p.d. james

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The Penny Post Weekly Review ~ All Things Jane Austen!

The Penny Post Weekly Review

  October 8, 2011

 

News /Gossip 

An Amanda Vickery lecture at the Lewis Walpole Library: “Family Life Makes Tories of Us All: Love and Power at Home in Georgian England”:

Indie Jane blog – a pen-pal project – alas! missed the dealine – hopefully they will do it again! fabulous idea in this world of the lost art of the letter –  http://indiejane.org/2011/08/dear-jane/

Musical cabaret duo: The Jane Austen Argument:  why the name I wonder??
 http://thejaneaustenargument.net/about/

A Musicologist Abroad blog by Vassar Professor Kathryn L. Libin: a few posts on Chawton http://blogs.vassar.edu/musicologistabroad/ . Prof. Libin is writing a book about Jane Austen and music. [from JASNA News]

Masterpiece Mystery:  Kate Atkinson’s Case Histories starring Jason Isaacs as her Jackson Brodie begins on October 16th – see the upcoming schedule for all shows here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/schedule/index.html

“The research by Lindeman’s wine found that Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is the book most people lie about having read. But far from being highbrow, 47 per cent of us secretly prefer trashy novels which they would never put on show.”  http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/276005/Take-a-leaf-out-of-my-book-and-look-smart-Jane-Austen-helps-to-keep-up-appearances [do you think the remaining 53% are all Janeites? – though wait, we like “trashy” novels also!]

For you die-hard Colin Firth fans [do we talk to anyone who is not?] – one of his earliest roles in the 1986 7-part (!) BBC production Lost Empires can now be viewed on the just-released DVD! – here’s the story: http://blogs.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2011/10/05/lose-yourself-with-colin-firth-in-lost-empires/ 

  Click here if you want to buy!

JASNA-New York has just published the fall issue of its newsletter Austen Chronicle: http://www.jasnany.org/newsletters/2011%20Fall.pdf

 
The Circulating Library

*You can view Jane Austen’s will at the National Archives, now on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationalarchives/3507414978/ 

*This is an amazing gift from JSTOR: their early journals [i.e. before 1923] are now available online for free to anyone: read their announcement here: http://about.jstor.org/participate-jstor/individuals/early-journal-content

A quick look through one of the finds by a C18 listserv member: from George Washington’s Household Account Book 1793-1797:  
http://www.jstor.org/stable/20085390

Pd to Chas. Kirkham for 18 pr. of gloves for Mrs. W. ……. 5.50

[18 pair of gloves!!]

Martha Washington

[Image: freerepublic.com]

But enough frivolity – back to JSTOR:  go to the main search screen and type in “Jane Austen” – 329 items come up  – here is one example, a spot-on early 20th century review of Austen’s writings [though the author does do that “Bennett” misspelling thing!]

“Great-Grandmother’s Favorite Novel” by Warwick James Price. Sewanee Review 21.4 (1913): 480-89.

or this:

“The English Women-Humorists” by Alice Meynell. North American Review 181. 589 (1905):  857-72.

 [tip on using JSTOR: go to the search results citation page and choose the “view pdf” option – the whole document comes up vs. having to scroll through each page; you can also do this from the search page]

  • Authors: 

Dickens’s Oliver Twist audio tour at The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/audio/2011/sep/23/dickens-audio-tours-oliver-twist-walk

I love this!  Podcasts on forgotten books: http://www.reallylikethisbook.com/  – check out the piece on Helene Hanff’s 84 Charing Cross Road.

  • Library Collections:

One can never get enough of searching the online collections of the Lewis Walpole Library http://www.library.yale.edu/walpole/index.html

or The Wellcome Library’s  Medical History collections: http://library.wellcome.ac.uk/index.html

See the list of the collection of online 17th century recipe books [some are full text]: http://archives.wellcome.ac.uk/dserve/recipebooks/MS144.pdf

  • Books I am Looking Forward to 

*Joanna Trollope has signed on to re-write Sense & Sensibility in modern garb! [due out fall 2013]:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/13/joanna-trollope-rewrite-jane-austen

See her website here:  http://www.joannatrollope.com/

*PD James – I wondered when she was going to get around to combining her love of Austen with a sure-to-be-great Austen-inspired mystery! – watch for Death Comes to Pemberley, due this November [you can pre-order online]:  http://www.faber.co.uk/article/2011/9/death-comes-pemberley-announcement/

