A New Jane Austen Edition! Folio Society 2025

August 20, 2025August 20, 2025 BookLady Deb1 Comment

The Folio Society has a long history of publishing Jane Austen’s novels – some as sets, some as stand-alone editions of individual novels – I have them all and marvel at their variety, the different illustrators who bring their own vision to Austen’s tales.

There is a new edition on the horizon, all in celebration of Austen’s 250^th, a full box set, and limited to 750 copies – I give you the full press release from Folio – and may you be one of the fortunate ones to acquire this for your collection! – it will be available September 9, 2025.

The Complete Novels by Jane Austen, The Folio Society, 2025.

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THE COMPLETE NOVELS BY JANE AUSTEN

Illustrated by: Sarah Young
Foreword by: Lucy Worsley

(The Folio Society | Six-Volume Box Set |
Limited Edition: 750 copies | $1,250 | September 9, 2025)

Featuring all six of Jane Austen’s major novels, encased in delicately woven, silk-and-cotton covers and reimagined with spectacular, original illustrations by Sarah Young, the latest limited edition from The Folio Society is guaranteed to bewitch readers, body and soul.

The Folio Society proudly presents The Complete Novels by Jane Austen—a landmark, six-volume limited edition of Austen’s major works, published to celebrate the 250th anniversary of her birth. With a new foreword by historian and bestselling author Lucy Worsley and breathtaking color illustrations by acclaimed artist Sarah Young, this edition is the definitive tribute to Jane Austen’s literary legacy.

Delightful, witty, and enduringly relevant, Jane Austen is one of the most beloved novelists in the English language. Her novels Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion have enchanted readers for generations and inspired countless retellings. Austen is peerless in her ability to blend sharp social commentary with unforgettable characters; her critiques on love, class, marriage, and gender remain relevant centuries later.

The Complete Novels by Jane Austen, The Folio Society, 2025.

Every detail of this edition has been crafted with exceptional care. Each of the six novels will include a woodcut frontispiece, five linocut illustrations, and fifteen vignettes by Sarah Young, who brings a folkloric sensibility to Austen’s world; a monogram specially commissioned from prize-winning calligrapher Ruth Rowland; gilded edges; a ribbon maker; and first edition text, with introductions by Elena Ferrante, Sebastian Faulks, Lucy Worsley, Fay Weldon, Val McDermid, and Siri Hustvedt.

From Pride and Prejudice: “…in earnest contemplation…”
Illustrations © Sarah Young 2025, from The Complete Novels by Jane Austen, The Folio Society.

The novels will be covered in silk-and-cotton jacquard cloth specially woven by Stephen Walters—a luxury silk maker that weaves fabric for royal coronations and weddings, including the silk used in Princess Diana’s wedding dress. The six books will be housed in a gorgeous box designed by award-winning graphic designer Emily Benton.

From Sense and Sensibility: the Willoughby rescue…
Illustrations © Sarah Young 2025, from The Complete Novels by Jane Austen, The Folio Society.

The Complete Novels by Jane Austen is a true celebration of a master storyteller, and a treasure to be handed down from generation to generation.

PRODUCTION DETAILS

•           Limited Box Set: 750 copies, $1,250
•           Six volumes: Sense and Sensibility (392 pages); Pride and Prejudice (400 pages); Mansfield Park (476 pages); Emma (496 pages); Northanger Abbey (260 pages); Persuasion (268 pages)
•           Each volume includes a 2pp frontispiece, five illustrations, and fifteen vignettes spread throughout the text, illustrated in full color by Sarah Young
•           Full bound in jacquard silk-and-cotton cloth woven by Stephen Walters
•           Printed 4/4 throughout on Munken Pure paper
•           Gilded on 3 edges
•           Presented in a box designed by Emily Benton, covered in blocked cloth
•           Monograms commissioned from Ruth Roland
•           Limitation tip printed letterpress
•           Ribbon marker

From Pride and Prejudice: The Letter!
Illustrations © Sarah Young 2025, from The Complete Novels by Jane Austen, The Folio Society.

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– ABOUT JANE AUSTEN

Jane Austen was born in Hampshire in 1775, the seventh child and youngest daughter of George Austen, rector of Deane and Steventon, and his wife, Cassandra. She began writing poems, plays and stories for her family from a young age, and her first published novel, Sense and Sensibility, was released by Thomas Egerton to sell-out acclaim in 1811. Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1815) followed, and these were the last of Austen’s works to come out in her lifetime. Her novels, including the posthumously published Northanger Abbey (1818) and Persuasion (1818), are today considered amongst the finest in the English language. She died at Winchester in 1817.

– ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR

From Sense and Sensibility.
Illustrations © Sarah Young 2025, from The Complete Novels by Jane Austen, The Folio Society.

Sarah Young is a painter, printmaker, and illustrator. She is also the maker and originator, with Jon Tutton, of a traveling puppet theater. Her work is often narrative, drawing on folktales, myths, and fairytales, and has been shown in galleries throughout the UK, from the Shetland Islands to Cornwall. As an illustrator, she has most recently worked on book covers for Stephen Fry’s Mythos series, Pat Barker’s Trojan War novels, and the complete works of Shakespeare for Oxford University Press. Tutton and Young organize contemporary art and craft events, including Made London and the Brighton Art Fair, and run Atelier Beside the Sea—an art gallery, shop, and creative teaching space in Brighton.

