Tag: Jane Austen

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

Thoughts on Travel in ‘Sense and Sensibility’ ~ Part II

BookLady Deb18 Comments

Part II.  A Study of Character’s Movement in Sense and Sensibility

Fig. 1. Sense & Sensibility map

A startling fact! – there are 49 mentions of movement and 46 mentions of carriages [to include a few referring to travel by horseback] – and people say that nothing happens in Jane Austen!  That is a great deal of  traveling in what I have just described in the previous post as a not easy or inexpensive world to travel in!

To begin, let’s place the characters where they live and their income if known:

A.  Where the characters live:  see the map of England’s Counties below, and the map of places, both real and fictional above

  • Counties = Sussex, Somerset, Dorset, Devon
  • London [“Town” = London], largely Mayfair


The Dashwoods:

  • Henry Dashwood – Norland, Sussex
  • Mrs. Henry Dashwood – Norland, moves to Barton Cottage, Devonshire – £7000 = £350 / yr
  • Mrs. Dashwood’s mother – Stanhill [Sussex]
  • John and Fanny Dashwood –  Norland, Sussex; Harley St, London [renting?]; purchase East Kingham Farm, near Norland – £5,000 – £6,000 / year
  • Elinor / Marianne / Margaret:  Norland, Sussex, move to Barton Cottage, Devonshire; each have £1000 capital from their uncle = £50 pounds each annual income = £500 total for the four of them  [150 + 350 = £500]
Sussex
Devonshire

Colonel Brandon:  Delaford in Dorset; St. James St, London –  £2000 / year

  • Eliza Williams, his ward – Avignon [Brandon’s sister] – where? – found her in London
  • Brandon’s brother-in-law:  Whitwell,  near Barton
Dorset

The Ferrars:

  • Mrs. Ferrars – Park St, London
  • Edward –  his mother’s house; Pall Mall, London, after leaving home; Oxford; Edward and Elinor after marriage will have £350 / year (though this will increase to £850 with Edward’s inheritance of £10,000 from Mrs. Ferrars, reluctantly given!)
  • Robert – his mother’s house? later London with Lucy Steele
  • Fanny Ferrars Dashwood [see above]
Cavendish Square, London

John Willoughby – Combe Magna, Somerset; Bond St, London –  about £600-700 /yr 

  • Mrs. Smith, Willoughby’s Aunt – Allenham Court, Devonshire
  • Miss Gray, Willoughby’s wife – £50,000 = £2,500 /yr

The Jennings / Middletons / Palmers:

  • Sir John and Lady Mary Middleton [Mrs. Jennings daughter]:  Barton Park, Devonshire; Conduit St, London
  • Mrs. Jennings:  Berkeley St, London,  near Portman Square, otherwise she is visiting her daughters
  • Mr. Thomas Palmer and Charlotte Palmer [Mrs. Jennings’ daughter]: Cleveland, Somerset; Hanover Square, London [renting?]
Hanover Square, London

The Steeles:

  • Lucy and Anne [Nancy] Steele – Bartlett’s Buildings, London
  • Mr. Pratt  [the Steele’s Uncle] –  Longstaple [near Plymouth]


Miss Morton:  Edward’s intended, London somewhere – £30,000 = £1500/yr 

Fig. 2. England Counties

**************************************

 B.  Movement of characters – a quick summary:

1.  The novel starts out with Mrs. Dashwood and her three daughters moving from Norland Park [Sussex] to Barton Cottage [Devonshire] – their furniture goes by way of the water [i.e. canal system]

 2.  The Elinor and Marianne go to London with Mrs. Jennings [and most everyone else], then return to Cleveland, then back to Barton Cottage, where they await their destiny, both ending up at Delaford.

 3.  Colonel Brandon lives in Delaford, but he is quite often at Barton Park, he goes to London to see his ward, later moves to London with everyone else, and when staying in London, he goes back and forth to Delaford “a few times”, and then later returns home via Cleveland and has to fetch Mrs. Dashwood in the middle of the night back and forth from Cleveland to Barton Cottage, and then finally seems to be at Barton Park / Cottage an awful lot…

Barton Cottage

4.  Edward Ferrars visits Barton Cottage and later we find that he was actually first in Plymouth – he travels a few times back and forth to London to his mother’s, then off to an unnamed Inn somewhere after he is disinherited, then to Oxford, then back to London settling in Pall Mall, and then of course to Barton to visit then marry Elinor, and they move to the parsonage at Delaford and we expect will live happily ever after…

5.  Willoughby lives in London, has his estate home at Combe Magna in Somerset, visits his Aunt in Allenham Court [Devonshire], leaves for London when HE is disinherited; he later visits Cleveland [Somerset] to see the dying Marianne, and then back to London to live with his boring, but wealthy wife

Willoughby

6.  The Middletons live at Barton Park [Devonshire], but travel to London with everyone else…

7.  The Palmers live at Cleveland [Somerset], they visit Barton Park [Devonshire], then back to Cleveland and then to London with everyone else; return to Cleveland and then leave again as Marianne falls ill.

8.  Mrs. Jennings, of course, lives in London but travels all over to visit her children at Barton Park and Cleveland

9.  the Miss Steeles live in Plymouth with their Uncle, visited Exeter and then to Barton Park, then to London where they stay with first the Middletons, then the John Dashwoods, then Lucy with her now husband Robert Ferrars leave London for Dawlish, then return to London to live unhappily ever after, while her abandoned sister has to borrow money from Mrs. Jennings to catch a coach back to Plymouth [in the endless, hopeless search of her Doctor…]

10.  Mrs. Dashwood is taken to Cleveland by Col. Brandon to see Marianne at Cleveland [Somerset]; she is the only character who does not go to London.