[if you have never read James’s “Emma Considered as a Detective Story” – you must find a copy immediately  (the text is included as an appendix in her autobiography Time to Be in Earnest)]

*Facing Beauty: Painted Women & Cosmetic Art :  by Aileen Ribeiro http://yalebooks.wordpress.com/2011/10/03/author-article-by-aileen-ribeiro-on-beauty/

and for more information on this title: http://yalebooks.co.uk/display.asp?K=9780300124866

*Samuel Park’s debut novel This Burns My Heart is written from the point of view of women in post-war South Korea – he explains this writing of women’s lives:

“I’ve spent my entire life deeply embroiled in the fantasies, desires and frustrations of my mother and my two older sisters. Their lives were so fascinating — they would spend hours talking about a crush. Not by coincidence, after I left them to go to college, I spent all my time in the library reading Jane Austen.


Museum Musings ~ Exhibition Trekking

*At the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge [UK], a new exhibit on Vermeer’s Women: Secrets and Silence:  the title just smacks of Sense and Sensibility, doesn’t it?!  And for those of us who have heard former JASNA president Marsha Huff give her talk on Austen and Vermeer, this book looks like a must-have – too bad the exhibition is only to be at the Fitzwilliam – it is sure to have Vermeers we have never seen.

http://yalebooks.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/new-exhibition-vermeers-women-secrets-and-silence-opens-at-the-fitzwilliam/

You can order the book here:

US: http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300178999
UK: http://www.yalebooks.co.uk/display.asp?K=9780300178999

*Chatsworth House – there is a new exhibition space featuring the 6th Duke of Devonshire – through December 23, 2011:  http://www.chatsworth.org/attractions/house/the-new-gallery-exhibition-space

 You can also follow the Duke’s diaries on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/the6thdukeofdevonshire


Regency Life

Check this post on “The Gentle Art of Regurgitation During Travel” – at Booktryst [look closely!]

http://www.booktryst.com/2011/09/gentle-art-of-regurgitation-during.html

[image from the book: LePrince, Xavier. Inconvéniens d’un Voyage en Diligence. Douze Tableaux, Lithographiés par…Paris: Chez Gihaut Freres… et Sazerac et Duval, 1826]

London Historians:  some very nice articles on Lord Nelson, etc. http://www.londonhistorians.org/?s=articles 

Fashion exhibit at Fairfax House, York: a video http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/at-a-glance/main-section/video_autumn_fashions_as_worn_by_jane_austen_1_3702171

also see this video of inside this lovely Georgian Townhouse: http://www.fairfaxhouse.co.uk/?idno=807

In need of a gown of your own? – check out Reproduction Fabrics: http://www.reproductionfabrics.com/  – and the accompanying textile blog: http://www.cottonopia.net/

Staples III - Reproduction Fabrics

Shopping 

Head over to esty for a copy of this illustration of the Pride and Prejudice cast of characters: http://www.etsy.com/listing/80386089/pride-and-prejudice-jane-austen

P&P - BlueSkyLnking

there are others – from Emma, Persuasion, Northanger Abbey, and Sense and Sensibility:

S&S - BlueSkyLnking

For Fun

I know this is a few years old, but one cannot watch it too often – a fine reminder of how often the men in Austen, etc. were dripping wet! 
It’s Raining Men!:  on youtube http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=it%27s+raining+men+jane+austen&aq=f

[image: bluechipmag.com]

Enjoy!

Copyright @2011 Deb Barnum, Jane Austen in Vermont
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Better Late than Never

Long over due are many comments on VARIOUS Austen (or Austen-related) topics. I have been so lazy in completing my online thoughts on the Austen Symposium in Lennoxville, Quebec (March!), and when at lunch with Janeite MKay, and she asked about the play, I had the thought: Well, better late than NEVER! So thoughts on that, and the last talk will come — I promise!

A little closer in time are two JASNA meetings. Our own JASNA-Vermont chapter hosted HOPE GREENBERG in Montpelier on June 7th; and Montreal/Quebec City’s chapter hosted a ‘Donwell Abbey’ strawberry picking at Elaine Bander’s Montreal home.

