Touring with Jane Austen ~ Marble Hill House, Twickenham, and Richmond

February 12, 2013 BookLady Deb2 Comments

Enquiring Minds: Tony Grant of London Calling, and a regular contributor to Jane Austen’s World, had written a post for me on Marble Hill House in Twickenham – but alas! I have been so delayed in getting this on the blog that we agreed he should post it himself and I will link to it… so herewith the tale of Marble Hill House, home to Henrietta Howard, mistress of George II. This all started with a conversation over Joshua Reynolds’s house, which led to Richmond Hill, and then on to Henrietta Howard and Marble Hill House, and then Pope and Swift, Horace Walpole, John Gay and the Scriblerus Club, a bit on Wordsworth and Sir Walter Scott and on to Dickens and Virginia and Leonard Woolf, and of course Jane Austen gets her required mention – you get the idea – this is cram-packed with literary tourism and as always, Tony’s fine photographs…

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The River Thames wends its tortuous way across England from Thames Head in Gloucestershire until it reaches the southernmost part of the North Sea. Its journey stretches for 215 miles. Finally the wide Thames Estuary which pours its contents into The North Sea is bordered on the north bank by the Essex coast and Southend on Sea and at its southern bank by the Kent coast, Sheerness and the entrance to the Medway.

Along its course The Thames passes though some beautiful English countryside before it enters the Greater London area passing by Sunbury and on to Hampton, then Hampton Court, Kingston upon Thames, Twickenham and Richmond. At last it reaches the centre of London with its iconic landmarks. The Thames, from London along its whole length, has a long history of Iron Age villages, Roman habitation, Saxon towns, and mediaeval settlements, Tudor Palaces and Georgian and Victorian Villas. London itself began as a Roman settlement for trade, built at the nearest bridging point to the coast where they had their port called Ritupiae (Richborough). They wanted to penetrate the hinterland north of the Thames. Indeed the names Thames which was Celtic in origin but had its Roman equivalent (Tamesas recorded in Latin as Tamesis) and London (Londinium) come to us from Roman times.

Over the centuries the Thames outside of London has provided a beautiful Arcadian retreat for the wealthy, the famous, the aristocracy and the monarchy away from the stench and diseases prevalent in many periods of London’s history. They built palaces and grand houses and villas with adjoining estates and landscaped parks to relax and take their leisure in. Marble Hill House is a Palladian Villa built between 1724 and 1729, very close to Richmond upon Thames but on the northern bank of the Thames near Twickenham. It was built for George II’s mistress, Henrietta Howard….

Continue reading…

Thank you Tony for this sun-drenched tour through London!

For more on Marble Hill House, etc, you can look here:

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…and not to be confused with our very own MARBLE HOUSE, the William Vanderbilt’s summer “cottage” in Newport, Rhode Island:

c2013 Jane Austen in Vermont

Great Britain - History · Jane Austen · Regency England · Travel

Touring with Jane Austen ~ Bath, England

February 10, 2013February 10, 2013 BookLady Deb1 Comment

Gentle Readers who love to travel, especially those who love to follow in Jane Austen’s Footsteps: I am linking to this post by Nan Quick, one of our JASNA members from New Hampshire. She had emailed me recently to tell me of her website for armchair travelers, with one of her posts on Jane Austen’s Bath … I append it here – with lovely pictures and lively commentary, how perfect to visit such a place as this, when so many of us are snowed-in! So with dreams of warmer climes and Jane Austen hovering nearby, here you go…

I really wanted to call this Armchair Traveler Chapter “Jane Austen’s Bath.” But holding forth about Jane’s bathing habits would have given me ammunition for a brief and not very interesting article. So, instead it’ll be “Jane Austen AND Bath.” I’ll try to describe the City as it was during the times when she lived there, and I’ll show you many of the locations that she used in two of her books. Happily, the built world of today’s Bath is largely unchanged from Jane’s time. Over the past two centuries the City’s fame has protected it from indiscriminate “improvements,” and so visiting Bath today gives a fairly good impression of what Jane’s days there might have been like.

If you’re reading this, it’s likely you’re Austen-informed, and have thus read NORTHANGER ABBEY and PERSUASION, which are called Austen’s Bath novels.

