Persuasions On-line

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Happy Birthday Jane Austen!

Today is Jane Austen’s birthday, 247 years ago! 

To quote her father George Austen in a letter to his sister Mrs. Walter on Dec 17, 1775:

“You have doubtless been for some time in expectation of hearing from Hampshire, and perhaps wondered a little we were in our old age grown such bad reckoners but so it was, for Cassey certainly expected to have been brought to bed a month ago: however last night the time came, and without a great deal of warning, everything was soon happily over. We have now another girl, a present plaything for her sister Cassy and a future companion. She is to be Jenny, and seems to me as if she would be as like Henry, as Cassy is to Neddy. Your sister thank God is pure well after it, and sends her love to you and my brother…” (Austen Papers, 32-3)

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In celebration of Austen’s birthday, JASNA has published it’s Persuasions On-Line vol. 43, No. 1, which features a selection of the AGM presentations on Sense and Sensibility, the theme of the 2022 JASNA AGM in Victoria, as well as other interesting essays on all things Jane.

You can view the Table of Contents here – all essays are fully accessible: https://jasna.org/publications-2/persuasions-online/volume-43-no-1/

This is also a perfect time to donate to JASNA, or certainly to renew your membership – you can find information here: https://jasna.org/join/

It is also a perfect time to donate to Chawton House, via the North American Friends of Chawton House: Please visit the website at https://www.nafch.org/ and read about their endeavors.

Anyone who donates $150 or more will be sent NAFCH’s 3rd annual limited-edition bobblehead “Capability Jane” (while supplies last), though any amount is gratefully received! Our gardening Jane, named after the renowned gardener and landscape designer of Austen’s era, Capability Brown, though we know she was very “capable” in many areas of her life!

You can donate here: https://www.nafch.org/give-join

What better way to honor Jane Austen on her birthday than to give a little something in support of the “Great House” she visited often:

‘Let me thank you again and again’

Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice (1813)

2022, Jane Austen in Vermont
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Happy Birthday Jane Austen!

Today is Jane Austen’s birthday, 246 years ago! 

To quote her father George Austen in a letter to his sister Mrs. Walter on Dec 17, 1775:

“You have doubtless been for some time in expectation of hearing from Hampshire, and perhaps wondered a little we were in our old age grown such bad reckoners but so it was, for Cassey certainly expected to have been brought to bed a month ago: however last night the time came, and without a great deal of warning, everything was soon happily over. We have now another girl, a present plaything for her sister Cassy and a future companion. She is to be Jenny, and seems to me as if she would be as like Henry, as Cassy is to Neddy. Your sister thank God is pure well after it, and sends her love to you and my brother…” (Austen Papers, 32-3)

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In celebration of Austen’s birthday, JASNA has published it’s Persuasions On-Line vol. 42, No. 1, which features a selection of the AGM presentations on Jane Austen and the Arts, the theme of the 2021 JASNA AGM in Chicago. You can view the Table of Contents here – all essays are fully accessible: https://jasna.org/publications-2/persuasions-online/vol-42-no-1/

It is also a perfect time to donate to Chawton House, via the North American Friends of Chawton House: Please visit the website at https://www.nafch.org/ and read about their endeavors. Anyone who donates $150 or more will be sent NAFCH’s 2nd annual limited-edition bobblehead “Creative Jane” (while supplies last), though any amount is gratefully received!:

You can donate here: https://www.nafch.org/give-join

What better way to honor Jane Austen on her birthday than to give a little something in support of the “Great House” she visited often:

‘Let me thank you again and again’

Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice (1813)

2021, Jane Austen in Vermont
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For Your Reading Pleasure: JASNA’s “Persuasions On-Line”

Happy New Year One and All! If one of your Resolutions was to read more about Jane Austen, here is a great place to start!

The latest Persuasions On-Line is now available on the JASNA.org website:  http://www.jasna.org/publications/persuasions-online/volume-39-no-1/

Persuasions On-Line Volume 39, No. 1 (Winter 2018)

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2017: KANSAS CITY: PERSUASION: 200 YEARS OF CONSTANCY AND HOPE

  1. How the “Long War” Affected Jane Austen’s Family and Her Novels – Collins Hemingway
  2. “She Had Only Navy-Lists and Newspapers for Her Authority” – Hazel Jones
  3. Sailors in Fiction before Persuasion’s “Gentlemen of the Navy” – Susan Allen Ford
  4. Captain Wentworth and the Duke of Monmouth: Brilliant, Dangerous, and Headstrong – Jocelyn Harris
  5. The Grace to Deserve: Weighing Merit in Jane Austen’s Persuasion – Mary Ellen Bertolini
  6. A Tale of Two Captains: Whose Heart Is Worth Having? – Theresa Kenney
  7. Ivory and Canvas: Naval Miniature Portraiture in Jane Austen’s Persuasion – Moriah Webster
  8. “A State of Alteration”: Stylistic Contrasts in the Musgroves’ Parlor – Kristen Miller Zohn
  9. Revisiting Lake Louise 1993 – Juliet McMaster

