Just got this email from a gentleman who has posted on his website Wild River Review “Interviews with the Famously Departed” … today his “chat” with Jane Austen is quite amusing… and click here for his interview with Charles Dickens.
In my Mailbox today…..a few more all things Austen
In my email box today: The Jane Austen Centre’s latest newsletter, filled with all sort of interesting articles about afternoon dress, calling cards, the new P&P musical, Stoneleigh Abbey, an Austen quiz and a word search puzzle for a rainy afternoon, and of course, information on the upcoming Jane Austen Festival in Bath from Sept. 19-28. (you can purchase a DVD of the festival events “Crazy about Jane” on the website)The newsletter also references ( click here ) an interesting musical montage from the newest Northanger Abbey on YouTube….
Web Round-up…all things Austen
Another tour through cyberspace generated some great tidbits this week…..let me hear from you on any of YOUR Austen finds out there!.
- Found a wonderful blog called Factual Imaginings, which “consolidates information, both new and old, concerning film adaptations of English History and Literature”…. lots of information on Austen related films, Thomas Hardy’s Tess, and even the upcoming 2009 celebration of the 500-year anniversary of Henry VIII’s coronation. Click here for the link to the blog’s review of Lost in Austen and another on the history of the Royal Crescent in Bath. This is a site I shall be visiting often!
- The BBC’s Radio 4 broadcasts of “Book at Bedtime” are available online for seven days after airing. Listen this week of Sept 8 – 14 to Someone at a Distance, a story by Dorothy Whipple; book is available from Persephone Books: get on their mailing list immediately if you are not already [I LOVE their books!…if any of you are looking for a book list to work on, start here!]
Persephone Books reprints forgotten classics by twentieth-century (mostly women) writers. Each one in our collection of seventy-eight books is intelligent, thought-provoking and beautifully written, and most are ideal presents or a good choice for reading groups.
- I may be perhaps the only Janeite out there who has not been watching Lost in Austen (we in the US can see it on YouTube), but there is enough chat about it to keep you busy for a while…Professor Kathryn Sutherland reviewed the show in this Guardian article; see also these posts at Austenblog; Austenprose; and Jane Austen Today (there are a few posts here), for just starters! I will put in my 2 cents after I have had a chance to see it… and any reviews from any of you would be appreciated!
- The Art of Manliness (!) site has a wonderful post on the Gentleman’s Guide to the Calling Card. See also a few posts by Ms. Place at Jane Austen’s World on this topic…. Calling Cards in S&S and Persuasion; the Etiquette of using calling cards; and her most recent, The Etiquette of using calling cards 100 years after Austen.
- Jane Austen is now the biggest industry in Britain…see this article at NewsBiscuit. You need to read through the whole article, as it is quite outrageous (oh! what would Jane think!)
- And speaking of Britain, If you happen to be hanging around Bury St. Edmunds, visit their Georgian Gem festival that runs through Sept. 21. There is also the annual Jane Austen Festival in Bath from Sept.19 through the 28th. Oh, why am I not in England! (our meeting this Sunday on “Austen’s England” will just have to do for now…)
- Jane Odiwe has added a few of her lovely drawings to her blog Jane Austen Sequels: a portrait of Jane, and a winter scene of Jane and Cassandra walking in Chawton.
- And another book giveaway of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict: go to the Bookworm Blog and comment on the Q&A with author Laurie Viera Rigler…winner will be announced Sept. 15.
- And Laurel Ann at Austenprose, still recovering from her excellent Mansfield Park Madness escapade, is reading some of the Juvenilia…so visit her for an update, and if you haven’t read any of Austen’s early works, start now…they are delightful! (and hoping that Laurel Ann will continue her posts on this.)
A review of the book Lace in Fashion , by Pat Earnshaw on the Textile Dreams Blog: the book traces the history of lace from the 16th to 20th century. Originally published in 1986 by Batsford, a 2nd edition by Gorse (1991) is still in print.
Book Review: Pemberley Shades
Kathleen Glancy in her “Persuasions” article “What Happened Next? The Many Husbands of Georgiana Darcy”(Vol. 11, 1989, pp. 110-116) states that D.A. [Dorothy Alice] Bonavia-Hunt’s Pemberley Shades is the best written of all the sequels she has read, and though “lacking in the irony department….it is a brave try, and an amusing story.” [spoiler alert!…Ms. Glancy in this article tells the full story, so read this after you have read the book!]