On May 28th, 2011 I had the pleasure of spending an afternoon in Bath. Of course, in England, the weather has a mind of its own, and storms from a place called “Bill’s Mother’s” descended. Here’s how it is with Bill: the locals always say bad weather is blown in from a mythical place called “Bill’s Mother’s.” I thought you should know, just in case you go to Bath and people start talking weather. On that Saturday my British friends and I were rained upon, blown about, and generally frozen; late May felt like early March. But I’d asked Anne and David and Janet (who you’ve met in my earlier Armchair Traveler pieces) to make the long round-trip drive on the traffic-jammed M5 with me from the Midlands down to Bath, expressly so I could make the following words REAL to myself:

“The Crescent,” “Milsom Street,” “Pulteney Street,” “The Pump Yard.” I also wanted to clear my confusion, once and for all, about all those infernal ROOMS that Austen’s characters scurried between: the Upper Rooms, or the New Assembly Rooms; the Lower Rooms; and the Pump Room. Even though my time there was short, and the weather awful, I managed to get a sense of the lay of the land, which is what I’d like to share with you.

[Images from Nan Quick.com]

Nan has also written a post on CONTEMPLATING THE GENIUS OF PLACE, & THE PLACES OF GENIUSES —

Liverpool (Gormley, McCartney, Lennon) ;
The Ruins at Witley Court ;
and ending with Chawton and Jane Austen’s House

This is a long post, so if Jane is your only interest, then scroll through it to the end – but I advise you see read the whole thing – I was in a Liverpool a few years ago and it was very nice to re-live that trip – so thank you Nan!

Austen Literary History & Criticism · Jane Austen · Jane Austen Circle · Literature · Regency England

Jane Austen and Robert Burns

January 25, 2013January 25, 2013 BookLady Deb2 Comments

Today is the birthday of Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796). One cannot forget those Robert Burns poems we all had to recite in high school, often our first introduction to the “romantic” poets – ‘O, My Luve is Like a Red, Red Rose’ or ‘Tam O’Shanter’ or ‘To a Louse: on seeing one on a Lady’s bonnet at church’ – and of course how often do we sing or hear ‘Sweet Afton’ and ‘Auld Lang Syne’!

Robert Burns - from wikipedia — Robert Burns – from wikipedia

I had the fortune a number of years ago to visit Burns’s home in Alloway, Ayr, Scotland, and became sort of enamored with him – who can not? But what of Jane Austen and Burns? – she certainly read his poetry. And we now know that in her music notebooks she had copied out the music notation of two of Burns’s songs: My Love She’s But a Lassie Yet, and My Ain Kind Dearie – and Gillian Dooley has recently noted that Austen had written out in her own hand Their Groves o’ Sweet Myrtle, [see the link below to this full article] where it shows that Austen had transcribed the words “Save Love’s willing fetters – the chains of his Jean” to “the charms of his Jane” – evidence perhaps that Austen secretly admired Burns after all…?! [see full text of this song below]

All we have of her written words as to how she may have felt about Burns appear in Sanditon, with the ridiculous Sir Edward Denham spewing forth the following:

But while we are on the subject of Poetry, what think you, Miss Heywood, of Burns’ Lines to his Mary? — Oh I there is Pathos to madden one! — If ever there was a Man who felt, it was Burns. — Montgomery has all the Fire of Poetry, Wordsworth has the true soul of it — Campbell in his Pleasures of Hope has touched the extreme of our Sensations — “Like Angel’s visits, few & far between.’ Can you conceive any thing more subduing, more melting, more fraught with the deep Sublime than that Line? — But Burns — I confess my sence of his Pre-eminence, Miss Heywood — If Scott has a fault, it is the want of Passion. — Tender, Elegant, Descriptive — but Tame. — The Man who cannot do justice to the attributes of Woman is my contempt. — Sometimes indeed a flash of feeling seems to irradiate him — as in the Lines we were speaking of — “Oh! Woman in our hours of Ease’. — But Burns is always on fire. — His Soul was the Altar in which lovely Woman sat enshrined, his Spirit truly breathed the immortal Incence which is her Due. –”

To which Charlotte replies, in what critics have assumed is Jane Austen’s voice:

“I have read several of Burns’ Poems with great delight”, said Charlotte, as soon as she had time to speak, “but I am not poetic enough to separate a Man’s Poetry entirely from his Character; — & poor Burns’s known Irregularities greatly interrupt my enjoyment of his Lines. — I have difficulty in depending on the Truth of his Feelings as a Lover. I have not faith in the sincerity of the affections of a Man of his Description. He felt & he wrote & he forgot.”

