I haven’t been posting recently, so just want to link to this post on the “Reading with Austen” blog that I write – about three new titles returned to Chawton House that were originally in Edward Austen’s library at Godmersham Park.
Our team at the Godmersham Lost Sheep Society found and was able to purchase two titles; the third was actually found hiding in plain sight in the Knight Collection.
If you have interest in the Reading with Austen project, spearheaded by Professor Peter Sabor, please visit the website here and the blog noted abovewith posts on what’s been found, how to become part of the team, etc. We fundraise through the North American Friends of Chawton House to return books whenever possible.
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 250th, 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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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
Foliois 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.
Where oh where do I begin to tell of this joyous day? All places I have been before, but more engaging touring about with a group of like-minded people, and the chance to see so much more behind the scenes…
We are today off from our Winchester hotel to Chawton – and there to see the two most important sites having to do with Jane Austen: Chawton House and the Jane Austen House Museum.
Chawton House is an Elizabethan manor house still in the Knight family, owned by Edward Austen Knight, Jane Austen’s brother. Edward was adopted by the Knight family and he inherited three estates: Steventon, Chawton and Godmersham Park. You can read all this interesting history here – https://chawtonhouse.org/visit/house/
…the main point being that Edward’s ownership of this Chawton estate gave him the ability to offer the steward’s cottage on the property to his mother and two sisters in 1809 [this is now called the Jane Austen House Museum] – and so, like Godmersham Park, Jane would have visited this house often – a short walk up the road – again, giving her the knowledge of life on a gentleman’s country estate. Edward’s stewardship of his land and properties certainly served as a model for her grand land-owning Heroes in her novels: Mr. Darcy, Mr. Knightley, and Col. Brandon.
[If you have any doubts about Edward’s generosity, please read Linda Slothouber’s book: Jane Austen, Edward Knight, & Chawton: Commerce and Community [Woodpigeon Publishing, 2015.]
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Chawton House is far more than a visit to a grand manor – complete with a tea room, numerous indoor and outdoor events throughout the year, a splendid garden and a place to wander, an Airbnb stay, and a wedding venue – it is most importantly a Library and Centre for the study of early women writers, 1600-1830. https://chawtonhouse.org/the-library/using-the-library/ – which is exactly what it says, a library of early women writers with many rare and unique titles; they also present changing exhibits on the many aspects of these women writers – right now one on “Sisters of the Pen.” [more on this below] – and do not miss their regular online offerings to us far afield.
The history of this library is novel-worthy itself – the American Sandy Lerner, taking on the lease of the property and keeping it from becoming a golf course [!] – the renovations to the house and outlying buildings, the housing of her book collection of these mostly forgotten women writers, and the creation of the now self-sustaining manor we can visit and study at today.
or if you are in the US or Canada, you can join the North American Friends of Chawton House here: https://www.nafch.org/ ]
Lots more to say here, but let’s get to our visit and some photos!
Katie Childs with Edward Austen Knight
We were first greeted by Katie Childs – the Chief Executive [if you have been paying attention, we also met Katie at Godmersham Park!] – who gave us some of the history of the house, the library, current plans and exhibitions. We were able to tour the house on our own [ascending the grand staircase such an experience!] – seeing all the portraits of Knight family members, hung along with some of the famous women writers, actresses, manor house owners – and admiring the heraldic windows that I have posted about before.
Elizabeth Knight – Edward Knight Jr – Montagu George Knight
George Sand – Lady Mary Wortley Montagu – Mary Robinson
and what manor would be complete without an image of the Duchess of Devonshire:
The current exhibition is quite eye-opening, especially if you were not previously aware of the numerous women writers before and during Jane Austen’s time [spoiler alert: Jane Austen did not invent the novel as we know it, nor was she the only woman writing in the late 18th / early 19th century!] – it is called “The Great Forgetting” – the removal of 100s of women writers from the canon, now subject to the ongoing process of being recovered – this exhibition “Sisters of the Pen: Jane Austen, Influence, Legacy” tells this history with both signboards, objects and books – it is beautifully done and no way to quite capture it with random photos – here are a few to give you a sense:
[and for the rest, you just must visit yourself!]
It was nice to see the display on the Godmersham Park library and the Reading with Austen website and the blogwhich tells of the GLOSS finds: “Bulstrode Peachey”, one of the volunteers, was very happy to tell me all about it, and even happier to learn I worked with Peter Sabor in returning the “Lost Sheep” to Chawton House:
It was grand to meet a number of the Chawton House volunteers – those that keep it all going and preserving and sharing the grand history here to visitors like us.
Katie invited us to see some of the recent acquisitions from the Deirdre Le Faye Archive: here is a Mary Robinson print:
and here an example of Le Faye’s numerous fashion prints:
and one of Le Faye’s carriage prints:
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Then a delightful lunch:
….and of course a chance to SHOP and then to wander about the grounds – I did visit the marker at the Upper Terrace, donated to NAFCH by the Vermont Region:
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A short walk down the drive takes us to the Church on the grounds – do I dare say it is a St. Nicholas??! – where Jane and family would have worshipped and where we will find the graves of Mrs. Austen and Cassandra:
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We were then off down the road to the “Chawton Cottage” – now called the JAHM: https://janeaustens.house/ – a short trek in Jane Austen’s footsteps, nothing much changed from her own time here, excepting macadam and sidewalks, and cars roaming about rather than horses and carriages and stagecoaches rumbling by their front window….