[you can follow her work on instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/sarah.a.c.young/ ]

– ABOUT THE INTRODUCER

Lucy Worsley OBE is a historian, author and television presenter. After studying history at New College, Oxford, she served for 21 years as Chief Curator at the charity Historic Royal Palaces, based at Hampton Court Palace. She won a BAFTA in 2018 for the BBC documentary Suffragettes with Lucy Worsley. She is the author of Jane Austen at Home, Queen Victoria, and the Sunday Times #1 bestselling book Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman. Lucy is also the author of a historical novel for younger readers, The Austen Girls.

– ABOUT THE FOLIO SOCIETY

Folio is an employee-owned, independent publisher that has thrilled and delighted a band of dedicated readers across the globe since 1947. Today, from our workspace in the heart of London’s vibrant Shad Thames, Folio continues that tradition by crafting exquisite, illustrated books. Folio publishes many of the greatest names in publishing, in editions which reflect an extraordinary commitment to the craft of book-making and design. Folio’s award-winning books include George R. R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones, Madeline Miller’s A Song of Achilles, Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, and Diana Wynne Jones’s Howl’s Moving Castle. Proudly independent for over 75 years, in 2021 The Folio Society became an Employee Ownership Trust. Folio’s team of editors, designers and artisans will do whatever it takes to give each title everything it deserves, from outstanding intellectual firepower to extraordinary craftsmanship.

The Complete Novels by Jane Austen, The Folio Society, 2025.

Available exclusively from Folio through www.foliosociety.com. You can read about their upcoming titles, including this Austen set here: https://www.foliosociety.com/uk/coming-soon

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Adventures with Jane! Day XII: Bath to London Wanderings…

July 31, 2025August 3, 2025 BookLady Deb2 Comments

Hotel Indigo [from their website – I forgot to take a picture!]

Our last group breakfast at our Hotel Indigo in Bath – hugs and goodbyes and “safe travels” to all who boarded the bus to Heathrow – and those of us doing the London extension boarded ours – we were a small group, and each of us with our own London agenda. We would be gathering only for breakfast each day and then on our own until the next evening’s play Clueless [more on that tomorrow…]

Our London hotel in Bloomsbury [love staying in Bloomsbury!] was a tad bizarre with the ugliest couch I have ever encountered – but we managed for the two nights as were never there…

[Not sure what that shadow is – appears to be a Knight in Shining Armor – but he too was frightened away by the couch…]

But first, a photo of this wallpaper – I think it was in the hotel in Bath – but this is a favorite pattern of mine so have to share:

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As Joy and I had a few of the same agenda high spots, off we went, walking everywhere, just so overJOYed to be in London again…

First, the John Soane Museum, comprising three houses in Lincoln’s Inn Fields – Soane’s architectural office, his home and library, and later home to his extraordinary collections. Since his death in 1857, everything has remained the same – all the works of art, sculptures, and furniture – all as he had it arranged (similar again to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston) and why there is minimal signage and no labels.

Exterior of the Soane Museum [from their website]

Soane is considered one of Britain’s greatest and most innovative architects – though his design for Whitehall, here as a model, was never executed:

Some of his work is found: [for a full list see here]

Bank of England [Threadneedle St London]

Dulwich Picture Gallery, London

Holy Trinity Church Marylebone

Royal Belfast Academical Institution

Royal Hospital Chelsea

St John’s Church, Bethnal Green, London

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As you first enter the dining room and library, you come face to face with his portrait by Thomas Lawrence.

The entire museum is a maze of rooms filled from top to bottom with Soane’s collections – one couldn’t take it all in in with daily visits for months – a few hours just leaves one quite overwhelmed [not to mention humbled…]

Let’s take a quick tour with a few of the photos I took [not enough!]

The Picture Room:

– Venetian scenes by Canaletto [alas! no photos…idiot]

– hidden behind large wooden doors that open up to another group of paintings – only about 10 people are allowed in for the timed viewings – we were SO lucky to arrive just in time – behind the panels we found Hogarth’s The Rake’s Progress – here just a few (but you can see the whole series here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Rake%27s_Progress

Austen as we know knew her Hogarth – she references him in a letter to Cassandra [8 Sept 1796]:

she has decided to not go to London with Frank for fear her friends will not be there –

“…for if the Pearsons were not at home, I should inevitably fall a Sacrifice to the arts of some fat Woman who would make me drunk with Small Beer.”