“Oh! no no” exclaimed Sir Edward in an extacy (sic). “He is all about ardour and Truth! – His genius and his susceptibilities might lead him into some Aberrations – But who is perfect?…. Nor can you, loveliest Miss Heywood (speaking with an air of deep sentiment) – nor can any Woman be a fair judge of what a Man may be propelled to say, write or do, by the sovereign impulses of illimitable Ardour.”

[from Sanditon, ch. VII]

So I leave you with these thoughts on Jane Austen and Robert Burns and a few links for further reading:

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Full text of Their Groves o’ Sweet Myrtle:

Their groves o’ sweet myrtle let Foreign Lands reckon,
Where bright-beaming summers exalt the perfume;
Far dearer to me yon lone glen o’ green breckan,
Wi’ the burn stealing under the lang, yellow broom.
Far dearer to me are yon humble broom bowers
Where the blue-bell and gowan lurk, lowly, unseen;
For there, lightly tripping, among the wild flowers,
A-list’ning the linnet, aft wanders my Jean.

Tho’ rich is the breeze in their gay, sunny valleys,
And cauld Caledonia’s blast on the wave;
Their sweet-scented woodlands that skirt the proud palace,
What are they? – the haunt of the Tyrant and Slave.
The Slave’s spicy forests, and gold-bubbling fountains,
The brave Caledonian views wi’ disdain;
He wanders as free as the winds of his mountains,
Save Love’s willing fetters – the chains of his Jean.

c2013, Jane Austen in Vermont

Austen Literary History & Criticism · Author Interviews · Book reviews · Collecting Jane Austen · Jane Austen · Jane Austen Popular Culture · Jane Austen Societies · Regency England

Susannah Fullerton on Celebrating Pride and Prejudice ~ Guest Post and Book Giveaway

January 22, 2013 BookLady Deb26 Comments

Gentle Readers All: Please see below to enter into the Giveaway for a copy of Susannah Fullerton’s Celebrating Pride and Prejudice.

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Today I welcome Susannah Fullerton, president of JASA, author of numerous articles on Jane Austen, a leader of literary tours , and author of Jane Austen and Crime (2006), A Dance with Jane Austen (2012), and most recently the author of Celebrating Pride and Prejudice: 200 Years of Jane Austen’s Masterpiece [Happily Ever After in the UK].

Susannah shares with us a few thoughts on the her new work and the joys of discovering and re-discovering Austen’s most popular novel – and out just in time as we all celebrate the 200^th bicentenary of Pride and Prejudice this year, all beginning on January 28th. I highly recommend this book, a must-have for your Austen Library, a perfect companion to the novel, and a lovely work in its own right.

And now Susannah:

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I was about 11 years old when my mother first read me Pride and Prejudice. We were away on a family holiday in Christchurch, New Zealand, and the only thing I remember of the visit there was lying at the end of a double bed while my Mum read aloud. It was not all joy – I did get very frustrated when she stopped to laugh. I was too young to appreciate the irony of the novel and just wanted to know what would happen to Elizabeth and Darcy. Now of course I know exactly why my mother laughed. In spite of my mother’s ‘interruptions’, I loved the story, and soon went back to read it by myself.

Mr Darcy, by Robert Ball. Pride and Prejudice (Doubleday 1945)
[image from Austenprose.com]

So for just over 40 years Pride and Prejudice has been a vital part of my life. That first reading has been followed by countless others. Sometimes I have just picked up the book and it has fallen open in just the right place (any place is the right place) and I’ve read of the Meryton Ball, or one of Darcy’s proposals, or a scene with Mr Collins making a fool of himself. Even a ‘one page reading’ has always left me feeling better. Again and again I have picked it up and started with that brilliant opening sentence (to which I devote a whole chapter in my book!) and gone through to the end, knowing exactly what would happen but loving it more every single time.