Published originally in 1949 by Allan Wingate in the U.K. and by Dutton in the U.S., Pemberley Shades is finally available again (it was reprinted in 1977 and again in 2007, but quickly out of print, and only available from antiquarian booksellers and sure to finish off your annual book budget…there is one online for $650.), so this Sourcebooks 2008 reprint is welcome indeed!
There is little known about the author, and even if perhaps she ever wrote anything else under another name; but what is known is that she was born in London, the daughter of a clergyman, was educated by a governess and in private schools, and lived with her brother, the Vicar of Stagsden, Bedfordshire, during the time she wrote her Austen Pride & Prejudice sequel. She obviously was knowledgeable about Austen and the Georgian period, and comes very close to Austen’s style.
The title “Pemberley Shades” refers to Lady Catherine’s angry retort to Elizabeth “Are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted?” (ch. 56, P&P) Austen’s use of the word “shades” has generated many theories and some research into the word does little to clarify. Austen was likely being intentionally ambiguous- with a literal reference to the woods and forests of Pemberley, with the darkness and shadows, as well as the figurative meaning of the ancestral lineage and social standing of the Darcy family (i.e referring to the ghosts of ancestors.) But there is so much darkness in this book, so many secrets and the sense of “not telling all” and characters living in shadow, the “lightly gothic” atmosphere pervading the story…the author chose the perfect term to headline her tale, in the same ambiguous way as Austen.
So the title itself leads into this gothic realm and the reader is on alert from page one, although it all SEEMS so peaceful and harmonious. We re-enter the lives of Darcy and Elizabeth a few years after the end of P&P: they have a two-year old heir to the estate named Richard (an inside joke perhaps?!). The action begins with the death of the elderly Rector of Pemberely, leaving his two maiden sisters in the Parsonage and Darcy in search of a successor. Passing over Mr. Collins, who, on the outs with Lady C, has written an officious (though humorous of course!) letter of application, Darcy heads to London to engage the services of Lord Egbury’s brother Stephen Acworth, who has been highly recommended.
Acworth’s arrival at Pemberley sets the plot in motion: his first meeting with Elizabeth who “at the moment of first beholding him [it] was her instant conviction of having seen him before”… we meet characters we know and those new to this story: The Robinson sisters, who seem more like the sisters in Gaskell’s Cranford, set themselves at odds with the Darcys by supporting Acworth; Jane and Mr. Bingley the milquetoasts that Mr. Bennet so predicted; Mr. Bennet is wonderfully drawn here with his insights and many witticisms [“every woman requires a dose of neglect now and then to keep her from being above herself”]; Anne de Bourgh finally getting a moment to shine no longer under her mother’s watch [“Anne was not so much proud and disagreeable as stupid” says Elizabeth]; Lady C exactly the same; Acworth, an odd peculiar lost soul; and a host of servants and maids getting some prime time of their own, a nice touch.
But the story really centers on Georgiana Darcy and her three suitors, all new characters: Mr. Mortimer, Major Wakeford, and the vicar-in-waiting Acworth. Miss Darcy is a shadowy figure, aloof and secretive, with “something on her mind” as Elizabeth keeps saying; and the resolution of her courting dilemma propels the tale. There is no point in telling more….it is a bit of a mystery and so I shall not divulge a thing! But we can ask Who is Acworth and what are his motives in coming to Pemberley? and why does Elizabeth feel so uncomfortable in his presence? and why is Georgiana so secretive and preferring to be alone with her music? It is a good story, and this reader was much impressed with the author’s use of language. But of course there is no duplicating Austen, and so there are disappointments: the story feels a tad far-fetched; Darcy and Elizabeth are a wonderfully harmonious couple, all that lovers of P&P could hope for, but I found them both a little too perfect and more than a little condescending to all those around them; and Acworth is quite the disturbing character, something not quite right with him (I cannot say more!…); and there is this underlying sadness that pervades the whole novel…but it is certainly compelling enough and has wit enough to definitely be added to your Austen sequel collection, and you shall enjoy the read immensely!