Warmly welcomed by house Director Lizzie Dunford, we could tour the house on our own, a living monument to seeing how Jane and her sister Cassandra and her mother lived in this “cottage” but actually quite a large home:
The rooms decorated with the newly minted wallpaper, recreated from the existing fragments, it all feels as though Jane herself is just around the corner…
As there was a concert scheduled for that evening, we were fortunate to be there when the pianist and singer were rehearsing – a Jane Faifax / Frank Churchill moment for sure!
Here is a slideshow of various spots and objects in the house, starting with the infamous writing table where Austen “scribbled” her letters and novels: [scroll right to see all the photos]
And were incredibly lucky again to see the exhibit on “The Art of Cassandra” on view til Sept 7, 2025, and curated by Professor Janine Barchas – a first-time ever display of 10 works by Austen’s sister:
This seemingly modest exhibition of ten artworks is the largest-ever public display of the confirmed works of Cassandra Austen. Not since Cassandra’s creative years in this very cottage have so many of her surviving artworks been gathered together in one place. Four of these were only recently discovered to exist among the possessions of Austen descendants. I’m thrilled that they will once again be displayed in the home where the Austen women lived and worked.’
– Janine Barchas, 2025
[Sorry! I did not take any more photos of Cassandra’s drawings, I was so enchanted by them – this link takes you to the online exhibition!]
The shop here at JAHM is yet another treasure trove as well as a danger to one’s wallet – I regret not buying the ring – I rarely wear gold, and somehow the silver one just doesn’t feel like the real thing…so I shall get through my disappointment by looking at the photo [image from JAHM]:
The garden at JAHM is a delight and you can imagine Jane and Cassandra working in it, enjoying it every day:
Our young Piony [sic] at the foot of the Fir tree has just blown & looks very handsome; & the whole of the Shrubbery Border will soon be very gay with Pinks & Sweet Williams, in addition to the Columbines already in bloom. The Syringes too are coming out. – We are likely to have a great crop of Orleans plumbs…
Jane Austen, 29 May 1811 from Chawton to Cassandra at Godmersham Park
These tulips will have to do!
Time for afternoon tea! [we did not want for food on this tour!]
And then back to the hotel…the evening on our own… a glorious day!!
We are off to Winchester College to learn of its history and its connection to Jane Austen – several of her nephews went here – and we were privileged to see many of the treasures in the library, as well as the what was to be an exterior visit to 8 College Street, the location where Austen dies on July 18, 1817….
What a wonderful and unexpected surprise to find that the College, who owns the building, had just the day before put some of the finishing touches on the house, readying it for the onslaught of Jane people in this 250th anniversary year. They had literally just finished painting some of the wall signs and quotations just the day before, and while the restoration is still ongoing, this very welcome gift to us on the JASNA tour is too much to put into words. I have been to this house before a couple of times, standing across the street and looking longingly at the spot where Austen spent her last weeks – but to go inside and see the interior walls, painted now as they were in her time, was so much more emotional than I expected [this now just edging out my seeing where Keats* died in Rome as the saddest literary moment I’ve experienced…]
Just showing a few of the photos I took – you really do need to be there yourself to feel the intensity of this place…tears flowed from many of us.
Matching the original paint colors…[the colors surprised me – different in every room, colorful and deep – I didn’t take photos of every room sorry to say…]
It was here at 8 College Street that Austen penned her final verse about St. Swithin’s Day – “Venta” just a few days before her death. You can read the poem here.
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Then we headed back to the College:
And then to the library where the Special Collections Librarian Dr. Richard Foster spoke to us about the several items of interest to a crowd of Janeites – including the rolls of students where we could see the names of her attending nephews.
here is a poem written out by James Austen / and a charade by Jane:
Inside the Cathedral, we find Austen’s grave, another somber spot – and the wall memorial – here one of the deacons awaited our arrival to perform a short celebratory service of prayers and a short eulogy as we stood around the memorial – each given a pink carnation to then leave on the tomb:
– it was quite lovely –
– a quick chat with the flower lady cheered me immensely – how they replace all the flowers around the wall memorial on a weekly basis – she agreed with me when I said I thought she had the best job in the entire cathedral!
And of course one cannot but sing [or at least whistle] the tune “Winchester Cathedral” – have I really spent my entire life since the 60s thinking the Beatles sang this song??
It is actually by the New Vaudeville Band – also appearing here on the Ed Sullivan Show… [lots of others think the Beatles sang this too – it comes up in Google as a common search!]
Following the service we went to one of the private chapels to listen to Cathedral Curator and Librarian Eleanor Swire talk on the poem Jane Austen wrote about the death of her dear friend Madame Lefroy – the manuscript of the poem is housed here and it was another emotional moment to gaze on it for a bit… written four years after Anne Lefroy’s death on Austen’s birthday after falling off a horse – you can read the poem here.