And I have read ‘P & P’ in other ways – I adore unabridged audio versions, I’ve read it as a comic book, I’ve read it on my Kindle, and of course I’ve seen film versions and loved them too. Elizabeth and Darcy are my dear friends and while I would not want to actually meet Mr Collins, I always delight in his company within the pages of Jane Austen’s great novel.

It has been said that you never read the same book twice! Every re-reading is a different experience – you know what is going to happen within the plot and so you look out for other things. And with ‘P & P’ there are always other things – some slight nuance you missed last time you read it, a different inflection by an audio book reader can make you react to a sentence you know well in a different way, and you pick up on the tiny details of setting or character that you failed to notice last time. And the other thing that means you are not reading exactly the same novel, is that you yourself have changed. You have grown older and wiser, experienced things in your own life that have slightly altered you from the person you were on the first reading. I groaned over Mrs Bennet when I first met her – she was so vulgar and embarrassing and I pitied Elizabeth for having to put up with her. But now I’m a mother myself, with children who are forming romantic partnerships, and I have so much more sympathy for Mrs Bennet. And as a wife, I can understand her frustration when Mr Bennet goes off to the library and shuts the door, leaving the worries of 5 unmarried daughters totally up to her. Reading Pride and Prejudice changes your life, but your life also changes each re-reading of Pride and Prejudice.

With such a deep love of this novel, you can imagine what a joy it was for me to sit down and write a book about its incredible 200 years. I could not think of a nicer way to celebrate this important literary anniversary. For months I was immersed in its pages, learning even more about the book and its characters as I worked on my own book. I was so fascinated by the translations of it – how very quickly it was translated into another language and what a mess was made of that first translation, and what huge challenges it gives a translator (do you think Mr and Mrs Bennet should say ‘vous’ or ‘tu’ to each other in a French translation – I’d love to hear your opinion?). I especially loved writing my chapter on Elizabeth, trying to analyse what it is that makes her so charming and lovable, while not making her a ‘goody-goody’ in whom we can’t believe. I had lots of fun with my chapter on all the merchandise inspired by this novel – don’t you just love the idea of a BBQ apron that announces ‘Let’s BBQ Wickham!’ And I was fascinated by the responses to ‘P & P’ over 200 years from famous people. A.A. Milne quite rightly judged people by their reactions to this book, while Robert Louis Stevenson wanted to go down on his knees and worship Elizabeth Bennet whenever she opened her mouth.

My book is very gorgeously illustrated and has pictures that may be unfamiliar to many. It is available in two editions – the American edition is Celebrating Pride and Prejudice: 200 Years of Jane Austen’s Masterpiece and the UK edition is Happily Ever After: Celebrating Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. I do hope my book gives pleasure to those of you who read it, and also teaches you new things about this much-loved novel.

HAPPY PRIDE AND PREJUDICE ANNIVERSARY YEAR!

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About the Author:

Susannah Fullerton is President of JASA, and author of Jane Austen – Antipodean Views, Jane Austen and Crime, A Dance with Jane Austen, and her latest Celebrating Pride and Prejudice: 200 Years of Jane Austen’s Masterpiece – note that the UK title of this work is Happily Ever After: Celebrating Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (Frances Lincoln, 2012).

Celebrating Pride and Prejudice
Voyageur Press, January 1, 2013
ISBN-10: 0760344361; ISBN-13: 978-0760344361
$25.99

Contents: (I have abbreviated the title to P&P)

‘My Own Darling Child’- The Writing of P&P
‘A Very Superior Work’ – Reactions to P&P
‘A Truth Universally Acknowledged’ – The Famous First Sentence
‘Bright and Sparkling’ – The Style of P&P
‘As Charming a Creature’ – The Heroine, Elizabeth Bennet
‘Mr Darcy … is the Man!’ – The Hero, Fitzwilliam Darcy
‘The Female Line’ – Her Relations
‘The Same Noble Line’ – His Relations
‘Delighting in the Ridiculous’ – Other Characters
P&P Goes Overseas – The Translations
‘Pictures of Perfection’ – Illustrating and Covering P&P
Did They Live Happily Ever After? – Sequels and Adaptations
Bonnets and Bosoms – Film and Theatrical Versions
Mugs and Skateboards – Selling P&P
‘Behold Me Immortal’ – P&P Now and in the Future
Bibliography and Index

