The Wellcome Library announced on Monday its plan to release over 100,000 images from its collection of treasures – all in the Public Domain! [CC-BY = please give credit to the Wellcome Library when using any image]
One fine example:
A pretty barmaid drawing beer. Coloured lithograph, c. 1825. Published: Tregear London (123, Cheapside); Printed: Dean & Manday, lithographers [London]
Image credit: the Wellcome Library, London
A quick search brings up nothing “Jane Austen” – but as you imagine there are nearly 300 Rowlandson prints – here is one to bring to mind summer while more than half the country is in a deep-freeze:
L0017751 – Venus’s Bathing (Margate) – A woman diving off a bathing wagon in to the sea
Hand-coloured etching 1790 By: Thomas Rowlandson Image Credit: Wellcome Library, London
Here is the video that showed on Nightline last night “Oh Mr. Darcy! Jane Austen Super Fans” – where the camera takes us through various Jane Austen events with costumed, tea-drinking fans, as well as numerous film clips of our favorite Mr. Darcys in all manner of steamy situations …
The reporters hit the JASNA AGM in Minneapolis, a Jane Austen group in Pasadena, and our very own Governor’s House in Hyde Park, Vermont which makes a grand showing, fabulous for Innkeeper Suzanne!
Another book to be added to your wish list, due out early December!
Jane Austen and the Arts: Elegance, Propriety, and Harmony Edited by Natasha Duquette and Elisabeth Lenckos.
Lehigh U P / Rowman & Littlefield, 2013
What makes this book so special to JASNA-Vermont is that one of the chapters is by our founding member Kelly McDonald! – see chapter 2 in the table of contents below, and her blog post on it here. Congratulations Kelly!
Contributions by Jessica Brown; Diane N. Capitani; Christine Colón; Alice Davenport; Deborah Kennedy; Kathryn L. Libin; Kelly McDonald; Belisa Monteiro; Jeffrey Nigro; J. Russell Perkin; Erin J. Smith; Vivasvan Soni; Melora G. Vandersluis and Frederick A. Duquette.
The essays collected in Jane Austen and the Arts; Elegance, Propriety, and Harmony examine Austen’s understanding of the arts, her aesthetic philosophy, and her role as artist. Together, they explore Austen’s connections with Edmund Burke, Adam Smith, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Madame de Staël, Joanna Baillie, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck, and other writers engaged in debates on the sensuous experience and the intellectual judgment of art. Our contributors look at Austen’s engagement with diverse art forms, painting, ballet, drama, poetry, and music, investigating our topic within historically grounded and theoretically nuanced essays. They represent Austen as a writer-thinker reflecting on the nature and practice of artistic creation and considering the social, moral, psychological, and theological functions of art in her fiction. We suggest that Austen knew, modified, and transformed the dominant aesthetic discourses of her era, at times ironically, to her own artistic ends. As a result, a new, and compelling image of Austen emerges, a “portrait of a lady artist” confidently promoting her own distinctly post-enlightenment aesthetic system.
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Table of Contents:
Preface: Jane Austen’s Critique of Aesthetic Judgment by Vivasvan Soni
Introduction by Natasha Duquette and Elisabeth Lenckos
I. The Fine Arts in Austen’s World: Music, Dance, and Portraiture
Ch 1. “Daily Practice, Musical Accomplishment, and the Example of Jane Austen” – Kathryn Libin Ch 2.”A ‘Reputation for Accomplishment’: Marianne Dashwood and Emma Woodhouse as Artistic Performers” – Kelly McDonald Ch 3. “Miss Bingley’s Walk: The Aesthetics of Movement in Pride and Prejudice” – Erin Smith
Ch 4. “The Sister Artist: Cassandra Austen’s Portraits of Jane Austen in Art-Historical Context” – Jeffrey Nigro
II. Austen and Romanticism: Female Genius, Gothicism, and Sublimity
Ch 5 – “Portrait of a Lady (Artist): Jane Austen’s Anne Elliot, Madame de Staël’s Corrine, and the Woman of Genius Novel” – Elisabeth Lenckos
Ch 6 – “Jane Austen’s Comic Heroines and the Controversial Pleasures of Wit” – Belisa Monteiro
Ch 7 – “An Adaptable Aesthetic: Eighteenth-Century Landscapes, Ann Radcliffe, and Jane Austen” – Alice Davenport
Ch 8. “Exploring the Transformative Power of Literature: Joanna Baillie, Jane Austen and the Aesthetics of Moral Reform” – Christine Colón
Ch 9. “Jane Austen’s Influence on Stephenie Meyer” – Deborah Kennedy
III. Austen in Political, Social, and Theological Context
Ch 10. “Aesthetics, Politics, and the Interpretation of Mansfield Park” – Russell Perkin
Ch 11. “Reflections on Mirrors: Austen, Rousseau, and Socio-Politics” – Melora Vandersluis
Ch 12. “‘So much novelty and beauty!’: Spacious Reception through an Aesthetic of Restraint in Persuasion” – Jessica Brown
Ch 13. “Augustinian Aesthetics in Jane Austen’s World: God as Artist” – Diane Capitani
Ch 14. “‘Delicacy of Taste’ Redeemed: The Aesthetic Judgments of Austen’s Clergymen Heroes” – Fred and Natasha Duquette
Opening today! ~ “Georgians Revealed: Life, Style and the Making of Modern Britain” – 8 November – 11 March 2014 at the British Library
I.R. and G. Cruikshank. ‘Tom & Jerry at a Coffee Shop near the Olympic’ – Pierce Egan, Life in London (London, 1823).
