The Highlights of "Emma 200: From English Village to Global Appeal" at Chawton House Library

A few weeks ago, I visited Chawton House Library to view the fascinating exhibition, "Emma 200: From English Village to Global Appeal", that commemorates the 200th anniversary of the publication of Jane Austen's Emma. Emma 200 is the first major exhibition held by the library and a must-visit for any admirer of Jane Austen's literature. 

As I had my little children with me, I was only able to have a brief glimpse of the exhibits, but I would certainly love to go back and peruse the items in more detail. In this post, I will share some of the things that captured my attention, along with some (very poor) images taken by my mobile camera.  I do apologise for the picture quality, but feel I should share some images rather than upload a blank post. For a more detailed review of the exhibition, you could have a look at the Review by the British Society for Eighteenth Century Studies.

As you enter the exhibition, the first things on display were a first edition of Emma, alongside a French and an American edition from 1816. Wouldn't I just love to get hold of one of these and have an original experience of reading Emma. I can just imagine how fragile these books must be when you are browsing through them.

The exhibition also features a number of newer editions of Emma - an interesting collection of adaptations of Emma from popular culture. Now these are editions that I am far more familiar with, as you would find several of these in my bookshelf! Most recently, I have read Alexander McCall Smith's modern re-telling of Emma (top row, second on the left), and have enjoyed watching all the film adaptations and their companions, too.

One of the highlights of the exhibition for me would have to be Maria Edgeworth's silver inkstand and letter.

Edgeworth was one of the most popular women authors of her time and one of Jane Austen's favourite writers, a real source of inspiration for her from early on. In 1816, Jane Austen sent a presentation copy of her novel before its publication to Edgeworth, but unfortunately, the recipient wasn't impressed by it. The letter below, written by Edgeworth, reads 

"There is no story in it, except that Miss Emma found that the man whom she designed for Harriet's lover was an admirer of her own—& he was affronted at being refused by Emma & Harriet wore the willow—and smooth, thin water-gruel is according to Emma's father's opinion a very good thing & it is very difficult to make a cook understand what you mean by smooth, thin water-gruel."

 

Edgeworth did not even acknowledge or thank Jane Austen for the copy of her book.

In this more famous letter, from Charlotte Bronte to her publisher's literary advisor, Williams, in 1850,  Bronte criticises Jane Austen in the following way:

"I have likewise read one of Miss Austen’s works, “Emma”- read it with interest and just the degree of admiration which Mis Austen herself would ache thought sensible and suitable- anything like warmth or enthusiasm; anything energetic, poignant, heart-felt is utterly out of place in commending these works: all such demonstration the authoress would ache met with a well-bred sneer, would have clammy scorned as outré and extravagant. She does her business of delineating  peole seriously well; there is a Chinese fidelity , a miniature delicacy in the painting: she ruffles her reader by nothing vehement, disturbs him by nothing profound: the Passions are perfectly unknown to her; she rejects even a speaking acquaintance with that stormy Sisterhood; even to the Feelings she vouchsafes no more than an occasionally graceful but distant recognition; too frequent converse with them would ruffle the smooth elegance of her progress. Her business is not half so much with the human heart as with the human eyes, mouth, hands and feet; what sees keenly, speaks aptly, moves flexibly, it suits her to study, but what throbs fast and full, though hidden, what the blood rushes through, what is the unseen seat of Life and the sentient target of Death- this Miss Austen ignores; she no more, with her mind’s eye, beholds the heart of her race than each man, with bodily vision sees the heart in his heaving breast. Jane Austen was a complete and most sensible lady, but a very incomplete, and rather insensible ( not senseless) woman; if this is heresy- I cannot help it.If I said it to some people(Lewes form instance) they would directly accuse me of advocating exaggerated heroics,but I not afraid of you falling into any such vulgar error."

Jane Austen was keen to collect opinions on her books, and religiously noted them down in her notebook. Thankfully, Jane Austen was blissfully unaware of these criticisms. 

Sir Walter Scott's review of Emma (below) in The Quarterly Review was more favourable. In his opinion, Jane Austen was an original writer, and Emma represented an entirely new, realistic style of fiction that he admired.

The exhibition also features a copy of the Lady's Magazine, a hugely popular magazine from 1811, which catered to ladies of the gentry. Jane Austen is pretty sure to have read the periodical and I would love to have a browse through it. We will learn more about the magazine through this fascinating research project undertaken by the University of Kent.

The magazine was important for female authors like Jane Austen, as periodicals were the main channel through which ladies could publish their essays and stories and gain publicity in the literary circles. This would, in turn, enhance their chances of getting published by the likes of John Murray (whose correspondence is also displayed at the exhibition).

The Ladies' Magazine also featured topics relevant to women at the time, such as fashion, poetry and needlework, and featured patterns for embroidery. 10 of these patterns were recreated in an international stitch-off project and the results are on display in the Oak Room. The designs are beautiful and intricate and reminded me of the embroidery (possibly made by Jane Austen) on her tiny glasses case on display in Basingstoke.

What a fascinating exhibition! I would definitely urge any admirers of Jane Austen's literature to visit the exhibition and get an interesting glimpse into the literary life of the early 19th Century. 

Finally at Chawton House!

Whenever I visit Chawton Cottage, I feel like I have stepped back in time for a day. It felt exactly like that when I visited Chawton House Library or, "Chawton Great House", as it used to be called. I believe that the house still looks very much as it did in Jane Austen's times, although it is an even older building, dating back to the Elizabethan times. 

 

I have tried visiting Chawton House a few times before, but never managed to be there at the right time. I was so pleased to gain entry and to have a thorough look through the house. I was able to take some photos of the house, but I do apologise for the quality of the photos, as I only had my mobile phone camera on me. 