This Epiphany Chapel houses the most stunning stained glass windows, designed by Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne–Jones. Here is one image I took:
We were then sent off on our own to explore the Cathedral as we chose, so I just wandered around for a bit to find this kneeler by the author Tracy Chevalier memorializing Hampshire women (Florence Nightingale, Charlotte Yonge, and Jane Austen):
And then I could not resist a trek to the nether regions of the crypt and the guided tour did not disappoint. Who knew that any piece of absolutely anything that falls off the Cathedral has to be kept in perpetuity – that means any pieces of exterior sculpture or stone or anything inside that has fallen or removed is moved to the crypt – so it is full of all sorts of disused figures, columns, etc. – quite fun – these original pieces are then sourced for any ongoing restoration work:
Even more interesting was to find that the entire Cathedral at one point risked collapsing because of how the water table rose to such heights in the crypt that it was only a matter of time until it all fell down – an amazing story of one man, William Walker, an experienced diver who would spend several years diving below the surface and reinforcing the foundation with concrete – today the water still rises in the crypt and you can see the levels on the walls – along with this very modern sculpture “Sound II” by Antony Gormley that periodically finds itself knee-deep in water as well as actually holding water in his cupped hands… :
[quite unnerving really because you come upon it unexpectedly from various vantage points]
During lunch at the Cathedral café I found this monument to William Walker, known affectionately as “Diver Bill” – “The diver who with his own hands saved Winchester Cathedral.” Nothing to do with Jane, but good to know the building which holds her tomb is safe from disintegrating…
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The Cathedral exhibition “Kings and Scribes: Birth of a Nation” tells the over 1,000 year history of Britain with many treasures, as well as this nicely done explanation of the architectural differences through the ages:
And the various illuminated manuscripts – you can see a bit of it here in this video: [since I didn’t take many photos]
Leaving the Cathedral, I had lunch at the café, then wandered around in search of Bookshops – first finding the current building of The Hampshire Chronicle, publishing since 1772 – and certainly a paper the Austens would have read:
The P&G Wells bookshop is just down the street from 8 College St and where the Austens had a standing account with the then bookseller John Burdon. I missed an exterior photo but I do have this tile of the front, a gift from my roomie Joy! : it looks just like this:
– the interior retains much of the original Georgian furniture – the bookshelves, drawers, etc.
Here is the flier they have celebrating Jane Austen’s 250th:
[I didn’t buy anything, but did find this Ladybird book [didn’t buy; didn’t handle…] – apparently “specially planned to help grown-ups with the world about them” – what a concept…
The Deanery Bookstall in the Cathedral’s Inner Close, run completely by volunteers, was a book searcher’s delight – not enough time to spend as one would want… but did find a few things [and knowing now I would have to buy another suitcase to get home…once you pass that point, there is no stopping you…will tell the tale of the actual suitcase in the last of these posts…]
Found The Winchester Bookshop on St. Georges St – and DID find a few things there, including this sign, one I had never seen before, though it certainly could be my mantra…
I like nothing better than a staircase in a bookshop that beckons…
A day is always well-spent with it ending in random book searching … and of course, yet another dose of wisteria:
c2025JaneAustenInVermont
*There is a Keats walking tour in Winchester– he visited here for about two months in the late summer and early fall of 1819, his daily walks inspiring his poem “To Autumn”. I did not follow the tour but you can download the guide here:
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.
************* 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.
In doing some research a few months ago on Austen’s reading [a lifetime adventure…], I discovered a reference that might be something new in Austen scholarship – if this has appeared anywhere else that you have seen, please let me know. My source is Deirdre Le Faye, without whose research and knowledge we would not have the in-depth detail of Austen’s life and writings that we do.
I am always surprised to see how often new things are discovered: books or letters showing up at auctions or a bookseller’s catalogue not seen before, such as these Chris Hammond illustrations for Sense and Sensibility that appeared out of someone’s attic – we can only hope for a new Jane Austen letter or two to be found! That would be worthy of a clarion trumpet call – this is small in comparison, but I do want to share as I do wonder if it has been noted before…
Looking at Jane Austen’s letter to Cassandra of Thursday 21 – Friday 22 May 1801 [Letter 37 in Le Faye 4th ed.] – she is writing from the Paragon in Bath to Kintbury, where Cassandra is staying [the letter is now at the Morgan Library]:
The Austens have moved to Bath; Jane and her mother are staying with the James Leigh Perrots at the Paragon and have begun a search for permanent lodgings. Mr. Austen and Cassandra are to follow and they arrive in Bath on June 1st. Jane writes the following:
“Mr. Bent seems bent upon being very detestable, for he values the books at only 70£. The whole World is in a conspiracy to enrich one part of our family at the expense of another. – Ten shillings for Dodsley’s Poems however please me to the quick, & I do not care how often I sell them for as much. When Mrs. Bramston has read them through I will sell them again. – I suppose you hear nothing of your Magnesia.”
Le Faye annotates this passage as follows (with pages cited):
Robert Dodsley (1703-64). A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes by Several Hands (1758) (391).
“your Magnesia”: Hydrated magnesium carbonate, a white powder used medicinally as an antacid and laxative; perhaps CEA had ordered some medicine containing magnesium which had not yet arrived, or else which had been left behind when the family left the rectory (391).
