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ja silhouetteYou are Cordially Invited to JASNA-Vermont’s June Meeting 

 “Trickle-Down Economics in Pride and Prejudice;
Or, Why ‘Mr. Darcy Improves upon Acquaintance’!”

 with Sheryl Craig* 

Sheryl Craig

Sheryl Craig

What Jane Austen’s first readers did not need to be told was that a man named Fitzwilliam Darcy had to be a moderate Whig, one who supported Tory Prime Minister William Pitt’s tax and Poor Law reform proposals, and that Darcy’s home county, Derbyshire, paid high wages, provided generous welfare benefits, and funded the best system of poor houses in England.  Thus, Darcy, and moderate Whigs like him, were worthy of both Elizabeth Bennet’s and the reader’s esteem and served as role models to be emulated throughout Georgian Britain and, as it turns out, throughout time.   

*****

Sunday, 2 June 2013, 2 – 4 p.m. 

 Champlain College, Hauke Conference Center,
375 Maple St Burlington VT 
 

~Free & open to the Public~
~Light refreshments served~ 

For more information:   JASNAVermont [at] gmail [dot] com
Please visit our blog at: http://JaneAustenInVermont.wordpress.com


************************************ 

* Sheryl Craig has published articles in Jane Austen’s Regency World, Persuasions, Persuasions On-Line, and The Explicator.  She has also written film reviews for the Jane Austen Centre in Bath.  Sheryl was JASNA’s International Visitor in 2008, is the editor of JASNA News, and was JASNA’s Traveling Lecturer for the Central region in 2012.   She has a Ph.D. in Nineteenth-century British literature from the University of Kansas, has taught at the University of Central Missouri for over twenty years, and is a life member of JASNA.

 800px-Microcosm_of_London_Plate_096_-_Workhouse,_St_James's_Parish

Workhouse at St. James’s Parish – from The Microcosm of London, 1810, [wikipedia commons]

c2013, Jane Austen in Vermont

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  Please Join us if you can!    

You are Cordially Invited to JASNA-Vermont’s December Meeting 

~ The Annual Jane Austen Birthday Tea! ~

  Sandy Lerner* 

“Writing Second Impressions 

*****

~ Traditional English Afternoon Tea ~
~
and Playing Word Games with Jane Austen! ~ 

Sunday, 2 December 2012, 2 – 5 p.m. Champlain College, Hauke Conference Center,
375 Maple St Burlington VT 
 

$25. / JASNA members and pre-registrants;
$30. at the door; $5. / student

Pre-registration is required!  ~ Please do so by 23 Nov 2012!

~ the form: Dec Tea 2012 Reservation form
~ Regency Period or Afternoon Tea finery (hats!) encouraged! ~ 

For more information:   JASNAVermont [at] gmail [dot] .com
Please visit our blog at: http://JaneAustenInVermont.wordpress.com

************************************ 

*Sandy Lerner, co-founder of Cisco Systems, founder of Urban Decay Cosmetics,  founder of the Ayrshire Farm in Virginia, and, most dear to us, is also the founder and moving force behind the Chawton House Library. She is now Chairman of Trustees, Chawton House Library and the Centre for the Study of Early English Women’s Writing, a place for research and camaraderie for scholars from all over the world. What better place than the former home of Jane Austen’s brother Edward Austen-Knight to study Austen and her literary antecedents and contemporaries!

Lerner’s book Second Impressions, written under the nom de plume of Ava Farmer, is set 10 years after the action in Pride and Prejudice, and explores the changes to the Darcy family’s lives, to Europe post-Napoleon, and to life in late Regency England, all as homage to Jane Austen, written in her “stile”, and with a fascinating yet credible plot. So let’s step into Lerner’s world to discover such things as: What do Darcy and Elizabeth do all day at Pemberley? Is Lady Catherine a welcome and constant visitor? Are the Wickhams reformed?  And what becomes of England’s most eligible female Georgiana Darcy? And Anne de Bourgh? And dare we ask about Mr. and Mrs. Collins?!

Second Impressions will be available for purchase and signing, all proceeds to benefit Chawton House Library.

During the Tea we shall engage in Playing Word Games with Jane Austen, a most suitable and refined entertainment for a wintry afternoon!