Further reading: see also Laurel Ann’s review at Austenprose.
JASNA~VT Event: “Jane Austen’s England” Sept 14, 2-4
Reminder to all about the JASNA~Vermont gathering this Sunday…hope to see many of you there! [and please note that it is in Montpelier this month, not Burlington ]
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You are cordially invited to JASNA-Vermont’s September Meeting on
Austen’s England
with John Turner
September 14, 2008, 2 – 4 pm
at Vermont College of Fine Arts, The Chapel
Montpelier, VT
(directions and campus map [pdf])
This exciting talk will feature frequent tour leader and Vermont Humanities Council speaker John Turner of Montpelier; John has led many groups to England in search of authors Jane Austen, the Brontes, and Thomas Hardy. JASNA-Vermont’s co-RC Deb Barnum illustrates, with evocative photographs, all the places every Janeite will enjoy visiting — if only in words and pictures. Discussion to follow; light refreshments served. Free and open to the public.
Some reading thoughts…. Austen, etc.
Here are a few of the books lately graduated from my bedside table along with a other few random thoughts for YOUR bedside table ~
First on my list, and as soon as I get the book, will find me engrossed in the latest Keats’ biography, Posthumous Keats: A Personal Biography, by Stanley Plumly [Norton, 2008] Click here for the NYTimes review, and run to your local bookstore to pick up a copy….
I was in Rome last year and the one thing on the top of my “to-do” list was a visit to the Protestant Cemetery where Keats’s grave was covered in fresh flowers (a daily occurrence) by a still-mourning public… I was quite overcome (to the embarrassment of my husband!)…and not to mention the meandering walk to Shelley’s grave site through this haunting enclave in the center of the City, and then this followed by a lengthy visit to the Keats-Shelley House [right next to the Spanish Steps] where Keats died on February 23, 1821. Plumly’s book is a loving tribute to Keats’s poetry and his immortality…
…but now back to Austen….
Laurel Ann at Austenprose had recommended these two books, and I quickly added them to my pile and just as quickly finished them off!
Enthusiasm by Polly Shulman [Putnam’s 2006] (see the Austenprose review): I have been reading several sequels lately in prep for the Chicago AGM, and I find that of late I am confusing the stories! All these Austen characters who have taken on lives of their own now have these MULTIPLE lives with varying outcomes and I suppose I am left with the ability to choose which “ending” I prefer for any of them…I think perhaps this is why one takes up a pen to write ones own adventure for a given character! So it was with all these sequels swimming in my head, as well as Laurel Ann’s glowing review that sent me to the library shelves to find Polly Shulman’s Enthusiasm, a book for young adults with the aura of Pride & Prejudice. This has to be one of the most refreshing reads I have encountered in a long time! I don’t want to spoil the story for you, but will quote the jacket blurb:
…equal parts romance and comedy as a series of misinterpreted messages and super-awkward incidents, not to mention some rather mystifying poetry tacked to a tree and a valiant foray onto the stage, makes Julie wonder whether she is cut out for Enthusiasm – or True Love – at all…
With characters the likes of Ashleigh, the Enthusiast (whose latest “enthusiasm” is P&P), Ned the Noodle, Amy (the semi-wicked stepmother dubbed “IA”, a.k.a. “Irresistible Accountant”) and the to-die-for Charles Grandison Parr (love the name!), this lovely tribute to P&P sent this reader back to all those wonderful and awful moments as a teenage girl that for some reason we never forget! And I think what most surprised and pleased me was to find this library book much used! I recommend highly that you find your way to this book as soon as possible….
Mr. Darcy’s Diary by Maya Slater [Phoenix, 2007] (see the Austenprose review): Gentle Reader, here is the tale all told from Darcy’s point of view, thanks to the diary he so meticulously kept, and we learn of his love and concern for his sister (and what really happened with Wickham), his escapades with Byron (!), his periodic “tumbling” of the maid, his growing obsession wih Miss Elizabeth Bennet, and his endless fencing and fisticuffs to overcome his mood swings. Darcy is so human in this book…Ms. Slater is at turns witty and wise in portraying him in all his glory…. I liked this book more than any other of the sequels I have read so far…this is the Darcy who stays with me the most….the Darcy I had imagined off the pages of P&P.