Mr. Bent: presumably an employee of Benjamin Stroud of Newbury, the auctioneer who conducted the clearance of Steventon Rectory. See. Vick, R. “The Sale of Steventon Parsonage” Collected Reports IV 295-8 (496).
Mrs. Bramston – family at Oakley Hall: Mr. Wither Bramston married Mary Chute [she liked MP]; her sister-in-law, ‘Mrs.’ Augusta Bramston found JA’s first 3 novels boring and nonsensical (499).
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My concern is with the “your Magnesia” reference in the letter and Le Faye’s annotation.
The paragraph is concerned with books, the books in George Austen’s library of 500 volumes and apparently some of Jane’s own books [her Dodsley perhaps?] that had been auctioned off early that May. So why is the reference to the capitalized “your Magnesia” not also referring to a possible book owned by Cassandra Austen and not to a magnesium medicine as Le Faye surmises?
In searching “Magnesia” I come up with the following sources:
1. An Account Of The Medicinal Virtues Of Magnesia Alba, More Particularly Of Calcined Magnesia; With Plain Directions For The Use Of Them. To Which Is Prefixed, A Concise Detail Of The Invention And Gradual Improvement Of These Medicines. By Thomas Henry, Apothecary, F. R. S.
London: Printed For J. Johnson, St. Paul’s Church-Yard, MDCCLXXV [1775].
OR, this, the earlier more detailed edition:
2. Experiments and observations on the following subjects: 1. On the preparation, calcination, and medicinal uses of magnesia alba. 2. On the solvent qualities of calcined magnesia. 3. On the variety in the solvent powers of quick-lime, when used in different quantities. 4. On varioius absorbents, as promoting or retrading putrefaction. 5. On the comparative antiseptic powers of vegetable infusions prepared with lime, &c. 6. On the sweetening properties of fixed air. By Thomas Henry, apothecary
London: Printed for Joseph Johnson, No. 72, St. Paul’s Church-yard, London, MDCCLXXIII [1773].
A bit on the author:
Thomas Henry (1734-1816) was a surgeon-apothecary and chemist. Born in Wales, he later moved to Manchester and was appointed visiting apothecary to the Manchester Infirmary in 1789. He co-founded the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society in 1781 and became its president in 1807. He was also a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, and in 1786 he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.
In 1771, he invented a process for preparing magnesia alba and became known as “Magnesia” Henry. The first production of carbonated water is also attributed to him – he made it in 12-gallon barrels using an apparatus based on Joseph Priestley’s design.
It is also worth noting that Henry’s son, William Henry (1774-1836), was a chemist as well and is known for his study of gases, his formulation known as “Henry’s Law.” This gets us into physics, which I shall happily ignore much like Catherine Morland’s preference to avoid history – you can read all about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry%27s_law
[William was also quite handsome, tending toward Byron as you can see here…irrelevant I know but worth noting – it could make one almost want to take up chemistry…]
Talking about Magnesia might be, like politics in Northanger Abbey once again, “an easy step to silence,” but basically “magnesium oxide (MgO), or magnesia, is a white hygroscopic solid mineral that occurs naturally as periclase and is a source of magnesium” [wikipedia]. It has various uses, none of which I understand except as a fertilizer or its medical use that Le Faye suggests: Magnesium oxide is used for relief of heartburn and indigestion, as an antacid, magnesium supplement, and as a short-term laxative.
So, my belief is that Cassandra had one of these books by Thomas Henry, most likely the first one noted above on “Medicinal Uses,” and like so many of the other books in the Austen’s family possession, was sold off but not accounted for as an individual title, “your Magnesia” lost somewhere along the way. This could only be absolutely confirmed if such a title came up for auction with Cassandra Austen’s inscription…one can only hope…but in the meantime, we have another title to add to the wide-ranging reading list of the Austens.
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Notes:
Le Faye, Deirdre. Jane Austen’s Letters. 4th ed. Oxford UP, 2011 [pb ed. 2014].
Images:
Thomas Henry: from Wikipedia – Edward Mansfield Brockbank, Sketches of the Lives and Work of The Honorary Medical Staff of the Manchester Infirmary 1752 to 1830. (University Press, Manchester 1904): 72. Date and artist unknown.
William Henry: from Wikipedia – detail of an engraving by Henry Cousins after a portrait by James Lonsdale. British Museum.
Gentle Readers: I welcome today, Hazel Mills, who has most generously written a post about one of Austen’s many illustrators, Philip Gough. I had written two posts on Gough [see below for links] but little was known about him personally. Hazel has done some extensive research into his life and works, and she shares this most interesting information with us here. Thank you Hazel!
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Philip Henry Cecil Gough
by Hazel Mills
The artist, Philip Henry Cecil Gough, was born on the 11th June 1908 in Warrington, Lancashire, England, the eldest of four children. He was born to Cyril Philip Gough and Winifred Mary Hutchings.
Philip was from a long line of leather tanners, curriers and bark factors, the latter using bark to soften leather. His family were wealthy owners of tanneries with evidence of his father travelling abroad to the USA in 1925 on business.
