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The Royal Wedding at a Boston Spinning Class

BookLady Deb2 Comments

A Boston-based friend of mine attends a spinning class where one of the instructors goes the extra mile in making the music accompaniment so enjoyable that the hour passes with nary a thought to the pain of exercise.  This past Sunday said instructor had compiled an entire musical revue for the Royal Wedding! –

As my friend only followed the nuptial event superficially [sort of like my husband who the day before was moaning about “all this wedding ‘nonsense’ (to use a polite word)  flooding the airwaves”, but then spent the wee hours of Friday morning “transfixed” by the whole thing (his own words!)] –  Anne was not too keen pedaling away to royal-related wedding music for an hour, but was delightfully surprised by the brilliance of the whole playlist – her instructor graciously has posted the list online: here it is – head over to your itunes and make up your own playlist and enjoy!

Official Wedding Photo

Royal Wedding Spin Class Playlist…….Definitive

Bill’s class Sunday May 1st —- Dedicated to Kate & William         

  • Someday my Prince will Come 
  • WeddingBellBlues  — The 5th Dimension      
  • Get Me to the Church On Time (Live)—Frank Sinatra with Count Basie
  • White Wedding — Billy Idol        
  • Kiss — Prince & The Revolution          
  • LondonCalling — The Clash          
  • A Girl Like You — Edwyn Collins          
  • Live With Me  — The Rolling Stones                     
  • Can’t Buy Me Love  — The Beatles          
  • Nothing Compares — Annie Lenox          
  • Everlasting Love — U2                      
  • Pressure — Queen                      
  • I Just Can’t Wait to Be King — Soundtrack The Lion King
  • If Not for You  — Bob Dylan          
  • White Trash Wedding –DixieChicks          
  • Kiss the Girl — Little Mermaid

 You can visit the Synergy Cycling Studio blog here.

[Image: Synergy Cycling Studio blog]

Copyright @2011 by Deb Barnum at Jane Austen in Vermont
News · Social Life & Customs

The Wedding!

BookLady Deb3 Comments

The Kiss!

[Image from Telegraph.co.uk]

See more pictures at the British Monarchy Flickr photostream, and more of everything at the offical wedding website.

Fashion & Costume · News · Social Life & Customs

Royal Wedding Dresses at Kensington Palace

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From the BBC News website:

To celebrate the marriage of Prince William and Kate, Kensington Palace has brought out six sumptuous gowns – seldom seen by the public – all worn by royal brides over the past 200 years.

Take a look with Senior Curator Joanna Marschner, and see how fashions changed through the decades.

[Image: Princess Margaret’s wedding dress, 1960, from the Kensington Palace website]

Watch the slideshow with close-up detail of the dresses here at Kensington Palace: http://www.hrp.org.uk/learninganddiscovery/discoverthehistoricroyalpalaces/royal-wedding-dresses.aspx

 or here at the BBC News http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13207649

 

[Image: Princess Charlotte’s 1816 wedding dress at Kensington Palace; on right, the wedding dress of Princess Alexandra of Denmark in 1863]

Copyright @2100 by Deb Barnum of Jane Austen in Vermont
Austen Literary History & Criticism · Jane Austen · Jane Austen Popular Culture · News · Regency England · Social Life & Customs

Coming Soon to Your Mailbox! ~ Jane Austen’s Regency World Magazine Issue 51

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The May/June 2011 issue [ Number 51] of Jane Austen’s Regency World magazine is now on sale and has been mailed to subscribers.

In the new issue: 

  • Americans in Bath ~ Celebrating 50 years of the American Museum in Britain
  •  Battle Wounds and Bedlam ~ Living with illness in Georgian times 
  •  Loitering with James ~ Maggie Lane asks if Jane Austen helped her brother with his periodical, The Loiterer
  •  Amanda Vickery Interview ~ Meet the academic who has brought the Georgians to life on TV
  •  Correspondence Culture ~ Kelly M McDonald* on the art of letter writing
  •  Our Chawton Home ~ Louise West on her plans for Jane Austen’s House Museum
  •  Fantastic Ferens ~ The Canaletto on display in the Ferens Gallery, Hull

Plus: All the latest news from the world of Jane Austen, as well as Letters, Book Reviews, the always difficult Quiz, a Competition,  and Jottings from JAS and JASNA.

For further information, and to subscribe, visit: www.janeaustenmagazine.co.uk

*We are very pleased to see that our very own JASNA-Vermont member Kelly McDonald has another article in JARW – congratulations Kelly! You can follow Kelly on her blog Two Teens in the Time of Austen.

Copyright @2011 by Deb Barnum, of Jane Austen in Vermont
Austen Literary History & Criticism · Books · Collecting Jane Austen · Jane Austen · Literature · News

Your Austen Library ~ ‘A Jane Austen Education’

BookLady Deb4 Comments

 

In A Jane Austen Education, Austen scholar William Deresiewicz turns to the author’s novels to reveal the remarkable life lessons hidden within. With humor and candor, Deresiewicz employs his own experiences to demonstrate the enduring power of Austen’s teachings. Progressing from his days as an immature student to a happily married man, Deresiewicz’s A Jane Austen Education is the story of one man’s discovery of the world outside himself.