She is referencing here in her witty way the first plate of Hogarth’s The Harlot’s Progress – Austen understands the reality of a young woman alone in London:

You can see the rest of the plates here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Harlot%27s_Progress

The Basement:

In the basement you find the Monks Parlour: Soane here making fun of the Gothic style – the “monk” was Padre Giovanni, Soane’s imaginary alter ego – you could be invited here to tea – between this and the nearby sarcophagus of King Seti I (1303-1290 BC), considered one of the most important of all surviving Egyptian antiquities, I might have rethought a nighttime visit to Mr. Soane’s basement parlour…

[from the Soane fb page]

[from the Soane Museum website]

The Kitchen:

I can never resist an old kitchen – and here we have a patent range dating from 1812, as well as the china pantry with my favorite blue and white…

We find Shakespeare with his own hallowed place in the stairwell:

And the Drawing Rooms, painted in “Turner’s patent yellow,” we find family portraits and fine furniture:

[South Drawing Room – from the Soane Museum website]

And can we ever have a day without finding a George IV on the wall??

One of the dome ceilings:

And a secret photo of Joy and me! [I didn’t see this until I got home!]

The Apollo Belvedere [a cast from the one in Rome]: a very odd angle, not sure what I was thinking…

And the famous Dome Ceiling:

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Lovely time here – wish we could have spent more, but I was quite dizzy as we emerged into the light of day…and now time to just do a little more wandering to must-see places:

I passed LSE where I had gone to classes on my semester abroad in 1968:

Passing the Royal Courts of Justice, we saw much press activity about a famous court case about to be decided – I knew nothing about any of it and still don’t and cannot find anything in the news!

Of course a trip to London is never complete without a visit to Twinings [Jane would approve as well]

I have never understood why in a country founded and sustained by Tea, they do not serve iced tea – yet, here at Twinings at the sample tea bar in the back of the store, one of the “flavours of the day” was an iced tea – here is the recipe: Enjoy, wherever you are…

Dinner at The Wellington [appropriate since I started this trip engrossed in the guy – see first posts of this trip] was to finish our day – delicious beef pie – with Joy spotting a Winston Churchill behind her!

Walking back to hotel we took in the Royal Drury Lane Theatre,

And The Marquess of Anglesey – I feel connected to the good Marquess because I use an image of him in his curricle in my talks on Regency carriages and travel in Jane Austen’s time:

Passing by this artful extravaganza: quite the magical show – we could not stop smiling!:

Found the home of Randolph Caldecott, complete Hero in the history of children’s literature – I love him:

Caldecott’s John Gilpin

And finally the London Review of Books Bookshop, a favorite spot, but this evening closed because of an author event in progress…

So ‘til tomorrow – last day! Aren’t you exhausted??

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Adventures with Jane! Day V: To Worthing and Winchester

June 5, 2025 BookLady Deb2 Comments

This morning we headed off once again after our last English breakfast at Culpeper’s Restaurant at the Chilston Park Hotel… for a two-hour trek to Worthing, at the seaside, and where Jane Austen stayed in September 1805 ’til at least early November [Le Faye, Chronology, 319]. I have read about this time of her life and her extended stay here – the must-read book is the Antony Edmonds’ Jane Austen’s Worthing: The Real Sanditon (Amberley, 2013):

Profusely illustrated, Edmonds tells all about the history of Worthing and what it was like in 1805 as Jane would have experienced it. She was here with her mother, sister Cassandra, Martha Lloyd, niece Fanny Austen [later Knight], and Miss Sharpe – they stayed in Stanford Cottage, now a Pizza Express, and where we were met by members of the Worthing Society. They were terrific – gave a powerpoint lecture on Austen’s time here [interesting to learn that they were here in October 21, 1805, the date of the Battle of Trafalgar and the death of Nelson [and they were likely all worried about where Frank was then located – did they know then that he was not part of the battle?]]

[Death of Nelson, by Benjamin West – Wikipedia]

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Stanford Cottage:

And this from the lecture on the route the Austens et al would have traveled to Worthing:

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Worthing was a place made famous by the arrival of Princess Amelia, youngest daughter of George III, who came here for sea-bathing to improve her health [to no avail: she died of tuberculosis in 1810]. Other notables who either visited or lived for a time in Worthing were Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron, Charles Lamb, the poet Robert Bloomfield, the poet and critic Horace Smith, and the actor Colonel Berkeley and actress Mrs. Bunn (Margaret Somerville, and a bit after Austen). There are a number of “Blue Plaques” scattered around town noting other people of historical interest [including Harold Pinter, who wrote “The Homecoming” while living here from 1962-64]. One an only conjecture if Austen ran into any of these people… or if she would have liked Pinter’s turn as Sir Thomas in the 1999 Patricia Rozema Mansfield Park…?]

[House where Princess Amelia stayed]

One is easily sidetracked from the main event: Jane Austen in Worthing.