11.  As noted above, Everyone but Mrs. Dashwood goes to London, and while there they travel for their daily visiting calls and excursions around Town.

12.  And of course, Mrs. Ferrars stays put, selecting / de-selecting her heir from her comfortable seat in London – BUT the book ends with her visiting Elinor and Edward: ‘She came to inspect the happiness which she was almost ashamed of having authorized.”

Fig. 3. 1812 Cary map England

And how did they travel?? –  stay tuned for Part III:  Carriages in Sense and Sensibility

*****************************************

Sources:  Fig. 1 and 2 maps from the JASNA.org website; Fig. 3 Cary map from Pemberley.com

Austen Literary History & Criticism · Book reviews · Books · Collecting Jane Austen · Jane Austen · Literature · Publishing History · Regency England

Book Review ~ ‘The Annotated Persuasion’

BookLady Deb7 Comments

Last week I ran into Barnes & Noble to pick up the latest annotated Pride and Prejudice, edited by Patricia Meyer Spacks, and since then I have been “gadding about” as Austen would say – so no time to really give it a complete read and review; but in another trek yesterday into yet another Barnes & Noble [no worries, I also have haunted the local USED booksellers!], my husband stumbled upon the just published [as in October 5, 2010]  The Annotated Persuasion, annotated and edited by David M. Shapard [New York: Anchor Books, 2010; paperbound; ISBN:  978-0-307-39078-3] – and I have discovered a veritable feast! 

Shapard is known for his annotated edition of Pride and Prejudice [which I have but it is not in hand, as I am in “gadding about” mode as mentioned above…] – so I cannot compare this book to that edition [his annotated Sense & Sensibility is to be, I believe, published in April 2011] – though I have found that work quite useful as a reliable reference source – it was first published in hardcover followed by a paperback edition; this Persuasion is only in paperback… it is also a smaller format, likely because the novel is so much shorter, but this renders the many illustrations quite small – but I quibble about these few drawbacks …. publishers decisions do not always make the most sense… 

I first look for the extras:  

An Introduction which gives a brief history of the publishing of Persuasion, and the differences in this final novel from Austen’s other works

A Chronology of the novel [will compare this to Ellen Moody’s calendar ] 

Maps of sites that relate to the characters and storyline: the world, England, Somerset, Lyme, and two of Bath 

A good number of b/w Illustrations – there is unfortunately no listing of these; the source is indicated under each picture, but a listing would have served as an index to the subjects, which cover all manner of Regency life:  architecture such as that in Bath with interior and exterior scenes of the Assembly Rooms; various carriages; fashion; furniture; Naval life; the Cobb in Lyme Regis; etc.  – many of these illustrations will be familiar to most readers with a modicum of knowledge about the period – and color would have been nice – but the point here of these illustrations is to serve as a starting reference for further research, and it is an added plus to have any of these included. 

Bibliography:  this also serves as a starting point – it is in no way a complete listing of sources, but likely those sources that Shapard relied on for his research.  How complete can a bibliography of Austen be without mention of Claire Tomalin’s biography under that category, or Claudia L. Johnson’s Jane Austen: Women, Politics and the Novel or Kaplan’s Jane Austen Among Women nowhere to be found – but as Shapard is an historian, it is that strength that resides in this bibliography, again a great starting point for further study – it is organized by broad subjects:  language; cultural and literary background; marriage and the family; position of women; children; housekeeping and servants; entails and estates and the landed gentry; rural and urban life; the military; medicine; the law; education; books, media, libraries; writing; postal service; transportation; theater [but no mention of the two works Jane Austen and the Theatre – two works with the same title and both quite comprehensive]; music and dance; sports; weather; the seaside resorts; houses and gardens; fashion; food; etiquette and female conduct books; and others – again, a good select listing of resources on various topics.   

The Literary commentary and annotations:  Shapard begins with the caveat that “the comments on the techniques and themes of the novel represent the personal views and interpretations of the editor…such views have been carefully considered, but inevitably they will still provoke disagreement among some readers “ [xi] – which Shapard encourages…; these annotations include such literary commentary, historical context, and definitions of words in context if they had a different meaning in Austen’s time, some repeated when necessary or cross-references provided.  

The book is arranged with the original text on the verso, the annotations and illustrations on the recto – the annotations are extensive as the following few very random examples show: 

  1. Persuasion starts with the full description of Sir Walter Elliot’s obsession with both his own personal charms and his listing in the baronetage – Shapard here provides information on that book and others of the time and the definition of “baronet” and how Sir Walter acquired his own status…
  2. Gout is fully described on pages 311 and 315, when Anne learns that the Crofts are removing to Bath dues to the Admiral’s “gouty” condition.
  3. “replaced” – [p. 103] – “they suspected great injury, but knew not where; but now the collar-bone was soon replaced”   – the annotation explains that the word “replaced” had the meaning in Austen’s time of “to be put back in its original position” rather than “to take the place of” – there is also a description of anatomical knowledge as understood at the time.
  4. Carriages get much attention whenever they are mentioned in the text – so we have descriptions and illustrations of barouches and chaise and fours, and chairs and of course Anne’s pretty little “landaulette” [p. 483]                                                                         
         

    a barouche

     

  5. Money and wealth – Wentworth’s income explained [p. 145]
  6. Servants:  various duties outlined [p.  87]
  7. Street names, shops, locations explained throughout; e.g. The Cobb; Tattersall’s [a mention on p. 14 with an illustration]; Milsom Street; Westgate Buildings;…etc…
  8. The Clergy in Austen’s time
  9. Austen’s language as delineating character:  as in the following: “Lady Russell had only to listen composedly, and wish them happy; but internally her heart reveled in angry pleasure, in pleased contempt” [p. 232] – and the annotation reads:  “Her reveling in such emotions indicates her moral inferiority to Anne, who never derives pleasure from anger or contempt.” [p. 233]
  10. Social rules and strictures:  some examples – Sunday traveling [p. 305]; shaking of hands between men and women [p. 427]; not using first names, even those of friends such as Anne and Mrs. Smith

