In case any of you are to be in London next week, there are spaces still available at the Jane Austen Society Conference on “The Cult and Commerce of Jane Austen”, November 22, at the University of London. Click here for information.
Category: Jane Austen
The Very Pricey Jane….
The Novels and The Letters of Jane Austen, Published in 1923, based on the collation of the early editions by R.W. Chapman. The large paper edition limited to 1000 copies, sold in October on Abebooks for $4,862.
This similar edition pictured is currently for sale on Abebooks by Peter Harrington Antiquarian Bookseller, London for $10,382.22.
Book Description: Oxford, The Clarendon Press, 1923-32, 1923. The text based on the collation of the early editions by R.W. Chapman. With notes indexes and illustrations from contemporary sources. Large Paper Edition. Limited to 1,000 sets of which 950 are for sale. 7 volumes, 8vo. Finely bound by The Chelsea Bindery in full dark green morocco, titles and decoration to spines gilt, raised bands, single rule to boards gilt, twin rule to turn-ins gilt, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt. With colour and black and white illustrations. A fine set.
There are other various editions for sale as well, any number to add to your holiday wish-list! Go to Abebooks.com for a selection…
Austen & Baseball Redux!
So it continues…the question if Jane Austen really invented baseball [ see my previous post here as well as Janeite Kelly’s comment that indeed the OED cites Austen in Northanger Abbey as first using the term “baseball” in literature.] So all this banter can only take the usual cultural turn of appearing on Comedy Central where all things are given their just due. Thanks to David at Random Curiosity for this link to Stephen Colbert on Jane Austen Baseball.
http://randomcuriosity.com/journal/archives/001553.html
David also provides text, in the probable event the video shall one day disappear … it is quite good, so give it a look for your daily chuckle!
Found! ~ the new Regency Researcher Site
I may be late to the table, but just discovered this morning a new Regency site: Nancy Mayer ~ Regency Researcher. Nancy is gradually putting all her many-years worth of Regency and Jane Austen expertise onto her website, and we will be the grateful benefactors of her knowledge. There is an excellent bibliography, a series of links, and the option to ask her any question you might have on the period.
Here is the Subject Index:
Dance & Music
Education
Law NEW!
Marriage
Medicine
Parliament & Politics
Period Publications
Peers & Peerage
Regency Fashion
Titles & Names
And remember to check back often as she continues to add information.
Thank you Nancy, for this lovely new addition to the online Regency world! [and a thank you to Susanna Ives for hosting Nancy on her website: Susanna Ives ~ Regency Romance Writer!]
In “the company of well-informed people who have a great deal of conversation!”
This is the time of year for the many Austen Birthday Teas and events, so here is a round-up of happenings in a wide-sweep of the Northeast, starting with our very own Vermont.
JASNA ~ Vermont:
- Annual Birthday Tea with the Burlington Country Dancers
- Sunday, December 7, 2008 2-5 pm
- Champlain College Burlington VT, Hauke Center
- click here for the full post for information and to RSVP
Jane Austen Weekend at the Governor’s House in Hyde Park, VT
- Friday – Sunday, December 12 – 14, 2008
- Friday – Sunday, January 9 – 11, 2009
The Governor’s House in Hyde Park, Vermont is offering several “Persuasion” related Jane Austen Weekends. Please click here for all the information. You can sign up for the whole weekend or just take part in one or more of the activities:
- Informal Talk with Coffee and Dessert, Friday, 8:00 p.m.,
- Afternoon Tea, Saturday, 3:00 p.m.
- Book Discussion and Dinner, Saturday, 7:00 p.m.
- Jane Austen Quiz and Sunday Brunch, Sunday, 11:30 a.m.
*********************************
The Burlington English Country Dancers ~ Nov-Dec schedule:
Friday, November 21, 2008
7:30pm to 9:30pm
Music by Lar Duggan (piano) & Dominique Gagne (flute) of Impropriety
Teaching by Wendy Gilchrist, Martha Kent, Val Medve
Elley-Long Music Center
223 Ethan Allen Ave., Colchester, VT
(in Fort Ethan Allen complex, off Route 15)
$8 ($5 student)
Friday, December 5, 2008
DIFFERENT TIME: 8pm to 10pm
Music by Impropriety
(Lar Duggan on piano, Dominique Gagne on flute, Laura Markowitz on violin, Ana Ruesink on viola)
Teaching by Val Medve
DIFFERENT LOCATION:
Vermont International Festival
Champlain Valley Expo (Fairgrounds)
Route 15, Essex Junction, VT
Enjoy supper (extra charge), concerts, and great shopping at the festival from 5pm to 8pm.
Combo ticket is $12 ($9 student) & includes all-weekend festival pass PLUS this Friday night dance.