Philip’s paternal grandfather, also a Philip, had carried on the family business in Wem, Cheshire with two of his three brothers. It obviously provided a good income as all four brothers had been to private boarding schools. In 1880, the tannery company of grandfather, Philip, and his brother was dissolved and Philip continued alone.[1]
It is Philip’s maternal side that gives us the clue to his artistic side. His mother Winifred, also born into a family of tanners, travelled to Brussels to study Art and Music before her marriage. She also played the viola in various orchestras. [2]
Before 1914 the Gough family moved to Moore, near Runcorn in Cheshire [3] and then in 1921, at the age of 12, Philip was sent to Loretto School, just outside Edinburgh, Scotland, as a boarder.[4] On the 4th and 5th April of that year Philip assisted in the painting of the scenery in the staging of “Much Ado About Nothing” [5] in the gymnasium of the school. The art master he assisted was Colonel Buchanan-Dunlop, who, during the famous ceasefire at Christmas 1914, led the singing of the carols from a sheet sent to him from Loretto School. [6]
Again in 1924, Philip painted scenery for the school production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, which was performed in aid of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, again assisting Col. Buchanan-Dunlop. [7]
Liverpool Art School record
Philip left school in 1925. [8] It is known that he attended art school in Cornwall and Liverpool. He entered Liverpool College of Art in February 1926 and a year later, while still at the college, designed the scenery for the pantomime, “Robinson Crusoe”, at the Garrick Theatre in London. In 1928, after leaving the Liverpool College of Art, he designed about 60 costumes for “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” for the Liverpool Playhouse with a photo being published in the “Graphic newspaper” on 19th January 1929 [9] It is also thought that he designed shop windows around this time.
Midsummer Night’s Dream – Gough scenery and costumes
1929 saw Philip working on a prestigious new project. He was responsible for all the scenery and costumes for A.A. Milne’s new play, “Toad of Toad Hall” at the Liverpool Playhouse, based on Kenneth Grahame’s book, “Wind in the Willows”. “The Stage” described Philip’s work as “both novel and extremely beautiful”. [10] At this time, Philip was still only twenty one years old. A.A. Milne also wrote a play of “Pride and Prejudice” called “Miss Elizabeth Bennet”. This was also produced at the Liverpool Playhouse. But sadly it was not Philip that did the scenery for this one, but a Charles Thomas. [11]
In September of the following year, Philip designed scenery and costumes for “Charlots’s Masquerade”, a variety show at the Cambridge Theatre in London. There is even some Pathé News footage of this in existence. [you can view it here:
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It must be around this time that Philip meets his first wife, Mary O’Gorman, as the London Electoral register of 1930 shows him living in what appears to be a lodging house at the same address as her. It’s not know if they were actually living together as the listing is just alphabetical. Over the next eight years Gough is involved in costume and set design for at least seven productions, the first two at the Liverpool Playhouse but the following ones were all in various locations in London.
Towards the end of this time the first book illustrated by Gough that I could find was the wonderfully named*, For Your Convenience: a learned dialogue instructive to all Londoners & London visitors, overheard in the Thélème Club and taken down verbatim by Paul Fry, [pseudonym for Thomas Burke] and published by Routledge in 1937.
“For Your Convenience”
“For Your Convenience” endpaper map
[* this book is republished today as For Your Convenience: A Classic 1930’s Guide to London Loos – in 1937 it was a heavily disguised guide to London toilets for homosexual encounters.]
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In 1939 Philip married Mary Catherine O’Gorman in Chelsea. The 1939 England and Wales register shows the married couple living in elegant Walpole Street, Chelsea. The house is again the home of what appears to be boarders. Philip is described as working as an artist and designer of theatrical scenery, Mary is a secondary school teacher.
The following year Philip worked on “The Country Wife” at the Little Theatre, Haymarket, London and The Illustrated London News reported that the “décor by Mr. Philip Gough is the chief charm of this production.” [12]
“New Book of Days”
The next few years, over the time of the Second World War, seem to be a very quiet time for Philip. I can only find his illustration of a book by Eleanor Farjeon called The New Book of Days, an anthology of rhymes, proverbial tales, traditions, short essays, biographical sketches and miscellaneous information, one piece for each day of the year. In 1936, Philip had also designed the sets and costumes for a play by Eleanor and Hubert Farjeon, called “The Two Bouquets”.
Philip’s father died in 1946 when Philip was still living in Chelsea. In 1948 he appears to have left his wife and is now living at another address in Chelsea with a Joan Sinclair.
1947 was a prolific year as a book illustrator, with four books for Peter Lunn publishers including “Fairy Tales” by Hans Christian Andersen. The following year would be his foray into Jane Austen Novels with the 1948 publication of Emma, published by MacDonald for their Illustrated Classics series.
I have tracked down forty-two books between 1937 and 1973 where he drew illustrations throughout, but in addition Philip designed many, many more dust jackets for novels such as those of Georgette Heyer:
Georgette Heyer dust jackets by Philip Gough
and non fiction tiles such as 1960s reprints of the four volume “A History of Everyday Things in England” that first appeared in 1918:
Philip also did a few more set designs in the 1950s but more of his time was spent illustrating books including Pride and Prejudice (1951), Mansfield Park (1957) and Sense and Sensibility (1958) for Macdonald. You can see many of the illustrations here:
In Philip’s personal life, tragedy hit when his mother was killed in an accident when she was hit by an army truck in 1952. Philip married Joan in 1953 which is the last year in which I can find any more set and costume designing.