*****

Sandy Lerner, c2012 Pal Hansen

Links for further reading:

c2012, Jane Austen in Vermont

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You are Cordially Invited to JASNA-Vermont’s September Meeting 

~ An Afternoon with Jane Austen! ~ 

~ Former JASNA President Elsa Solender ~
“Channeling Jane Austen”
in Jane Austen in Love: An Entertainment
 

~ Rare bookseller Stuart Bennett ~
“Imagining Jane Austen”
in The Perfect Visit 
 

~ JASNA-VT’s Hope Greenberg ~
 “Dressing Jane Austen”
i
n the proper Regency fashion of her day 

*****

Sunday, 23 September 2012, 1 – 5 p.m. 

 Champlain College, Hauke Conference Center, 375 Maple St Burlington VT  

~Free & Open to the Public~  

Details? Visit our blog at: http://JaneAustenInVermont.wordpress.com
Email:  JASNAVermont [at] gmail ]dot] com

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

We are pleased to welcome our two Distinguished Authors and one Regency Fashionista for a
full Afternoon with Jane Austen!
The event is co-sponsored by JASNA-Vermont and Bygone Books as part of the Burlington Book Festival.

There will be Door Prizes!
Books will be available for purchase and signing!
Light Refreshments will be served!
Regency dress encouraged!

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

Join us for an afternoon of ‘Channeling’, ‘Imagining’, and ‘Dressing Jane Austen’. Presentations by authors Elsa Solender (Jane Austen in Love: An Entertainment) and Stuart Bennett* (The Perfect Visit) will take us back in time to meet our favorite author! These two sessions will be linked with a talk by our very own Hope Greenberg as she takes us through the stages of “Dressing Jane” in the proper Regency clothing of her day.

[*no relation to the esteemed Mr. Bennet...]

We will meet at the Hauke Conference Center of Champlain College on Sunday 23 September, 2012, from 1-5 pm; the visiting authors’ books will be available for purchase and signing; other books relating to Jane Austen and her times will also be offered for sale; and light refreshments will be served. Regency dress is encouraged!                    

1-2 pm:  Elsa Solender:  “Channeling Jane Austen”

Who was Jane Austen – really? Was she the chaste, unworldly spinster, mild and religious, who miraculously created six of the world’s most beloved love stories? Or a sharp-eyed ironist whose engaging plot and characters disguise the splinter of ice in her heart that transformed what she saw and heard into subversive criticism of her world that resonates to this day? In her novel, Jane Austen in Love: An Entertainment, Elsa Solender retells the novelist’s own life story, blending missing aspects of her “romantic career” with the sparse known facts. She will describe her search for a voice and style not unlike Austen’s to explore Jane’s inner life as the heroine of her own bright tale.

About the author:

Elsa A. Solender, a New Yorker, was president of the Jane Austen Society of North America from 1996-2000.  Educated at Barnard College and the University of Chicago, she has worked as a journalist, editor, and college teacher in Chicago, Baltimore and New York. She represented an international non-governmental women’s organization at the United Nations during a six-year residency in Geneva. She wrote and delivered to the United Nations Social Council the first-ever joint statement by the Women’s International Non-Governmental Organizations (WINGO) on the right of women and girls to participate in the development of their country. She has published articles and reviews in a variety of American magazines and newspapers and has won three awards for journalism. Her short story, “Second Thoughts,” was named one of three prizewinners in the 2009 Chawton House Library Short Story Competition, chosen from over 300 writers who submitted stories inspired by Jane Austen or the village of Chawton. The story was published in Dancing with Mr. Darcy, an anthology of the twenty top-rated stories of the contest, and is part of her new work Jane Austen in Love.

Ms. Solender’s story “A Special Calling” was a finalist in the Glimmer Train Short Short Story Competition, and of more than 1,000 stories submitted, was ranked among the top fifty and was granted Honorable Mention. She has served on the boards of a non-profit theater, a private library and various literary and alumnae associations.  Ms. Solender is married, has two married sons and seven grandchildren, and lives in Manhattan. 

More information:

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

 2:30 – 3:30 pm: Stuart Bennett: “Imagining Jane Austen”

Stuart Bennett’s foray into historical fantasy/fiction, The Perfect Visit, follows his long career in the world of antiquarian bookselling and scholarly publications on bookbinders and publishers in Jacobean, Augustan, and Regency England.  He will ask the audience to consider how much scholarship properly belongs in an historical novel, and what is the right balance between fact and fiction?  “Imagining Jane Austen” will focus on these topics, illustrated by short passages from The Perfect Visit.  Audience participation is invited.