Tasteful and polite, or riotous and pleasure-obsessed? Discover the Georgians as they really were, through the objects that tell the stories of their lives.
From beautifully furnished homes to raucous gambling dens, Georgians Revealed explores the revolution in everyday life that took place between 1714 and 1830. Cities and towns were transformed. Taking tea, reading magazines, gardening and shopping for leisure were commonplace, and conspicuous consumption became the pastime of the emerging middle classes.
Popular culture as we know it began, and with it the unstoppable rise of fashion and celebrity. Art galleries, museums and charities were founded. In this time of incredible innovation, ideas were endlessly debated in the new coffee houses and spread via the information highway that was mass print.
Drawing on the British Library’s uniquely rich and rare collections of illustrated books, newspapers, maps and advertisements, as well as loaned artworks and artifacts, “Georgians Revealed” brings to life the trials and triumphs of the ordinary people who transformed Britain forever.
And check out the online shop where all manner of Georgian -related treasures are for sale, as well as a catalogue of the exhibition, another must-have for your Jane Austen collection!
Rocque map of London fan, £8
A beautiful wooden fan, featuring a historic map created by John Rocque.
The fan has been created exclusively for the British Library. Wood/ canvas.
[Images and text from the British Library website]
Dear Readers: I welcome today Ron Dunning, who wrote here last year about his “Akin to Jane” website – today he shares with us an article he wrote for the Huguenots of Spitalfields newsletter “Strangers” – here expanded somewhat and with pictures – and see how Jane Austen connects to various families and traditions of Spitalfields life in London.
To have lived in London for the past 40 years has been an immense pleasure. Now I’ve discovered a new one, and that is to be retired in London. I’ve always loved to explore, but was only able to appreciate the various parts of town for their ambience. Now there’s time to appreciate them more deeply, to learn about their associations with history, about interesting residents. Many have passed out of fashion and been built over – in which case there’s only the odd surviving building to stimulate the imagination – but in other areas, where the faded charm is obvious and where their economic value has not been great enough to attract the redevelopers, new residents have moved in to restore houses and revive the life of the community.
[Rooftops of Spitalfields, formerly the workrooms of the silk weavers and now gentrified – c Jeremy Freedman]
One such area that I’ve come to know much better is Spitalfields, just to the east of London’s old city walls. Its development by speculative builders was begun in the early 1700s, as a new suburb. Huguenot refugees from France and the Low Countries soon settled there, particularly those involved in the silk fabric trade. They brought their skills and their contacts from the continent and quickly restored their prosperity. Some 150 years later the mechanising of weaving, relaxation of tariffs on imports from France, and robust trade with China destroyed the Spitalfields silk trade.
[Image from the Huguenots of Spitalfields Facebook page]
The houses had aged by the mid-19th century too, and to some extent Spitalfields became a slum, housing successive waves of immigrants – who each moved on once they became prosperous. By the 1970s, when the latest wave of new arrivals to the poorer streets was Bengali, city redevelopment was threatening to overtake it. Just in the nick of time young artists discovered the antique charm of the weavers’ houses, which could be bought for a pittance. They are now worth over £1,000,000.
