Thomas Hardy

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Jane Austen Cards for Every Occasion!

Jane Austen at home in Bath

I received the information on these cards just before I was off on a holiday, so just now getting to post about them…. 

Tony Heaton’s “Greetings from England” line of cards and limited edition prints are quite lovely, our interest being of course those connected to Jane Austen [though certainly not limited to Austen only [isn’t that a name of a blog out there somewhere?] as I for one cannot resist the Shakespeare, the Hardy,  or a number of the grand stately houses he depicts.   Mr. Heaton, MDesRCA, kindly sent me several samples of the Jane Austen set – I will be ordering a number of each to sell at our meetings to benefit our JASNA-Vermont group.

Here is a sampling of what you will find when you visit the Greetings from England website:  

[the images below are very small – go to the website to see a full-size image – the cards are quite large (8×6) and suitable for framing if you did not want the expense of a limited print (which are 12×18)]

Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre:

 

Thomas Hardy’s cottage:

 

Wordsworth’s cottage:

The Cerne Abbas Giant:

There are many Heritage sites in the UK – from Westminster Abbey, The Tower of London, Greenwich’s Royal Naval College, to the coastline of West Dorset and East Devon…

Tower of London

And for Jane Austen? – for that is why we are here after all…

Chawton Cottage

Royal Crescent, Bath

and Jane Austen’s Bath:

There are a number more, so please visit the site to see these and more full-sized images at:  http://www.greetingsfromengland.co.uk/

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And this lovely little surprise, as I find if all does not come back to Jane Austen, it is sure to come full circle to Vermont:

The American Museum in Britain – Vermont Quilt

Detail of one side of a Log Cabin-Barn Raising quilt made by
Sarah Bryant of Mount Holly, Vermont, New England USA – 1886

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*All images from the Greetings from England website, copyright Tony Heaton, and used with permission.  Please request permission directly from Mr. Heaton for re-use of any kind.  Mr. Heaton also creates home portraits – contact him at his website for further information.

Copyright @2011 by Deb Barnum, of Jane Austen in Vermont.
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Auction Results ~ Austen on the Block

The Jane Austen Pride & Prejudice  for sale at the New York Bloomsbury Auction of June 23, 2009 with an estimate of $50,000. – $70, 000.  remains unsold [for more details on this see my original post here]

A quick summary of a few other items of interest:

Bronte [Acton, Currer and Ellis Bell] : . Poems. Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard, 1848. first american edition. est. $800 – $1000. Sold for $700

Samuel Taylor Coleridge.  Poems on Various Subjects.London: for G.G. and J. Robinsons, and J. Cottle, Bristol, 1796. first edition of Coleridge’s first book of poems, issued together with the first published verses of Charles Lamb, signed C.L. Hayward est. $1000 – $1500.  Sold for $2600 [a few other Coleridge items either did not sell or sold for less than the estimate]

John Keats – a first edition of his last collection of poems estimated at $12,000 – 15,000 was unsold

Percy Bysshe Shelley. Queen Mab; A Philosophical Poem: With Notes. London: privately printed by P.B. Shelley, 1813. very rare. est. $12000 – $18000; Sold for $11000 [ most other Shelley items did not sell]

William Wordsworth. Lyrical Ballads, with Pastoral and Other Poems, in Two Volumes. London: R. Taylor and Co., 1805. 2 volumes [the last edition in which Coleridge’s poems appear]. est. $1500 – $2000; Sold for $1700 [other Wordsworth items sold for lower than estimates or not at all]

Thomas Hardy. There were 22 Hardy items for sale, many of the books remain unsold, but most of the autograph letters sold mid-range or less than the estimates- here is one example:   Three autograph letters signed to Florence Yolland on the Death of Emma, Hardy’s first wife.Max Gate, Dorchester: 24 December 1912 to 22 October 1913. 6 manuscript pages, 8vo (varying sizes). Mourning stationery, three autograph envelopes (all labeled “opened by censor” when sent to F. Adams in 1939) est. $2000 – $3000; Sold for $1000.

Full auction results can be found at the Bloomsbury Auction website.

Christies auction room image

[image from the NYPL.org]

Posted by Deb

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Weekly Geeks # 6 – What’s in a Name?

Here is a new, thoughtful book-related game to play.  Weekly Geeks offers up each week a theme to muse on and share with other “geeks” – “One week might be ‘catch up on your library books week’  and the next might be ‘redecorate your blog week’ or ‘organize your challenges’ week or ‘catch up on your reviews week’ –  It’ll be fairly bookblogocentric, but not exclusively.” 

Some past “weekly geeks” have been what are your passions other that books, how do you feel about “classic” literature?,  and judging a book by its cover – go to the Weekly Geek website to learn about participating.  This week’s theme is about characters:

For this week’s edition of Weekly Geeks, we’re going to take a closer look at character names. What are some of your favorite character names?