MISCELLANY

  1. Three Pamphlets on the Leigh-Perrot Trial: Why Austen Sent Susan to Crosby – Margie Burns
  2. Where Jane Austen Sat: The “Austin” Box at Edmund Kean’s Shylock, Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, March 5, 1814 – David Worrall
  3. Nonsense Elements in Jane Austen’s Juvenilia – Donna R. White
  4. Marianne Dashwood’s Repentance, Willoughby’s “Repentance,” and The Book of Common Prayer – Brenda S. Cox
  5. The Probable Location of Donwell Abbey in Jane Austen’s Emma – Kenneth Smith
  6. To be “esteemed quite worthy”: Fortunes, Futures, and Economic Language in Persuasion – Maria Frawley, Kaitlyn Nigro, and Gwendolyn Umbach
  7. “Even Miss Bates Has Mind”: A Cognitive Historicist Reading of Emma’s Miss Bates – Kathleen R. Steele
  8. Jane, Bingley, and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator: Or, the Other Couple in Pride and Prejudice – Jenny Rebecca Rytting
  9. Jane Austen in the Nursing Classroom: A Tool to Expand Psychiatric Assessment Skills – Tawny Burgess
  10. Pride and Prejudice in Black and White: First and Last Impressions (1938–1967) – Reinier Wels
  11. Pride and Prejudice in Black and White: De vier dochters Bennet (1961–1962) – Reinier Wels
  12. Lost in Austen: A Postmodern Reanimation of Pride and Prejudice – Wim Tigges
  13. Jane Austen Bibliography, 2017 – Deborah Barnum

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The Table of Contents of Persuasions 39 (2017) is now online as well (alas! the essays are not – reason enough to become a JASNA member…): http://www.jasna.org/publications/persuasions/no-39/

Papers from the AGM 2O17: HUNTINGTON BEACH: JANE AUSTEN IN PARADISE: INTIMATIONS OF IMMORTALITY

  1. Women of Genius: Jane Austen, Germaine de Staël, and the Nineteenth-Century Heroine – Gillian Dow (13-30)
  2. Godmersham Park Library: Jane Austen’s Paradise Regained – Peter Sabor (31-44)
  3. The Child Is Mother to the Novelist: From the Juvenilia to the Novels – Juliet McMaster (45-56 )
  4. Dirty Girls, Dirty Books, and the Breakdown of Boundaries in Jane Austen’s Fiction – Kathy Justice Gentile (57-69)
  5. “I Cannot Get Out”: The Self-Imposed Afterlife of Maria Bertram – Leta Sundet (70-77)
  6. Sanditon at 200: Intimations of a New Consumerist Society – Sara Dustin (78-87)
  7. Modernist Jane: Austen’s Reception by Writers of the Twenties and Thirties – Lisa Tyler (88-99)
  8. In and Out of the Foxholes: Talking of Jane Austen During and After World War II – Annette M. LeClair (100-111)
  9. Angela Thirkell and “Miss Austen” – Sara Bowen (112-125)
  10. After Jane Austen – Devoney Looser (126-146)
  11. JASNA and the Academy: The Anxiety of Affiliation – Elaine Bander (147-162)
  12. Becoming Catherine Morland: A Cautionary Tale of Manuscripts in the Archive – Emily C. Friedman (163-173)

MISCELLANY

  1. Jane Austen and Catharine Macaulay – Karen Green (177-183)
  2. A Third Publisher’s Advertisement for Susan Found: Why Didn’t Crosby Publish Jane Austen? – Margie Burns (184-202)
  3. The Watsons: Its Place in Jane Austen’s Development as a Writer – David Hughes (203-212)
  4. Deception with a Graceful Bow: Northanger Abbey’s General Tilney and Dance Semiotics – Sabrina M. Gilchrist (213-221)
  5. Jane Austen and Roman History – Herbert W. Benario (222-225)
  6. “She Heard All Mrs. Elton’s Knight-Errantry on the Subject”: Emma as Chivalric Romance -Tiffany Schubert (226-234)
  7. Mobility, the Outdoors, and Social Position in Persuasion – E. Holly Pike (235-242)
  8. Sanditon and the Pursuit of Health – Michael Biddiss (243-254)

That should keep you all busy for a good while…

c2019 Jane Austen in Vermont; images courtesy of JASNA.org
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Wishing Jane Austen a Very Happy Birthday!

austen-silhouetteThe first order of business today, on this 241st birthday of Jane Austen, is the annual publication of JASNA’s Persuasions On-Line Vol. 37, No. 1 (Winter 2016). Click here for the Table of Contents to yet another inspiring collection of essays, some from the 2016 AGM in Washington DC on EMMA AT 200, “NO ONE BUT HERSELF” –  and other “Miscellany” – all about Jane Austen…and perfect winter reading material…

Here is the link: http://www.jasna.org/persuasions/on-line/vol37no1/toc.html

pollogo

Here are the essays: (you might especially notice Gillian Dow’s essay on the Emma exhibition at Chawton House Library this year (website under redevelopment til Christmas) – for those of you who could not attend, this is the next best thing to being there!)