I was quite taken with the town, between the seaside, the Ferris Wheel, the beach, the enchanting streets, and by the graciousness of our hosts. After the lecture, we inhaled pizza, then took a walking tour guided by our Worthing Society hosts that followed Austen’s time here:

[The Dome Cinema, 1911]

[a street just as Austen would have seen it…well, without the signs, the asphalt, the cars, the trash cans…but the buildings remains as they were then…]

And her path to the circulating library, which is now closed to walkers…

…. you can read more about the closure of this “Library Passage” [called a “twitten”] to the Circulating Marine Library that Jane would have walked: https://janeausteninvermont.blog/2012/03/01/the-library-passage-in-worthing-under-threat-of-closure-how-you-can-help/

and the followup here: https://janeausteninvermont.blog/2012/07/18/update-worthings-library-passage/

…. and the path to the water for a refreshing dip [there were 30 bathing machines at the time, and “were, according to the 1805 town guide, segregated, so that ‘every proper attention is paid to decency’.”] [Worthing Society Heritage Leaflet No. 2, “Jane Austen” (c2013, Janet Clarke)]

Venus’s Bathing (Margate):
Hand-coloured etching, 1790 By: Thomas Rowlandson
courtesy of the Wellcome Collection

All that is known about this family trip is through Fanny Austen’s notebook jottings – there are no letters from this time, and indeed no letters from Jane from 30 August 1805 until 7-8 January 1807 (Letter 48(C) is a July 24, 1806 poem to Fanny and is only a copy written out by Anna Lefroy) – what happened in those years remains a mystery … and ripe for fictional interpretation.

But Edmonds makes a strong case for Austen’s visit to Worthing as being the foundation of her last novel Sanditon – all the characters of the town are in place in her story, sadly never finished, and also ripe for fictional completions, of which there are several [as well as the over-the-top-but-beautiful-to-look-at 3-season TV series].

–

You can read more on the Worthing Society here: https://www.worthingsociety.org.uk/

We thanked our new-found friends in Worthing and were then on our way to Winchester, from where we will spend the next 4 days journeying from there to take in the Jane-in-Hampshire sites…

In the meantime, dinner at our hotel, the Winchester Hotel & Spa:

[from the hotel website as I failed ot take a picture!]

More on Worthing here, a guest post by Chris Sandrawich: https://janeausteninvermont.blog/2012/05/10/in-search-of-jane-austen-guest-post-a-tour-of-worthing-by-chris-sandrawich/

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Adventures with Jane! Day IV: Goodnestone, Godmersham, and Canterbury

June 3, 2025June 4, 2025 BookLady Deb4 Comments

What an extraordinary day this was!

First, we traveled on our bus today to Goodnestone [did I mention yet our very-talented bus driver on this trip, Paul? A master of small lanes, hedgerows, and city maneuvers, Paul brought his expertise, patience (with all the Jane talk!), and humor to each day. The bus was smaller than the average bus, but with NO SIDE MIRROS, which proved his abilities beyond possibility…[I have a picture thanks to Joy!..]

– but I bring this up because today, traveling down a country lane on the way to Goodnestone, this big red behemoth attracted a herd of sheep like none of us have ever seen – unlike a Gary Larson cartoon, where the cows keep eating and ignoring the passing-by humans, these sheep raced to the fence to visit the huge bus – did they think it was their Mother?? Many of us got out to greet them, all running toward us – whatever they expected or what was on their minds we were unable to determine – but it gave us all a good laugh and we felt more welcomed than ever to the Kent countryside [I did have a Thomas Hardy moment of all the sheep racing to and jumping over the cliff edge in Far From the Madding Crowd, one of the most distressing moments in 19^th century literature…but no such sad outcome for us – the fence stopped any such disaster and we just bid them all adieu and continued our journey smiling all the way…]

Goodnestone was the family home of Elizabeth Bridges, wife to Edward Knight. Brook Bridges purchased the home in 1704 [more on him in a bit…] – it remains in the family and now you can visit the house and gardens and it serves as a wedding venue. I was looking forward to seeing this house and having tea there, but alas! our plans were sent all askew by a film crew taking over the house for a “Marriage at First Sight” filming… the UK series has been on TV since 2015 – I did watch ½ an episode on TV while there and was quite stupefied by its stupidity…but if it helps support the Goodnestone estate, then that is a mere quibble of taste…

So, only distant shots, and a visit to the Church of the Holy Cross, where we were introduced to one of the family who gave us the low-down on the family history, and a tour around the church. This is the church where Edward and Elizabeth were married – it was actually a double wedding [Elizabeth’s sister Sophia and William Deedes], perhaps giving Austen the idea for her Pride and Prejudice double wedding of the Bennet sisters, Elizabeth and Jane.

Of interest to Janeites is the plaque to J. David Grey, one of the founders of JASNA, and installed here in his memory with JASNA’s support.

Then off to Chilham, the village that served as the location for Highbury in the 2009 Emma series. We were able to walk around the village and had lunch at the Woolpack Inn, established in 1480 [so delicious, I forgot to take a single picture!], and an appropriate spot considering our sheep welcome…

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Then to Godmersham Park, my most anticipated spot on the tour. First to the Church, surprisingly not a St Nicholas, but a St. Lawrence: here we had a history lesson about its connections to the Austens.