 A look at a few key scenes will also illustrate Shapard’s invaluable commentary: 

  1. Wentworth removing young Walter Musgrove from around Anne’s neck [pp. 152-5]:  Shapard emphasizes the importance of this scene in displaying both Anne’s and Wentworth’s feelings – he quotes William Dean Howell’s how “this simple, this homely scene, is very pretty, and is very like things that happen in life, where there is reason to think that love is oftener shown in quality than quantity, and does its effect as perfectly in the little as in the great events. [from Heroines of Fiction].  Shapard also suggests that Wentworth’s reluctance to converse with Anne about what has just happened is as much due to his efforts to remain aloof as it is to a “simple dislike of thanks,” [p. 155], as is true of Mr. Knightley in Emma. 
                                                                                                        

    Brock illus - from Molland's

     

  2. Louisa’s fall in Lyme Regis [p. 210-15]:  Shapard describes the Cobb, the steps that were the scene of The Fall, comments on the feelings of Anne and Wentworth, the strength of the former and the uncharacteristic weakness of the latter; Anne’s carrying the “salts” [have you ever wondered why Anne IS carrying smelling salts and conveniently has them in her possession? – “here are salts – take them, take them.” [p. 210]]; the calling for the surgeon and the differences between he and an apothecary; the comic relief of “the sight of a dead young lady, nay, two dead young ladies, for it proved twice as fine as the first report.” [p. 213-4] 
    "The horror of the moment" - from Molland's

     

  3. and of course, The Letter! [p. 452] – Shapard so rightly states that “Wentworth’s passionate language contrasts him with other Jane Austen heroes, who are often much cooler and more rational.  It also fits with the more intense emotional tone of this novel … the letter itself is arguably the moment of highest emotion in her works…” [p. 453]  – and we are given a picture of a writing table of the time [p. 457] – there is also extensive commentary on the conversation between Capt. Harville and Anne. 

As referred to above, there are disappointments in this work – I would most wish for an index to the annotations – these could be just general subject areas, such as similar divisions as in the bibliography – so for instance – all annotations which discuss medicine could be cited, or any references to carriages, or fashion, or Bath locations, the Navy, or examples of Free Indirect Discourse, the literary allusions such as Byron’s The Corsair and Matthew Prior’s poem “Henry and Emma”, etc.  As it is, one needs to read through the entire work to find the references, and as Shapard wishes for this to be a work for reference purposes, this addition of an index would seem to be a necessity.  A index of Characters would have also been a helpful addition – one must reach for their Chapman for this information; and finally there is also no “note on the text”, important information in any such reference source – the bibliography lists Chapman’s 1933 edition, Spacks’s Norton critical edition [1995]; and the latest Cambridge edition edited by Janet Todd and Antje Blank [2006] – but I would have liked to see from whence he took the exact text…

That all said – this is a delightful and fact-filled addition to your Austen Library – and if you are already fairly well-versed in the Regency period and Austen criticism, this will serve as a copy of Persuasion where much of this information is at your fingertips; if you are just starting your adventure in reading Austen, this will be a great introduction to the very rich world of her writings, her world, and her literary themes – what more can we ask for!  [other than a hardcover with an index!]

 4 full inkwells out of 5

[please note that the illustrations are meant to illustrate this post and are not illustrations in the work being reviewed] 

Jane Austen · News

Web Round-up ~ All Things Austen!!

BookLady DebLeave a comment

I’ve been out of the loop for the past week, so just a catch up post of items of Austen-interest, some old news, some new, but always interesting and chock full of Austen tidbits: 

Jane Austen Conference at the British Library:  a 6-minute YouTube video of a student conference at the British Library–speakers Kathryn Sutherland and Elizabeth Garvie, shots of Austen’s manuscripts, English Country Dancing, etc. – great fun!

 

    

Here is an interesting interview with Patricia Meyer Spacks, JASNA member and Professor of English, who just published an annotated edition of Pride and Prejudice. 

*And from Sarah Emsley, a review at Open Letters Monthly 

*A review at Austenprose 

*A review at Jane Austen’s World ~ and also Vic’s interview with Professor Spacks [Vic’s virtual tour of the book was put on the Harvard University Press’s blog! – see the video here ] 

I just got this book  – and it is lovely – I look forward to spending some quality time with it! 

  

  

Want to understand England and the concept of Englishness a bit more? – here is an interesting reading list for a course on “Englishness”  at Bristol University.  This should take you reading through the winter… and then some…

     

The Old Globe Theater in San Diego will be presenting Jane Austen’s Emma: A Romantic Comedy from January 15 – February 27: 

 “Emma, a timeless love story from one of the most widely read writers of all time, is now a musical, and will once again entice modern audiences to fall in love with one of Jane Austen’s most adored characters. Emma, a beautiful and clever young woman who prides herself on her matchmaking ability, is preoccupied with romance yet is clueless to her own feelings of love. When she takes on a young friend as her latest project, her well-intentioned efforts misfire, leading to a whirlwind of complications. Deliciously charming, this new romantic comedy from Tony Award nominated composer Paul Gordon and directed by Tony Award nominee, Jeff Calhoun, brings Jane Austen’s masterpiece to musical life.”
 