“The Encouragement I Received”: Emma and the Language of Sexual Assault
Celia Easton

“Could He Even Have Seen into Her Heart”: Mr. Knightley’s Development of Sympathy
Michele Larrow

Emma’s “Serious Spirit”: How Miss Woodhouse Faces the Issues Raised in Mansfield Park and Becomes Jane Austen’s Most Complex Heroine
Anna Morton

“Small, Trifling Presents”: Giving and Receiving in Emma
Linda Zionkowski

Oysters and Alderneys: Emma and the Animal Economy
Susan Jones

Epistolary Culture in Emma: Secrets and Social Transgressions
L. Bao Bui

Divas in the Drawing Room, or Italian Opera Comes to Highbury
Jeffrey Nigro and Andrea Cawelti

Mrs. Elton’s Pearls: Simulating Superiority in Jane Austen’s Emma
Carrie Wright

Multimedia Emma: Three Adaptations
Linda Troost and Sayre Greenfield

Jane Austen’s Emma at 200: From English Village to Global Appeal
Gillian Dow

MISCELLANY

Discerning Voice through Austen Said: Free Indirect Discourse, Coding, and Interpretive (Un)Certainty
Laura Moneyham White and Carmen Smith

“The Bells Rang and Every Body Smiled”: Jane Austen’s “Courtship Novels”
Gillian Dooley

Courtship and Financial Interest in Northanger Abbey
Kelly Coyne

Curious Distinctions in Sense and Sensibility
Ethan Smilie

“If Art Could Tell”: A Miltonic Reading of Pride and Prejudice
James M. Scott

Looking for Mr. Darcy: The Role of the Viewer in Creating a Cultural Icon
Henriette-Juliane Seeliger

Replacing Jane: Fandom and Fidelity in Dan Zeff’s Lost in Austen (2008)
Paige Pinto

Fanny Price Goes to the Opera: Jonathan Dove’s and Alasdair Middleton’s Mansfield Park
Douglas Murray

Austen at the Ends of the Earth: The Near and the Far in Persuasion
Katherine Voyles

Jane Austen Bibliography, 2015
Deborah Barnum

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Let’s look at what Austen’s father wrote about her arrival on December 16, 1775:

You have doubtless been for some time in expectation of hearing from Hampshire, and perhaps wondered a little we were in our old age grown such bad reckoners but so it was, for Cassy certainly expected to have been brought to bed a month ago:  however last night the time came, and without a great deal of warning, everything was soon happily over.  We have now another girl, a present plaything for her sister Cassy and a future companion.  She is to be Jenny, and seems to me as if she would be as like Henry, as Cassy is to Neddy.  Your sister thank God is pure well after it, and send her love to you and my brother, not forgetting James and Philly…

[Letter from Mr. Austen to his sister Philadelphia Walter, December 17, 1775, as quoted from Deirdre Le Faye, Jane Austen, A Family Record, Cambridge, 2004, p.27.]

Happy Birthday Miss Austen! – you continue to inspire, intrigue, and offer insights like no other!

c2016 Jane Austen in Vermont
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Celebrating Jane Austen’s Birthday ~ December 16, 1775

austen silhouette

You have doubtless been for some time in expectation of hearing from Hampshire, and perhaps wondered a little we were in our old age grown such bad reckoners but so it was, for Cassy certainly expected to have been brought to bed a month ago:  however last nightthe time came, and without a great deal of warning, everything was soon happily over.  We have now another girl, a present plaything for her sister Cassy and a future companion.  She is to be Jenny, and seems to me as if she would be as like Henry, as Cassy is to Neddy.  Your sister thank God is pure well after it, and send her love to you and my brother, not forgetting James and Philly…

[Letter from Mr. Austen to his sister Philadelphia Walter, December 17, 1775, as quoted from Deirdre Le Faye, Jane Austen, A Family Record, Cambridge, 2004, p.27.]

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pollogo

 

In celebration of Jane Austen’s birthday today, JASNA has published its annual Perusasions On-Line Vol.35, No. 1 (Winter 2014).  Click here for the Table of Contents to yet another inspiring collection of essays, some from the 2014 AGM in Montreal on Mansfield Park, and other “Miscellany” – all about Jane Austen…and perfect winter reading material…!

Here are the Contents:

The “Ordination” of Fanny Price: Female Monasticism and Vocation in Mansfield Park
Kathleen Anderson

A Distracted Seminarian: The Unsuccessful Reformation of Edmund Bertram
Br. Paul Byrd, O.P.

Why Tom Bertram Cannot Die: “The Plans and Decisions of Mortals”
Theresa M. Kenney

The Monstrous Mothers of Mansfield Park
Marilyn Francus

“Assisting the Improvement of Her Mind”: Chapone’s Letters as Guide to Mansfield Park
Susan Allen Ford

Fanny Price as Fordyce’s Ideal Woman? And Why?
A. Marie Sprayberry

“Favourable to Tenderness and Sentiment”: The Many Meanings of Mary Crawford’s Harp
Jeffrey Nigro

I Sing of the Sofa, of Cucumbers, and of Fanny Price: Mansfield Park and The Task; Or, Why Fanny Price is a Cucumber
Emma Spooner

The First Soldier [She] Ever Sighed for”: Charles Pasley’s Essay and the “Governing Winds” of Mansfield Park
Kathryn Davis

Mansfield Park vs. Sotherton Court: Social Status and the Slave Trade
Sarah Parry

Mansfield Park and the News
Robert Miles

“Delighted with the Portsmouth Scene”: Why Austen’s Intimates Admired Mansfield Park’s Gritty City
Christina Denny

“Bad Smells” and “Fragrance”: Reading Mansfield Park through the Eighteenth-Century Nose
Emily C. Friedman

Among the Proto-Janeites: Reading Mansfield Park for Consolation in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1815
Sarah Emsley and Sheila Johnson Kindred