I skimmed again through The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen by Syrie James in order to answer my co-blogger’s rather scathing review…(see the two reviews on this blog: Kelly’s and mine and then contribute to the fray if you will!)…. this book seems to have generated a wide range of opinion…
Carolly Erickson’s Our Tempestuous Day [Morrow 1986] is a rapid trek through Regency England. Erickson, the author of biographies of Elizabeth 1, Anne Boleyn, Bloody Mary, Henry VIII, Empress Josephine and many others…., Erickson here tells the tale of the times not as a linear chronological history, but rather a series of vignettes of events, people, and places, that after you are done you have a much better understanding of the times that Jane Austen was living and writing in… and really a whole new list of books to read! [I will review this book more fully in another post…]
Charlotte & Leopold: the true story of the original people’s princess, by James Chambers, a biography of the daughter of King George IV and Caroline, and their Regency times ….here is the blurb from Amazon:
The tragic story of the doomed romance between Charlotte, heir to the English throne, and Leopold, uncle of Queen Victoria and first King of the Belgians. A story that Jane Austen famously declined to tell, declaring: “I could no more write a romance than an epic poem.”
Charlotte was the only legitimate royal child of her generation, and her death in childbirth resulted in a public outpouring of grief the like of which was not to be seen again until the death of Diana, over 150 years later. Charlotte’s death was followed by an unseemly scramble to produce a substitute heir. Queen Victoria was the product.
James Chambers masterfully demonstrates how the personal and the political inevitably collide in scheming post-Napoleonic Europe, offering a vivid and sympathetic portrait of a couple whose lives are in many ways not their own. From the day she was born, Charlotte won the hearts of her subjects and yet, behind the scenes, she was used, abused, and victimized by rivalries-between her parents; between her father (the Prince Regent, later King George IV) and (Mad) King George III; between her tutors, governesses, and other members of her discordant household; and ultimately between the Whig opposition and the Tory government.
Set in one of the most glamorous eras of British history, against the background of a famously dysfunctional royal family, Charlotte & Leopold: The True Story of The Original People’s Princess is an accessible, moving, funny, and entertaining royal biography with alluring contemporary resonance.
A new book out in March by Peter Graham, titled Jane Austen and Charles Darwin: naturalists and novelists (click for the table of contents), and a tad pricey at $99. reads “3 or 4 families in a country village” : this phrase by which Jane Austen identifies the most congenial subject matter for novels as she chose to write them can also serve to characterize the environment that proved ideal for Charles Darwin’s naturalist observations.”
Lady Anne at Jane Austen Today has nicely reviewed the new book Jane Eyre’s Daughter, by Elizabeth Newark.
As for the Austen sequels, head over to Austenprose for a review of several being published this September: Pemberley Shades, by Dorothy Bonavia-Hunt [I have just finished this book and will post a review this week; see Laurel Ann’s review hot off the press today!]; Netherfield Park Revisited by Rebecca Ann Collins (Book 3 of the “Pemberley Chronicles”); The Darcys and the Bingleys by Marsha Altman [see Ms. Altman’s post here; I will be reviewing this book shortly], and Impulse and Initiative, a Pride & Prejudice Variation by Abigail Reynolds.
Just Jane: A Novel of Jane Austen’s Life, by Nancy Moser is given a lengthy review at the BC Blog Critics magazine site.
Ms. Place interviews Diana Birchall on her new book Mrs. Elton in America.
A short blurb on a fantasy fiction book which should excite Austen and Bronte fans:The Magicians and Mrs. Quent,” by Galen Beckett. (Bantam Spectra; $23)
Fans of Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters will be in a familiar landscape reading “The Magicians and Mrs. Quent.”