About the Author:

Stuart Bennett was an auctioneer at Christie’s in London before starting his own rare book business. He is the author of the Christie’s Collectors Guide How to Buy Photographs (1987), Trade Binding in the British Isles (2004) which the London Times Literary Supplement called “a bold and welcome step forward” in the history of bookbinding, and many publications on early photography, auctions and auctioneers, and rare books. He currently lives and works near Boston, Massachusetts.

The Perfect Visit, Longbourn Press, 2011 

For more information:

***************** 

4:00- 5:00: Hope Greenberg: “Dressing Jane Austen”

Can one dance comfortably in a corset? Is it true that some ladies dampen their gowns to make them cling revealingly? Must one wear white all the time? Jane Austen’s novels and letters contain many fashion tidbits. Modern films offer their own take on the fashions of the period, but do they get it right? Through a collection of over 400 fashion images we will explore the revolutionary changes in fashion during Austen’s lifetime. Shifts, trains, petticoats, apron gowns, pelisses, spencers, narrow backs, high waists–we’ll see them all. Then together, we will try to solve a fashion mystery.

About the Speaker:

Hope Greenberg holds an MA in History from the University of Vermont where she is currently an Information Technology Specialist in the Center for Teaching and Learning, promoting and supporting the use of technology to further research and education. She is also an avid English Country Dancer. Her fascination with the creation and wearing of historic clothing as a way of gaining insight into the past predates all of these. Her absolute joy at the willingness of historic clothiers to share their insights is matched only by her gratitude to the museums and collectors that increasingly publish examples of extant clothing and fashion plates online so that we may continue to develop our understanding of clothing of all periods.

Hope you can join us for this Afternoon of All Things Austen!

c2012 Jane Austen in Vermont

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Read my interview with Professor Brownstein here:
Part I and Part II

You are Cordially Invited to JASNA-Vermont’s June Meeting 

~ ‘Why Jane Austen?’ ~

with 

Rachel Brownstein* 

What do we want from Jane Austen? ~
Why do we want it? ~
and What do we get from the movies, the fan fiction,
and the Novels? 
 

*****
Sunday, 3 June 2012, 2 – 4 p.m. 

 Champlain College, Hauke Conference Center
375 Maple St Burlington VT 
 

~Free & Open to the Public~
 ~Light refreshments served~ 

For more information:   JASNAVermont@gmail.com  
Please visit our blog at: http://JaneAustenInVermont.wordpress.com

the June 3 2012 flyer: share with your friends!

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

*We are honored to welcome Professor Rachel Brownstein, author of Becoming a Heroine (1982), Tragic Muse: Rachel of the Comedie-Francaise (1993), and Why Jane Austen? (2011). Films, feminism, and popular fetishes are among the subjects of her new work,  an engaging treasure-filled meditation on Jane Austen as writer, woman, social commentator, and 21st-century icon. But most of all it is about reading, which Brownstein has been encouraging people to do, at Brooklyn College and the Graduate School of CUNY, for several decades. 

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

Please Join Us!

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

~ Upcoming in 2012 and beyond ~

Sept. 23: Burlington Book Festival: ‘An Afternoon with Jane Austen’: authors Elsa Solender on Jane Austen in Love: An Entertainment,
 Stuart Bennett on The Perfect Visit; and
Hope Greenberg on “Dressing Jane”!

Dec. 2: Annual Birthday Tea with Paul Monod of Middlebury College on
                “The Royal Navy in the Age of Nelson, 1775-1815”

Mar. 2013 [TBA]: “’Fifty Miles of Good Road’: Travelling in Jane Austen” with Deb Barnum

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You are Cordially Invited to JASNA-Vermont’s June Meeting 

~ ‘Why Jane Austen?’ ~

with 

Rachel Brownstein* 

What do we want from Jane Austen? ~
Why do we want it? ~
and What do we get from the movies, the fan fiction,
and the Novels? 
 

*****
Sunday, 3 June 2012, 2 – 4 p.m. 

 Champlain College, Hauke Conference Center
375 Maple St Burlington VT 
 

~Free & Open to the Public~
 ~Light refreshments served~ 

For more information:   JASNAVermont@gmail.com  
Please visit our blog at: http://JaneAustenInVermont.wordpress.com

the June 3 2012 flyer: share with your friends!