I’ve been researching the Austen pedigree for long enough that it’s possible to link her family with almost anyone. Though the worlds of the Huguenots and of Jane Austen would seem almost to inhabit separate universes, a surprising number of Huguenot families had close connections with hers. I’ve made a list of the most notable.
Anyone who has read Jon Spence’s book, Becoming Jane Austen (or seen the film Becoming Jane), will recognise the name of Lefroy. Antoine Loffroy, a native of Cambray, took refuge in England from religious persecution in the Low Countries in about 1587, and settled at Canterbury, where he and his family engaged in the business of silk dyeing. His descendant Tom Lefroy was the one young man with whom Jane was said to be truly in love. Tom at that point didn’t have an income with which to support a wife, and was quickly bundled off by his elders and betters. He rose eventually to become the Chief Justice of the Court of Queen’s Bench in Ireland and, at the end of his life, remembered Jane with great affection. Ben Lefroy, from a later generation, did marry an Austen – one of Jane’s favourite nieces, Jane Anna Elizabeth.
The Portals were an ancient and noble Protestant family of Toulouse who stood firmly by the faith of their fathers, and several of them suffered death rather than recant it. They were among the Huguenots who introduced the art of fine paper making to England – Henry Portal established a mill at Laverstoke, on the River Itchen in Hampshire. He achieved such a reputation that the Bank of England awarded him the contract to produce bank notes. Living in Hampshire, the Portals had extensive social contacts with the Austens. Adela Portal married Jane’s nephew Edward Knight, while her sister Caroline married Edward’s brother William.
The Chenevixes were another distinguished family of Protestants, this time from Lorraine, who fled after the 1685 Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. One branch settled in Ireland, and were much attracted to the military and clerical professions. Melesina Chenevix, the poet and diarist, and granddaughter of Richard Chenevix, the Anglican Bishop of Waterford and of Lismore, was the ancestor of a number of people linked to the Austen pedigree. Melesina had married Richard Trench – the de la Tranches were yet another family who had taken refuge in England shortly after the massacre of St. Bartholomew – and their descendants assumed the double-barrelled surname of Chenevix-Trench. Their granddaughter Melesina Mary Chenevix-Trench married Chomley Austen-Leigh, Jane’s great nephew. Melesina Mary’s sister Helen Emily married Arthur Blundell George Sandys Hill, another great nephew. Their brother Charles married Emily Mary Lefroy, a cousin of Tom Lefroy. Their cousin Melesina Gladys, as well as being the mother of the famous editor of the Daily Telegraph, Bill Deedes, was the grandmother of FitzWalter Plumptre, the Baron FitzWalter – who can also trace his pedigree to the family of Eleanor Bridges, the wife of Jane’s brother Edward. Lord FitzWalter still lives at Goodnestone, the seat of the Bridges family, where Edward and Eleanor lived before they could move into Godmersham.
David Papillon, the first of his family to settle in England, had been sent with his mother and siblings by his father, to escape persecution. They were shipwrecked while crossing the English Channel, and his mother drowned. The story of the mingling of genes between David’s descendants and the Austens, through the Brodnaxes, is a bit too obscure to tell here, but one of them featured in Jane’s life – the Rev John Rawstorne Papillon. The living of Chawton parish was offered to him; should he decline, it was then to pass to Jane’s brother Henry. John did take it and became the rector of the village in which Jane lived during her final years. There is a neat bracketing of Huguenot suitors for her hand, from the beginning and the end of her adult life – Mrs Knight, the widow of Thomas Brodnax and elderly benefactor of both the Austens and the Papillons, suggested that the Rev John, a life-long bachelor, would make a suitable husband. With characteristic irony Jane remarked in a note to her sister: ‘I am very much obliged to Mrs Knight for such a proof of the interest she takes in me – & she may depend upon it, that I will marry Mr Papillon, whatever may be his reluctance or my own – I owe her much more than such a trifling sacrifice.’