Combo ticket is $5 for our dance series subscribers & includes all-weekend festival pass PLUS this Friday night dance.
Otherwise, dance only is $8 ($5 student) and all-weekend festival pass is $6 — available at door.
Combo ticket is available in advance (at our Nov. 7 & 21 dances or from Val Medve) OR at door.
Friday, December 19, 2008
7:30pm to 9:30pm
Music by Impropriety
(Lar Duggan on piano, Dominique Gagne on flute, Laura Markowitz on violin, Ana Ruesink on viola)
Teaching by Wendy Gilchrist, Martha Kent, Val Medve
Elley-Long Music Center
223 Ethan Allen Ave., Colchester, VT
(in Fort Ethan Allen complex, off Route 15)
$8 ($5 student)
*************************************************
JASNA ~ Massachusetts:
- Sunday, Nov. 16th, 2 p.m.
Marcia Folsom
Wheelock College, Brookline Campus, 43 Hawes St.
Topic: The Privilege of My Profession
- Sunday, Dec. 14th, 2 p.m. Jane Austen’s Birthday Celebration
With The Newton Country Players Wheelock College, Brookline Campus, 43 Hawes Street.
JASNA ~ Montreal-Quebec:
- November 17: regular meeting [Report on the Chicago AGM; discussion of Kipling’s short story “The Janeites”]
- December 16 (Tuesday): Annual Birthday Tea
- Contact: Elaine Bander ( ebander [at] dawson college [dot] qc [dot] ca )
A Frivolous Distinction, Dress in the Regency Period
BIRTHDAY MEETING – SUNDAY, DECEMBER 14 at 2:00 p.m. General Society Library, 20 West 44th Street (between Fifth & Sixth)
The well known designer and fashion historian, Daniel Cole will present an illustrated talk on Regency clothing explaining many of the intriguing mysteries of both women’s and men’s clothing. What, for example, are half-boots? Were women’s dresses actually wetted down to make them cling? Why were knee britches for formal attire and pantaloons for daytime? These and many other fascinating facts about clothing in Jane Austen’s time will be explored.
A Jane Austen Christmas Event in Mahwah-12/10
Wednesday, Dec 10 7:00p to 8:30p at Mahwah Public Library, Mahwah, NJ
Join Carolyn Epstein (member of JASNA) for a discussion of how the characters in Jane Austen’s books amused themselves during their social gatherings, the importance of music, word games, and cards, and “an Emma Christmas Eve”
Price: Free, registration required
Phone: (201) 529-7323
Age Suitability: All Ages
Carolyn Epstein teaches at St. Thomas Aquinas College in the English/Writing Department. She is a member of the Jane Austen Society of North America.
Registration necessary beginning November 10th
Event Website
Winter Program to celebrate the 233rd anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth by making merry with fellow Janeites, good company and good cooks. What devilish and challenging game awaits us this year? Please join us to delight in each other’s company as we cavort merrily and behave in ways “most profligate and shocking.”
- Location: Ellerslie at Crosslands, Kennett Square, PA 19348
- Date: Sunday, December 7, 2008
- Time: 1:30 PM to 4:00 PM
- Directions: Follow Route 1, north or south depending upon one’s starting point, to Route 52 north. Turn onto Route 52 north, then follow Route 52 north, until turning onto Route 926 east. OR follow Route 3, east or west depending on one’s starting point, then turn onto Rout 926 west. Turn into Crosslands parking lot from Route 926.
- Please bring a sweet or savory to share. Coffee and tea will be provided. Another Birthday Basket will be offered. Take a chance!
****************************************
If there are more events out there in the east, please email me to let me know ~ and Kelly and I send wishes for all to have grand celebrations!
JASNA~Vermont’s Annual Birthday Tea!
You are Cordially Invited to JASNA-Vermont’s
~ Annual Jane Austen Birthday Tea ~
with
The Burlington Country Dancers & “Impropriety”
[ Val Medve calling ~ Lar Duggan, piano ~ Dominique Gagne, flute ~ Laura Markowitz, violin ~ Ana Ruesink, viola ]
featuring
English Afternoon Tea ♦ Gift Emporium ♦ Live Music
Sunday, 7 December 2008 2 – 5 pm
Champlain College Burlington, VT ~ Hauke Center, 375 Maple St
“Such very superior dancing is not often seen!” ~ Pride & Prejudice
Dancers demonstrate – Audiences participate!
$10 in advance / $12 at the door / JASNA members $5
RSVP, Tickets & Information: jasna-vt [at] hotmail [dot] com
Dress : regency costume ♦ holiday finery ♦ comfy clothes & shoes
Please Join Us!
“The Morning was all bustle & shopping…” [P&P]
The season is upon us! ~ I append a few thoughts for Austen-related gifts for the upcoming gift-giving holidays, and what better than to shower your friends and family with all things Austen!