Before I forget – since Donwell Abbey reminds me – David from Montpelier, who attended our meeting on the 7th (he is a JASNA member! Yeah, David!!), spoke about reading P.D. James. This brought up James’ JAS (Jane Austen Society; in Britain) lecture a decade-plus ago. I just happened to have a copy of that the year’s “Report” (as JAS’s journal is called). So in digging it out for David, I re-read it myself. She brings up some points (since she treats Emma as a detective novel) about ‘clues’ in the novel that is unique and thought-provoking. But for me the more startling ideas were thoughts fired by her comments on Mr Knightley! James painted a picture of an exceptionally strong man, one who not the namby-pamby many name him to be. Makes me want to pull the novel out again — and soon!

HopeGreenberg_orange-regencyHope’s illustrated lecture on Fashion was one of the most comprehensive I have ever had the priviledge to listen to. The amazing amount of pictures – drawn from paintings, clothing (who knew Burlington’s Fleming Museum had so much in their ‘attics’!!), period drawings, etc. – as well as the lovely gowns Hope had on display (including the one she wore!), all brought to our capacity audience, visually and virtually, the fashion in Austen’s era. Thank you, Hope.

One JASNA-Vermont couple, Jim and Carol, had this to say about the presentation: Sunday was delightful …We enjoyed the presentation, especially once the sound was turned up a bit [Hope was microphoned]. I thought the visuals were very effective and useful for someone who is not at all versed in the subtleties of Regency fashion. Indeed, I have been most impressed with the intellectual content and professionalism of all three presentation we have attended. We look forward to our next meeting!”

Thanks, Jim! Great to hear such words of encouragement.

David wrote succinctly: “Thank you for hosting such a nice event…It was the largest attendance I have yet seen at a lecture, although it was only my third.”

We do have a growing and attentive audience in the Montpelier region! ‘Thanks,’ to everyone who attended Sunday.

And David shared his opinion that to bring Austen elsewhere in the state would greatly increase our presence; he writes about having some thing in St. Johnsbury — someday.

For the Montreal JASNA meeting, I went in order to meet their guest speaker, Jan Fergus. Jan’s book on 18th century publishing in Britain utilized the 1730-40 ledger (held at the Bodleian) belonging to Robert Gosling — Mary Gosling’s great-grandfather (my diarist; see SmithandGosling.wordpress.com, my research blog). Jan decried the sloppiness of Norton’s recent Austen publications; she ‘would proof them for free’, she exclaimed, as she showed the handwritten notes in the rear cover of her copy. Her lecture was a preview of her AGM lecture – on Brothers and Sisters in Austen’s novels, of course (Jan centered Sunday’s talk on Jane and Elizabeth Bennet).

The food was plentiful – and the strawberries sweet and delicious! Elaine has a lovely home, and I’m sure everyone was grateful for the invitation to visit her perfumed garden (peonies!). The weather held off just enough to make the day quite pleasant.

Two of the Montreal members are off to England, Elaine Bander herself; and Peter Sabor gives a paper at the Chawton Conference. Someday I hope it’s me that is able to hop a plane and have people anticipate some talk I’m about to give…

Which reminds me again, and I will close with this thought, of my lunch with MKay. We got to discussing – what else! – P&P films (1980, 1995 and 2005), as well as Lost in Austen. And that brought around a discussion of Darcy and Mr Collins. Between this lunch and Jan Fergus’s talk, I am convinced more than ever that 1995 (and, by extension, the Lost in Austen series) got poor Mr Collins ‘wrong’; that Charlotte was never a martyr to her marriage (a match made in heaven? perhaps not; but NOT a match made in hell either…); and that there is more to the Darcy-Collins pairing than people are willing to admit (MY paper proposal for Chawton; not accepted, of course.)

Time’s a tickin’ and Sunday morning’s winding down; so I will get off my soap box and get back to my book – a fascinating look at Virigina Woolf’s servants: Mrs Woolf and the Servants, by Alison Light. A ‘souvenir’ from my Montreal trip…

Still haven’t heard if my registration for the AGM puts me in among the 550 members going to Philadelphia… I see the numbers, as of 6/19, now stand at 503.

And JASNA’s website announces the inclusion of Persuasions vol. 3 – published in 1981. We must applaud JASNA’s dedication (and those who put these journals online for all) in making these invaluable resources available, and for free!