This fantasy debut uses those authors’ famous works as a template. Does the place name Heathcrest Hall ring any chimes?Ivy Lockwell is the eldest of three sisters. It is Ivy who is caught in polite society between holding the family together, after the reclusion of the sisters’ father in his library, and her chafing against the stricture of not being able to use magic (or magick, to use the genre spelling). She is female, after all, and magic also is seen as the cause of her father’s reclusiveness. Of the novel’s three parts, the second, “Heathcrest,” limns relationships nicely from Ivy’s point of view. She applies for governess to Mr. Quent and thinks her troubles eased when hired. If only she had not uncovered an ancient tome about magic still afoot in the world, she would not have met its willful protectors. [quoted from Macon.com]
But also see this glowing review from Rick Kleffel on NPR, and click here for an excerpt from the book:
Though this may look like the sort of book you’d find nestled in a shelf of paperback potboilers at a beach rental, don’t judge The Magicians and Mrs. Quent by its cover. Galen Beckett’s debut cleverly mixes fantasy and literary in a novel that imagines the social strictures that hemmed in Austen’s and Bronte’s heroines are the result of magical intervention. The novel’s supernatural elements and imaginary (but familiar-seeming) setting allow Beckett to examine class and economic conflicts from the outside, without resorting to polemics. The result is a work that mixes the rich pleasures of a Victorian epic with elements of the fantastic, an imaginative eye and a dry sense of humor.
Kleffel rates this as one of his “nine first books that make a lasting impression,” with a heroine who had a peculiar habit of reading while walking]…now there’s a heroine I can identify with!
And on that happy note, I should get back to my reading…hope this gives you a few ideas…
ESSENTIAL AUSTEN: A Chronology of Jane Austen and Her Family (a review)
Writers necessarily edit as they write; to make paragraphs and resultant chapters coherent, some information has to be gone into in depth, while other information reluctantly or automatically must be jettisoned. Too much information, unskillfully crafted, will leave readers in the dust. A skillful author, however, molds the story with the facts at hand, picking and choosing what to include, and how to phrase or emphasize those inclusions. This is particularly true of biography.
Take, for instance, the prize-winning A MIDWIFE’S TALE, by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. While confronted with an entire decades-long diary (spanning 1785-1812), Dr Ulrich carefully chose certain illustrative sections in which to pinpoint aspects of Martha Ballard’s life. Reader’s interested in the minutiae of that life, as described by its protagonist, must unearth a copy of the published diary or go to the copy online.
The minutiae of life is exactly what Deirdre Le Faye gives readers in her superb and invaluable A CHRONOLOGY OF JANE AUSTEN AND HER FAMILY. This is certainly not the type of book one takes to bed, but it is nevertheless an engrossing read. Within its pages are the lives of not only Jane Austen, but also her forebears, immediate family, cousins, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews – a three-hundred-year span from 1700 to 2000. This result of Le Faye’s digging through archives, private collections and published works provides Austen fans the bones with which to build biographies all our own. Through it, you can uncover the additions and deductions of Austen bank accounts; follow the rise and fall of Henry Austen’s partnership with Tilson; chart the Hampshire weather utilizing the notations in neighbor Eliza Chute’s diaries; and find the private thoughts of girls like Fanny Austen Knight.
Some random samples:
In 1796 [p. 187]
September 2, Friday
Rowling: HTA leaves to return to Great Yarmouth. He will write soon to Steventon.
Hampshire: A ball is held in the Steventon district, possibly today (or possibly it is the next assembly ball at Basingstoke, on 8 September, Thursday), at which CEA is present. Other dancers include a large party from the Terry family of Dummer, Mr John Lovett, Mr Tincton, Mr John Harwood, Mary Lloyd, Mary Harrison and James Austen.
[Letters 4, 5]
September 3, Saturday
Rowling: EAK, Elizabeth, JA and FWA, dine at Goodnestone and have an impromptu dance afterwards. Others present are Lady Bridges and her children Edward, Harriet, Louisa and George, as well as Fanny and Lewis Waltham, the Misses Anne and Mary Finch. The invalid Marianne Bridges does not appear. The Rowling four walk home afterwards.
[Letters 5]
In 1802 [p. 267]
January 18, Monday
Dummer: ‘Miss Terry, Anne & I rode & called at Worting, Manydown, Oakley Hall, & Deane.’
[Powlett journal 119A00/1]
January 21, Thursday
London: Army agents Cox & Greenwood debit Major Thomas Austen’s account: ‘Cash paid freight of a Hogshead of rum from Jamaica, £2.8s.11d.’
[Cox & Greenwood ledger, fo. 33]
January 24, Sunday
London: Army agents Cox & Greenwood credit Major Thomas Austen’s account: ‘By 31 days Pay to 24 January 1802, £21.16s.7d.’
