The March/April 2011 issue of Jane Austen’s Regency World magazine – the fiftieth edition! – is now on sale.
In the new issue:
JARW AT FIFTY ~ The Jane Austen community worldwide celebrates the 50th edition of Jane Austen’s Regency World Magazine
SANDY LERNER INTERVIEW ~ The entrepreneur who rescued Chawton House speaks exclusively about the pleasure and pain of such a significant project
REGENCY ROYAL WEDDINGS ~ What Prince William and Kate Middleton can learn from Georgian nuptials
HOME COMFORTS ~ Maggie Lane on how Jane Austen’s books show how ideas about the home were changing
CLERICAL FATHERS ~ Contrasting the lives of George Austen and Patrick Brontë
NO NOOSE IS GOOD NEWS~ The convict who started Australia’s first newspaper
TAKEN BY THE PRESS ~ The fear of press gangs stalked the streets of Regency Britain
Plus: All the latest news from the world of Jane Austen, as well as letters, book reviews, quiz, competition and news from JAS and JASNA – and from the Jane Austen Society of the Netherlands
And direct from publisher Tim Bullamore: “Apologies once again to subscribers in the US whose deliveries of the last issue were delayed by increased security checks, seasonal closures, industrial action and bad weather on both sides of the Atlantic!”
Hope our wait will be a short one this time!
Copyright @2011, by Deb Barnum at Jane Austen in Vermont
Have you ever wanted to manipulate some of Jane Austen’s endings? [if not, would we have any sequels, or choose to read them?!] – Do you think Elizabeth should have married Mr. Collins, leaving Mr. Darcy to the likes of Miss Bingley? – or should Elinor have married Colonel Brandon, leaving Marianne to pine her life away and Lucy to Edward after all?
Well, here might be your chance. There is a new game to download called Matches and Matrimony: A Pride & Prejudice Tale – I haven’t yet played it, but for $6.99 it might be the perfect antidote to another cold winter day – or one can just try it for an hour for free. At least there are no flesh-eating zombies in the mix, as on the iphone app that I play periodically if stuck in a line somewhere [though we rarely have lines of any kind in Vermont, except perhaps at the DMV, and why I still do not get past the zombie who eats Elizabeth in the first sequence…]
Help a Bennet sister find a husband as you take a starring role in Jane Austen’s most popular novels in Matches & Matrimony! Will you pursue Mr. Bingley, whose good nature has already endeared him to your sister, or perhaps Mr. Darcy, the famous protagonist from Pride and Prejudice? The narrative of Matches & Matrimony comes from the combining of 3 different novels, allowing you to create new storylines from Miss Austen’s most famous works!
Have fun and let me know how you fare… [but please don’t have Elizabeth marry Mr. Collins! – that would create an entire world shift of too immense a proportion to bear …]
Copyright @2011, by Deb Barnum at Jane Austen in Vermont
Well, better late than never! – the last issue [Jan / Feb 2011, Issue 49] of Jane Austen’s Regency World Magazine has finally shownup in my mailbox – yesterday! – I wrote about it in a post back in December
As always, cram-packed with interesting articles and images, this issue is devoted to Sense and Sensibility at 200.
So nice to curl up on a sofa with something to read – no kindle, no computer, just an old-fashioned hand-held magazine! You can subscribe here at their website: janeaustenmagazine.co.uk – the March/April issue, which goes on sale March 1, 2011, is celebrating its own anniversary – the magazine’s 50th issue! – articles on Royal Weddings in Austen’s time; Sandy Lerner on why she bought Chawton, and a comparison of the clerical careers of Patrick Bronte and George Austen – plus lots more! Hope this one arrives sooner rather than later!
Copyright @2011, by Deb Barnum at Jane Austen in Vermont
For those of you who are members of JASNA, you have hopefully received your latest JASNA News [Vol. 26, No. 3] in the mail – I notice that the State of Vermont has a few mentions worth re-mentioning!
