listen to Mozart. Bring your needlework. Share your thoughts at a book discussion of Pride and Prejudice and how the movies stand up to the books. Attend the talk about the time of Jane Austen. Test your knowledge of Jane Austen, her books, and the Regency period and possibly take home a prize. Take a carriage ride. For the gentleman there are riding and fly fishing as well as lots of more modern diversions if a whole weekend of Jane is not his cup of tea. Join every activity or simply indulge yourself quietly all weekend watching the movies. Dress in whichever century suits you. Just imagine the interesting conversation with a whole houseful of Jane’s readers under one roof. Weekend guests have commented that they wish there had been a tape recorder under the dinner table so they could replay the evening again and again. It won’t just be good company; it will be the “company of clever well-informed people who have a great deal of conversation”. It will be the best! It’snot Bath, but it is Hyde Park and you’ll love Vermont circa 1800.
And also this: Special Jane Austen Weekend in Character, August 9 – 11, 2013
Another Jane Austen “in character” weekend is scheduled for August 2013. Each guest will choose to be a character from any one of Austen’s novels. Period dress is optional, but guests will interact in character throughout the weekend. The activities will depend somewhat on the weather and participant interest, but may include a Regency dinner party, an evening of games, letter writing, fencing, English Country dancing, crewel embroidery, tatting, rolled paper decoration, a game of croquet, a very long walk, riding, carriage driving, archery, shooting, and a picnic with or without Colonel Brandon. Rates are the same as regular Jane Austen weekends, but there is an additional charge to participate in some activities. Now’s your chance to be Elizabeth Bennet, Anne Elliot or Lady Catherine, but only one of each character may sign up so make haste to confirm your reservation. Bring your own Darcy or maybe meet him on the croquet lawn. Perhaps the door to the romance of Jane’s world isn’t in Hammersmith after all.
You can view the video of last year’s character weekend here:
You can also participate in the Inn’s periodic Afternoon Teas: [see website for costs]
Afternoon Tea and Tea Etiquette Talk – June 30, 2013 3:00 pm
Jane Austen Tea – August 3, 2013 3:00 pm
Jane Austen Tea – September 14, 2013 3:00 pm
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And a small digression here: Innkeeper Suzanne began her series of Downton Abbey discussion dinners this past winter and these will continue once the new season is broadcast, so watch the website for dates and times. And if this isn’t enough to fill up your schedule, Suzanne is also embarking on a new literary adventure called the Vermont Apple Pie Literary and Travel Society:
The fictional Guernsey Literary and Potato Pie Peel Society began as a spur-of-the-moment inspiration to make it possible for the people of Guernsey to get together and enliven their existence during the time of the World War II German occupation of the islands. Although this is Vermont and our pie will be apple, we too want to enliven our evenings with stimulating conversation. Guernsey during the occupation and how that impacted the daily lives of its citizens will be the topic for our first series of dinners and talks. We will organize a travel adventure to Guernsey and other Channel Islands in May.
It’s not your ordinary book club, more like a salon where discerning minds can share their intellectual curiosity, although books will be part of the backdrop of our discussions and we will suggest a list of possible titles to consider reading for each topic. The dinners will be held on Saturday evenings and for those who spend the weekend, there may be other activities to expand the general topic. We invite your thoughts and participation. So if you enjoy the society of people who read and think, want to learn something new, enjoy talking about ideas, yearn to visit new places and expand your circle of interesting friends, then please join us because we want to hear what you have to add to the conversation.
The dinners will be held at the Governor’s House in Hyde Park, 100 Main Street, Hyde Park, Vermont. Cost is $45.00 plus tax per person and, of course, includes home-made apple pie. See the website for reservation information.
In my ongoing posts on the variety of summer events featuring Jane Austen, here are two upcoming events this June, both sponsored by JASNA regions in New York State.