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Please enter into the drawing for a copy of Celebrating Pride and Prejudice by commenting below: either by asking Susannah a question or telling us of your first experience in reading Pride and Prejudice [or like Susannah, perhaps being read to?]. Deadline is Tuesday January 29, 2013 11:59 pm; winner will be announced on Wednesday January 30^th. Worldwide eligibility. Good luck all, and thank you to the publisher for donating the book for the giveaway [please note that I happily purchased my own copy].

c2013, Jane Austen in Vermont

Author Interviews · Book reviews · Jane Austen · Jane Austen Popular Culture · Jane Austen Sequels · Jane Austen Societies · JASNA · Regency England

Guest Post and Giveaway ~ Syrie James on The Missing Manuscript of Jane Austen

January 14, 2013 BookLady Deb18 Comments

Syrie James has been touring the blog world since the launch of her latest book The Missing Manuscript of Jane Austen on December 31, 2012 – she started at Austenprose and has hit most of the Austen-related blogs out there (see below), each with a different guest post about her writing, research, travels, and love of Jane Austen. So I am thrilled to welcome Syrie here today to Jane Austen in Vermont, where she gives us a little history of her association with JASNA. [See below for giveaway instructions!]

I first met Syrie at the AGM in Fort Worth [along with her very own Mr. Darcy!], an honor for me as I had dearly loved The Memoirs of Jane Austen – I thought she captured very well the life and voice of Austen and her time. In The Missing Manuscript of Jane Austen, she takes us again into this Austen world, offering up the most intriguing tale and what we all wish for: a missing manuscript, missing letters, missing anything from our favorite illusive author. And in Missing Manuscript, we have two books for the price of one – a delightful tale within a tale that gives us a lost Austen novel titled The Stanhopes, based in part on Austen’s own “Plan of a Novel” *, and the contemporary tale of the young woman who discovers the letter that leads her to the manuscript.

I loved this book! – Syrie has given us a story that would make Jane Austen proud and a fine taste of what such a real find might offer us (with of course the caveat that no one is really like Jane Austen…) [An Interesting Aside: I have been reading Trollope’s Barchester Towers, wherein we have a story of a vicar who is suffering from the loss of his parish, as well as a family named the Stanhopes! I asked Syrie if she had any of this in her mind when she was writing – she said she has never read any Trollope and had no idea! Another example of the “collective unconscious” at work in mysterious ways! – and I struggling to keep my Stanhopes straight!] So I highly recommend this book – a perfect winter read to curl up with – you will find endearing characters, sly allusions to Austen’s life and works that make this a bit of a treasure hunt, two love stories (who can resist!), and storytelling at its best.

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Syrie, I have been badgering you and Diana (Birchall) to come to visit us in person in Vermont, to perform any and all of your now famous plays – “The Austen Assizes” in Brooklyn was a great romp filled with Austen’s baddies, and by all accounts your performance of Diana’s play You are Passionate, Jane was a rousing hit [links to a few bits of both on youtube are below]. We look forward to another such performance in Montreal for the Mansfield Park AGM 2014, where you will finally be close enough to Vermont for me to entice you to stop in! – In the meantime, this blog visit shall have to do…

So please welcome Syrie as she discusses how important the Jane Austen Society of North America [JASNA: www.jasna.org] is to her and how it has helped her writing career.

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JASNA has become such an important part of my life. Interestingly, I hadn’t even heard of the organization until The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen came out. Following a suggestion from my readers, I checked it out and discovered that a spring meeting of JASNA-SW (my local Southwest chapter) was being held at the UCLA faculty club, which isn’t far from where I live. I signed up to go, having no idea what to expect. I arrived at the luncheon not knowing a soul—and to my surprise and delight found I was surrounded by remarkable, like-minded people from all different professions, all bound together by their love of literature in general and Jane Austen’s works in particular. Many of them had already read my novel. Talk about finding “my people”! The agenda was packed with interesting speakers and included an activity that to me was to die for: an excursion to the UCLA research library where we were allowed to view a first edition of Pride and Prejudice. I was hooked for life.