Godmersham Park was Edward Austen’s home, inherited from his adoptive parents that required him to change his name to Knight. Here he and Elizabeth raised their 11 children [Elizabeth died after the birth of the 11^th at the age of 35 in 1808] and where his extensive gentleman’s library was housed, the source of Professor Peter Sabor’s project Reading with Austen – the website offers an interactive plan of the library showing what books were on the shelves and their location as Jane Austen would have experienced. The goal of the project has also been to return as many of the books that were originally in Edward’s library if at all possible – we call ourselves The Godmersham Lost Sheep Society – you can read all about it at these links – we actively fundraise to help in the purchase of any books that might show up at auction or in booksellers’ catalogues.

Godmersham Park

We were honored to be present for the unveiling at the Church of the Susannah Sackree memorial, here with Katie and Kim from Chawton House:

Susannah Sackree was the nursemaid to the Knight children, and memorialized by them in the church and now with this grand memorial on the exterior. It was a very moving moment to see a servant, often forgotten by their employers and history, so lovingly remembered by the Knight family.

Susannah Sackree, Edward Knight, and Thomas Knight Memorials

You can read more about her in this Persuasions On-Line essay by Jennie Batchelor (2023) .

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The Heritage Centre tells the story of the house and grounds – it now serves as home to the Association of British Dispensing Opticians and so you cannot tour the house, BUT, we were allowed into [under a code of silence] the entrance foyer, nearly the same as it was in Austen’s time – but no library to visit or any of the other rooms Jane would have stayed in – it is all classrooms now…

The grounds however we could walk around, and as we know that Jane, being an avid walker, would have strolled around these very spots – one could almost feel her there hovering about…

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Refreshments were gratefully received, and then we were off to Canterbury. Some of us went to the evensong at the Cathedral [one of my favorite things to do when in England], this after walking around the city for a while – we had two goals in mind: to see the portrait of the scandalous father of Elizabeth Bridges, Sir Brook Bridges (1733-91), whose portrait hangs in the Beaney House of Art & Knowledge – here he is in all his glory:

[Bridges married Fanny Fowler, who was heiress to the title Baron Fitzwalter, and still the prominent name here at Goodnestone]:

Another draw here was the statue of Aphra Behn, lately unveiled by Queen Camilla – such a tribute to Behn, right here on the main street of Canterbury, she finally getting her just due. See here for an explanation of all the features of the statue – and more here at Fine Books & Collections – I especially liked her foot revealed from under the back of her dress…

And Joy and I giving tribute to this early woman writer par excellence:

Our walk around Canterbury found us in delightful conversation with a gentleman who asked where we were from: Joy says California – “You must be a hippie” he says. I in South Carolina but from Vermont, and he goes into rhapsodies about Bernie Sanders! [Bernie’s brother has long lived in England and has served in the Labour Party, and this fellow apparently knows him…it was good to have a conversation about the troubles in the US right now – everyone sympathetic to us but also not appreciative of the tariff situation and concerns about ally relationships…] – it was an enlightening conversation, but we were off to Evensong – which was beautiful, as always, – reserved seats just for JASNA, and though we were unable to take photos during the service, I captured a few on the way out…and the exterior [much restoration work going on covering up the main entrance]:

So, until tomorrow, when we leave our gorgeous Chilston Park Hotel and head to Winchester for four nights, by way of Worthing…

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Feeling a bit like a “Canterbury Traveller”… [from the Beaney Museum]

and I loved this:

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Adventures with Jane! ~ Day III: Sevenoaks, Knole, and Tonbridge

May 30, 2025 BookLady Deb1 Comment

Another day begins with a full English breakfast in this lovely morning room at Chilston Park, the piano serving as a buffet table!:

[One of the hardest things about returning from travel in England is the loss of that daily English Breakfast – if one had a maid, it could be sorted, but alas! I do not…I am the maid and chief swabby…and cereal works just as well to start the day, or so it has to…]

We are off today to Sevenoaks to learn more about the John Austen family. Several members of the Kent Branch joined us again – we walked down the High Street to see the Red House, where George Austen’s uncle Francis lived, Sevenoaks School where George’s father William had been a pupil, and to learn more about John Austen’s wife Elizabeth Weller, Jane’s great grandmother. Weller had to take a housekeeping job at Sevenoaks School in 1708 to keep her family together –

Here is the plaque to her on the Sevenoaks School building, a fitting tribute to a very strong woman in Austen’s ancestry.

You can read more about Weller in this recent Persuasions On-Line essay by Azar Hussain with an extensive bibliography for further sources on this side of the family.

Then off to visit yet another St Nicholas Church, where a number of Austen family are buried, and where the Kent JAS members offered us some fine refreshments before we wandered around the churchyard [you can see it is now freezing!].

[You can just make out the “Austen”]

And another “Twinned Toilet”!

And another wisteria fix:

[NOTE: Sheila Johnson Kindred wrote a fine blog post about this whole area of Kent – you can read that here.]