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

*We are honored to welcome Professor Rachel Brownstein, author of Becoming a Heroine (1982), Tragic Muse: Rachel of the Comedie-Francaise (1993), and Why Jane Austen? (2011). Films, feminism, and popular fetishes are among the subjects of her new work,  an engaging treasure-filled meditation on Jane Austen as writer, woman, social commentator, and 21st-century icon. But most of all it is about reading, which Brownstein has been encouraging people to do, at Brooklyn College and the Graduate School of CUNY, for several decades. 

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

Please Join Us!

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

~ Upcoming in 2012 and beyond ~

Sept. 23: Burlington Book Festival: ‘An Afternoon with Jane Austen’: authors Elsa Solender on Jane Austen in Love: An Entertainment,
 Stuart Bennett on The Perfect Visit, and more!

Dec. 2: Annual Birthday Tea with Paul Monod of Middlebury College on
                “The Royal Navy in the Age of Nelson, 1775-1815”

Mar. 2013 [TBA]: “’Fifty Miles of Good Road’: Travelling in Jane Austen” with Deb Barnum

Read Full Post »

   

You are Cordially Invited to JASNA-Vermont’s April Meeting

 ~ How to Love ‘Sanditon’ ~

with

 

  Eric Lindstrom* 

A celebration of Jane Austen’s last unfinished work: Many readers find it difficult to “love” Sanditon. Critics and readers alike can find it alternately boring, bitter and uproariously wild, either likening it to her juvenilia or seeing only the morose shadow of her impending death. Join us as UVM Professor Eric Lindstrom helps us relate to and learn to love this text, even though it does not offer the typical Austen marriage plot. 

*****

Sunday, 15 April 2012, 2 – 4 p.m. 

 Champlain College, Hauke Conference Center, 375  Maple St Burlington VT  

Free & Open to the Public
Light refreshments served 

For more information:   JASNAVermont@gmail.com 
Please visit our blog at: http://JaneAustenInVermont.wordpress.com

************************************ 

*We are honored to welcome Eric Lindstrom, an Assistant Professor at the University of Vermont where he teaches courses primarily on Romantic Literature and Critical Theory.  He is the author of Romantic Fiat (2011), and is currently working on a study of Austen’s canny relation to philosophical developments since her time, tentatively titled “Jane Austen and  Other Minds.”

Eric Lindstrom

Please Join Us!

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

**Upcoming in 2012 ~ see blog for details and mark your calendars!**

Ju
ne 3: Brooklyn College Professor Rachel Brownstein on her book Why Jane Austen?
Sept. 23: Author Elsa Solender on her book Jane Austen in Love: An Entertainment
Dec. 2: Annual Birthday Tea with Paul Monod of Middlebury College on
                “The Royal Navy in the Age of Nelson, 1775-1815”

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

I will be shortly posting more information on Sanditon – its publishing history and criticism, and the continuations, and various links.  But please try to read this short fragment for the meeting – we promise lively discussion, but thankfully no quizzes! – think about how Austen might have completed this last work – who is the heroine, the hero? what was she trying to convey about the seaside? – many thoughts to consider, so bring your questions and ideas!

Copyright @2012 Jane Austen in Vermont

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JASNA-Vermont celebrated in style this past Sunday at our annual Jane Austen Birthday Tea.  As always, a delicious repast of afternoon tea goodies catered by Champlain College with additional tasty holiday cookies by various JASNA members, made for a lovely afternoon of food and Austen conversation.

This year in celebration of the Bicentenary of Sense & Sensibility,  we welcomed Rebecca McLaughlin, lecturer at the University of Vermont, as she shared her insights on “A Second Chance for Sense and Sensibility ~ Marianne as Heroine.”

Marianne Dashwood 1995 - Kate Winslet

As part of the course offered at UVM Austen: Page and Film**, McLaughlin presented an interesting and insightful look at Sense and Sensibility from the standpoint of Marianne as the Heroine [which then of course makes Colonel Brandon the true Romantic Hero!, with which I heartily concur!], backing up all her views with text examples, scholarly interpretation, and film clips from the various adaptations.  This year we had the advantage of sitting at eight tables of eight with all engaged in lively discussion and much laughter as McLaughlin, in true college style, prompted us with questions and a quiz! *

those who dressed for the occasion!