I could end this essay here, but want to mention another resonance between the Huguenots and the Austens, and to return Spitalfields to the fore. Jane’s paternal ancestors, going back three generations and further, were clothiers of Kent – staunchly Protestant, fiercely independent, wool and woollen fabric merchants. The organisation of their business was very similar to that of the silk merchants in London. I was struck, while gazing up to the roofs of Spitalfields, by a parallel. In both industries labour was organised by narrowly demarcated skills, and in both the weavers’ workplace was accommodated on the top floor of merchant’s houses. I was seized by a vivid impression of crabbed men and no doubt women, in both London and Kent, toiling for 14 hours a day in those garrets for a pittance!
Grovehurst House c Ron Dunning
[Grovehurst House: one of the Austen houses at Horsmonden in Kent, which dates in parts from the 14th century – I was struck by the resonance between Spitalfields and the Kentish Austens – they were clothiers, and their industry in wool was structured much like silk weaving in London. My understanding is that the weavers worked in the loft of this house.]
[Initials of John (Iohannes, presumably) Austen, over the middle window upstairs, cRon Dunning]
[Another Austen house (Broadford) at Horsmonden, Kent where the weavers laboured on the top floor]
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A brief history of the Huguenots
The St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacrein 1572 was a targeted group of assassinations, followed by a wave of Roman Catholic mob violence, directed against the French Calvinist Protestants (known as Huguenots) during France’s Wars of Religion. The Edict of Nantes, issued on 13 April 1598 by King Henry IV of France, granted them substantial rights in the interest of civil unity. In October 1685 Louis XIV, Henry IV’s grandson, revoked the Edict of Nantes with the Edict of Fontainebleau, and declared Protestantism illegal. As many as 400,000 Protestants chose to leave France, moving to Great Britain, Prussia, the Dutch Republic, Switzerland, South Africa, and the new French colonies in North America. This exodus deprived France of many of its most skilled and industrious individuals.
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The Big Weave c Jeremy FreedmanSpitalfields, c Jeremy Freedman
Links and attributions, with thanks to all!
Photographs of Spitalfields as noted are the work of Jeremy Freedman: www.jeremyfreedman.com
The September/October issue of Jane Austen’s Regency World magazine is out now and will be mailed to subscribers this week. In it you can read about:
Northanger Abbey with strings: the Gothic puppet show that gripped the Edinburgh Festival and is heading to Bath and London
JASNA AGM preview: an exclusive look at September’s gathering in Minneapolis
The importance of being George: the new royal baby has a very Austen name
Trafalgar and Nelson: how the press reported the great Naval victory – plus Nelson’s funeral remembered
Remembering the Burneys: a new plaque in unveiled in memory of Fanny
Plus News, Letters, Book Reviews and information from Jane Austen Societies in the Netherlands, UK and Australia
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To subscribe now click here: http://janeaustenmagazine.co.uk/subscribe/ – and make sure that you are among the first to read all the news from Jane Austen’s Regency World.
I am posting here several pictures from the JASNA-New York Capital Region’s Retreat from a few weeks ago – a fabulous time was had by all as we learned about, discussed, laughed over, and watched Jane Austen’s Persuasion. The overnight retreat was held at the Wiawaka Holiday House located on Lake George, New York, a perfect setting for a 24-hour immersion in the early 19th century. [See here for information on the weekend]
Wiawaka House c2013 Mary Huber
The event was facilitated by member Billie Franchini, who offered up great discussion questions, and kept us all on track and everything running very smoothly. We had the pleasure of listening to local author Marilyn Rothstein talk about the Regency Period, with tales of the Prince Regent, life in London for the upper classes, and Beau Brummell.
[Beau Brummell, by Aubrey Hammond, in Lewis Melville, Beau Brummell (NY: Doran, 1925) – at Hathi Trust]
Lisa Brown, from the Syracuse and Rochester JASNA regions (and who has said she really just joined JASNA so she could talk about her first Love, The Royal Navy!), gave an enlightening talk on the uniforms of the Royal Navy from the period, as she passed around various examples of jackets made of superfine wool with epaulettes and buttons that we could handle and ooh! and aah! over [alas! – all empty with no Captain Wentworth in sight!]
the all-important epaulette c2013 D BarnumNavy Uniforms 1795-1812 – Lisa Brown
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Lisa spoke the next day as well on “How Captain Wentworth Made His Fortune” – wherein we learned about the various ships of the period (and those that Wentworth commanded), the rating system, how one became an officer with hopes of success in battle and a future as an admiral, how one earned their prize money, how often a sailor was relegated to half-pay status [think Capt. Harville] and how very knowledgeable Jane Austen was about the Royal Navy because of her brothers’ involvement. Lisa is a veritable encyclopedia about the RN and she handled our peppering with questions admirably! [very excited to announce that Lisa will be speaking at our JASNA-Vermont June 2014 meeting!]