Modernizing Mansfield Park at the Millennium: Reconsidering Patricia Rozema’s Film Adaptation
Nora Foster Stovel

MISCELLANY

A Treasured Possession: Jane Austen and the Chandos Letter
Karen Thomson

Jane Austen and the Subscription List to Camilla (1796)
Jocelyn Harris

Pride, Prejudice, and the Threat to Edward Knight’s Inheritance
Christine Grover

Spontaneous Composite Portraits of Jane Austen
Lance Bertelsen

First Impressions: The Control of Readers’ Cognitions in the First Chapter of Pride and Prejudice
Kevin Alan Wells

To Forgive is Divine—and Practical, Too
Robert Mai

The Importance of Servants in Jane Austen’s Novels
Natalie Walshe

Fanny Price and Lord Nelson: Rethinking the National Hero(ine)
Elaine Bander

Imagining Future Janeites: Young Adult Adaptations and Austen’s Legacy
Andrea Coldwell

Jane Austen Bibliography, 2013
Deborah Barnum

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c2014 Jane Austen in Vermont
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Hot off the Press! ~ JASNA Persuasions On-Line Vol. 34, No. 2 Spring 2014

A special issue of Persuasions On-Line is now available for reading, free to all!

From JASNA:

JASNA header

As we usher in spring, we are pleased to announce the release of Persuasions On-Line, Vol. 34, No. 2, a collection of essays on “Teaching Austen and Her Contemporaries.” This issue, which is freely accessible on our website, furthers JASNA’s commitment to fostering the study and appreciation of Jane Austen’s works, life, and genius. Relatively little has been published on teaching Jane Austen, and the articles in this edition expand on that important area of Austen scholarship.

Many thanks to Persuasions Editor Susan Allen Ford and Co-Editors Bridget Draxler (Monmouth College) and Misty Krueger (University of Maine) for developing this unique issue.

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persuasionsOL34-2-2014
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Table of Contents:
Editors’ Note Bridget Draxler, Misty Krueger, and Susan Allen Ford

Discovering Jane Austen in Today’s College Classroom Devoney Looser

Teaching Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey as a “Crossover” Text Misty Krueger

Teaching Two Janes: Austen and West in Dialogue Daniel Schierenbeck

Taking Emma to the Street: Toward a Civic Engagement Model of Austen Pedagogy Danielle Spratt

Teaching to the Resistance: What to Do When Students Dislike Austen Olivera Jokic

“Hastening Together to Perfect Felicity”:  Teaching the British Gothic Tradition through Parody and Role-Playing Andrea Rehn

Teaching Jane Austen in Bits and Bytes: Digitizing Undergraduate Archival Research Bridget Draxler

Jane Austen Then and Now: Teaching Georgian Jane in the Jane-Mania Media Age Jodi L. Wyett

Dancing with Jane Austen: History and Practice in the Classroom Cheryl A. Wilson

Contributors’ Syllabi

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c2014 Jane Austen in Vermont; text and images from JASNA.org
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JASNA Persuasions 33 and Persuasions 32.2 ~ It’s All About Sense & Sensibility!

News from JASNA:

The latest issue of Perusasions – volume 33 [not as the image indicates!], papers from the Fort Worth AGM on 200 Years of Sense and Sensibility has been mailed to members [and like me you hopefully already have received it!]  The journal is not online – you must be a JASNA member to receive it.  Here is the table of contents:

http://jasna.org/persuasions/printed/pers33.html

And Persuasions On-Line 32.2(Summer 2012) is now available – and this is online:

200 Years of Sense and Sensibility
Selected Essays from the Conference at the University of St. Andrews

 Here is the index page: http://jasna.org/persuasions/on-line/vol32no2/index.html

Certainly enough interesting reading for the weekend!

@2012 Jane Austen in Vermont
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The Jane Austen Birthday Soiree! ~ A Love Letter to Jane Austen ~ and Giveaway!

Please note: JASNA’s gift to us all today is the publication of volume 32 of Persuasions On-Line!

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Today I welcome JASNA-Vermont member Michelle Singer, whose love of Jane Austen has inspired her to rally several of her literary neighbors to form our new co-ed literary / quizzing book group .  Michelle originally wrote this letter for the newsletter of a Montpelier, Vermont parent group called Mama Says – in it she shares the sheer joy in her discovery of Jane Austen… and I wanted to share it with you today, in celebration of Jane Austen’s 236th birthday as part of the December 16th Soiree.  Please see below for instructions on commenting and the prize drawing. 

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Dear Miss Austen,

I am tempted to begin this letter with “My Dearest Jane” because you
are dear to me although we don’t know each other and I suspect that if
we did, I would be your social inferior by quite a bit (what I wouldn’t
give for a couple of good servants)!

Today, your 236th birthday, I’m wearing a white t-shirt with Mrs. Darcy in glitter iron-on letters that I made myself complete with rhinestone embellishments. What?! Exactly. Skipping the necessary explanations—rhinestone, iron-on, and even t-shirt—and the complete wonder of the world as it is now, is the line I’ve crossed by making (and wearing) this shirt—not just a reader who loves your novels, but a fan. Maybe even an embarrassing fan. But I’m willing to risk it because of my love.