If you happen to be in Vermont in November, Claire Harman of Jane’s Fame fame will be one of the speakers at the Vermont Humanities Council Fall Conference on Comedy and Satire: It’s No Joke, From Jonathan Swift to Jon Stewart, Ridiculing Vice and Folly, November 12–13, 2010  Stoweflake Mountain Resort, Stowe, Vermont.  Professor Harman’s talk is scehduled for the Saturday afternoon from 1:00 – 2:15 pm:

Jane Austen, Veiled Satirist. Jane Austen is not usually considered a satirist, but she began her writing life in imitation of the great practitioners of the eighteenth century. Prize-winning author Claire Harman, who teaches at Oxford and Columbia Universities, looks at Austen’s beloved novels in the context of that earlier tradition and considers how and why she molded the tones and techniques of Swift and Pope to her own purposes.   See the VHC website for details.

 

The Eighth Annual Regency Assembly in New Haven, Connecticut is scheduled for October 16-17, 2010.  Visit Susan de Guardiola’s website for more information, where there are various links to Regency Games, Fashion, and Dance.

 

 

 

 

 Another Vermont event!  On Saturday December 18th, a Regency clothing talk at The Inn Victoria 321 Main St Chester VT, 2-3 pm, followed by a grand tea.  Visit the website of Kandie Carle, a.k.a. The Victorian Lady to learn more about her talk, which is part of an entire Jane Austen Birthday Weekend:

Dates: December 17-19, 2010

Description: Celebrate Jane Austen’s birthday in style at a Victorian B&B that is known for its romance and antiques of the period. On December 17 – 19, we will celebrate Jane’s birthday weekend with: 

  • Pride & Prejudice on the Big Screen in the Parlor
  • Two formal afternoon teas (wear your formal period dress)
  • Two book reviews
  • Two breakfasts, each with five courses…..yes, FIVE!
  • English Christmas dinner served Saturday evening with wine.
  • Actress / performer Kandie Carle, will give a performance of “The Victorian Lady”

Two night / double occupancy starts at $130 / night….. 25% of the income will be donated to the Chester Rotary for a local Christmas fund for children.

 

And finally – a discovery that has pleased my DOG very much – a book by Kara Louise titled Master Under Good Regulation – you can read more about it at the First Impressions blog by Alexa Adams, and more at Kara Louise’s website.  It is about Reggie, an English Springer Spaniel, best friend and confident of Mr. Darcy – and the whole story of Pride and Prejudice is told from Reggie’s point of view.  Now, MY dog is an English springer spaniel, and he is wondering if perhaps this dog of Darcy’s might not be one of his great, great ancestors – everything always comes full circle, and always back to Jane in some way, doesn’t it?! 

 

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

Thoughts on Travel in ‘Sense and Sensibility’

BookLady Deb29 Comments

Sense & Sensibility is about so many things, but there is an emphasis on income, inheritance and money, and how the world of the late 18th, early 19th century figured in the lives of Austen’s characters, especially the women in her novels.  But one of the things one notices after a number of readings is the amount of movement in this novel – the constant  comings and goings of the characters, with their visiting, travels to London, moving from one end of England to the other.  On first reading, you might almost miss the extent of this movement, after all, nothing really ever happens in Austen, isn’t that what we always hear?!  But take a look at the map on the JASNA.org site for Sense and Sensibility and you will see what I mean. And if you know anything about travel in late 18th – early 19th century England, you will be know how arduous such travel was.  I am going to chart the movement of characters in the novel and the means whereby they moved from place to place, or as Mrs. Jennings so aptly asks of the Misses Steele:  “How did you travel?”  

Austen knew first-hand the travel issues of her day [read her letters!] – and she was very knowledgable and consistent in writing about it in her novels – often not necessarily specific but there are clues all around!   But alas!, there is so much to discuss about travel: carriages and their parts; the history of the postal system; the history of coaching and the turnpike system; the economics of the time – taxation, income and inheritance – all these; but I will in the next several posts offer a brief outline of the travel in Regency England, its difficulty and costs with a few thoughts on economics; then a discussion of movement in S&S; the types of carriages in use in Regency England and those used by Austen’s characters; and finally a few words on the London of S&S – it has the most mention of any of her novels, and interesting to see where each character was housed in Town.  And at the end of this series of posts, I will provide a bibliography and further reading references.
 

 Part I:  Travel in Regency England  

[English Counties: Map from JASNA.org]

  • -The difficulty of travel due to the condition of the roads – each parish was responsible for its own roads but they were largely dirty and muddy, and dangerous
  • -most people traveled by foot:  certainly true of the lower classes, but recall Mrs. Dashwood: 

 …his [Mr. Middleton’s ] repeated assurances of his carriage being always at their service, the independence of Mrs. Dashwood’s spirit overcame the wish of society for her children; and she was resolute in declining to visit any family beyond the distance of a walk.  

  •   -traveling in vehicles in the daytime or only in the nights with bright moonlight, little travel in winter, no travel on Sunday
  • -improper for women to travel alone [if you read Austen’s letters, you will see that she was completely dependent upon her brothers to visit anyone or travel any distance; and how outrageous that Northanger Abbey’s Catherine Morland was put on that coach all alone!]
  • -for overnights at coaching inns, travelers often brought their own linens or silverware…
  • -travel vehicles were uncomfortable and dangerous due to the road conditions and highwaymen
  • -despite all this, the late 18th-century saw a great improvement in the roads, and one could travel great distances more quickly [and if they had the money!].   Paterson’s British Itinerary, a travel guide had 17 editions between 1785-1832 – it outlined the roads used by the stage and mail coaches, the tolls, the bridges, etc.   