There is of course, the latest news from our JASNA Region; and JASNA-Vermont member Kelly McDonald has another article on “Love and Marriage, Part 2: A Diary from the Austen Circle of Neighbors” as she continues her journey through the diaries of the Augusta Smith, mother-in-law to Jane’s nephew [and author of the Memoir] James Edward Austen-Leigh. But there are two other references to Vermont that must be expounded upon…
First, former JASNA President Marsha Huff in her summing up of her four years at the helm tells of her many travels and visits to various JASNA Regions : “I’ve tasted local delicacies (Lake Champlain chocolates in Burlington, VT)”, she writes, referring to her delightful visit with us last September when she gave her talk on “Jane Austen and Vermeer.” Lake Champlain Chocolates is one of Vermont’s many small businesses that has developed a huge chocolate-obsessed following, not unlike the famed Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream that you can find all over the world [when in London last February, my daughter and I discovered a Ben & Jerry’s housed in a movie theater lobby! – yum!] – so I couldn’t resist this plug from Marsha to advertise one of our more delicious products [we do lots more than just Maple Syrup!] –
Here is their website: Lake Champlain Chocolates – what better place to visit for your Valentine treats!
Lake Champlain Chocolates
And of course, the best source for guilt-free organic chocolate:
Lake Champlain Chocolates
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And next is an article by Elsa Solender, also a former JASNA President and a runner–up in last year’s Chawton House Library’s short story contest [she authored Second Thoughts, a fictional take on Jane Austen’s night of doubt after accepting the marriage proposal of Harris Bigg-Wither]. Here in her article on “A Return to Chawton House Library – Part I” she offers us a recipe for Chawton-style sandwiches:
Spread either honey or sweet mango chutney on one surface of each of two slices of fairly firm white or whole wheat bread. On one of those sweetened surfaces, lay down a generous layer of thin slices of the best aged cheddar you can find. Here in the USA, I use Grafton Vermont Cheddar aged two years [my emphasis]. Join the two treated slices, cut in quarters with or without crusts, and enjoy. A pureed green vegetable soup goes very well with these sandwiches at lunchtime.
Now I have been eating Grafton Cheddar cheeses for years – one of the best of a good number of cheese companies in Vermont [Shelburne Farms Farmhouse Cheddar and Cabot cheeses to name just two others]…
Certainly worth a look and a purchase if you want to indulge in Ms. Solender’s fine sandwiches…
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Now I am wondering, where did Austen ever mention cheese? – here are two of several:
In Mansfield Park, we find Fanny overwhelmed with the disorder and noise in her home in Portsmouth:
Fanny, fatigued and fatigued again, was thankful to accept the first invitation of going to bed; and before Betsey had finished her cry at being allowed to sit up only one hour extraordinary in honour of sister, she was off, leaving all below in confusion and noise again; the boys begging for toasted cheese, her father calling out for his rum and water, and Rebecca never where she ought to be.[MP ch. 38 ]
And in her letters: She is speaking of Edward Bridges:
It is impossible to do justice to the hospitality of his attentions towards me; he made a point of ordering toasted cheese for supper entirely on my account. [Le Faye, Ltr. 46, 27 August, 1805]
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Any other cheese or chocolate sightings in Austen? Comment if you find any!
Thank you Marsha and Elsa for your Vermont mentions! I am off to a lunch of chutney and cheese sandwiches to be finished off with some chocolate …. and maybe some…
Copyright @2011 Deb Barnum, at Jane Austen in Vermont
Auction News: see the upcoming Bonham’s Gentleman’s Library Sale, January 19, 2011, New Bond St in London, for all manner of library furniture, desk sets, globes, cabinets, and portraits and paintings that may have been housed in the libraries of the Gentlemen of the Victorian and earlier periods. The online catalogue is available for viewing and bidding!
A Gentleman's Tromp L'oeil - Bonham's Lot 183
or I love this one – “The Proposal” with Mom listening in and clasping her hands in prayer in the doorway!
'The Proposal' (Circle of Philippe Mercier) - Bonham's Lot 230
Lots more in the catalogue – take a look if you can!
And see this article at Victoriana Magazine for more information on the Victorian Library.