It’s the novels, yes. It’s the mastery of the language and structure, wit,
satire, characterizations—all those words we learned to describe the joy
of reading your work. But you know what it really is? It’s the hours
spent in your “company”: The pale mornings when I held a newborn
baby in my lap and read Emma, Persuasion, and Mansfield Park while
they slept; The way entering the world of your novels has lifted me up
as a mother and a woman, fanning tiny pieces of myself and my sanity
back to life when they were burning low.

Thank you for telling a story so well that I could get lost in it. For
showing the possibilities of language, beautifully wrought. Thank you
for the laughs! For Pride & Prejudice and Mr. Darcy (oh how I wish you
could see Colin Firth)! For Emma and Mr. Knightley andMiss. Bates!

Thank you for your “own darling children” which have grown up to
make me a better mother. Two hundred years after Sense & Sensibility
was published, for all the times you sat down, pen and ink, despite everything else that might have claimed you, I am eternally grateful.

Your friend and fan,
Michelle A. L. Singer

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Thank you Michelle for that beautiful tribute to Austen! 

As part of Austen’s birthday celebration, I entreat you all to cancel all other commitments today and visit these thirty other Austen-related blogs [see below for the list and links – it will take all day!] – there are prizes awaiting at each! – all you have to do is comment on any and all to be entered into the various random drawings. 

At Jane Austen in Vermont, please comment with a few words on what you would say in a love letter to Jane Austen, thanking her for whatever her works have done to inspire you in your daily life, or what you would like to give her as a birthday gift.  All comments will be entered into the drawing for the 2012 JASNA Calendar from the JASNA-Wisconsin group [I will be giving away two calendars – and the giveaway is worldwide]. Deadline is midnight December 23rd – I will announce the winners that morning of the 23rd!

This calendar is a must have addition to your Austen collection! – there is a tidbit for almost every day of the year as to some aspect of Austen’s life and fiction. Today’s entry in my 2011 calendar says: 

December 16. 

1775 – Jane Austen is born

1810 – Charles Musgrove marries Mary Elliot

[one does wonder why she chose to have them marry on her birthday?! – any comments??]

The 2012 Jane Austen Wall Calendar is an updated edition with beautiful illustrations by C.E. and H.M. Brock, new quotations from Austen’s novels and letters, with an entry on each date.  The calendar measures 11 inches by 17 inches and is printed in color.  Each page features a Brock color tinted drawing from one of the six novels, suggested by an entry for that month.  Based upon biographies, R.W. Chapman’s chronologies of the stories, and Jane Austen’s letters, the calendar is a year-long reminder of Austen’s life and novels.

And if you don’t win, you can purchase the calendar at the JASNA website here.  

And finally – what would I give Jane Austen for her birthday? Last year I compiled a veritable treasure trove of gifts for Jane  – I send you back to that link [please note that some of the links are no longer working – a tribute to the illusive nature of the blogsphere…] – you can also comment there to be entered into this drawing!  

So for this year I would add the following: Jane Austen’s own very best love letter, that from Captain Wentworth to Anne:

 a Letterpress Broadside from the Bowler Press;  you can also order it from their Esty shop. 

[they also have on offer Mr. Darcy’s letter, all five pages of it in an envelope!

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The December 16 Birthday Soiree Participants: 

1. Sharon Lathan –  Blog: Sharon Lathan 
Giveaway : Miss Darcy Falls in Love 

2. Emily Snyder – Blog: O! Beauty Unattempted
Giveaway: Letters of Love & Deception  

3. Laurel Ann Nattress –   Blog:  Austenprose  
 Giveaway: signed copy of Jane Austen Made Me Do It 

4. C. Allyn Pierson – Blog:   SemiTrue Stories
Giveaway: Mr Darcy Little Sister (open worldwide)

5. Cindy Jones – Blog: First Draft  
Giveaway:  a signed copy of My Jane Austen Summer”and a package of Lily Berry’s Pink Rose Tea by Bingley’s, Ltd. 

6. Farida Mestek – Blog:  Regency stories set against the backdrop of Regency England
Giveaway: I was Jane Austen Best Friend by Cora Harrison 

7. Marilyn Brant – Blog:    Brant Flakes
Giveaway : A canvas ACCORDING TO JANE tote bag and a pair of A SUMMER IN EUROPE luggage tags.

8. Prue Batten – Blog: Mesmered’s Blog
Giveaway : Anna Elliot’s  Georgiana Darcy (Kindle book)

9. Erin Blakemore – Blog:   The Heroine’s Bookshelf  
Giveaway :  a set of Potter-Style Pride and Prejudice notecards  

10. Velvet – Blog: vvb32 reads
Giveaway: Jane Austen’s Little Instruction Book (Charming Petites)       

11. Karen Doornebos – Blog: The Fiction vs. Reality Smackdown
Giveaway: 2 Jane Austen Candles and 2 signed DNMD books plus drink coasters and tea!

12. ReginaJeffers –   ReginaJeffers’s Blog
Giveaway:  An autographed copy of “Christmas at Pemberley

13. Alyssa Goodnight – Blog: Alyssa Goodnight   
Giveaway: Jane Austen Action figure

14. Deb Barnum – Blog: Jane Austen in  Vermont
Giveaway [open worldwide]:  JASNA 2012 calendar from the Wisconsin JASNA Region

15. Laura Hile,  Susan Kaye, Pamela Aidan, and Barbara Cornthwaite – Blog: Jane Started It!
Giveaway: One copy of Young Master Darcy: A Lesson in Honour by Pamela Aidan;
One set of Frederick Wentworth, Captain (Books 1 and 2) by Susan Kaye;
Two copies of Mercy’s Embrace: So Rough a Course (Book 1) by Laura Hile;
George Kinghtley, Gentleman (Books 1 and 2) by Barbara Cornthwaite.