I have chosen sample items from various sources ~ follow the links for prices and ordering information; you will also find other products for sale. Have fun!
To begin, see the JASNA website for Austen-themed gifts for the holidays available from several chapters [remember that your purchase supports the chapter] ~ here are a few of the many items:
Holiday cards from Eastern PA JASNA Chapter
Wisconsin JASNA Chapter 2009 calendars
At the Metropolitan New York Chapter, you can purchase Gene Gill’s new book:
Jest for Janeites, by Gene C. Gill
This gently priced collection of hilarious cartoons by JASNA-NY’s Gene Gill sends up the sequels, the prequels, the films, and even ourselves. Grab copies of this book for yourself and as a stocking stuffer for friends! [$11.00 each (includes shipping costs)]
**************************************************************************
After you have perused all the JASNA Chapter offerings, you can meander to these sites … there is a feast out there!
If you have any friends who do NOT have this, now is the time to give them the Jane Austen action figure ~ at Amazon.com: there is a full shop here of Austen-related products, but as always, I advise you to shop at your local bookshop first!
A Lizzie-inspired bonnet from Austentation.com
Jane Austen note cards from the Jane Austen Centre in Bath
An I Love Jane button at Cafe Press.com
An Austen pop-art print , also at Cafe Press.com [there are many Austen-related products at this site…]
A Regency dance-inspired tote bag at the Pemberely Shoppe [also from Cafe press, but through The Republic of Pemberley site]
If you tend toward paper dolls ~ here is your chance to get one of each of your favorite Austen characters, or even Jane herself! see Legacy Designs
[please note: if you will be attending the JASNA-Vermont December 7th Birthday Tea, you can buy them from us and help to support your local chapter!]
The Jane Austen wearable art pin from Etsy
There are several Austen images at CartoonStock.com and the Cartoon Bank at The New Yorker [at the former you can purchase an image to put on any number of items: tee-shirts, mugs.] I am not attaching any images as a license was required, but please visit the sites to see some of their very funny cartoons, including a wet-shirted Darcy!
[this is one of Gene Gill’s cartoons, and Ted Adams of San Francisco won the caption contest at the Chicago AGM ~ see above for a copy of Gill’s book, Jest for Janeites.]
An Advent calendar of Westminster Abbey from Bas Bleu
Jane Austen Notable card at Shakespeare’s Den, where there are other Austen gifts (including the action figure noted above), and a feast of Shakespeare gifts… such as:
this Ann Hathaway teapot!
Books will be given a post of their own, but for movies visit the PBS Shop for the many BBC productions of Austen’s works … like this latest Sense & Sensibility (where ITV at least gave it enough time to be meaningful!…and really, who can resist David Morrissey as Colonel Brandon?!)
And while you are watching your movie, a glass of wine is in order ~ corked with your new Jane Austen Novelstops wine stopper from Bas Bleu!
- “I will drink the wine myself”
and finally, I ked [sic] you not ~ the Jane Austen Rose Sneaker by Keds at Zazzle.com [lots of other products!]
[please note: these are on MY Holiday wish-list, in case anyone is in need of an idea!….]
Happy Shopping!
Cheerio, Deb [who hates to shop, but one can never have enough Austen! ~ stay tuned for some book thoughts ~]
Round-Up ~ All Things Austen
This week is mostly about books….!
Jane Odiwe tells of her new book: a sequel to S&S, Mr. Willoughby Returns: (see her blog for more info)
When Marianne Dashwood weds Colonel Brandon both are aware of the other’s past attachments; Marianne’s grand passion for the charming but ruthless John Willoughby and Brandon’s tragic amour for his lost love Eliza. Three years on Marianne is living with her husband and child at Delaford Park, deeply in love and contented for the most part, although Marianne’s passionate, impulsive and sometimes jealous behaviour is an impediment to her true happiness. News that John Willoughby and his wife have returned to the West Country brings back painful memories for Marianne and with the demise of Mrs Smith of Allenham Court comes the possibility of Mr Willoughby and his wife returning to live near Barton and the surrounding area of Devon and Dorset, a circumstance which triggers a set of increasingly challenging, yet often amusing perplexities for Marianne and the families who live round about.
Alert Janeite Nancy M. has posted about The Lost Years of Jane Austen, by Barbara Ker Wilson [Ulysses Press, Nov. 2008]
“Thanks to her meticulous diaries and frequent letters, Jane Austen’s life is well documented. Except for a mysterious period in her early 20s , when, for unknown reasons, her sister Cassandra burned all of Jane’s personal writings.”
A fantasy of what could have happened in the lost years.
Australia and Wentworth are mentioned [but as Laurel Ann proposes, is the a book written in 1984 titled Jane in Australia ?]