I attended my first JASNA AGM (Annual General Meeting) that fall in Chicago. An AGM is truly Jane Austen Heaven, with an emporium selling Austen-related goodies, and four days of sessions, speakers, special interest activities, dance lessons, and entertainment all related in some way to the Regency era or Austen’s books, culminating with a Regency Ball where everyone dresses in period attire. Since then, my husband and I have attended nearly every AGM (we plan our vacation schedules around wherever the next conference happens to be). Some attendees dress in period attire, and since I like to sew and love costumes, it’s a treat to have an excuse to don a Regency gown and bonnet!

Syrie and Bill James in full regalia
2011 Fort Worth AGM cLaurel Ann Nattress

The organization has been a tremendous help to my writing. I learn so much at the breakout sessions, both at the AGMs and local chapter meetings. Just as one example, at the AGM in Fort Worth in 2011, there was a session on transportation in the Regency era. I learned about the types of carriages used, how the system of changing horses worked throughout England, and how long such trips might take—all of which enhanced my own research and was valuable when I wrote the traveling scenes in The Missing Manuscript of Jane Austen.

JASNA has also been a wonderful boon to my career. My local chapter is very supportive of my work, inviting me to do readings from my books (attendance at the meetings ranges from 65-160 people) and arranging for me to sign books at their booth at the annual L.A. Times Festival of Books. I’ve made so many friends through JASNA—many of whom live in far flung states and in England, Canada, and Australia—who I look forward to seeing once a year at the AGM.

I was the keynote speaker for a JASNA Boise Idaho’s Jane Austen tea, which made for a delightful wintry trip and forged lifelong friendships. The book launch and signing for Jane Austen Made Me Do It, an anthology edited by Laurel Ann Nattress to which I contributed an Austen-themed short story, was held at the 2011 AGM (and was great fun). At the meeting in Brooklyn last October, fellow author Diana Birchall and I co-wrote and presented a comedic play “The Austen Assizes” which was voted the #1 breakout session of the entire conference. (Highlights reel here). The committee hosting the Montreal AGM in 2014 recently commissioned us to write an original play for the plenary audience, and we couldn’t be more delighted. Diana and I have performed her comedic two-woman play “You Are Passionate, Jane” (where Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë meet in heaven) for two JASNA chapters (highlights video here)—fulfilling my dream to play Jane Austen on stage!

As you can see, I can’t stop talking (or writing) about JASNA! For anyone who enjoys Austen’s works, I highly recommend that you join!

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Syrie James is the bestselling author of eight critically acclaimed novels, including The Missing Manuscript of Jane Austen, The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen, The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë, Dracula My Love, Nocturne, Forbidden, and The Harrison Duet: Songbird and Propositions. Her books have been translated into eighteen foreign languages. In addition to her work as a novelist, she is a screenwriter, a member of the Writers Guild of America, and a life member of the Jane Austen Society of North America. She lives with her family in Los Angeles, California. Connect with her on her website, Facebook, and Twitter.

You can follow Syrie’s Blog tour here:

Gala Online Launch Party at austenprose.com!

My Jane Austen Book Club: Syrie James Discusses Why Jane Austen Captures Her Writing Imagination

Austen Authors: Syrie James celebrates The Missing Manuscript of Jane Austen -–book launch and giveaway!

Historical-Fiction.com: Syrie James on Her Writing and Travels

RT Book Reviews: Syrie James Channels Jane Austen

Fresh Fiction: Syrie James | The challenges of the writing process

Risky Regencies: How Did You Research The Missing Manuscript of Jane Austen?

Austenesque Reviews

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Information on joining JASNA is at their website: http://jasna.org/membership/index.html – like Syrie, you may discover there is a regional group close to you – there are over 70 regions in the US and Canada – the lists for each are here:

The US: http://jasna.org/regions/regional_uslist.html
Canada: http://jasna.org/regions/regional_canadalist.html

For the manuscript of “Plan of a Novel” – visit Jane Austen’s Fiction Manuscripts

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Giveaway of The Missing Manuscript of Jane Austen! please either ask Syrie a question or comment on your favorite Syrie James book (and why) to be entered into the random drawing for a copy of The Missing Manuscript – worldwide eligibility. Deadline: Monday January 21, 2013 11:59 pm – winner will be announced on Tuesday January 22nd.