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A Beatles aside: a quick return to the 20^th century with this advert in a window in the former antique shop at 44a High Street – you can read about it on this sign and how John Lennon made a song from it all…on their Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album:

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Ok, now we head back to the 15th century – we are off to Knole, one of the largest country houses in Britain, and in the hands of the Sackville family since 1605 [and now part of the National Trust]. The history here is startling and a guidebook essential to understand the intricate maze of rooms – I could not get out of my mind the joys of playing hide-and-seek in such a place, participants never found and now likely molding skeletons around every corner. The history covers every century since its inception, the walls filled with portraits of all manner of famous people, rooms you know Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf [writing her Orlando] knew well. I loved it here, and was so engrossed I forgot to use my camera! – but here are a few of things that spoke to me – none of this does justice to the place – you must add it to your next trip itinerary:

The exterior:

The leopard stone statues:

The Great Stair with its stunning artwork [leopards here too]:

Guess who?! [he is everywhere…]

The Orangery, awaiting the upcoming Beatrix Potter exhibition:

The winding staircase to Eddy Sackville-West’s gatehouse tower [do not attempt after a glass of wine…]:

I was captivated by the story of Lady Betty, Lady Elizabeth Germaine (1680-1769), who lived at Knole in the 18^th century – her bedroom and dressing room are presented as historically accurate to her times. She had a passion for porcelain, and here on display are some of her blue and white collection [my own passion…]

We were on our own for lunch and the tea room here was most accommodating…

It is a worthwhile endeavor to give Knole and its history a bit of your time: at the National Trust site, and Wikipedia does not disappoint.

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More Austen family history as we drove to Tonbridge, to see where George Austen was born in 1731 and went to school; as well as another church visit to St Peter and St Paul’s. You can follow our walk with this guide “In Austen Family Footsteps: A Circular Walk in Tonbridge” – again with the Kent Branch members.

Tonbridge-In_Austen_Family_Footsteps_Sep2017 Download

The School:

The Church of St Peter and St Paul, where Jane Austen’s grandfather William is buried with his first wife Rebecca Hampson and his second wife Susanna – the grave is now protected with glass so you can read the inscriptions and no more trodding on them:

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And the day ended at the Woodbury Park Cemetery in Tonbridge Wells, where Henry Austen (1771-1850) is buried, along with several other notables. It is a lovely spot, all maintained by volunteers, with new walkways recently installed. I felt a sadness here, thinking of Henry here all alone, with Eliza buried in the cemetery of St John-at-Hampstead in North London, and his second wife Eleanor Jackson, who died in 1864, who knows where? [does anyone know?] So here lies Henry, the liveliest of Austen’s brothers, the likely model for her various Henrys [Oh! What a Henry!], as well as her publishing champion, all alone in Tonbridge Wells – I was quite overcome really…

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Dinner again at our hotel, joined by several of the Kent Branch members who had so graciously guided us at the various spots to give us a deeper understanding of George Austen’s family in Kent. I hate to repeat “a day well-spent” but it was, as each proceeding and succeeding day proved – the “Beautifull Cassandra” would be quite jealous with her only one such day…

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The hot-air balloon shower in the Montgolfier room:

Adventures with Jane! JASNA Tour Day II ~ Off to Kent…

May 29, 2025May 29, 2025 BookLady DebLeave a comment

One of the reasons I wanted to do the JASNA tour this year [other than the doable May option] was in it following the life and times of Jane for her 250^th and therefore Kent was on the itinerary. I have been only to Canterbury a million years ago as well as to Dover [for one of the worst crossings in English Channel history – only two people on the ship did not get sick: me and my not-yet husband – perhaps destiny stepped in right then and there…]. But Kent was an important place in Jane Austen’s life, and so I was most curious to visit all the known spots with Austen family connections.

We left Windsor and headed east by way of Surrey to stop in Great Bookham, home to Samuel Cooke as well as another Frances Burney spot on my side-view Burney trek – she lived here from 1793, shortly after her marriage to D’Arblay, until 1802 when they left for France [bad timing – they remained in France for over 10 years due to the Napoleonic Wars]. The home they lived in there is now called The Hermitage:

[it is lovely – they need a gardener…]

this is where Burney wrote Camilla (1796), the book where Austen’s name first appears in print as a subscriber:

Apparently Burney’s husband General D’Arblay attempted to manage the extensive gardens with military zeal – “he demolished an established asparagus bed and pruned the fruit trees with his sword.” 1

The Rev. Samuel Cooke (1741-1820) was the vicar of this first of our St Nicolas Churches for 52 years…

[notice that some have an “h” and some do not: Nicholas vs. Nicolas– no explanation for this to be found, other than this from the never-wrong AI:

“The variation in spelling (St. Nicholas vs. St. Nicolas) for churches dedicated to Saint Nicholas is due to historical and linguistic shifts. The “ch” in “Nicholas” was adopted in the 12th century in English, based on the Greek pronunciation of the “chi” letter in the name’s original Greek form. While “Nicholas” is the more common English spelling, “Nicolas” is occasionally used and reflects a more direct pronunciation of the Greek origin.”]

Samuel Cooke married a Cassandra Leigh, first cousin to Austen’s mother, also named Cassandra Leigh; he was Jane’s godfather [one way to lose your mind on any given day is to try to absorb the genealogies of the Austen, Cooke, and Leigh families…] and the families were close.

Tony Grant wrote a blog post about this several years ago, so you can visit here for more info.