Peter Ackroyd, author of many a British literary tome – novels and all manner of non-fiction, has a new book, The Thames: A Biography [Nan Talese, 2008] to follow his London: A Biography of 2000. Published last year in the U.K. under the title Thames: Sacred River, and now available in the US, this is a must for my London collection! Here is a review from Publisher’s Weekly:
For a river with such a famous history, England’s Thames measures only 215 miles. Acclaimed novelist and biographer Ackroyd (Hawksmoor; Shakespeare) invites readers on an eclectic, sprawling and delightful cruise of this important waterway. The Thames has been a highway, a frontier and an attack route; it has been a playground and a sewer, a source of water and a source of power, writes Ackroyd. Historians believe the river may have been important for transport and commerce as early as the Neolithic Age. The ancient Egyptian goddess Isis has a long association with the Thames, which was used for baptisms, both pagan and Christian, during the Roman Empire. The British tribes tried to use the Thames as a defense against Julius Caesar’s invasion, and the Normans built the Tower of London and Windsor Castle on the Thames as symbols of military preeminence. The royal waterway carried Anne Boleyn to both her coronation and her beheading, and famously served as inspiration for paintings by Turner and Monet and for Handel’s Water Music, commissioned to associate the German-born George I with a potent source of English power. Elegant and erudite, Ackroyd’s gathering of rich treats does the famed tributary proud. Illus., maps. (Nov. 4)
See this LA Times review
Lavolta Press has published this French book from 1820:
The Lady’s Stratagem: A Repository of 1820s Directions for the Toilet, Mantua-Making, Stay-Making, Millinery & Etiquette
Edited, translated, and with additional material by Frances Grimble
Publication date: November 3, 2008
755 pages; 98 line drawings, 36 halftones
Glossary, bibliography, and index
ISBN: 978-0-9636517-7-8
Cover price: $75.00
Lavolta Press
20 Meadowbrook Drive
San Francisco, California 94132
415/566-6259
www.lavoltapress.com
and also see this review at PR-Canada.net
The Books Please blog reviews Georgette Heyer’s Friday’s Child. [Margeret has created a very thoughtful reading blog and is one you should visit often…] for this, her first Heyer read, she links to the Georgette Heyer Reading Challenge Blog. I confess to just starting MY first Heyer, Faro’s Daughter, and will post a review soon.
And finally a visit to Austenprose for her November booklist… [some duplicates I fear, but we are always looking for the same thing!]
For those of you interested in textiles, visit R. John Howe’s blog on Textiles and Text where he reports on the recent textile symposium in Washington DC… many lovely photographs to view!
And for those of you who are hungry, Regency Reader Blog writes about the typical Regency breakfast; and while you are there, look at the other recent posts on Bath, Tattersall’s, and various historical Regency novels that have been reviewed.
And finally for a bit of end-of- the-week humor (or maybe not…), take a quick look at the results of the Guardian.co.uk contest on redesigning covers of literary classics for a “dumbed-down” age. Dickens had the most entries it seems, but as you can see, Jane made the list!
Happy reading!
Deb
Our Jane and Baseball…??
This cannot wait for the weekly round-up! See this article in today’s CNN.com edition :
According to author Julian Norridge baseball originated in Britain, and part of his proof comes from a reference in Jane Austen’s novel “Northanger Abbey.”
Norridge, whose book “Can we Have our Balls Back, Please?” focuses on Britain’s role in writing the rulebooks for a long list of sports, says Austen mentioned baseball in the opening pages of “Northanger Abbey,” which was written in 1797-98.
Norridge says that Austen referenced the sport while introducing her tomboy heroine Catherine Morland, writing: “It was not very wonderful that Catherine, who had nothing heroic about her, should prefer cricket, baseball, riding on horseback, and running about the country at the age of 14, to books.”
He argues in his book that the reference indicates British people were familiar with the sport prior to its supposed invention much later in the United States.
Can I have read this book so many times without that word jumping off the page?? Baseball is spelled “base ball” in my text …. but as a die-hard Yankees fan [OMG, what an admission!], I should have certainly at least noticed this! …. so I put this out to you, Kind Readers, and ask for your thoughts … and has anyone written about this before??
Further reading:
- see this reference for Rounders at Wikipedia
- Ron Kaplan’s Baseball Bookshelf Blog
- Article at Telegraph.co.uk
- At Republic of Pemberley: a reference to Austen being the “first person to use this term in print for almost fifty years”
Voting for Jane…
Before you go to the polls today to VOTE, head over to the Jane Austen Addict website of author Laurie Viera Rigler for a look at 3 videos on Jane for President!
[and a thank you to Ms. Place at JA’s World for the heads-up!]
Jane Austen in Vermont 