[Images from the Bonham’s Gentleman’s Library Sale, No. 18544]
Copyright @ 2011 Deb Barnum, at Jane Austen in Vermont
Will await this showing up in my mailbox [though see the publisher’s note about weather-induced delivery delays] – here is the latest table of contents from Jane Austen’s Regency Worldmagazine, the January/February 2011 issue No. 49:
Sense & Sensibility at 200 ~ Leading writers look at the history, relevance, importance and morality of Jane Austen’s first published novel
What price Paradise? ~ Life as a Jewish person in Regency England
Wives by Advertisement ~ The risks and rewards of Georgian lonely hearts’ adverts
Jane Austen and Robert Burns ~ What she really thought about the Scottish poet
Jane Austen edited by a man ~ One writer’s angry response to recent news reports
*Plus: All the latest news from the world of Jane Austen, as well as letters, book reviews, quiz, competition and news from JAS and JASNA
Wondering what to ask Santa for Christmas? Well if you have been “good” and “nice” and not “naughty” or “shouting” or “crying” the whole year through, then you deserve a subscription to JARW! For further information, and to subscribe, visit: http://www.janeaustenmagazine.co.uk/index.html
[PLEASE NOTE:
1. The March/April 2011 issue of Jane Austen’s Regency World magazine will be the FIFTIETH issue!
2. Overseas subscribers, especially in the US and Canada: be advised that the January/February issue may be delayed by 7-10 days because of a backlog of cargo in the UK following recent bad weather, and sorting difficulties in both the US and Canadian postal services. We apologise for any delay or inconvenience this may cause. Jane Austen’s Regency World ~ well worth waiting for!
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Chawton House Library has published the latest issue of its newsletter The Female Spectator, Vol. 14, No. 3 (Autumn 2010) [and thankfully, this has arrived in my mailbox!] :
“Chawton Chronicles” from CEO Steve Lawrence re: Edward Austen Knight’s silk suit
“Brian Charles Southam”, an obituary – by Gillian Dow
“Reading and Re-reading in Sarah Fielding’s The Countess of Dellwyn” – by Louise Curran
“Aspects of Household Management during the Long Eighteenth Century: The Invalid’s Dietary” – by Catherine Morley
“Stories behind the Paintings” by Jacqui Grainger – this essay on the portrait of Mary Robinson, actress and mistress of the Prince Regent, that hangs in the Great Hall of the Chawton House Library [with a heads-up re: the National Portrait Gallery [the UK NPG- sorry folks!] exhibition entitled “The First Actresses: Nell Gwyn to Sarah Siddons” set for 20 Oct 2011 – 8 Jan 2012]
“The Shire Horses” – by Angie McLaren
“House and Estate News”: Conservation Projects – by Paul Dearn; The Park and Gardens – by Alan Bird
“Dates for Your Diary” – as always, lovely to see what is coming up, and, as always, quite depressed that I am on this side of the world…
You too can receive this quarterly newsletter in your mailbox [weather notwithstanding…] by becoming a member of the CHL – information is here: Chawton House Library membership [see link for North American members]. See also the several links to full-text [pdf] past newsletters here, and a contents listing of all issues here.
And please check out the latest news on the CHL website – there is a new short story competition in the offing – so start mending your pens and submit your creation by March 31, 2011 – guidelines are here.
We are honored to welcome our Canadian neighbors and noted Austen scholars:
Elaine Bander
*Dr. Elaine Bander has recently retired from teaching English at Dawson College, Montreal
Peter Sabor
**Dr. Peter Sabor is the Canada Research Chair in 18th-Century Studies and Director of the Frances Burney Centre at McGill University.
Upcoming in 2011 ~ March 27: ‘Jane Austen’s London in Fact and Fiction’ with Suzanne Boden & Deb Barnum June 5: A Lecture & Concert on the ‘Music of Jane Austen’s World’ with Prof. William Tortolano
at Vermont College of Fine Arts, Montpelier
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Other Events of note:
December 1, 7pm ~ Newport, VT: Vermont Humanities Council First Wednesday Lecture:
Dartmouth professor emeritus James Heffernan will discuss the use of the fairy tale in Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice in a talk at Goodrich Memorial Library in Newport on December 1. His talk, “In Want of a Wife: Romance and Realism in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice,” is part of the Vermont Humanities Council’s First Wednesdays lecture series and takes place at 7:00 p.m.
In the history of literature, Jane Austen is typically considered a realist of social relations—and yet Pride and Prejudice remains perennially popular because it incorporates a potent feature of the fairy tale: it fulfills the fondest wishes of its poor and not conspicuously beautiful heroine. Heffernan will show how Austen reconstructs the fairy tale within the framework of social realism. Heffernan is Professor of English, Emeritus and Frederick Sessions Beebe ’35 Professor in the Art of Writing at Dartmouth College. Author of numerous books and articles and lecturer for The Teaching Company, he has lectured around the world.