Northanger Abbey
1961 saw the Macdonald publication of both Northanger Abbey and Persuasion with his illustrations and he continued to illustrate books until at least 1973.
Philip Gough died in London on 24th February 1986, leaving a fortune of £42,661.
Philip’s sisters also deserve a mention. Sheila May Gough was qualified as a nurse and during WWII joined the ‘Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service’. She served in Europe before being posted to Malta. In 1943 Malta became the base for the invasion of Sicily. It was codenamed ‘Operation Husky’ and began on the night of 9 July and lasted for six weeks. Sheila was awarded the ‘Associate of the Royal Red Cross’ for “special devotion to duty…and complete disregard for her own safety”. [13] Sheila remained unmarried until the age of 58, in 1975, when she married Donald Verner Taylor C.B.E. who had been in the Army Dental Corps in Malta at the same time as her.
Less is known of his sister Gwendoline Winifred other than she was a school teacher at a boarding school in Nottingham in 1939 [14] but in 1941 sailed to South Africa where she stayed until 1946. [15] More is known of Brenda Irene, or rather Flight Officer Brenda Irene Gough. The 1939 register records that Brenda was working as a secretary for the Civil Nursing Reserve and living in Wimbledon. She joined the WAAF (The Women’s Auxiliary Air Force) after May 1941 . In 1943, Brenda was promoted to Section Officer in the Administrative and Special Services Branch and later promoted to Flying Officer. During the war women were paid two thirds of the salary of their male counterparts.
Philip Gough has left an enormous body of work and original works of his illustrations can achieve high prices today, for example, a signed original gouache artwork for the dust wrapper to Georgette Heyer’s The Foundling currently commands a price of around $2,500.
Liverpool College of Art Record -Liverpool College of Art Archives
Mid summer Night’s Dream Image courtesy of Mary Evans Picture Library (c) Illustrated London News/Mary Evans Picture Library.
For Your Convenience images – Care of Daniel Crouch Rare Books – crouchrarebooks.com
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Author bio:
Hazel Mills is a retired science teacher and a founder member and Chair of the Cambridge Group of the UK Jane Austen Society. Until her move to Denmark, she was a Regional Speaker for the Society. Hazel discovered Austen as a thirteen year old Dorset schoolgirl when reading Pride and Prejudice and fell in love for the first time with Mr Darcy. She has researched the history of Jane Austen’s time, presenting illustrated talks, around England and Scotland, on diverse subjects including: Travel and Carriages in Jane Austen’s time; the Life of John Rawstorn Papillon, Rector of Chawton; Food production and Dining; Amateur Theatricals at Steventon, and the Illustrators of Austen’s novels. She lives in a lovely house overlooking the sea with her husband who built her a library to house her extensive Austen collection, which includes over 230 different copies of Pride and Prejudice.
Mansfield Park in Danish
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Do you have a favorite Philip Gough illustration?? Please leave a comment below.
The auction goes until this Friday October 22, 2021 at 12:00 pm EDT
1. Late nineteenth-century, wooden writing slope with mother-of-pearl detail. English. When closed: 8½ x 12 x 4¾ inches. (Est. $250)
2. Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility, in Richard Bentley’s “Standard Novels and Romances” series (London, 1846). In original trade binding, stamped with “2/6” on spine. Extremely rare. (Est. $650-1000)
4. Victorian sterling silver jewelry dish, with another of silver plate in a later design (c. 1920s). Each are 2 ¾ inch diameter. Victorian, circa 1890s. (Est. $50+)
5. Two 14K gold miniature portrait pendants, with diamond chips. 3 cm and 2½ cm. Early 20th century. English. ($100-120 for the pair)
6. Two costume jewelry pendants of painted ladies. 4½ cm and 2½ cm. Timeless. ($50 for the pair)
7. Late 18th century silver-mounted horn & tortoise snuff box. Top lid is 3.5 cm x 7.5 cm. Marked on the bottom with a tag from over a decade ago, at last purchase: $260.
8. Champleve enamel, bronze carriage clock with decorated panels. 19th century, French. 18 cm high. ($400)
9. Artist book, by Linda Dennery: R. W. Chapman, Jane Austen: A Critical Bibliography (Oxford, 1953). ($500)
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Visit and bid! These amazing items can be yours at the click of a button – all to support Chawton House!
So I am back from an RV trek up north – finally able to get to Vermont and visit with family and friends – almost SEVEN weeks with no stable or reliable internet connection on any given day – and I actually survived the deprivation. Thankfully Trooper was not writing his usual journal of this trip [ https://trooperslog.wordpress.com/ ] so did not need to be uploading all his commentary and pictures every day.
But now back home with access to my shelves and resuming posts on “Collecting Jane Austen” with a short post on one of my favorite sets of Jane Austen’s novels: The Macdonald Illustrated Classics (London, 1948-61), with illustrations by Philip Gough and introductions by various scholars for four of the six volumes.