[Image from Georgianindex.net]

A quick review of travel times [varies depending upon vehicles]:  

  • – Mr. Darcy:  8 miles/hr –  recall his famous line to Elizabeth:  ‘what is 50 miles of good road? little more than half a day’s journey’
  • -the Stage Coach [and General Tilney]:  7 miles /hr
  • -average travel time:  4-6 miles / hr
  • -100 miles = 2 days of travel [and remember, no travel on Sunday]
  • -in 1800, London to Edinburgh took 60 hrs; London to Norwich, 19 hrs 

The estimated mileages in Sense and Sensibility: [this is in todays distances] 

  • London to Bristol = @ 106 miles
  • London to Bath = @ 97 miles
  • London to Exeter = @ 157 miles
  • London to Plymouth = @ 192 ,iles
  • Exeter to Honiton = @ 16 miles
  • Honiton to Weymouth = @ 35 miles

[Map of S&S: from JASNA.org]

Cost of living ~ some basic facts: 

The economy in Britain during this time was very unstable – hard to effectively calculate the meaning of what the cost of living was in the early 19th century and to compare it with ours today; also some items cost more in Austen’s times than they do today, some less.

One 1988 article calculated that one pound in 1811 = $33., so Darcy’s income of 10,000 = $330,000.  The following month another article said that to compare 1810 with 1990, one should multiply today’s average per capita income by 300 [in 1990 this was $20,894.] = $6,300,000. would be Darcy’s income in today’s language.  Another article:  the pound in 1800 = $100. , so Darcy’s 10,000 = 1 million! – to be honest I just got dizzy with this whole thing!  [There are various websites where you can play around calculating these amounts, such as Measuring Worth, and the National Archives Currency Converter]

And remember that Austen often tells you exactly what someone is worth – this was common knowledge at the time and was not considered rude to talk about it.  But when there is a reference to money, for the men, she is referring to their annual income [Darcy 10,000; Bingley 5,000; Brandon 2,000; etc], but when referring to a woman, the reference is to her total assets, i.e. this money would be invested at 5% and she would earn the income from that each year, so Miss Gray’s 50,000 [Austen’s richest woman] is not her income, but rather the income from that, so £2,500 / year to live on.  [note that this is not always consistent, but is largely a general rule in Austen]

 So rather than trying to figure out what something would be worth today, it is better to look at the cost of living, i.e. what things cost in Austen’s time,  so to gain some perspective, keep the following in mind:

  • the world that Jane Austen writes about and the world we see visually in the film adaptations portrays a very small minority of the population, the “Polite World”, the upper 10,000; Austen might give various clues in each novel to that other world, but it is easy to forget it when reading about the romance and balls and carriages and fashion, etc.   
  • Edward Copeland, an Austen scholar who has written much on the economics of Austen’s world, and says she was “meticulous” in presenting these economic truths, states that this economic world in S&S is presented in terms of the power that money brings with it, and the frightening aspect of this for the women in the novel, where it seems that the “wicked, foolish and selfish” are rewarded.  
  • in 1799, in order to support and pay for the war with France, the British Government imposed a tax of 2s / pound on all income over £200; there were also taxes on windows, on malt, sugar, tea, coffee [considered a luxury tax], etc… 

Some hard economic facts ~ in a world where the lowest “respectable” income would be about £50 / year: 

  • a common laborour:  £25 / year – this to maintain himself, his wife, and 6 children in food, lodgings, clothes and fuel 
  • governess:  £25 / year 
  • curate w/ house and garden:  £40 / year  
  • average gentleman = £150 /yr
  • for a gentleman in 1825 with an income of £250 – for himself, his wife, three children and a maidservant, food cost a little over £2.5 / wk = £135 /yr.
  • £370 /yr – will support 2 servants 
  • £500 /yr – will support two servants, a boy, an occasional gardener  [Mrs. Dashwood and three daughters] 
  • Edward & Elinor when married will have £850  [after his mother gives him money – they would have married with only 350 – see Copeland in Cambridge Companion.]
  • £800 – 1200 will support a carriage  [hence Willoughby is living way beyond his means, as we shall see…]
  • £5000+ – the minimal income needed to partake of the “London Season” – [The John Dashwoods, etc] – renting and running the household, elegant parties, stabling horses, clothing, etc.

So if Austen doesn’t tell us directly about a character’s income, you can figure it out by inference:  London? any carriage? how many servants? 

 Costs of travel:  [estimates for 1800] 

  • Stage Coach:  2-3 pence / mile = 1.25 pounds from London to Bath / half-price if up top / outside [but remember the average income was about £30 / year 
  • Hired post-chaise =  estimate about £1 / mile [i.e @1 shilling / horse / mile, to include the postillion] 

Costs of Horses: for hunting, racing, riding, pleasure drives

  • -expensive to buy and maintain:  cost = 100 pounds; annual maintenance 120 pounds to stable in London
  • -costs of the carriages [discuss later] – but there were also taxes on private carriages and horses; toll roads
  •  -for perspective:  in 1801, 8 million population in England; in 1814, there were 69,200 taxed carriages [i.e. less than 1 / 100]:  23,400 four wheeled; 27,300 two-wheeled; 18,500 “tax-carts” [basic springless vehicles] [quoting All Things Austen]

 The economic realities in S&S ~ remember that Mrs. Dashwood could not keep a horse or a carriage after the loss of their inheritance:  

1.  Narrator on the Henry Dashwoods: 

…the horses that were left her by her husband had been sold soon after his death, and an opportunity now offering of disposing of her carriage, she agreed to sell that likewise at the earnest advice of her eldest daughter.  [and she had 500 pounds a year!]