I think all there would agree that it was one of our best teas to date, the table arrangement being a great hit and Rebecca’s presentation one to remember – I do know that she has certainly prompted many to re-read their S&S with renewed vigor and plan into the night movie marathons of all six film adaptations! *** and perhaps even sign up for her next class,  sure proof that Jane Austen is alive and well in Vermont!

The CAKE!

A thank you to all who so generously helped with baking and at the event – I could not do it without you, and mostly to Janeite Marcia for her work as Hospitality Maven, Treasurer and Keeper of the Mailing List! – and a hearty THANK YOU to Champlain College for their generosity in providing the room for us, and their superb catering team.  And finally, many thanks to Rebecca McLaughlin for sharing her love of Austen with us and making all feel like we were back in that ole’ college classroom, wondering whether to become English majors or not!

Alas! only a few pictures – with thanks to Janeite Margaret for adding to my very few taken – I need to remember to TAKE PICTURES at these things, especially of the Tea Table….

JASNA Members Hope and Marcia

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

* Sense and Sensibility Quiz:
        [scroll to the end for answers, but no cheating!]

1.   What was the original title of the story that would become Sense and Sensibility?

a.       Reason and Emotion
b.       First Impressions
c.       Second Attachments
d.       Elinor and Marianne

2.    How old is the story that we now know of as Sense and Sensibility?

a.      200 years
b.      195 years
c.      216 years
d.      225 years

3.    Originally, the story was written in letters; this style of novel is known as which of the following?

a.            realist novel
b.            epistolary novel
c.            sensation novel
d.            epic novel

4.   Although revised from its original form, how many complete letters may be found within Sense and Sensibility?

a.            none
b.            three
c.            six
d.            ten

 5.   Which of the following is the narration style Austen uses in Sense and Sensibility?

a.            first-person narration
b.            third-person omniscient narration
c.            stream-of-consciousness narration
d.            all of the above 

6.   Which of the following characters notices that Edward is wearing a ring with a lock of hair in it when he visits Barton?

a.            Mrs. Dashwood
b.            Mrs. Jennings
c.            Marianne
d.            Elinor

 7.   How much is Colonel Brandon’s estate, Delaford, worth (in pounds)?

a.            2000
b.            1000
c.            600
d.            5000

8.   Which of the following represents Marianne’s favorite maxim, or saying, within Sense and Sensibility?

a.            always think of oneself first
b.            you can only love once
c.            money is everything
d.            nature is man’s place of worship

[S&S Quiz, @2011 Rebecca McLaughlin and printed with permission]

************************ 

**The course at UVM:  Austen: Page and Film will be offered online in the Summer 2012 semester.  Course description:

Women’s & Gender Studies: Austen: Page and Film [WGST 095 OL1 : 3 Credit Hours  ]

After nearly two centuries in print, Jane Austen’s works continue to enthrall us, whether in their original form or in the numerous television and film adaptations created since 1938. This course examines the role Austen played during her own time as well as the role she continues to play within our contemporary cultural imagination by analyzing four of Austen’s novels (Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, MansfieldPark, and Emma) and by viewing faithful adaptations, reinterpretations and modernizations of each novel. We begin by placing each novel within its social and historical context, by defining themes that may help explain Austen’s modern appeal, and by creating our own vision of the action and characters. We then turn to the adaptations and investigate the historical moment of production, analyze changes to script and character, and think about how prose fiction differs from film in an attempt to understand the screenwriter’s choices and our current love of anything Austen. Course requirements include lively participation via blogs, reading quizzes, and a final written assignment. 

Instructor:  Rebecca McLaughlin, Lecturer, UVM Dept of English.
May 21, 2012 to June 29, 2012.  Location: Online Course

More information available at the UVM website.

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

*** The Six film adaptations of Sense and Sensbibility:
                              [ visit the JASNA site for details ]

  • From Prada to Nada (2011)
  • Sense and Sensibility (2008):  Screenplay by Andrew Davies
  • Kandukondain Kandukondain (I Have Found It) (2000) – with English subtitles
  • Sense and Sensibility (1995): Screenplay by Emma Thompson
  • Sense and Sensibility (1980): BBC – Screenplay by Alexander Baron
  • Sense and Sensibility (1971): BBC – Screenplay by Denis Constanduros

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

Who is your favorite Colonel Brandon?