16. Juliet Archer – Blog: Choc Lit Authors’ Corner
Giveaway:  a copy of “Persuade Me”  and one of “The Importance of Being Emma”

17. Jane Greensmith – Blog: Reading, Writing, Working , Playing
Giveaway: a copy of  “Intimations of Austen”, and Sense & Sensibility (Marvel Illustrated) 

18. Jenny Allworthy – Blog : The Jane Austen Film Club 
Giveaway:  a copy of Northanger Abbey DVD starring Felicity Jones and JJ Feild (The winner will choose region 1 or 2 DVD)

19.  Sitio Jane Austen – Blog: El Salón de Té de Jane
Giveaway:  – Spanish edition of Sense and Sensibility for the 200th Anniversary + A DVD package with adaptations of Jane Austen
(It’s only zone 2, but it’s in Spanish and English ) +  blu-ray of the BBC’s Emma with Romola Garai 

 20. Kaitlin Saunders – Blog : Kaitlin Saunders  
Giveaway: “A Modern Day Persuasion”

21. Becky Rhodehouse – Blog: One Literature Nut
Giveaway: selection of Austenesque Reads

22. Patrice Sarath – Blog: Patrice Sarath
Giveaway: A copy of The Unexpected Miss Bennet

23. Adriana Zardini –  Site: Jane Austen Brasil
Giveaway: DVD – Sense and Sensibility (1995) – English / Portuguese subtitles

24.  Jane Odiwe – Blog: Jane Austen Sequels 
Giveaway:  a mug with one of  Jane Odiwe’s illustrations and a copy of her “Mr Darcy’s Secret”

25. Courtney Webb – Stiletto Storytime  
Giveaway: Noble Satyr by Lucinda Brant (Regency Romance)

26. Jennifer Becton – Blog: Jennifer W. Becton
Giveaway: An ebook of the Personages of Pride and Prejudice Collection, which contains all of my Austenesque works: Charlotte Collins, “Maria Lucas,” and Caroline Bingley. The giveaway will be open internationally.

27. Vera Nazarian – Blog: Urban Girl Takes Vermont
Giveaway: a copy of Vera Nazarian’s gift hardcover edition of her inspirational calendar and diary, The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

28. Abigail Reynolds – Blog: Pemberley Variations
Giveaway:   a signed copy of “Mr. Darcy’s Undoing”

29. Blog: AustenAuthors
Giveaway:  Georgette Heyer’s Regency World by Jennifer Kloester

30.  Katherine Cox – Blog: November’s Autumn
Giveaway :$10 B&N Gift-card (US only)

31. Maria Grazia –  Blog: My Jane Austen Book Club
Giveaway : A selection of Austenesque reads

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I welcome your comments! Please do so by midnight December 23rd. May everyone win something!

Happy Birthday Jane!

Copyright @2011, Jane Austen in Vermont  
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Happy Birthday, Jane Austen!

Breaking news!  what a birthday gift for some Austen collector out there:  the Sotheby’s auction today saw the sale of Emma: first edition, all volumes with the ownership signatures of Jane Austen’s closest female friend Martha Lloyd ( Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium:  37,250 GBP); and another Emma first edition, volumes 1 and 3 (lacking volume 2), the copy sent by Jane Austen to her fellow novelist Maria Edgeworth, with the ownership signature “Maria Edgeworth” on title page of volume 1, (Hammer price with Buyer’s Premium, 79, 250 GBP) – more on this in a full post tomorrow….
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First, the grand announcement that the latest JASNA Persuasions On-Line Vol. 31, No.1, [click here for the Table of Contents ],  published annually on Jane Austen’s birthday, December 16th, is now available for viewing.  As always, a treasure-trove of essays on all things Austen – some from the 2010 AGM on Northanger Abbey, where “mystery, mayhem and muslin” ruled, and other “Miscellany” on topics ranging from Austen films and chick-lit, gender issues, to new thoughts on Austen’s death and Juliet McMaster on “Jane Austen’s Children” [perhaps signalling a new area in Austen research – see my posted interview with David Selwyn on his new book Jane Austen and Children and my upcoming review]…

And new this year, the “Jane Austen Bibliography”  has been reinstituted.  This annual compilation has not been published since 2006, since the death of the long-term compiler Professor Barry Roth in 2008.  Yours truly has taken on the task with this 2009 bibliography – my background in librarianship and antiquarian bookselling, as well as a love of bibliography [how weird is that!], not to mention Austen knowledge, has led me to this JASNA task – I will be tackling the missing years of 2007 and 2008 and those will be published along with the 2010 biblio in the 2011 Persuasions On-Line next December.  Any additions, corrections, suggestions appreciated…

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But now on to the Birthday Celebration!  I was away and did not get to Maria Grazia at her Jane Austen Book Club blog in time to be a part of her Birthday Blog Tour – but I send you to her site and encourage you to follow the links to the other 15 Austen bloggers, all posting today on this 235th year of our “Dear Jane” – visit and comment – there are many wonderful Austen-inspired prizes!