Go to Google or a baby name site like this one or this one, and look up a favorite character’s name. What does their name mean? Do you think the meaning fits the character? Why or why not?

If you’d like, look up your own name as well and share the meaning.

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 One of my favorite names from a novel was Eustacia from Hardy’s Return of the Native ~ such a sad, forlorn figure, her name conveying such an ethereal nature, always out of ones reach, aloof, never at rest, haunting. 

I thought as a teenager that I would name my daughter Eustacia, but ended up dating a guy in college who had a sister with this name, so it never felt right after that ~ I do have a daughter, named her Jessica [after my grandmother and my middle name], but she also so loved the book and name she called her pet rabbit Eustacia!…so life comes full circle!

The “Tuttle Dictionary of First Names” [Tuttle 1992] says this:

[Eustace: Eustacia, feminine form; uncommon except for the derivative “Stacy”]  This comes from the Greek meaning “good harvest” and was the name of a saint who was popular in the Middle Ages but who was probably fictional.  His legend had many connections with that of St. Hubert; it involves the loss of possessions, wife and children and their miraculous recovery, in a form found elsewhere in medieval romance.

Other baby name sites refer to its Greek meaning as “bountiful grapes,” “fruitful,” yet another site says it is from the Latin and means “tranquil” [Eustacia Vye is not tranquil!]

Hardy obviously chose this name for its classical and tragic allusions – and how you interpret his meaning depends upon whether you sympathize with Clym or Eustacia in the novel (and that’s a whole other post, maybe a whole other BLOG!]

returnofthenative-cover

 

As for my name, Deborah:

a Hebrew name meaning “bee”.  From the account of the original Deborah in the Old Testament book of Judges, she must have been a formidable woman, for at a time when the role of women was very much that of a subordinate, she was a prophetess, a judge of the people, and even a leader of the army.

[and so alas! that is a hard act to follow…]

I welcome your comments – what is your favorite character name?  and if you have your own blog, check out Weekly Geeks and participate with other online book-lovers…

[for instance, why does Austen name Knightley “George”?  did you know that “George” is derived from the Greek word for “farmer” ~ literally “earth-worker” and is also the name of the patron saint of England?]

Have fun with this…

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Masterpiece Theatre ~ Tess

tess-gemma-a

Thomas Hardy’s “Tess of the d’Urbervilles premieres January 4th, 2009, launching a new season of MASTERPIECE CLASSIC, hosted by Laura Linney. Violated by one man, forsaken by another, Tess Durbeyfield (Gemma Arterton, Quantum of Solace; and as Elizabeth Bennet in Lost in Austen) is the spirited heroine, proving that love hurts but also survives. Hans Matheson (Dr. Zhivago) portrays her seducer, Alec, and Eddie Redmayne (Elizabeth: The Golden Age) stars as Angel, the idealistic man she loves.”  [see Masterpiece.org for complete information and online viewing; check your local PBS stations for times]

[Thomas Hardy is my SECOND favorite writer (Austen of course taking the first place honors!), so very much looking forward to this adaptation.  Will post a few thoughts on Hardy shortly….]

[and click here for the New York Times review of the film]

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Web Round-Up…week of Sept 1

A few more links of Austen interest:

  • Kate Greenaway, children’s illustrator, and her designs on glass in this article from a Masssachusetts online paper…
  • An article by the author  Clive Aslet on his new book titled The English House: the story of a nation at home.
  • Laurel Ann at Austenprose, lately finished her wonderful “Mansfield Park Madness” journey through MP, has switched gears and pens a post on Georgiana Darcy.
  • JASNA announces that Jane Austen’s Regency World Magazine is offering a 20% discount to JASNA members.  Click here for information.
  • The Alabama JASNA Chapter offers Austen Music Online (though not updated since 2006) 
  • The BBC Today has posted a quiz titled “Meet Your Match”: (note that you need to be up on British politics, but it was nice to see Austen mentioned….)
    • Are you a quiet, bookish type looking for romance? Ever wondered who your famous perfect partner could be? Look no further – publisher Penguin is launching a dating website for literary types to find fellow bookworms. Take the quiz to find your own famous match.
  • The Significant Pursuit of Renaissance Guy Blog has posted a query to Austen fans:  Who are Jane Austen’s Best Characters?…so head over there and give him an answer…it is a great list…!

And here is an off-topic note, but I cannot resist a mention of my other best favorite author Thomas Hardy (can you have TWO bests??).  The BBC has a new documentary on his life, The Heart of Thomas Hardy, (link to article in the Telegraph), this to coincide with the new production of “Tess”.  And here is a link to his gravesite at the Poets Graves Website.