Jane Austen’s “Imaginary” Portrait ~ Coming to BBC Two

UPDATE!: you can follow the latest developments on this Austen Portrait at Paula Byrne’s twitter account: https://twitter.com/#!/austenportrait *************************************** News Alert! In March of this year, I wrote a post on the auction of an “imaginary” portrait of Jane Austen, one of the portraits that Deirdre Le Faye wrote about in her article for the Jane Austen Society Report 2007, [...]

Read Full Post »

On the Block! ~ An Imaginary Jane Austen

Up for auction on March 29, 2011 – Papers and Portraits, Bonham’s London, an imaginary portrait of Jane Austen.   From the catalogue: Lot No: 6 - A Portrait of Jane Austen BY AN UNKNOWN ARTIST, half-length, wash and pencil, highlighted with chalk, on vellum, inscribed on the verso in a small contemporary hand ‘Miss Jane Austin’ [...]

Read Full Post »

Jane Austen on her ‘Sense & Sensibility’

Sense and Sensibility was first published in October 1811, hence all manner of this 200 year anniversary celebration will be literally taking over the world, or at least the blog-sphere world, for this entire year! [See the JASNA site  for information on the next AGM in October in Fort Worth] There are already a number of blog [...]

Read Full Post »

Jane Austen’s ‘Own Darling Child’

Laurel Ann at her Austenprose blog is currently posting a month-long group read through Pride & Prejudice – do visit and join in the discussion! – she is as always an insightful reader and discussion leader, and what better way to spend the first month of summer musing on P&P and the finer points of [...]

Read Full Post »

A Trifle for your Holiday Table

One of my favorite recipes for the holidays is a trifle, that mix of biscuits, cream, and fruit, that makes as much a table decoration as a delicious dessert.  Here is the recipe from The Jane Austen Cookbook by Maggie Black and Deirdre Le Faye [British Museum Press, 1995]  The first part of the recipe [...]

Read Full Post »

Austen Letter No. 2 ~ “My Tears Flow…”

The Times Online in this Then and Now article re-publishes the Times Literary Supplement review of November 10, 1932,  E.M. Forster on Chapman’s edition of Austen’s letters.  It is a fascinating read. *********************************************** And on that note, I continue my Austen Letters journey, here with Letter No. 2: January 14-15, 1796 (Thursday, Friday) Jane Austen (Steventon) [...]

Read Full Post »

A Journey through Jane Austen’s Letters

I have read many of Austen’s letters through the years, and certainly know the majority of quotes that are repeated over and over…but I am finally committing myself to going through each letter in chronological order and reading through all the accompanying notes and references ( my source and Essential Austen title: Jane Austen’s Letters, collected and edited [...]

Read Full Post »

ESSENTIAL AUSTEN: A Chronology of Jane Austen and Her Family (a review)

Writers necessarily edit as they write; to make paragraphs and resultant chapters coherent, some information has to be gone into in depth, while other information reluctantly or automatically must be jettisoned. Too much information, unskillfully crafted, will leave readers in the dust. A skillful author, however, molds the story with the facts at hand, picking [...]

Read Full Post »