Lisa’s exhibits – c2013 Mary HuberTea on the Porch! c2013 D Barnum
The weekend ended with a sumptuous Tea, prepared mostly by RC Pat Friesen, and a final discussion of the joys of viewing the movie adaptation of Persuasion – thankfully the one with Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds! – which we had done the night before… one never tires of this nearly perfect adaptation, and one always sees things not seen before, moreso when viewing it with a group…
A lovely 24-hour immersion! – up for next year is Northanger Abbey, and a more perfect setting I cannot imagine. Thank you all in the Capital Region JASNA group for making us all feel so very welcome and offering up insightful Austen discussion!
I welcome today JASNA member Janeite Bonnie, as she offers us the tale of her time-travel adventure at Jane Austen Summer Camp, sponsored by the JASNA-Connecticut Region on July 26-28, 2013. Bonnie was, alas! without a working camera, and it is with thanks that I use fellow camper Tess Quinn’s photographs! [Tess is the author most recently of Pride Revisited.]
Enjoy all – so sorry I was not there – hopefully next year! [I was at the Middletown Inn a few years ago for a wedding, and I can attest to it being the perfect setting for anything to do with Jane Austen!]
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I was a last-minute registrant for the Jane Austen Summer Camp, and registered for only the second half of the weekend, taking a miss on the workshops on Saturday morning because I had either attended similar workshops before or had skills that did not require workshops such as were offered. I drove down from VT to Middletown, CT on Saturday afternoon wondering what to expect in terms of the area in which the event took place, since such things do tend to color my experience. As I turned onto Main Street, I spied a row of 18th century clapboard houses across the street, and I thrilled to the sight. When I pulled up to the gate of the Inn at Middletown, I was immediately favorably impressed. The Inn at Middletown has the look of an early 19th century manor house, with wings, snubby portico, and miniature curved drive. When I walked inside, the Inn continued to enchant me with its central curved staircase, immense chandelier, fireplace, and patterned marble floor. The room I shared with my friend Shari was tasteful, but I barely had time to enjoy it before I had to begin my transformation into a Regency lady.
Middletown Inn [Wikipedia]
Our Saturday evening began with gathering in the second floor lobby, where alcoholic beverages were dispensed to those willing with shillings. Some faces were familiar; we have crossed paths at other JASNA, time-travel, and dance events. Most of us, I am gratified to report, were dressed in period outfits, and we exchanged compliments and admiring looks.
Dinner before the Ball!
When we entered the conference room for dinner, I was pleasantly surprised to see it looking period-appropriate, too, with nicely painted woodwork, wallpaper, double-hung windows dressed up in patterned draperies, wall sconces, a boarded-up fireplace (well, it *is* summer) with a mantel and mirror above, and a sideboard in a recess with a mirror overhanging it. Of course, I made my way to the center table so that I could have a great seat for the lecture after dinner by Irene Urban, who is known to me through Regency dance. She is a maven of Regency cookery, but more of her soon.
Table setting
The table was dressed up with a sweet urn of colorful flowers, and everyone had gifts of a sandalwood fan and chocolates in front of her place setting. Lovely chocolates, by the way: They looked like cameos, with a milk chocolate base and a silhouette Jane Austen silhouetted in white chocolate. We started off dinner with a delicious cold soup of Lord-knows-what, but the ingredient I do remember is champagne. More alcohol — terrific for loosening the joints and inhibitions for dancing! Everyone enjoyed their main course, too. I had already heard praise of the Inn at Middletown’s cuisine, but tasting was believing. The presentation was also quite lovely. Well done!
We did not enjoy a last course of dessert because that was saved for the break during the ball. However, Irene Urban’s lecture on Regency dining was a delicious treat for the mind, and I would have willingly gone back for seconds and thirds, but it was all too quickly over, with no Q and A session. Irene dropped tantalizing tidbits such as what was stocked in a Regency larder, including all the dead animals, which she accompanied with an etching of the same. I would imagine that if cruel Regency parents had wanted to punish their naughty little ones, they could have locked them in a dark pantry for an hour. Irene is not an all-talk-and-no-action lady; if you have ever attended an event with which she is connected, you are treated to period delights created from recipes that she has adapted from vague original recipes in her collection of period cookbooks.