A self-styled intellectual rebel dedicated to writers such as James Joyce and Joseph Conrad, Deresiewicz never thought Austen’s novels would have anything to offer him. But when he was assigned to read Emma as a graduate student at Columbia, something extraordinary happened. Austen’s devotion to the everyday, and her belief in the value of ordinary lives, ignited something in Deresiewicz. He began viewing the world through Austen’s eyes and treating those around him as generously as Austen treated her characters. Along the way, Deresiewicz was amazed to discover that the people in his life developed the depth and richness of literary characters-that his own life had suddenly acquired all the fascination of a novel. His real education had finally begun.

Weaving his own story-and Austen’s-around the ones her novels tell, Deresiewicz shows how her books are both about education and themselves an education. Her heroines learn about friendship and feeling, staying young and being good, and, of course, love. As they grow up, they learn lessons that are imparted to Austen’s reader, who learns and grows by their sides.

A Jane Austen Education is a testament to the transformative power of literature, a celebration of Austen’s mastery, and a joy to read. Whether for a newcomer to Austen or a lifelong devotee, Deresiewicz brings fresh insights to the novelist and her beloved works. Ultimately, Austen’s world becomes indelibly entwined with our own, showing the relevance of her message and the triumph of her vision.

A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love, Friendship, and the Things That Really Matter

ISBN 9781594202889
272 pages
Release date: 28 Apr 2011
The Penguin Press:  available in hardover for $25.95;  ebook / adobe reader for $12.99

About the author:   

William Deresiewicz was an associate professor of English at Yale University until 2008 and is a widely published literary critic who writes for a popular audience. His reviews and criticism regularly appear in The New Republic, The Nation, The American Scholar, the London Review of Books, and The New York Times. In 2008 he was nominated for a National Magazine Award for reviews and criticism.

Text From the  publisher’s website:  Penguin Press

Deresiewicz also authored Jane Austen and the Romantic Poets  (Columbia UP, 2005)

He will be conducting a blog tour as follows:  info from TLC Book Tours]

Copyright @2011 by Deb Barnum, at Jane Austen in Vermont
Jane Austen · News · Social Life & Customs

Happy Easter!

BookLady Deb8 Comments

[Vintage Postcard from my collection]

Hope your day is filled with Love, Jane Austen, and Chocolate!

Copyright @2011, by Deb Barnum of Jane Austen  in Vermont
Fashion & Costume · Jane Austen · News · Regency England · Social Life & Customs

Follow Friday [a day early!] ~ Regency Dances.org

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Regency Dancing was how young ladies and young gentlemen met and courted, and the dance floor was often the only place they could talk without being overheard by their chaperones. As was to be expected, the dancing was lively and flirtateous. The dancing needs to be accurate and elegant, but always remember that it is also about love and young people having fun.

A lovely email from a Gentleman in England alerted me to this new website on Regency Dances [ http://RegencyDances.org ]. 

From his email:

Launched in January, the site is a free learning resource for Regency Dances. As well as providing dance notations, the dances are shown as animations.  This combination of watching the animation while following the notation has been found to be an excellent way of quickly understanding the structure of a dance.  The dances are taken from original 18th -19th century sources and written into modern notation by experienced dancers under the watchful eye of a recognised international expert. 

Two or three new dances are added each week.  To keep informed you can “follow” them on Twitter at http://twitter.com/RegencyDances

The objective of http://RegencyDances.org is to create an international shared website resource independent of any specific dance group for (a) sharing genuine Regency dances of known provenance, (b) sharing news of upcoming Regency balls, and (c) sharing information about other Regency groups. 

The site includes a history of the dances, the various dance steps presented in animations, lists of dances and music sources, plans on how to organize a Regency party, a listing of various societies and upcoming events, and a very informative section on “What to Wear” which includes the details of the era fashions and how to locate or make your very own costume.

Please visit the site if you have any interest in the dance of Jane Austen’s period – new information is being constantly added, and the site editors are “looking for sources of recorded music that we may use, videos of single dances to be selected as examples of ‘good practice’ and a few more editors.”

If you are a member of a Regency dance group, certainly add your name and events to their growing list.

[Image: Regency Dances website]

Copyright @2011 by Deb Barnum of Jane Austen in Vermont.
Jane Austen · News · Regency England · Social Life & Customs

Regency England at the Huntington Library

BookLady Deb2 Comments

The Huntington Library is hosting an exhibit “Revisiting the Regency: England, 1811-1820” from April 23 – August 1, 2011:

A new exhibition takes a closer look at a glittering yet turbulent era.  In October of 1810, England’s King George III slipped into that final madness from which only death would release him, nearly a decade later. The following February, Parliament authorized the king’s estranged and profligate eldest son, the Prince of Wales (the future George IV), to rule in his place as regent. Extravagant, emotional, controversial, and self-indulgent, the prince regent lent his name and many of his characteristics to a glittering era. 