Colonel Brandon 1995 - Alan Rickman

Colonel Brandon 2008 - David Morrissey

Quiz answers:

  1. D
  2. C
  3. B
  4. C
  5. B
  6. C
  7. A
  8. B

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

Upcoming post: Publishing Sense and Sensibility

Copyright @2011 Deb Barnum, Jane Austen in Vermont

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You are Cordially Invited to JASNA-Vermont’s December Meeting 

~ The Annual Jane Austen Birthday Tea! ~
In celebration of the Bicentenary of Sense & Sensibility (1811) 

  Rebecca McLaughlin* 

A Second Chance for ‘Sense & Sensibility’: Marianne as Heroine 

Is S & S not your favorite Austen novel? ~
 Using the composition history of Sense & Sensibility, Austen’s biography, S&S film adaptations, and the novel text, McLaughlin argues that Marianne is the true Heroine of Austen’s first novel!

*****

~ Traditional English Afternoon Tea ~ 

Sunday, 4 December 2011, 2 – 5 p.m. 

 Champlain College, Hauke Conference Center,
375 Maple St Burlington VT
 

$20. / person ~ $5. / student
RSVPs required!  ~ Register by 25 Nov 2011

* the December event flyer: Dec 2011 flyer
* the reservation form: Dec Tea Reservation form 2011

or email: jasnavermont [at] gmail [dot] com

~ Regency Period or Afternoon Tea finery encouraged! ~ 

************************************ 

*We are honored to welcome Rebecca McLaughlin, a life member of JASNA [she wrote her MA thesis on Jane Austen in 2000], and now a Lecturer in the Department of English at UVM, where she frequently teaches an online ‘Austen: Page & Film’ course. 

~ Upcoming in 2012 ~
March 25:
UVM Professor Eric Lindstrom on “How to Love Sanditon
June 3: Brooklyn College Professor Rachel Brownstein on her new book Why Jane Austen?

Hope to see some of you there!

Copyright @2011 Deb Barnum of Jane Austen in Vermont

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The Penny Post Weekly Review

  October 30, 2011

News / Gossip: JASNA

For those who did not go to the AGM [and for those who did because the sound was flawed] – here is the video previewing the upcoming AGM in New York City next October [via Kerri]: http://jasna.org/agms/newyork/video/

You can follow the 2012 AGM plans here: http://jasna.org/agms/newyork/index.html

[how easily we forget our cowboys and barbecued spare ribs! – how fickle we are!]

And even further into the future – here is the JASNA AGM 2014 on Facebook: “Mansfield Park in Montreal” [Fanny supporters unite!] – http://www.facebook.com/pages/JASNA-AGM2014/230649860329213?sk=wall

A review of the play S&S in Fort Worth: spoiler alert! Gender bias! http://www.dfw.com/2011/10/18/525176/youll-like-sense-and-sensibility.html


The Circulating Library

“The Making of a Homemaker” – a Smithsonian Institution online exhibition about the domestic guidebooks written for the 19th century American housewife: many images

http://www.sil.si.edu/ondisplay/making-homemaker/intro.htm

Image: Mrs. Lydia Green Abell. The Skillful Housewife’s Book: or Complete Guide to Domestic Cookery, Taste, Comfort and Economy. New York: R. T. Young, 1853.

  • Articles of Interest

Gemmill, Katie. “Jane Austen as Editor: Letters on Fiction and the Cancelled Chapters of Persuasion.”   ECF 24.1 (2011): 105-122

“Seen but Not heard: Servants in Jane Austen’s England”  by Judith Terry:
http://www.jasna.org/persuasions/printed/number10/terry.htm
[via Christy S.]

  •  Books I am Looking Forward to…

Persuasion, An Annotated Edition, edited by Robert Morrison [in the same series as the Annotated Pride and Prejudice edited by Patricia Myers Spacks] – http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?recid=31301

The Jennifer Kloester biography of Georgette Heyer:  a not so glowing review in The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/oct/06/georgette-heyer-biography-review-kloester

I think I might weigh in after reading it myself – I thoroughly enjoyed the Hodge biography…

If you have read Bill Bryson’s At Home and Amanda Vickery’s Behind Closed Doors [and etc. regarding her titles] – and need another fix for your domestic matters obsessions, here is a must-have: If Walls Could Talk by Lucy Worsley [image US and UK cover: note that it is not available in the US until 2/2012 and has a different cover] – Ms. Worsley recently aired her Elegance and Decadence, The Age of the Regency on BBC4, also not available here until when ?? [though it is available for streaming, on youtube, etc.]  [makes one want to abandon the colonies for good and head to the mothership?]