 2.  Narrator on Willoughby’s gift of a horse to Marianne [his irresponsibility – the realities of owning a horse]:  

 …Willoughby had given her a horse, one that he had bred himself on his estate in Somersetshire, and which was exactly calculated to carry a woman.  Without considering that it was not in her mother’s plan to keep any horse, that if she were to alter her resolution in favour of this gift, she must buy another for a servant, and keep a servant to ride it, and after all, build a stable to receive them…

 3.  Marianne on a competence:  she wants 2000 pounds a year: 

I am sure I am not extravagant in my demands. A proper establishment of servants, a carriage, perhaps two, and hunters, cannot be supported on less.   [the irony being that that is exactly the income of Colonel Brandon!]  – and of course, Elinor responds:

TWO thousand a year! ONE is my wealth!

4.  Fanny Dashwood in the infamous scene talking down the inheritance: 

Their housekeeping will be nothing at all.  They will have no carriage, no horses, and hardly any servants; they will keep no company, and can have no expenses of any kind!

 And on that happy note, I will pause ~ next up:  what is the income of the characters in S&S, where do they live, and to where do they travel in this novel of many travels?

 

[Posted by Deb]

Books · Jane Austen · News · Publishing History · Rare Books

MORE Austen on the Block!

BookLady Deb5 Comments

Sotheby’s  has just announced the following October 28th  auction in London:

 

The Library of  an English Bibliophile, Part I.    Jane Austen is duly represented and is among the great company of the Brontes, Burney, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Gaskell, Eliot (George and T. S.), Darwin, Fielding, Hardy, James, Joyce, Keats, Mary Shelley, Wollstonecraft, and many more, and interesting in only having ONE Dickens [Lot 40, A Christmas Carol, est. 150,000 – 200,000 GBP]

Here are the five Austen lots: [# 1-5]

SENSE AND SENSIBILITY: A NOVEL… BY A LADY. AND PUBLISHED BY T. EGERTON, 1811.  LONDON: PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR BY C. ROWORTH 

12mo (187 x 114mm.), 3 volumes, first edition, half-titles, watermarks, uncut in the original publisher’s boards, original pink paper labels on spines, preserved in folding brown cloth chemises and quarter brown morocco slipcase, rebacked preserving most of the original spines, occasional spotting and foxing, some slight marginal stains on D10-D11 in volume 1, minor discolouration and staining of a few gatherings in volumes 2 and 3, short tears on B11 and H5 in volume 2 (affecting three lines and two lines respectively), tiny paper flaw on I2 in volume 2, some slight wear to boards.

ESTIMATE 40,000 – 60,000 GBP 

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: A NOVEL. LONDON: G. SIDNEY FOR T. EGERTON, 1813

12mo (182 x 110mm.), 3 volumes, first edition, watermarks, uncut in the original publisher’s drab boards, half-titles, advertisements dated November 1812 inserted at the beginning of volume 1, preserved in folding blue cloth chemises and quarter blue morocco folding box by Zaehnsdorf, spines repaired (some cracks and slight tears present), upper joint of volume 3 slightly split, without spine labels (volume numbers stamped on spine), skilful repairs to inner margin of half-title, title-page and first text leaf of volume 1.

ESTIMATE 75,000 – 100,000 GBP 

EMMA: A NOVEL. LONDON: C. ROWORTH FOR JOHN MURRAY, 1816

12mo (186 x 110mm.), first edition, half-titles, uncut in the original publisher’s blue-grey boards with grey-brown spines, preserved in quarter brown morocco folding box, rebacked preserving significant portions of the spines, original spine labels, tear to lower corner of P1 in volume 1 (not affecting text), occasional spotting, some slight further wear to binding.

ESTIMATE 20,000 – 30,000 GBP 

MANSFIELD PARK: A NOVEL. LONDON: FOR J. MURRAY, 1816

12mo (176 x 104mm.), 3 volumes, second edition, half-titles, contemporary or near contemporary blue half morocco, marbled boards, speckled edges, leaves C6-7 in volume 1 partially loose, some slight foxing and spotting, one gathering in volume 3 crudely opened, some slight wear to edges of binding.

ESTIMATE 1,500 – 2,000 GBP 

NORTHANGER ABBEY: AND PERSUASION…WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.  LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, 1818

12mo (189 x 112mm.), 4 volumes, first edition, watermarks, half-titles as called for by Gilson, uncut in the original grey-brown boards, original spine labels, preserved in red quarter morocco folding box, some spotting and foxing, neat repairs to a few minor tears on spines, some wear to labels and edges and extremities of binding, boards slightly spotted, corners very slightly bumped.

ESTIMATE 20,000 – 30,000 GBP

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You can view the entire catalogue with pictures and fuller description online at the Sotheby’s website.  An Exhibition is to be held in Paris, then London prior to the auction on October 28th [see site for details]; a catalogue can be purchased for $53.

Can’t wait to see Part II!

[Image of  Thomas Rowlandson’s “Doctor Syntax at an Auction” from The Private Library]
[Posted by Deb]

Books · Collecting Jane Austen · Jane Austen · News · Publishing History · Rare Books

Austen on the Block!