When Macdonald & Co. (London) published its first volume of Jane Austen’s work in 1948, Emmawas the chosen work, with Philip Gough as illustrator. It was the 4thvolume in the Macdonald Illustrated Classics series. It is a small book, under 8 inches, bound in red leatherette, with a frontispiece and seven other full-page plates of watercolor drawings by Gough. There is no introduction. Macdonald published its next Jane Austen novel in this series in 1951 – Pride and Prejudice, with illustrations again by Gough and again no introduction. If you are lucky enough to have all the six volumes published by Macdonald, you will see that they appear to be a set, all with the same binding and all illustrated by Gough – but they were published over a period of years from 1948 to 1961 as follows – with the No. in the Macdonald series in ():
1948 – Emma (No. 4)
1951 –Pride & Prejudice(No. 23)
1957 – Mansfield Park (No. 34); introduction by Q. D. Leavis
1958 – Sense & Sensibility (No. 37), with Lady Susan and The Watsons; intro by Q. D. Leavis
1961 – Northanger Abbey (No. 40); intro by Malcolm Elwin
1961 –Perusasion (No. 41); intro by Malcolm Elwin
Not sure why Leavis did not do the other introductions – her essays on Jane Austen are magnificent, and a definite must-have for your Austen library. Her Mansfield Park introduction, after stating that MP is “now recognized as the most interesting and important of the Austen novels,” gives us a brief summary of Austen’s life and times, then writes of her theories that Lady Susan is the matrix of Mansfield Park, that Austen was “soaked in Shakespeare,” that the Sotherton sequence is one of the “most remarkable in any English novel” where all the action is symbolic and how its pattern of events is “exactly and awfully repeated” in the final outcome of the book, and finally how Mansfield Park is really a tragedy “in spite of the appearance of a happy ending.”
All of the novels were published with a stiff clear mylar wrapper with the title and “Illustrated by Philip Gough” in mustard yellow, and “By Jane Austen” in blue, with nothing on the spine but the gilt titles on the red backstrip showing through. These wrappers are nearly impossible to find. I only have the one for my Emma volume.
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There is little known about Philip Gough and I cannot find much researching the internet other than he was born in 1908, illustrated a number of children’s books (Alice in Wonderland, Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales are two examples); this Jane Austen series from Macdonald; and a goodly number of dust jackets for Georgette Heyer’s Regency novels (see below). There is a list of 14 books on Goodreads illustrated by him but this list is not complete – Jane Austen is not listed!) [ https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/1981672.Philip_Gough ]
It is worth noting that in the introduction to the 1961 Persuasion by Malcolm Elwin (and also quoted by David Gilson in his entry E327 on this edition in his A Bibliography of Jane Austen), Elwin states that the drawings of Hugh Thomson are said to be “too Victorian in their sentimentality to suit the spirit and period of the novels” – and that “Mr. Gough has shown himself a student of the Regency period, and many sound critics have judged him to have succeeded in conveying the subtlety of Jane Austen’s satiric humour.” Gilson also notes a TLS review of this edition (10 November 1961, 810), quoting that “Philip Gough’s illustrations have their own brand of sentimentality, this time of the pretty-pretty sub-Rex Whistler variety.”
Each of the novels begins with a chapter I heading drawing in black and white as well as a drawing on the title page. Emma as the first published of the novels is an exception – there are chapter heading illustrations for each of the odd-numbered chapters; all the other novels have only the one heading chapter I as well as the title page. Each novel has 7 watercolors (Sense and Sensibility only has five; there is one watercolor each for Lady Susan and The Watsons and each begins with a black and white drawing.) I find these watercolor illustrations a little too precious – there is a tendency toward “Pretty in Pink”– as you will see in these examples from each novel in the order of publication below. There is also some rather odd scenes of what Gough chose to illustrate and they are often placed so far from the actual text being quoted that they serve more as a distraction rather than illuminating the story. But these are quibbles – I love this set and am privileged to have it on my shelf – it is almost impossible to find as a full set, and each volume can be quite expensive when located (Emma is the most elusive) – my advice is to buy them when you see them and grin and bear it.
So now for a few examples of Gough’s illustrations from each of the novels:
Emma (1948): Gough definitely equated the Regency period and Jane Austen with the feminine Pink – and in Emma there is a good deal of it!
“A sweet view…” with what appears to be a Mormon tabernacle standing in for Donwell Abbey
Pride and Prejudice (1951): I have always looked rather wide-eyed at the abundance of Pink in Gough’s Pride and Prejudice – especially in this portrait of Mr. Darcy at the pianoforte…!
And we must include Gough’s simpering Mr. Collins:
And of course it is indeed not Willoughby, but Edward…
Northanger Abbey (1961):
Persuasion: (1961)
Chapter heading from Ch. I of Persuasion: you would think this should be Kellynch Hall at the start of the novel – but this is certainly not grand enough for Sir Walter! We find on page 42 that it is Uppercross Cottage and here we see it in full color:
We shall end with Captain Wentworth, because, why not – we see him neither in a navy uniform (this is for another post – how many illustrators portray the good Captain in uniform??), nor is he in Pink, but an odd color nonetheless!