Susan de Guardiola and her Soldiers
Next up was the ball, which was called by Susan de Guardiola, a Regency dance expert. The dances were simple to suit those who had never danced period dances before. The room was splendidly lit up, quite full of company, but not insufferably hot, so we were spared the trials of E. and M. The crowd organized into two longways sets, and off we went, balancing, dos-a-dosing, slipping, turning, gazing, flirting, and attending. I think we all acquitted ourselves rather well, and as a reward were treated to sumptuous desserts during the break, as well as the raffling off of two splendid gift baskets and several smaller gifts.
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Sunday’s activities began with a promenade to a local historical house museum [the General Mansfield House]. Many folks chose to dress up again, and I believe we looked fresh and charming in our day gowns, bonnets, reticules, and parasols. We gathered in the lobby, then strolled out through the front courtyard, crossed the street, and there we were. The docent of the museum greeted us on the steps, then spent the next twenty minutes lecturing about the history of the house and its occupants while we stood, wilting. An older woman required a chair, which my friend Shari borrowed and brought to her, and still the lecture continued! We were finally allowed to tour the house and the grounds, which were not extensive but had a few suitable places for photo ops.
After the museum, we returned to the hotel to check out and have brunch: yummy cheese blintzes and vegetable quiche. After brunch, Dr. Mark Schenker, associate dean of Yale College, presented a lecture titled “The Richness of ‘Ordinary Life’ in Austen’s Novels”. While my author friends on either side of me scribbled away, I just sat in bliss. Dr. Schenker, while having ample notes, frequently put them down and wove witty and insightful incidental observations into his structured lecture. He is the type of speaker who leaves you glowing with happiness after you’ve been privileged to hear him. I am embarrassed to admit that, although I
Dr. Schenker – “Is that _really_ all you can remember?!
thoroughly enjoyed the lecture (and it made me wish that I had come for the full weekend so that I could have heard his other lecture Friday night), the only thing he said that I can quote was that he referred to Jane and Charles Bingley as the couple downstairs, the Mertzes of Jane Austen’s couples! What a thing to remember.
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The weekend was capped with an ice cream social, the raffling off of two more marvelous gift baskets and smaller gifts, and the screening of the soon-to-be released film Austenland. I do believe that this movie is haunting me. I had already sat through the initial free preview for JASNA-NY members at the Sony screening room in New York and felt I had wasted two hours of my life. I had even squeezed it into my tight schedule when it was offered because, of course, it was a one-time-only experience. However, two or three more free previews were offered after that to JASNA-NY members. This past weekend, all the way up in mid-Connecticut I thought I could enjoy a good Austen movie with other Janeites, when, lo and behold, Austenland again popped up and put a pin in my Austen euphoria. N.B. I just received an e-mail from JASNA-NY about yet one more free preview of Austenland, to take place on Tuesday, July 30, in Manhattan!
Austenland company
I left very glad that I had made the effort to drive for four and one-quarter hours the 260 miles from my home to the Inn at Middletown. Everyone with whom I spoke was positive about all aspects of the gathering, from the venue to the food, from the workshops to the lectures, from the ball to the gift baskets and the camp store, all were praised. It is testament to the tremendous concerted efforts of all the organizers of this event, and I hope to see it repeated and expanded in two years.
For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn? –Jane Austen
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[Note: all pictures c2013 Tess Quinn, with thanks!, unless noted otherwise]
Our JASNA Vermont reading group recently discussed Georgette Heyer’s Frederica. A skeptical member asked the question: why should we read Heyer? Georgette Heyer is a prolific 20th century novelist known for writing Historical Fiction, Regency Romances, and Mysteries. Frederica is one of the Regency Romances. (Think Harlequin not Hawthorne….) So, why should a thoughtful group of Austen devotees choose a Heyer Romance? Below are some of the answers from our group’s discussion.
Reason # 7:It’s summer. Let’s face it, we don’t have to read Tolstoy, Dickens, or even Austen all year. Go to the beach and relax!
Reason #6: Heyer, as mentioned above, is prolific. If you like one of her Regency Romances, you have 33 more to choose from.