Writer alert: Get your pens mended! As last year with the short story compilation Dancing with Mr. Darcy, The Chawton House Library has announced another Jane Austen short story competition. Please visit their website for details.
Oh! where to begin?! As always, after a complete immersion into the long 18th-century, one is a bit befuddled for a few days, and notes, photographs, memories, and remembered conversations seem to exist in some parallel universe. Since I am also on the road, and currently sitting in an airstream camper in the throes of a raging wind and rain storm pummeling the Oregon coast, I really AM not sure which universe I am in right now… so bear with me, as I try to do justice to the phenomenal JASNA Portland AGM! – four full days all about Northanger Abbey!
This is the first AGM I have attended without my best buddy Sara. We have been doing these annual gatherings since 1996 whenever our ridiculous schedules have allowed, but alas! this year, she was unable to be a part of it, so I ventured into potentially disastrous waters and suggested to Laurel Ann of Austenprose that we, though known to each other only through our respective Jane Austen blogs these past two+ years, we do not really know each other – I promised her a clean and neat, overly chatty, mildly snoring companion, and we decided to give it a go. I have only been given a brief glimpse of Laurel Ann on her blog where she posted a picture of herself along side stack of Austen books in her employer Barnes & Noble store, but as I was walking down the street I spotted her a mile away and a new real time friendship was begun. We of course got off to a beginning totally fitting for the promised weekend of “Mystery, Mayhem, and Muslin” by promptly getting stuck in the elevator – just the two of us – it stopped mid floor somewhere, lights went out, and then nothing, I mean nothing, for what of course seemed like ten minutes but was perhaps at most only thirty seconds – and then it started again – we thought this might be part of the ambience – but certainly never used THAT elevator again for the rest of the weekend [we did report it and saw no ill effects upon any other AGMers] – we did look around for a dead body, but then remembered there was only mystery, mayhem and muslin for the weekend, Murder not mentioned…
So for me, off to a meeting with the Persuasions editor, Susan Allen Ford, where we ended up conversing with one of the AGM volunteers on the joys of Georgette Heyer, had to shake ourselves to return to Jane – and then off to the Milsom Street Emporium – this year with lots of room, wonderful exhibitors – JASNA Regions tables [you should support them], Chawton House Library [you should join], Jane Austen’s Regency World Magazine [you should subscribe], antique shops, fashion displays, accessories for sale, and of course, my hangout, the BOOKS – Jane Austen Books and Traveler’s Tales [no website]. After loading up too many bags that caused worry to my back – off we went to the Portland Public Library for the exhibit “Lit Chicks: Verbal and Visual Satire in the Age of Jane Austen” – first editons of Northanger Abbey, Emma, Persuasion, and Mansfield Park, several items of Frances Burney and other Regency works, and a number of Gillray’s cartoons – all this presented by Paula Stepankowsky, Marian La Beck and James Petts in the “Collins Gallery” – no relation to our Mr.Collins as far as we could tell – but the beauty of the architecture would more than have impressed even Lady Catherine. Here are a few pictures of some of the books, a Francis Burney letter and a sampling of Gillray at his best –a wonderful collection and would like to have spent more time here without the crowd … I am hoping that a catalogue of the exhibition will be made available.
Repository of Arts, Literature and FashionFrances Burney Diary and LettersBurney letterGillray's take on the Prince Regent
A quick dinner with Laurel Ann at Pastini’s – perfect Italian meal, Chianti and all … and rush back to see the evening presentation by Angela Barlow, actress, in “Jane Austen and Character: An Actor’s View.” – Barlow gave us all a pure display of her talents, from invoking Mrs. Bennet and Mrs. Elton, to conveying to us the joys of being an actor and bringing a character of Austen’s to life, of reading the “temperature” of a character [how different the temperatures of a Fanny Price and a Catherine Morland!] – how her first advice to an actor is to “READ THE BOOK!” [oh! thank goodness!] – and after a delightful journey through a variety of Austen’s characters and musings on Austen as narrator, Barlow closed with an appreciation of Austen’s courage in her choice of heroines. I was too far away to get a good shot, but if you ever have a chance to see Ms. Barlow, in anything, get thee hence to the theater! – I for one, would clammer for her as Mrs. Bennet – just perfect!
Angela Barlow
First day nearly done! Exhausted and happy – and then long chats with Laurel Ann to end the day!
Cottleston-Pye English Antiques
Jane Austen in Vermont 