[Cox & Greenwood ledger fos. 33, 212]
The Vyne: ‘Misling small rain most of the day. Church. Mr. Austin to dinner.’
[Chute pb 23M93/70/1/9]
In 1809 [p. 369]
mid-June
Alton: MLA goes to stay with Mary Gibson in Rose Cottage for about a month, while Mary G is expecting her second child.
[CMCA Rems 19]
June 14, Wednesday
Canterbury: ‘Aunt Louisa came & dressed here & dined with [three words illegible] where we met G.M. Bridges, Uncle B. & Mr. Champneys. Papa & Aunt J. with G.M. [Austen] & Aunt C. from Godmersham dined with Mrs Knight & called here in the morning. Mr. & Mrs. E. Cage & Annetta called. Aunt Louisa slept here. Little George Moore not very well went to stay at Goodnestone Farm for change of air.’
[FCKpb U.951/F.24/6]
June 15, Thursday
Canterbury: ‘Uncle & Aunt M. dined at Dr. Walsby’s & Aunt L. & I with Mrs. Knight where we met G.M. Bridges again & Aunt L. went back with her. Walked about the town in the morning. Fine & hottish.’
[FCKpb U.951/F.24/6]
The abbreviations utilized (fully explained at the front of the book) are, most of them, the typical used for personages and already well known: CEA = Cassandra Elizabeth Austen [Jane’s sister]; EAK = Edward Austen Knight [Jane’s brother]; CMCA = Caroline Mary Craven Austen [Jane’s niece, younger daughter of James]. Pb = pocket book. Entries are arranged with the geographic (town, estate, etc) in italics; and the source is clearly marked on the side margin [they appear below entries only in this review].
The sources for these listings are astounding: letters, diaries (pocket books), accounts books, taxation records, published memoirs and biographies, privately-held papers.
The one minus: while readers will be grateful for the extensive Personal Names index (which runs from pages 757-776, three columns per page), you do end up searching for references because, rather than indexed by page number, everyone is indexed by year. For instance:
Knatchbull, Joan: 1796
Knatchbull, Mary Dorothea, see Knight
Knatchbull, Wadham: 1813
Knatchbull, Wyndham: 1784, 1805, 1808, 1810-14 [page 768]
This obviously works best for people who occur multiple times within a given year; it does give a quick indication of which ‘periods someone appears in; and must have provided the publisher with a space-savings.
The structure of the book includes a substantial bibliography (712-724); thirty-two family trees (725-756); a frontispiece map and several illustrations. This is truly a publication of Le Faye’s DECADES of research into the Austen family; readers will feel as if they are sitting down with the scholar and picking her brain. In her preface, she says: ‘I hope that this uniquely detailed chronology will be of the greatest use to all future biographers, literary critics and historians, providing as it does accurate documented facts gathered from a wide variety of sources.’ We all owe her a debt of gratitude (to Cambridge University Press as well; although the steep $168 price tag does seem more geared towards library rather than individual purchase) for sharing the results of her researches with us all. It represents Le Faye’s gift to serious scholars, making this an Essential Austen volume.
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ESSENTIAL AUSTEN is a series we will continue, which will introduce or earmark those books (and other items?) essential to an Austen collection.
Jane Austen Weekend in Vermont ~ Persuasion
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The Governor’s House in Hyde Park, Vermont is offering several “Persuasion” related Jane Austen Weekends…you can sign up for the whole weekend or just take part in one or more of the activities. Please see below for all the information. This coming weekend September 5-7 is the next gathering!