In commemoration of the 200th anniversary of this extraordinary decade, The Huntington presents an exhibition titled “Revisiting the Regency: England, 1811–1820.” Opening April 23 in the West Hall of the Library and continuing through Aug. 1, the exhibition draws on The Huntington’s extensive holdings of rare books, manuscripts, prints, and drawings documenting this historic era.

The term “Regency England” usually evokes Jane Austen’s world of graceful country-house living and decorous village society, the elegance of London’s fashionable elite, or the licentious activities of the prince and his aristocratic Carlton House set. Ladies followed the latest fashions in La Belle Assemblée while gentlemen copied Beau Brummell’s severe elegance. Readers found new works by a generation of England’s greatest poets and novelists: Austen, Lord Byron, John Keats, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Sir Walter Scott. Londoners enjoyed a rich theatrical and musical life, watching Edmund Kean’s premiere in Richard III or hearing the first English production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Art lovers followed the latest exhibits at the Royal Academy. Under the prince’s patronage, architect John Nash created the fantasy Royal Pavilion at Brighton and remade London’s West End with the new developments of Regent’s Park and Regent Street.

Yet underneath this ordered upper-class surface lay a far more complex and turbulent world: more than a century of intermittent war with France ended at Waterloo, but peace revealed wrenching poverty, social unrest, the strains of rapid industrialization, and growing calls for political reform. The first railroads, gas lighting, and other advances in technology altered the landscape of everyday life.

This rich cavalcade of people and events provided irresistible targets for a brilliant generation of visual satirists. The witty, savage, and iconic images of George Cruikshank and his fellow caricaturists, well represented in the exhibition, capture all the vagaries of an extraordinary decade in English arts, letters, science, and society.

[Text and images from the Huntington Library website]

Copyright @2011, by Deb Barnum of Jane Austen in Vermont
Books · Jane Austen Circle · News · Regency England · Social Life & Customs

Royal Weddings ~ ebook style

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Want to get in the spirit of the upcoming nuptials of Prince William and Kate Middleton?  How about reading about some of the previous such celebrations that captured the world from the 12th to the 19th century!

A press notice from Harlequin, publisher of Romance with a capital ‘R’:  yesterday they announced the release of seven novellas in ebook format, the “Royal Weddings Collection” – each focusing on a different royal wedding, each written by a different author. 

These seven short stories brilliantly capture the drama, pomp and ceremony and high passion of real-life royal weddings,” senior editor Linda Fildew said in a press release. “From Eleanor of Aquitaine to Queen Victoria, these royal romances through the ages bring history vividly to life.”

The titles include:

  •  Terri Brisbin.  WHAT THE DUCHESS WANTS (Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine and Henry of Anjou, the future Henry II, 1152)
  • Michelle Willingham. LIONHEART’S BRIDE (King Richard and Princess Berengaria, 1191)
  • Bronwyn Scott. PRINCE CHARMING IN DISGUISE (Prince George and Caroline of Ansbach, 1704)
  • Elizabeth Rolls. A PRINCELY DILEMMA (George, Prince of Wales—future George IV—and Princess Caroline of Brunswick, 1795)
  • Ann Lethbridge. PRINCESS CHARLOTTE’S CHOICE (Princess Charlotte and Prince Leopold, 1816)
  • Mary Nichols. WITH VICTORIA’S BLESSING (Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, 1840)
  • Lucy Ashford. THE PROBLEM WITH JOSEPHINE (Emperor Napoleon and Archduchess Marie-Louise of Austria, 1810).

You can find the seven ebooks at the eharlequin website.  They are on sale there for $1.79 each. And if you go to the “Watch the Royal Wedding” website, scroll down for a coupon code for an additional 10% off! [if you are a true lover of Royal Weddings, you should be following this site on a daily basis anyway…]

Time to fire up my Kindle – who can resist!

[ebook covers from the eharlequin website]

Copyright @2011, by Deb Barnum, at Jane Austen in Vermont.
Austen Literary History & Criticism · Books · Jane Austen · Jane Austen Popular Culture · News · Publishing History

Penguin’s Newest ‘Emma’ ~ the Thread Series

BookLady Deb3 Comments

Penguin Classics will be publishing a new edition of Emma in the Fall, this time with cover art by Jillian Tamaki, as part of its Penguin Threads series [Black Beauty and A Secret Garden will also be released.]

and just the front with more detail:

[Source:  Atlantic.com]

See also Tamaki’s “Sketchblog” for details on the process and the other book covers.  Just lovely, don’t you think? [especially if you do handiwork…]

Copyright @2011, by Deb Barnum at Jane Austen in Vermont