BookLady Deb1 Comment

Auction Alert!   Heritage Auction Galleries has announced its upcoming “Signature Rare Books Auction”, October 14-16 – Beverly Hills, CA.  Auction #6048.  You will all be happy to see that all of Jane Austen’s first editions will be on the block! – all in lovely bindings and now viewable online and open for bidding: [note the opening bid and estimated value, and buyer’s premium; if there is a reserve it has not been noted] 

*First Edition of Jane Austen’s Fourth Novel in a Full Morocco Binding by Rivière & Son:

 [Jane Austen]. Emma: A Novel. In Three Volumes. By the Author of “Pride and Prejudice,” &c. &c. Vol. I. [II. III.] London: Printed for John Murray, 1816.  Opening bid:  $7500.  [estimated value = $15,000+] 

*

*First Edition of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park in an Attractive Full Morocco Binding by Rivière & Son:

 [Jane Austen]. Mansfield Park: A Novel. In Three Volumes. By the Author of “Sense and Sensibility,” and “Pride and Prejudice.” Vol. I [II. III.]. London: Printed for T. Egerton, 1814 (Volume II with imprint: London: Printed for T. Egerton, Whitehall, 1814).  Opening bid:  $5,000.  [est. $10,000+]

*

*First Edition of Jane Austen’s Posthumously Published Northanger Abbey and Persuasion Attractively Bound in Full Morocco Gilt by Rivière & Son:

[Jane Austen]. Northanger Abbey: and Persuasion. By the Author of “Pride and Prejudice,” “Mansfield-Park,” &c. With a Biographical Notice of the Author. In Four Volumes. Vol. I. [II. III. IV.]. London: John Murray, 1818.   Opening bid: $3,750. [est.$7500+]

*

*A Lovely First Edition of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice:

[Jane Austen]. Pride and Prejudice: A Novel. In Three Volumes. By the Author of “Sense and Sensibility.” Vol. I. [II. III.] London: Printed for T. Egerton, Military Library, Whitehall, 1813.  Opening bid:  $15,000.  [est. $30,000+]

*

*Scarce First Edition of Jane Austen’s First Published Novel, in a Full Morocco Binding by Rivière & Son:

[Jane Austen]. Sense and Sensibility: A Novel. In Three Volumes. By a Lady. Vol. I. [II. III.]. London: Printed for the Author, By C. Roworth, Bell-yard, Temple-bar, and Published by T. Egerton, Whitehall, 1811.  Opening bid:  $20,000.  [est. value $40,000+]

*

See the Heritage Auction Galleries website for full descriptions of each title.

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 Oh Jane, whatever would you say?! – Let the bidding begin! 

[Posted by Deb]

Jane Austen · Jane Austen Societies

Jane Austen in Brazil ~ Please Welcome Adriana Zardini!

BookLady Deb8 Comments

Dear Readers:  I have invited Adriana Zardini to write occasional posts for our JASNA-Vermont blog, and today I append her first post.  I “met” Adriana during last winter’s Oxford University online Jane Austen class , where we were all infected with her obvious love of Austen!  Her insights and comments were invaluable and I all the more impressed because English is not her native tongue.  She has started the Jane Austen Society of Brazil, writes a wonderful blog The Jane Austen Club  [“Jane Austen Sociedade do Brazil”  – a bilingual blog in Portuguese and English, with others available, all compliments of Google], and is a very busy Mom and teacher.  In this first post, Adriana  begins by telling us about how she first discovered Austen and the joy of discovering fellow Janeites in Brazil…

*********************

Hello! I’m Adriana Zardini, the president of Jane Austen Society of Brazil [JASBRA] and it’s a pleasure to me to write in Deb’s blog! I met Deb in an online course at Oxford University about Jane Austen in beginning of this year.  Since then, we always send emails and messages at Facebook.

I’m an English teacher in a private College here in Brazil and I teach in a federal high school too. I teach Portuguese for foreign students and really love computers and internet. Last year I finished my master degree in Technological Education and I evaluated some software to learn/teach English in my research. Nowadays, I’m preparing to take the Doctor’s degree exams, I intend to research about literature discussed online and its effects in readers understanding of the books. I’m married to Carlos Eduardo and we have a daughter called Isabella (she’s 8 years old). As a good Janeite, Isabella knows who is Mr Darcy and Jane Austen’s books! Of course, she didn’t read Jane’s books yet, but I already bought Austen’s books for little girls (in English). I want to read the books to her, and later she can decide if she wants to read the unabridged Austen’s books.

Here’s my family:

Carlos Eduardo, Isabella and me

I read a Jane Austen’s book for the first time when I was undergraduate. I took a teaching and a bachelor’s degree in Arts and Language, and my major is English Language and its literatures (British and American). When we’re studying the British literature from the 19th century in 1999, our teacher Thais Flores, asked us to read Emma and discuss the movie (with Gwyneth Paltrow). At that time, I had lots of other books to read about British and American literature, so I was impossible to read the other books from Jane Austen. In 2001, when I was studying at The City University of New York, I bought some Austen’s books and started reading it! I really like them!

In 2006, the orkut.com was a success here in Brazil, so I entered in a community called Orgulho e Preconceito (Pride and Prejudice) and there I made new friends from all over Brazil; I met some girls from my city too. Since people asked so many questions about Jane in this community, in February, 2008 I started a blog called Jane Austen Club in order to put information about the writer, her books and movies/tv series based on her books. I discovered this was the first blog/website in Portuguese entirely dedicated to Austen! People started to leave their comments and I started to write more posts too. In the end of 2008, I went to Rio de Janeiro and there I met lots of girls! I used to take my Jane Austen doll with me, so Jane was seen in Rio too! Of course, the girls from other cities in Brazil meet each other frequently! And when I had to travel to a different city I tried to find Janeites there too!

Here are the photos from the meeting in Rio:

Stand up – From the left to the right : Rozely, Simone, Lia and Andrea.
From the left to the right: Ana Maria, Márcia, Elaine and me (black t-shirt)

And here’s Jane in Rio!

 

In 2009, I decided to invest in Jane Austen’s biographies and books related to her in order to learn more about the author. In this year too, we had a meeting here in my city, Belo Horizonte, and we decided to start a Jane Austen Society here in Brazil since we wanted a formal group, not just people talking they love Jane and her books. Here is the picture from this meeting:

From the left to the right: Ana Maria, me, Cláudia and Pollyana

We had just 2 months to plan and organize our First National Meeting. In the next post I will talk more about our First National Meeting, ok?