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For this year’s Birthday post, I have decided to compile a selection of presents that I think Austen would appreciate herself – we are so taken with all the Austen-related items for sale, slipping them onto our “want lists” and discretely leaving said lists around inconspicuous places for family and friends to find, or buying for our Austen-loving friends the latest and greatest in Austen-land books and paraphernalia for their birthdays and holidays – but what about Jane?  This is after all her day – and if we read the letters and her works and the various biographies, we get a true sense of what meant the most to her.  She led a fairly penny-pinching lifestyle once her father passed away and only through the generosity of family was she able to live the life of the gentry she was born to – a widowed mother and two unmarried sisters – exactly the stuff of her novels – and without any men of “good fortune” to “rescue” them, they learned to live frugally and well, but Jane still had her passions for certain things – and so if I could, I would give her all of these [and this is just a small sampling of all the possibilities!] ~ 

Tea:  from Twinings of course – “I am sorry to hear there has been a rise in tea…I do not mean to pay Twining until later in the day.” (Ltr. 98)

and served in a Wedgwood cup and saucer; “On Monday I had the pleasure of receiving, unpacking & approving our Wedgwood ware.” (Ltr. 75)

 

Teacup:  Wedgwood Harlequin  

*Note that Edward Austen’s dinnerware is up for sale at auction today at Sotheby’s – estimate is 50,000 – 70,000 GBP – the very set that “we went to Wedgwoods where my Br & Fanny chose a Dinner Set. – I beleive the pattern is a small Lozenge in purple, between Lines of narrow Gold; – and it is to have the Crest.” (Ltr. 224)

 

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Stationary:  an unlimited supply of paper, ink and postage stamps, so she can write all that she will with no need to stop at one sheet or hope for a charitable “franking”:

Writing Paper and ink:  from Plazaverde.net

 

Postage stamps:  from Stamp Circuit

Calling cards:  From Cambria Cove, so she can visit all over Hampshire, Kent, Bath, and London to her heart’s content:

 [please substitute an “A” for the “C”…]

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Fashion needs and accessories:  never enough for Jane of any of these, but I present to her for this birthday:

1.  A New Bonnet, this one fashionably covered in fruit, from HorrorShirts.co.uk ~ “Flowers are very much worn, & Fruit is still more the thing. – Eliz: has a bunch of Strawberries, & I have seen Grapes, Cherries, Plumbs & Apricots – There are likewise Almonds & raisins, french plumbs & Tamarinds at the Grocers, but I have never seen any of them in hats…” (Ltr. 20) ~

 or maybe this one at Miss Amelia’s Miniatures:   

 

2.  A variety of Floral ribbon trimmings at HymanHendler.com ~ “Must we buy lace , or will ribbon do?” (Ltr. 47)

or this:

  

3.  Fabric: a painted cotton from India at Jessamyn’s Regency Costume Companion:  and hopefully it will be “as wide as it used to be” (Ltr. 72) – “I shall want two new coloured gowns for the summer, for my pink one will not do more than clear me from Steventon.” (Ltr. 33)

  

4.  Stockings: always in need, never enough money –  “You say nothing of the silk stockings; I flatter myself, therefore, that Charles has not purchased any, as I cannot very well afford to pay for them; all my money is spent in buying white gloves and pink persian.” (Ltr. 1) – here is a year’s supply from Liverpool Museums ~

 

5.  And “a kerseymere Spencer” which will be “quite the comfort” in this year’s snow-bound England! (Ltr. 55)

 [from Costumes.org ]

6.  and for the men in her life ~ A Pattern for a Great Coat, which she so lovingly bestows upon her Hero Henry –  “And then his hat sat so well, and the innumerable capes of his greatcoat looked so becomingly important!” (NA, v.II, ch. 5) – this is from Reconstructing History:

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Books for Jane’s Library: 

1.  A Magazine subscription to the Lady’s Monthly Museum – so she will be forever current in news, literature, and fashion:

[from Monash University Library] and Google Books for the volume from 1817.

2.  From her beloved “Dear Dr. Johnson”, a copy of  Samuel Johnson’s  Rasselas:

  

3.  Samuel Richardson, author of her favorite book, Sir Charles Grandison, and the author referenced in Austen’s only footnote (NA, v.I, ch. 3), I offer a lovely bound copy of Richardson’s  Pamela at Stikeman Bindings:

  “Samuel Richardson; “The Complete Works” in Twenty Volumes in Deluxe Bindings, Autograph Edition; From a set of Twenty Volumes, this is the Novel “Pamela” in Five Volumes, 4to, of Full Green Crushed Morroco; Boards of Wide Borders in an Art Nouveau style, four Bright Scarlet Tulipform onlays on each board, and three Red Rose Onlays in the spine compartments (55 onlays in all); Spines sunned, here digitally retouched to approximate the original green. Hinges cracked and starting © Jeff Stikeman”

Travel accommodations:  her very own Barouche so she can travel at her own whim rather her brothers’ schedules:  “I liked my solitary elegance very much, & was ready to laugh all the time, at my being where I was. I could not feel that I had naturally small right to be parading about London in a Barouche.” (Ltr. 85) – she will now have all the right possible…

 

Food:  and just because she mentions it so much, she must have some true affection for it! ~ her very own Bowl of Gruel:  from BBC News 

  

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Popular Culture:  just because I think she would get a chuckle out of all this… 

1.  Lost in Austen at Amazon or your local bookseller

 

2.  Such a lover of puzzles might like her very own:

 

3.  A Larger-than-life wall poster of the generations-obsessed-over Mr. Darcy ~ [please take your pick…]

or

 or

or

or

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7.  And lastly, her “own darling Child” (Ltr. 79) ~ Pride and Prejudice – the  1st edition:  so she would at last get a portion of the worth of her own pen!