You can follow Lucy Worsley’s blog here: http://www.lucyworsley.com/home.html where there is a link for the book…

US cover

UK cover

If you like to buy Jane Austen’s six novels in various forms by cover, editor, etc, here is a new take on cover art:

http://www.africandigitalart.com/2011/10/jane-austen-remixed-thandiwe-tshabalala/

A review by Claire Harman [of Jane’s Fame fame] of P.D. James’s Death Comes to Pemberley here: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/lifestyle/book/article-24002867-death-comes-to-pemberley—review.do?mid=513438

  • On my bedside table

Claire Tomalin’s Dickens: http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780670917679,00.html

And speaking of Dickens, a reminder about the exhibition at the Morgan Library and Museum: http://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/exhibition.asp?id=48

Websites and Blogs worth a look:

I’ve looked at this before, but a friend [thanks Joe!] reminded me to give it another look:  Jane Austen’s family on Ancestry.com

http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~janeausten

“A Dude Reads Jane Austen” at the Gone Reading blog: http://gonereading.com/site/2011/10/20/a-dude-reads-jane-austen-volume-2/

And visit the Gone Reading blog to find out about their reading foundation – have a look and give if you can!

A group blog by British historical fiction authors: English History Authors http://www.englishhistoryauthors.blogspot.com/

“Britain leaves us awed by ancient castles, ruins and museums. History pours out a legacy of battles, a developing monarchy, a structured class system, court-inspired behaviors and fashions, artwork and writings that have created an international hoard of Anglophiles. From among them have come forth those who feel that they must fuel the fire. Welcome to the happy home of English Period Authors. We have come together to share, inspire and celebrate and to reach out to our cherished readers.”

“What links Jane Austen, John Nash, Humphry Repton and Blaise Hamlet?” at the Georgian Gentleman blog:

Blaise Castle – Humphry Repton

http://georgiangentleman.posterous.com/blaise-hamlets-homes-fit-for-the-elderly
[via Two Nerdy History Girls]

Thrifty Jane blog – interviews with various Austen characters, esp the “thrifty” sort! [i.e. Mrs. Norris, Lucy Steele, Lady C, etc…] http://thriftyjane.wordpress.com/

Jane Austen Confessions: http://austenconfessions.tumblr.com/

Recipes from Colonial Williamsburg: http://recipes.history.org/

A reminder of this site, Bath In Time: http://www.bathintime.co.uk/

[image: Inside the Assembly Rooms, 1805]

A post on Ackermann’s many prints, reproduced on this blog: [via Jane Austen’s World blog]:

Ackermann’s Library 1813

http://ekduncan.blogspot.com/2011/10/regency-england-interior-views.html?mid=50

Any interest in English Handwriting?? – here is an amazing online course for free – makes me want to dig out my old calligraphy pens and settle in for a winter class!:

http://www.english.cam.ac.uk/ceres/ehoc/

‘The Earle of Essex his instructions to his sonne’

and here is more handwriting information:
http://paleo.anglo-norman.org/empfram.html

A post by Simon Beattie on the man who tried to kill King George III in 1800: http://www.simonbeattie.kattare.com/blog/?p=57


Museum Musings – Exhibition Trekking:

I’ve posted on this before and now the exhibition is open:

Dorothy Jordan – NPG

http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/the-firstactresses/first_actresses_exhibition.php

[and while there, don’t forget to sign up for the Fortnum & Mason luxury hamper giveaway! - http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/the-first-actresses/competition.php

And visit Austenonly for a review of the accompanying book:

http://austenonly.com/2011/10/19/book-review-of-the-first-actresses-nell-gwyn-to-sarah-siddons-by-gill-perry-with-joseph-roach-and-shearer-west/

The Charleston Museum (in South Carolina) will be offering a documentary film series on quilts: http://www.charlestonmuseum.org/event.asp?ID=444 [be sure to watch the video at this link]