Jane Austen Weekends The Governor’s House in Hyde Park 100 Main Street Hyde Park, Vermont Friday – Sunday, September 5 – 7 [ December 12-14; January 9-11, 2009 ] Reservations required: call 802-888-6888 802 888-6888 info@OneHundredMain.com
A leisurely weekend of literary-inspired diversions has something for every Jane Austen devotee. Slip quietly back into Regency England in a beautiful old mansion where Jane herself would feel at home. Take afternoon tea. Listen to Mozart. Bring your needlework. Share your thoughts at a discussion of Persuasion and how the movie stands up to the book. Attend the talk entitled “The Time of Jane Austen”. Test your knowledge of Persuasion and the Regency period and possibly take home a prize. Take a carriage ride. For the gentleman there are riding and fly fishing as well as lots of more modern diversions if a whole weekend of Jane is not his cup of tea. Join every activity or simply indulge yourself quietly all weekend watching the movies. And imagine the interesting conversation with a whole houseful of Jane’s readers under one roof. Dress in whichever century suits you. It’s not Bath, but it is Hyde Park and you’ll love Vermont circa 1800. Jane Austen Weekend rates start at $295 for singles and $260 per person for doubles and include two nights’ lodging, Friday evening’s talk over dessert and coffee, full breakfast on Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon tea, Saturday dinner and book discussion, early Sunday Continental breakfast, and the Jane Austen quiz with Sunday brunch. 9% Vermont tax is additional. The usual cancellation policy applies. Or come for just a single event and choose from these activities this weekend: [reservations required 802-888-6888]
*Informal Talk with Coffee and Dessert, Friday, 8:00 p.m., $14.00: “Jane Austen’s Royal Navy and its importance in the novel Persuasion“
*Afternoon Tea, Saturday, 3:00 p.m., $20.00
*Book Discussion and Dinner, Saturday, 7:00 p.m., $35.00: “Persuasion and how the Movies Stand up to the Book”
*Jane Austen Quiz and Sunday Brunch, Sunday, 11:30 a.m., $15.00
[All four activities: $75.00] 100 Main Street • Hyde Park, VT 05655 |
Web Round-Up…week of Sept 1
A few more links of Austen interest:
- Kate Greenaway, children’s illustrator, and her designs on glass in this article from a Masssachusetts online paper…
- An article by the author Clive Aslet on his new book titled The English House: the story of a nation at home.
- Laurel Ann at Austenprose, lately finished her wonderful “Mansfield Park Madness” journey through MP, has switched gears and pens a post on Georgiana Darcy.
- JASNA announces that Jane Austen’s Regency World Magazine is offering a 20% discount to JASNA members. Click here for information.
- The Alabama JASNA Chapter offers Austen Music Online (though not updated since 2006)
- The BBC Today has posted a quiz titled “Meet Your Match”: (note that you need to be up on British politics, but it was nice to see Austen mentioned….)
- Are you a quiet, bookish type looking for romance? Ever wondered who your famous perfect partner could be? Look no further – publisher Penguin is launching a dating website for literary types to find fellow bookworms. Take the quiz to find your own famous match.
- The Significant Pursuit of Renaissance Guy Blog has posted a query to Austen fans: Who are Jane Austen’s Best Characters?…so head over there and give him an answer…it is a great list…!
And here is an off-topic note, but I cannot resist a mention of my other best favorite author Thomas Hardy (can you have TWO bests??). The BBC has a new documentary on his life, The Heart of Thomas Hardy, (link to article in the Telegraph), this to coincide with the new production of “Tess”. And here is a link to his gravesite at the Poets Graves Website.
Hot off the Presses: Cassandra and Jane
It was with great expectation that I awaited the arrival of a reviewer’s copy of Jill Pitkeathley’s CASSANDRA & JANE: A Jane Austen Novel (Harper-Collins, 2008; published in the UK by Copperfield Books in 2004). As Deb can attest, I have a great regard for Jane’s sister Cassandra – a woman literally kept in the shadows by time and her sister’s posthumous fame. It was with delight that I handled and read a couple letters penned by Cassandra – then an aging aunt – sent to James-Edward Austen and kept within the Austen-Leigh archive at the Hampshire Record Office.
The publishers have promised a sample chapter; but I’ve yet to see anything up on their website. A link will be posted when one is received, since we all love sample chapters!
I’m in the midst of writing two reviews for JASNA News (on Carrie Bebris’ newest Mr. & Mrs. Darcy mystery, The Matters at Mansfield and Jane Odiwe’s Lydia Bennet’s Story, which now comes in a US edition – both due in stores soon), have been reading the first novels in ELIZABETH PETERS’ Amelia Peabody series (am on book two, having bought a used boxed set of the first four novels), and recently received from a friend the first of the six Lymond Chronicles, The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett (originally published in 1961), which she heartily recommends. But Cassandra & Jane heads to the top of the list now that it’s finally here – so I hope to post a review soon.
Jane Austen in Vermont 