[From Paul Fraser Collectibles.com]

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Happy Birthday Jane ~ enjoy your handsome and “noble Gifts” [though alas! no Ermine Tippet this year!] (Ltr. 98)

Readers all ~ what would you give Jane Austen for her birthday?

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All Things Austen ~ a Web Round-up!

I have been out-of-town, visiting the Big Apple and the Austen exhibit at the Morgan Library – this was fabulous! –  I will report on it in a later post, but for now, there is much to make note of in the ever-busy world of Jane Austen, so will summarize as best I can – you will see that we all have our reading cut out for us!

JASNA has published its new edition of Persuasions On-Line  [Volume 30, No. 1 Winter 2009] – and note that JASNA-Vermont’s own Kelly McDonald has a published article – see this highlighted below!

 Table of Contents: from the 2009 AGM on Jane Austen’s Brothers and Sisters 

Miscellany:

 And remember to renew your JASNA membership if you have not already done so.  JASNA is now accepting membership registrations and donations via PayPal, so this is a fine time to give a gift membership to any of your Austen-loving friends!

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News from Tim Bullamore, the editor Jane Austen’s Regency World:  the January/February 2010 (No 43) edition of is published today and features the following:

  •  Sex and the city: Dan Cruickshank explains how London was built on the wages of sin
  • Comparing Jane Austen with Iris Murdoch. Dr Gillian Dooley examines similar traits in Austen’s Mansfield Park and Murdoch’s A Fairly Honourable Defeat
  • Jane’s civil rogue. Maggie Lane, consultant editor of JARW, discusses John Murray, Jane’s publisher
  • When the bubble burst: the devastation caused by the South Sea Bubble, by Joanna Brown
  • Three Creole Ladies. Paul Bethel on Empress Josephon, Fanny Nisbet and Jane Leigh Perrot
  • Prince of Prints. Inside Ackermann’s Repository of the Arts, by Sue Wilkes
  • Queen of Science, The tale of Mary Somerville, by Nelly Morrison

NEW for this issue is our Austen Quiz: test your knowledge of Jane Austen 

Plus: book reviews, My Jane Austen (Sandy Welch, who adapted Emma for the BBC) and news from JAS and JASNA [note that Elaine Bander, President of JASNA-Canada, has written an article on the Jane Austen House Tour of 2009] 

There is also the chance to win a Jane Austen audiobook set from Naxos (worth £199) 

Coming up in March/April 2010: a music special: what was on Jane Austen’s iPod, PLUS a FREE CD with every copy, featuring music from Bath in Jane Austen’s time. 

For more information or to subscribe [which you must do!], please visit:  http://www.janeaustenmagazine.co.uk/

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The Chawton House Library‘s latest issue of The Female Spectator just showed up in my mailbox [Vol. 13, No. 4, Autumn 2009] with three fine articles:

  • “Charlotte Lennox’s ‘Spirited and Natural’ Marketing Strategy” by Susan Carlisle, about Lennox’s novel Henrietta (1758) and her adaptation of it into her play The Sister (1769)
  • “The History of the Novel as Glimpsed through Chawton’s Manuscripts,” by Emily C. Friedman
  • “Making Our Literary Mothers: The Case of Delarivier Manley,” by Victoria Joule

You too can receive this newsletter by becoming a Friend of the Library – for more information, visit the website here.

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The Jane Austen Centre in Bath has just published its December newsletter, and it too is filled with Austen and holiday goodies:  go to this link to sign up for this free monthly e-newsletter; appended below are links to some of the December issue contents:

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In celebration of Jane Austen’s 234th birthday, Cambridge University Press is pleased to offer a 20% discount* on their most recent Austen scholarship.  Search the site for the following titles:

1. Letters of Jane Austen 2 Volume Set from the Cambridge Library Collection – Literary Studies
2. Jane Austen and the Enlightenment, by Peter Knox-Shaw
3. The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Jane Austen 9 volume HB set [just in case you have an extra $900. lying around…]

Enter Discount Code MW09AUSTEN to receive your discount!
*Offer expires January 1st 2010

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Masterpiece Theater: the new three-part Emma will be broadcast FINALLY in the US on January 24 – February 7.  Click here for the latest information and to view the trailer.  Masterpiece also offers the Austen addict a fun piece of selecting which of the PBS “Men of Austen” you would select for a mate – each has a full description of their best qualities and their “turnoffs” – take a look and choose – I will not tell the results, but you can rest assured that John Thorpe has come in last in this selection process! 

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/austen/menofausten.html

[oh goodness! – who to choose, who to choose…]

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I’ll have more on the Morgan exhibit, but here is a short video of “Fran Lebowitz: Reflections on Austen,” part of the 16 minute “Divine Jane” video presentation that accompanies the exhibit.  The Harriet Walter [a.k.a. Fanny Dashwood] piece is also now available online.

 Stay tuned ~ more to come on the Morgan exhibit…

[Posted by Deb]