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Gough cover illustrations for Georgette Heyer – some examples (I LOVE these!):
Of all the Jane Austen sets, this Dent publication is probably the most well-known because of the Brock brothers illustrations – they have continued to be published over and over again, and the ones we think of when we think of “Jane Austen illustrated.”
The Novels of Jane Austen, J. M. Dent, 1898 [Molland’s]
1892 was a watershed year for Austen and the beginning of the many Dents – but today we will focus on this set published by J. M. Dent in 1898 in 10 volumes and edited by R. Brimley Johnson – it was the first to offer Jane Austen in color. You can find all the interesting information in Gilson at E90. But a quick summary and a few pictures will surely entice you to want this on your shelves – and if the set is hard to come by or beyond your price range, a fine adventure is trying to put a set together yourself, as individual volumes are often available.
Dent had originally published Austen’s novels in 1892, also edited by Johnson, but with sepia-toned illustrations by William C. Cooke [more on this set in another post]. But in 1898, Dent used the same text plates but deep-sixed the Cooke illustrations and took on the Brock brothers to render Austen in livelier watercolors reproduced by 6-color lithography with each volume having 6 illustrations. Charles Edmund Brock did Sense & Sensibility (vols. 1 and 2), Emma (vols. 7 and 8), and Persuasion (vol. 10). Henry Matthew Brock did Pride & Prejudice (vol. 3 and 4), Mansfield Park (vols. 5 and 6), and Northanger Abbey (vol. 9).
[You can read about the Brocks here at Molland’s with an excellent essay by Cinthia García Soria here: http://www.mollands.net/etexts/other/brocks.html ] You can also google their names and many of the Jane Austen blogs have posts on the Brocks and other illustrators.
CE Brock / HM Brock
The Brocks owned a number of Regency era furnishings and decorative arts, as well as a large collection of fashion prints – they had many costumes made, having family and friends model for them and perhaps why their illustrations seem so very authentic! Laura Carroll and John Wilshire call these Brock-illustrated editions “Chocolate-box” – gift-book quality, beautiful inside with delicate pen or brush drawings, and outside with gilt embossing and Arts and Crafts inspired design; another critic refers to the Brocks’ work as “delicate teacup and saucer primness”! [See their essay “Jane Austen, Illustrated” in A Companion to Jane Austen, Wiley-Blackwell, 2012, pp. 62-77.]
C. E. Brock had previously illustrated Pride and Prejudice with black and white line drawings – this was published by Macmillan in 1895. He would go on in the years 1907-09 to illustrate all the novels for another Dent publication, their Series of English Idylls (with 24 watercolor illustrations in each volume; they were all later published as a set with fewer illustrations in each volume.) To compare CE Brock’s two very different styles in these two editions is an interesting way to spend at least an afternoon! Here is one example from Emma, the infamous romance-inducing umbrella scene:
CE Brock, Emma. Dent, 1898 / CE Brock, Emma. Dent, 1909
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To follow all the wild publishing of Austen at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th requires a degree in bibliography, or at least a great deal of patience – and certainly you must have Gilson by your side. There were many, many reprints with many variations as to the number of illustrations, the quality of the reproductions, and binding types – it is great mess for the book buyer / collector – and all I can say is do your homework and buyer beware…!
American printings are another great mess, various publishers over a span of years, with varying number of illustrations, and in many cases a poorer reproduction quality. The most important thing to remember is that the earliest edition will have the higher price but also better quality printing and illustrations. As an example, compare these HM Brock 1898 and 1907 printings of Darcy giving Elizabeth his letter in Pride & Prejudice:
[this doesn’t show up very well in the scan – but there is a huge difference in the detail, color, and quality of the print]
Here are a few illustrations: I have various volumes and parts of the green cloth 1898 set, but also this 1898 set bound in leather – this one my favorite, but alas! it is missing something very important!
Dent 1898 – red leather – my set, lacking the all-important what? P&P!
CE Brock, S&S – Willoughby rescuing Marianne
CE Brock, Persuasion, 1898: The Fall! / The Letter!
HM Brock, NA, Henry drove so well [Mollands]
HM Brock, MP, Mary and her Harp
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Compare:
One of my favorite scenes in Pride & Prejudice is Elizabeth “in earnest contemplation” – here we can see CE Brock’s line drawing for Macmillan in 1895 and HM Brock’s in 1898, and CE Brock’s in 1907 [are you sufficiently confused yet??]
CE Brock, Macmillan, 1895 / HM Brock, Dent, 1898
CE Brock, Dent, 1907 [though this is not exactly the same quote you get the idea…]
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You can see the many Brock illustrations for the various editions of each novel by visiting the amazing Molland’s here: http://www.mollands.net/etexts/
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The Brocks are most often compared with Hugh Thomson: there are various critical interpretations of these two most popular Austen artists, some more approving of Thomson’s humor and his almost caricatured characters, while others preferring the more effective facial expressions and body language of the Brocks that seem more realistic despite the rather overdrawn borders and settings – do notice the detail in the fashion, the furnishings, and landscape, and what scenes are chosen – we can compare these to Thomson in future posts. The point is, you need them both…
Stay tuned for a post on Hugh Thomson and his several Jane Austen editions – in the meantime, tell me your favorite of the Austen illustrators – I haven’t posted about mine yet…
Jane Austen in Vermont 