Reason #5: Heyer researched and included wonderful Regency detail. She described the carriages, dress, and food, for example, in specific detail. You can read about phaetons and curricles, neck-cloths and laces, and jellies and sauces. If you have any interest in the Regency period, it is both fun and informative to have such specifics included in the novels.
Reason #4: Ditto for Regency language, cant, lingo, etc. Heyer used Regency cant in all of her Romances. What does it mean if someone is a “nodcock” or a “ninnyhammer”? What about if someone is trying to “gammon” another person? Usually the meanings of the expressions are clear from the context; however, members of our group also mentioned further Regency reading to fill in more information about the period. Two of the books were Jennifer Kloester’s Georgette Heyer’s Regency World, and Carolly Erickson’s Our Tempestuous Day.
Reason #3: Heyer’s dialogue. She used dialogue extensively. Her dialogue is witty, but it is also artfully constructed to expose and develop character.
Reason #2: Heyer’s characterization. While her main characters are usually from the aristocracy (these are Romances after all!), they are not two dimensional ladies and gentlemen. Within the structure of the Romance, Heyer adeptly fills in the motivations, foibles, and flaws, of her main characters. Her writing usually depends on the characters to move the books forward. In the following excerpt, you can see both the characterization and dialogue at work. This is from an early episode of Frederica in which Frederica and Lord Alverstoke have their first meeting. Frederica begins by responding to him:
“I see. You don’t wish to recognize us, do you? Then there isn’t the least occasion for me to explain our situation to you. I beg your pardon for having put you to the trouble of visiting me.”
At these words, the Marquis, who had every intention of bringing the interview to a summary end, irrationally chose to prolong it. Whether he relented because Miss Merriville amused him, or because the novelty of having one of his rebuffs accepted without demur intrigued him remained undecided, even in his own mind. But however it may have been he laughed suddenly, and said, quizzing her: “Oh, so high! No, no, don’t hold up your nose at me: it don’t become you!”
Reason #1: Her books provide both escape and solace. One of our members mentioned that she read Heyer while she was undergoing chemotherapy. She said that during this difficult time in her life, Heyer made her laugh and gave her a place to retreat to for comfort and solace. For Janeites this is very familiar ground!
So…if your interest has been piqued by our reasons to read Heyer, we’d suggest that you start with Frederica. Just about all of our group members enjoyed it. And remember, unlike Austen, there are many, many more novels to choose from for those lazy summer days or for times when you just need to escape. Don’t be a ninnyhammer, try one.
I have Tea on the brain because our JASNA-Vermont group is planning a Regency-style Afternoon Tea at The Governor’s House in Hyde Park on July 24th, 2013 [$25. / person, reservations required]
And so, Tea being on my radar [where it always is really…], I find there are a number of tea caddies up for auction at Sworders, Fine Art Auctioneers.
These are particularly lovely: [Lot 69]
A pair of George III oval papier mâché tea caddies
Birmingham, c.1780, by Henry Clay, the first with a hinged lid decorated with bands of berried leaves and anthemia centred by a hallmarked silver loop handle stamped with the initials ‘HC’, the body with transfer decorated scenes of Demeter in the House of Kelos together with other classical figures, instruments and a painted chevron band, the second similarly decorated, but with palmette borders, 11cm high Provenance: By repute the Earls of Jersey, Osterley Park Middlesex, sold 1949. Literature: For a similar single caddy, ‘The Robert Harman Collection’, Sotheby’s, 12 November 1999, lot 6. The silver loop handle carries the hallmark of Henry Clay, ‘Japanner in Ordinary to His Majesty and His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales’. Clay specialised in Etruscan-style decoration of this kind. A visitor to his workshop in Covent Garden in 1775 reported that he made boxes, tea caddies, panels for coaches and sedan chairs, coffee trays and ‘…all kinds of other vessels, black with orange figures in the style of Etruscan vases’ (‘George Christoph Lichtenberg’s Visits to England as described in his Letters and Diaries’, translated and annotated by M L Mare and W H Quarrell, Oxford, 1938).
Estimate: £5000 – £8000
Or this: [Lot 60]
A George III tea caddy
of rectangular form with canted corners, the lid in harewood (?) with an inlaid oval patera within strung borders, the front panel in mahogany similarly decorated, the canted corners inlaid with plain shaded columns on a stained ground, 11.5cm high.
Jane Austen in Vermont 