********************

Thank you Adriana for sharing with us your beginnings with Jane Austen – we look forward to hearing more about you and your fellow Brazilian Janeites! And how wonderful that we can all connect so easily in this modern world of online classes, Facebook, Twitter, and blogs!

Further Reading:

[Post by Adriana Zardini, via Deb]

Jane Austen · Social Life & Customs

‘Talk Like Jane Austen Day’

BookLady Deb4 Comments

Alert Janeite Bonnie sent me this link:  Talk Like Jane Austen Day,

in Celebration of the 199th anniversary of the publishing of Sense and Sensibility, 30 October, 2010.  This site has a growing list of words and language customs that Austen used that have lost their meaning to us – the list will be added to, so check back again… some examples:

Nice ~  fussy, over particular, affected

Numbers ~ not “twenty four”, but “four and twenty” 

Only ~ use instead of “just” as in “Only think of the Marquis of Granby being dead.”

Own ~ use instead of admit as in “I own I think our political horizon still lowers” 

Scruple ~ To doubt, to have reservations, as in “We have talked of it again this morning, and I am convinced that if you can make it suit in other respects you need not scruple on his account.”

and a link to Dr. Johnson’s Dictionary in case you want to look anything up…

Thanks Bonnie for passing this on!

[Posted by Deb]

Jane Austen · News

Strange Bedfellows ~ Jane Austen and Simon Cowell

BookLady Deb3 Comments

From Tom Meltzer of the Guardian:  

“Who made Britain what it is today? ~ Barack Obama’s new children’s book pays tribute to 13 iconic figures who have helped shape America. So which great Britons have done the same for their country?” 

Nice to know that Jane Austen made the list:

More British even than etiquette itself is an awareness of the daftness of our manners and social norms. Jane Austen combined biting social commentary with observations as accurate and hilarious as anything from The Office. Though her work has come to be associated with period drama, her real achievement was to prove that, beneath the bonnets and parasols, the minds of British women were razor-sharp .

She’s among good company – the others in Meltzer’s list?  Boudicca; Elizabeth I; William Shakespeare; Admiral nelson; Charles Darwin; Queen Victoria; Winston Churchill; Margaret Thatcher; The Beatles; Trevor McDonald; Stephen Fry; and Simon Cowell. [!]

See the full article here at The Guardian, along with some scathing comments on those included and those left out – [Dickens for instance?] – the reason I hate lists…

Books · Collecting Jane Austen · Jane Austen

Austen’s Life Abridged for the Young

BookLady Deb5 Comments

Lives of the Writers:  Comedies, Tragedies (and What the Neighbors Thought); written by Kathleen Krull; illustrated by Kathryn Hewitt. Harcourt Brace, 1994. ISBN:  0-15-201032-7

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I picked up this book a few weeks ago because it had a chapter on Jane Austen, and so another book to add to my collection, as well as yet another Austen image – and now finally have taken a moment to read it:

Here are some quotes: 

…although she had several proposals, she never married.  She never met a man who appreciated her intelligence and education, and she couldn’t bear the idea of marrying just for money.

Austen was reserved with strangers, who found her arrogant or even fierce, but her family treated her as an agreeable mouse.  None of them thought much about the writing she was always doing; it was just something that kept Jane busy, like the needlework the other women did.

At dinner parties, she didn’t say much, but the next day she might write a letter about ‘another stupid party last night,’ or ‘I was as civil to them as their bad breath would allow.’

As much as she wanted to be a humble sister and obedient daughter, she was also extremely proud of the small sums she earned when her family persuaded her to start publishing her books.  She wrote, ‘If I am a wild beast, I cannot help it.’

She always wore a cap and her clothes were never quite in fashion.

Austen was a world-class aunt … [and to her nieces and nephews] she was a pretty, funny storyteller.

In her obituaries, she was revealed as the author of six novels. [me here: she had only published four at her death, P and NA published posthumously, and all the obituaries did not disclose the fact of her authorship – but I quibble]]

There are a few perfect thoughts expressed about Austen liking Pride & Prejudice better than any of her other books; and Emma being about “a heroine whom no one but myself will much like”; and how few in her own family knew she had written Sense & Sensibility; and how she practiced the “piano” in the morning and prepared breakfast.

I’ll let all this speak for itself – they certainly got some things right, but all this conjecture about her being arrogant and fierce and mouse-like at the same time and being unfashionable and never meeting a man who appreciated her intelligence [surely there must have been some – she just didn’t marry them!] – this is like the updated version of the Victorian view of Austen – I thought we were past all that, and what do we really know anyway? – I just hate to see it perpetuated for a new generation!  [the only source listed in the bibliography is Park Honan’s 1987 biography, Jane Austen: Her Life.] – and not to even mention the “bobble-headed” image [though she is kinda cute!]

If Austenblog’s cluebat is sitting around anywhere, I could surely put it to good use…

Any thoughts??  I’m off to read about Shakespeare…

[Other authors covered:  Murasaki Shikibu; Miguel de Cervantes; William Shakespeare; Hans Christian Andersen; Edgar Allen Poe; Charles Dickens; Charlotte and Emily Bronte; Emily Dickinson; Louisa May Alcott; Mark Twain; Frances Hodgson Burnett; Robert Louis Stevenson; Jack London; Carl Sandburg; E.B. White; Zora Neale Hurston; Langston Hughes; and Isaac Bashevis Singer.] – and the book by the way, won numerous literary awards:  Horn Book Honor Book; PW’s Best Book of the year; Booklist’s Editor’s Choice; SLJ Best Book of the Year; ALA Notable Book; etc…

All quotes from the book, pp.25-27; Austen illustration, p. 24; see the author’s website here.

[Posted by Deb]