And also visit the upcoming exhibit Coat Check: [image] Nov. 12, 2011 – March 4, 2012 http://www.charlestonmuseum.org/exhibits-coatcheck

Coat c1830

Caravaggio and His Followers in Rome:   this exhibit was at the Kimball Art Museum in Fort Worth, but I was unfortunately unable to go – Laurel Ann at Austenprose did see it on the Sunday as she was leaving later than me – she said I must buy the book, so here you go, another lovely art book to peruse: http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300170726

Exhibit info here:
https://www.kimbellart.org/Exhibitions/Exhibition-Details.aspx?eid=74

and here at the National Gallery of Canada:
http://www.gallery.ca/caravaggio/en/index.htm

Winterthur Museum:
“With Cunning Needle: Four Centuries of Embroidery”

http://www.winterthur.org/?p=901

and the upcoming conference: http://www.winterthur.org/?p=892
[via Two Nerdy History Girls]


Continuing Education:

Check out this Colorado Romance Writers, Inc. Online Workshop Series
class for NOVEMBER 2011!

Writing Between the Sexes (Using gender differences to
create believable characters)

Instructor: Leigh Michaels http://www.leighmichaels.com/
Date: October 31 – November 25, 2011

DESCRIPTION: Have you ever read a mystery where the heroine sounds like
an oversexed gangster? Or a romance where the hero sounds more like a
girlfriend than a man? Chances are, the oversexed heroine was created by
a male author; the tender, emotional hero by a woman. Men and women
think, act, and talk differently – which causes problems for writers
who are trying to create characters of the opposite sex. Learn about the
most common gender differences, and use them to create believable
characters of the opposite sex. (And along the way, you may get some
great ideas about how to deal with your husband, boyfriend, boss, big
brother, or other assorted males — or for the first time, understand
what’s really going on inside the head of your wife, girlfriend, mom…)

Fee: $20 CRW Members; $25 Non-CRW Members. FMI about the workshops or
speakers, or to register: http://crw-rwa.ning.com

Shopping

The Jane Austen Centre is beginning its holiday shopping marketing:  here are some  ideas from the “Pemberley Collection”: http://www.janeaustengiftshop.co.uk/images/2611.html

“The popular colours of Regency England” 

Sage and other variants were very fashionable during the Regency period as a green dye that did not fade or darken was invented. However, it was literaly the colour to die for – the pigment contained a poisonous copper arsenic compound! 

Plum is a much nicer word than ‘Puce’, which was popular in the Regency period. The purplish pink shade was named after the French word for ‘Flea’ as it resembled the shade of the blood sucking insect after a meal. Yuck! 

Teal and shades of blue were also in demand. In Jane Austen’s time dyes were expensive, pigments made of natural substances and the resulting hues rather muted compared to our modern artificial dyes, hence this lovely soft shade of teal would have been considered as being quite bright!

[from the Jane Austen Centre website]

[sage, plum and teal being my favorite colors – I knew I was born in the wrong century!]

For Fun

A joke on twitter – Victorian London:

“Why are a chimney sweep and a bugler good partners at cards?

One can follow soot, the other can trumpet.” joke, 1884

This just strikes my funny bone: “The Invisible Mother” at How to be a Retronaut:

And finally, absolutely nothing to do with Jane Austen or the 18th or the 19th century:

Swim caps from the 50s – thankfully we have come a long way baby…: [via How to Be  a Retronaut]   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtZJMlOu0Sw

Copyright @2011 by Deb Barnum of Jane Austen in Vermont

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Registration for the 2011 AGM in Fort Worth Texas is now open.  You must be a member of JASNA to participate, so what better time to join than now, when you can head off into the sunset with all new thoughts about Sense and Sensibility  [and perhaps a Col. Brandon by your side!] – check out all the events at the AGM website here as JASNA celebrates the 200th anniversary of Austen’s first published novel:

http://jasna.org/agms/fortworth/index.html

The registration form is here: http://jasna.org/agms/fortworth/registration.html [scroll to bottom of page and click on the blue button]

Giddyup!

[Image: FineArtAmerica.com]

Note our next JASNA-Vermont event on June 5:  The Musical World of Jane Austen, an organ recital with Dr. William Tortolano: information is here

Copyright @2011 by Deb Barnum of Jane Austen in Vermont

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