Jane Austen and Great Bookham ~ Guest Post by Tony Grant

And here some pictures of the Church:

For VE Day

Lucky us! we had both Liz and Claire on our trip!

Found these signs in a few toilets in our travels… you can read all about “Toilet Twinning” here – who knew??]

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We next headed to the Box Hill area and had lunch at the Burford Bridge Hotel [I had been by there on my day with Tony and Marilyn when we trekked Box Hill] – an interesting old Inn with a number of notable guests as Wikipedia tells me:

“After leaving London, John Keats took a room overlooking the gardens, and completed his epic poem “Endymion” there in 1817. (Keats is said to have been recommended the hotel by the essayist and literary critic William Hazlitt [I am not a fan of Hazlitt – he said terrible things about the Bluestockings..].) Robert Louis Stevenson was a guest in March 1878, during which time he wrote two short stories: “Story of the Young Man with the Cream Tarts” and “Story of the Physician and the Saratoga Trunk.” Other prominent visitors included Queen Victoria, Jane Austen, William Wordsworth and Sheridan. It was here too that Lord Nelson spent secret hours with his love Emma Hamilton, before going to vanquish Napoleon’s fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar.”

Notable indeed! Lady Hamilton’s room is now a boring conference room but nicely labelled thus:

Rooms reflect the hotel’s history:

And Box Hill was just above us:

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After a fine lunch we headed off to Horsmonden to visit the Church of St. Margaret – this was delightful as we met some of the JAS Kent Branch members who graciously told us about the church and its ties to the Austen family. The John Austen family [John Austen was Jane’s great-grandfather but the family goes back to the first John Austen (1560-1620) – more on them tomorrow] lived here and there are various memorials in the church and churchyard – here one of the tombs: notice the “A” on the gate, signifying “Austen”:

Note: And Ron Dunning joined us here as well – you can read a post of his about Horsmonden from the vantage of a hot-air balloon!]

Travels with Ron Dunning ~ Jane Austen’s Horsmonden from on High

Liz and Ron

The stained glass windows in this church are stunning. A WWII bombing blew out all the windows on the north and east sides with little of the glass surviving – many of the now existing windows have been designed by notable artists. And a very recent discovery in an old chest at the church of an intact piece of window gives us this lovely example of what the whole window must have looked like:

The organ pipes are also a work of art:

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We then headed to our hotel in Lenham where we stayed for three days to allow for further exploring of Kent…and more of the John Austen family …

The Chilston Park Hotel was pure pleasure – the cold days and nights had set in [after unseasonably hot days in London], so walking the property was limited, but the hotel was grand, with each room named and decorated according to various themes such as Art Deco, Carousel, Montgolfier (Hot Air Ballooning!) – not sure whether the knowledge gods were at work but my room was the “Bibliotheque” – here is our door, and the tub, along with a bookcase full of books, and this “wise” fellow on the wall:

And another day well-spent! Stay tuned for tomorrow…

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1. Elizabeth Matts, et al. 1800: Great Bookham at the Time of Jane Austen, Fanny Burney and R B Sheridan. Parochial Church Council of St. Nicolas, [circa 2008], p. 26. [Published with the support of the JASNA Churches fund.]

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Adventures with Jane! London Day 2 with Tony Grant

May 23, 2025 BookLady Deb3 Comments

I had planned this day with my friend Tony Grant of “London Calling” fame – we met at Waterloo Station under the famous clock [where I promptly lost my sunglasses – bought a ridiculous looking magenta pair at Boots and wore them for the rest of the tour..]

Our itinerary was to take the train to Tony’s house [Tony graciously met me at Waterloo: did you know that anyone over 60 in the UK gets to ride all transportation for FREE?? – well, if you are UK citizen that is], where Marilyn offered me tea and goodies and then the three of us were off driving to Frances Burney sites: this was our plan:

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We drove to Streatham to see the area of the Hester Thrale’s [later Piozzi] home at Streatham Park where many literary greats were entertained – most especially Dr. Johnson and Frances Burney – the house sadly demolished in 1863 for “suburban development.”

Then onto the village of Chessington where we saw the spot where Chessington Hall existed, the country house of Samuel Crisp, the close friend of Frances Burney – she largely wrote Cecilia here while visiting. [the house was demolished in 1965 for a housing development…a sad pattern here, don’t you think?]

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A number of years ago Tony and I did a trek to Box Hill – but a rainy / foggy day allowed for NO VIEWS [see post here and the foggy pictures at the end] – so this time we made up for that by walking the trails and seeing exactly where Emma and crew had their debacle of a picnic – you could almost hear “Badly done!” echoing in the breeze…

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and some interesting after-Jane history at Box Hill:

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Had lunch at The Running Horses Inn & Pub – well, they were past serving lunch, but a funeral lunch had just finished and the grieving family invited us to eat whatever we wanted from what was left of their father’s ‘celebration of life’ luncheon – a very kind and generous offer –

I did love their wallpaper in the ladies’ room:

So drinks and free food at the pub and then we were off to Mickleham and the house [Juniper Hall – now a part of the National Trust] where Germaine de Staël and the French émigrés lived – this is where Burney was first introduced to Alexandre D’Arblay – love at first sight apparently! You cannot go inside as it now is a field center for educational camps, but we did do a quick walk-through of the entrance area and the room where Burney likely met D’Arblay [sans vacuum]…

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And then off to the Norman church in Mickleham where Burney and D’Arblay were married on July 28, 1793, the St. Michael and All Angels Church:

[We did not do Great Bookham today as it was to be part of the JASNA tour, so stay tuned for that with its Burney connection…]

Tony & Marilyn in front of the St. Mary the Virgin Church in Chessington – the church was not open – we would like to have seen the Burne-Jones designed window of “Faith, Hope, and Charity” and the Samuel Crisp Memorial penned by Frances Burney [here thanks to wikipedia]:

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It was all in all a day well-spent! With hearty thanks to Tony and Marilyn for driving me all over the suburbs and countryside…!

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“Jane Austen, Book Owner”

November 7, 2024November 5, 2025 BookLady Deb7 Comments

This was the title of my talk at the JASNA AGM in Cleveland last month. I covered a variety of topics, focusing mostly on female book ownership in Jane’s Austen’s time and how she fit into that world of being a “book owner.” David Gilson in his A Bibliography of Jane Austen lists 20 titles that are known to have been owned by Austen, the only way of knowing for sure because she inscribed them. There were others that she gifted to family members and I have included those as well.

The wealth of information on Jane Austen as a reader is quite overwhelming – I direct you to the recently published What Jane Austen’s Characters Read (and Why) by Susan Allen Ford (Bloomsbury, 2024), where there is an excellent summary of her reading in the introduction and chapter one. Also see my bibliography posted below. But my focus was just on the books Austen owned, fitting those into the various subject categories of a gentleman’s or elite lady’s private library, and thereby seeing the variety of works she felt strongly enough about to inscribe her name with that pride of ownership.

I will not be publishing this paper, though I might gradually publish it in sections on this blog – but I did have handouts at the talk and so I am putting both of those on here now: the list of books Austen owned and where they are now, and a very select bibliography of the many books and articles and websites I consulted during my research.

I will add that the Richardson Sir Charles Grandison that was in David Gilson’s private collection is indeed at King’s College Library, Cambridge, as Peter Sabor suggested at the end of my talk. So I have edited the handout to reflect that.

More to come on this very interesting topic, but wanted to get these handouts available to people, as we didn’t have enough during the breakout session.

Jane Austen’s Library:

JABookOwner-list-Barnum Download

Jane Austen, Book Owner: Select Bibliography:

JaneAustenBookOwner-Bibliography-Barnum Download

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Thank you to all of you who came to my session – very hard choices – I wanted to be at other talks myself! For those of you who have the virtual component of the meeting, my talk was recorded and is available at that virtual JASNA link you would have been sent via email.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

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Book Launch! Inger Brodey’s ‘Jane Austen & The Price of Happiness’

May 27, 2024May 27, 2024 BookLady Deb6 Comments

A new book about Jane Austen is soon to be released!
Professor Inger Sigrun Bredkjær Brodey’s
Jane Austen & the Price of Happiness

The official launch event will be at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill on June 11, 2024 at 5:30 pm!
[details below: address is 752 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Chapel Hill, NC 27514]

What’s is all about??

From the Johns Hopkins University Press website:

“Do Jane Austen novels truly celebrate—or undermine—romance and happy endings?

How did Jane Austen become a cultural icon for fairy-tale endings when her own books end in ways that are rushed, ironic, and reluctant to satisfy readers’ thirst for romance? In Jane Austen and the Price of Happiness, Austen scholar Inger Sigrun Bredkjær Brodey journeys through the iconic novelist’s books in the first full-length study of Austen’s endings. Through a careful exploration of Austen’s own writings and those of the authors she read during her lifetime—as well as recent cultural reception and adaptations of her novels—Brodey examines the contradictions that surround this queen of romance.

Brodey argues that Austen’s surprising choices in her endings are an essential aspect of the writer’s own sense of the novel and its purpose. Austen’s fiercely independent and deeply humanistic ideals led her to develop a style of ending all her own. Writing in a culture that set a monetary value on success in marriage and equated matrimony with happiness, Austen questions these cultural norms and makes her readers work for their comic conclusions, carefully anticipating and shaping her readers’ emotional involvement in her novels.

Providing innovative and engaging readings of Austen’s novels, Jane Austen and the Price of Happiness traces her development as an author and her convictions about authorship, novels, and the purpose of domestic fiction. In a review of modern film adaptions of Austen’s work, the book also offers new interpretations while illustrating how contemporary ideas of marriage and happiness have shaped Austen’s popular currency in the Anglophone world and beyond.”

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Inger Sigrun Bredkjær Brodey is a professor of English and comparative literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the cofounder and director of the Jane Austen Summer Program and Jane Austen & Co., and the principal investigator of “Jane Austen’s Desk” [forthcoming].

You can order the book here from Jane Austen Books.

Here from John Hopkins University Press.

Or here from Flyleaf Books – hope you can attend the launch!