Here are the details: please visit the websites for more information on how to register…
JASNA-Rochester’s Jane Austen Weekend
War of 1812 Bicentennial and Jane Austen Weekend
Mumford, New York – June 22 & 23, 2013 – Both war and civility of the early 19th century come alive at Genesee Country Village & Museum June 22 & 23, from 10am to 4pm. Details are here: http://www.gcv.org/EventCalendar/EventDetails.aspx?eid=15
A verity of period activities have been planned to celebrate both the 200 anniversary of the War of 1812 and the publishing of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice:
The 23rd US Regiment of Infantry will read the Declaration of War and recruit men and women to fight for our young nation against the tyranny of King George III. See target shooting, military uniform displays, and tactical demonstrations to better understand the way war was waged in upstate New York.
The Jane Austen Society of North America: Rochester Chapter will attempt a marathon reading of Miss Austen’s most famous work, Pride and Prejudice. There will also be lectures and demonstrations of Social Etiquette, the Secret Language of the Fan, and an 1812 Fashion show.
The Country Dancers of Rochester (CDR) will demonstrate English Country Dancing and encourage visitor to participate in a few easy dances on the village Square. On Saturday, June 22nd from 6pm to 9pm, CDR will also play host at a Netherfield Ball. Open to the public, this ball is a chance to be Miss Bennet or Mr. Darcy and dance an evening away as Miss Austen herself would have done. Enjoy live music, lively dancing, and light refreshments. Space is limited; purchase tickets by contacting events@gcv.org.
Walk through the village to see life in a small town on the brink of war. Visit the merchants; maybe buy a bonnet or take a carriage ride. Drop in on the Militia Camp, or try your hand at quill pen writing. There is so much to do for all ages. Find out more at www.gcv.org.
The Jane Austen Society of North America is dedicated to the enjoyment and appreciation of Jane Austen and her writing.
Country Dancers of Rochester sponsors traditional New England Contra Dances and English country dances.
The 23rd US Regiment of Infantry is dedicated to learning about history by recreating it.
The Genesee Country Village & Museum was founded with the goal of preserving prime examples of architecture from upstate New York to provide historical context for the telling of the history of New York State and America in the 19th century.
Contact: Lisa Brown
Co-Coordinator of the Rochester Region
Jane Austen Society of North America Jasnaroc [at ] mail [dot] com
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JASNA-NY Capital Region’s 2nd Annual Retreat
Next up is the Jane Austen Society of North America-New York Capital Region’s 2nd Annual Retreat, this year on Jane Austen’s Persuasion
When: June 30-July 1, 2013
Where: Wiawaka Holiday House in Lake George, New York
Wiawaka Holiday House on Lake George
Join the Jane Austen Society North America-New York Capital Region for the 2nd Annual Jane Austen Retreat at Wiawaka on Lake George. Participants of the weekend will join scholars and enthusiasts in exploring Austen’s world through facilitated discussions of Persuasion, viewing and discussion of filmed adaptations of the novel, display of period dress, and presentations from well-known Austen speaker Lisa Brown and local author Marilyn Rothstein. The retreat will conclude with a picnic tea on the grounds. (Bring a lawn chair!)
In addition to planned events, the retreat will allow time for you to enjoy the splendors of the beautiful Lake George setting by exploring the cottages and grounds, the gardens, the docks and the lakes.
Schedule of Retreat Events
Sunday, June 30
Morning Registration
Afternoon Lunch
Introductions and opening discussion
Presentation: Introduction to the Regency Era (Marilyn Rothstein)
Presentation: Period Navy uniforms and regalia (Lisa Brown)
Evening Dinner
View Persuasion film and discuss
Monday, July 1
Morning Breakfast and discussion of novel
Presentation: “How Captain Wentworth Made His Fortune” (Lisa Brown)
Afternoon Picnic Tea
Registration and Costs
Members of JASNA: $15
Non-members: $25* [If you join JASNA before the Retreat, you will pay the member price]
Hurray, this one is not so very far from me and I am planning on going – who can resist 2 days of learning, viewing, and discussing Persuasion! Anyone want to join me?
Jane Austen in Vermont 