Thank you all, and Thank You Syrie for posting here today!

Fashion & Costume · Jane Austen · Regency England · Social Life & Customs

Flirtation Rules 1800s ~ via The Retronaut

January 8, 2013 BookLady Deb2 Comments

Too good not to share! ~ courtesy of Retronaut

Great Britain - History · Jane Austen · Jane Austen Merchandise · Jane Austen Popular Culture · Regency England · Social Life & Customs

All I Want for Christmas ~ Anything Jane Austen Please! ~ Day 4: Tony Heaton’s Greetings from England Cards

December 27, 2012January 17, 2013 BookLady Deb4 Comments

The 12 Days of Christmas:

Day 4: Jane Austen Cards from “Greetings from England”

Continue reading “All I Want for Christmas ~ Anything Jane Austen Please! ~ Day 4: Tony Heaton’s Greetings from England Cards” →

Austen Literary History & Criticism · Books · Jane Austen · Jane Austen Popular Culture · Regency England · Social Life & Customs

Hot off the Press! ~ Jane Austen’s Regency World Magazine, No. 61

December 21, 2012January 17, 2013 BookLady Deb3 Comments

The January/February issue (No. 61) of Jane Austen’s Regency World magazine, marking the bicentenary of Pride & Prejudice, has just been published and is being mailed to subscribers over the holiday period.

Continue reading “Hot off the Press! ~ Jane Austen’s Regency World Magazine, No. 61″ →

Great Britain - History · Jane Austen · Regency England · Travel

Jane Austen at the Seaside ~Tenby, Wales ~ Guest post by Tony Grant

December 18, 2012January 17, 2013 BookLady Deb16 Comments

Inquiring Readers: I welcome today Tony Grant with a guest post on Tenby, Wales, a place that in all probability Jane Austen had visited. Tony, who writes often for Vic’s Jane Austen’s World blog , as well as his own blog London Calling, and I had been cyber-discussing Jane Austen’s knowledge of the seaside – I sent him the link to the Brian Southam essay “Jane Austen Beside the Seaside” (see below) – he was immediately prompted to write more about Tenby, a place he is very familiar with because it is his wife’s birthplace. Just reading this piece and seeing Tony’s pictures makes me want to go back to Wales and continue to explore more of this incomparable coastline! … The question today however is, did Jane Austen actually visit Tenby? If she did it seems to have taken place in those no-letters gap years of 1801-04, so we cannot know for sure…. Read here what Tony has to say about it all…

Continue reading “Jane Austen at the Seaside ~Tenby, Wales ~ Guest post by Tony Grant” →

Austen Literary History & Criticism · Fashion & Costume · Great Britain - History · Jane Austen · Jane Austen Popular Culture · JASNA · Regency England · Schedule of Events · Social Life & Customs

Happy Birthday Jane Austen! ~ The Ten Best Reasons to Go to a JASNA AGM ~ It’s All About You Jane!

December 15, 2012January 17, 2013 BookLady Deb29 Comments

Comment below for the chance to win a surprise Jane Austen-related giveaway!

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The Ten Best Reasons to Go to a JASNA AGM, Or, Why I would celebrate Jane Austen’s Birthday
by Spiriting Her Around Such an Event

Well, I had the best of intentions to do a full write-up of all the major events at the latest JASNA AGM in Brooklyn – a special location for me personally as I am a New Yorker born and bred – but as I have mentioned elsewhere life gets in the way of our best-laid plans and as the AGM now seems light-years away, I propose to just offer a grand summary in the context of why one should go to this annual Jane Austen conference; and why do so many plan on being there year after year? Friends and family just shake their heads with the typical “she only wrote 6 books, whatever can you talk about for 4 days??” and I nod knowingly that a lifetime of conferences would not satisfy… It takes me a long while to re-enter the 21^st century – how delightful it is to enjoy the late 18^th and early 19^th without all the attendant inconveniences! I shall make a best effort to give the salient points of this year’s conference, memory perhaps failing me, with a dependence upon sketchy notes, not enough pictures taken (and those that were, not very good…)

Continue reading “Happy Birthday Jane Austen! ~ The Ten Best Reasons to Go to a JASNA AGM ~ It’s All About You Jane!” →