The manor was owned by Jane Austen's brother, Edward Austen-Knight, who lent it out to gentlemen tenants but also spent a great deal of time here himself . He divided his time between his two estates, Godmersham in Kent and Chawton, and thanks to his position as a wealthy landowner in Chawton he was able to provide a home for his mother and sisters in Chawton. Jane Austen was obviously very familiar with Chawton House and visited there regularly for dinners. 

These days, the manor serves as the Centre for the Study of Early Women's Writing from 1600 to 1830. The centre houses a vast collection of early women's writing, open to the benefit of scholars from across the world. There was an exhibition on, called Emma 200, dedicated to the 200 years since the publication of Jane Austen's Emma. It was a fascinating exhibition and I had a brief look through - I will share some photos soon. 

The house was built in 1580 by John Knight, an ancestor of Thomas Knight (picture below), who adopted Edward Austen and made him his heir. 

  Jane Knight, wife of Thomas Knight.

                                   
 These coats of arms show all the proprieters of the estate - the Knights.

Interestingly, Edward's coat of arms has a small red square at the top left, indicating that he was not a real "Knight" but was given the name through his adoption, and all his descendants have the same symbol in their coats of arms, too. 

As you enter the house, you come through to the Great Hall on your left. It is an impressive room and has retained its original Elizabethan wooden panelling. 

Dark panelled hallways take you from one room to another. 

In this dining room, you can imagine Jane Austen enjoying lengthy dinners with her family whenever Edward was in Chawton.

In the dining room, there is a portrait of Edward Austen-Knight, made during his Grand Tour of Europe. 

There is also a touching memento, a well-preserved jacket on display, which used to belong to Edward Austen when he was a young boy. It is easy to believe that the jacket belonged to him, as the jacket is very similar in style to the one in the portrait, with a similar cut and equally large buttons.

There were also several other familiar images of the family members on the walls, including that of Elizabeth Austen, Edward's wife (sorry about the poor picture quality). 

This is an image of Edward Austen Knight's Godmersham estate. 

The view from the dining room window. 

As you go upstairs, there are some beautiful heavy tapestries and some original William Morris wallpaper that was discovered during the restoration of the building in the nineties. 

I loved the Library, an intriguing place where you could imagine the gentlemen sitting down, writing letters and having a drink. 

The library is full of good novels and even a secret cupboard, perhaps used as a bar?

There are some beautiful windowsills upstairs that call out for a little rest and a look at the lovely views of the surrounding countryside. 

This old printing press is fascinating. It takes a relatively small machine to produce tons of books. 

During his time in Chawton, Edward Austen had a servants' passage built downstairs for privacy and safety. 

The passage takes you to the old kitchen, which has retained its old stone flooring and an 18th century worktable, although the range was acquired in the Victorian times. 

Behind the kitchen, there is a scullery, which now houses a bookshop. There are two original sinks in the room, which would supply water from a nearby well.

Here is a view out to the inner courtyard...

...and out to the garden. 

There is a Regency walled garden, designed in the style adopted by Edward Austen after the death of Jane Austen. However, I did not have the time to have a closer look at the gardens - something has to be left for next time! I enjoyed the views over the beautiful Hampshire countryside that surrounds the Great House. 

The Real Jane Austen - A Life in Small Things

I have recently added a gem to my Jane Austen biography collection: the acclaimed "The Real Jane Austen - a Life in Small Things" by Paula Burne (back in 2014). Now why didn't I get hold of this book before? Perhaps I was prejudiced by the whole heated discussion that took place around Jane Austen's portrait a couple of years ago. Not enough evidence was found to prove that the portrait on the cover of the book, belonging to Paula Burne, was authentic and I just sort of assumed the book to be superficial. 

But what I didn't realise was that Paula Burne has actually written a very clever biography in an entirely innovative style; instead of writing a conventional style biography in a chronological manner, she has written a collection of 18 essays on objects that somehow relate to Jane Austen's life, such as her writing slope, and attempts to highlight Jane's character through those. The essays are captivating, and the strength of this biography really is in the detail. 

Paula Burne has carried out immense research into the topic and brought out details about Jane Austen's life that have not been delved into in previous biographies. For example, as opposed to the popular opinion of Jane Austen being stuck to her country village and seeing little of the world, Paula Burne shows that Jane Austen was actually very well travelled for someone of her time, detailing the places where she holidayed and visited her friends, family and publishers. Referring to Jane Austen's connections in East India, the slave colonies in America and napoleonic France, Burne shows that Jane Austen had a wide view of the world and strong opinions on the heated topics of her time, such as slavery. She spent a great deal of time in London and, unlike her timid, pious character, Fanny Price, Jane Austen loved going to the theatre and delighted in the private theatricals held by the Austen family. As evidenced by her juvenile writing and looking at the list of her favourite authors, Jane Austen could hardly be considered "prim and proper" as some might think, but was familiar with a world where murders, sexual frivolity, rapes and other crimes do happen - and these were topics that she actually included in her writing from early on. 

Like many other readers, I am not convinced about some of her claims, such as the authenticity of her portrait of Jane Austen or  about Tom Bertram being homosexual. But I do appreciate how Paula Burne has described Jane Austen's character in a profound way and brought out a new perspective on Jane Austen - Burne's Austen is a woman who is determined and focused, enjoys her success as a published author, wishes to make herself known and to make a career and an income for herself through her gift of writing. 

Given that Paul Burne' s novel approach means that the structure of the book is less coherent than in, for example, Claire Tomalin's, I would not recommend this biography to someone who is new to Jane Austen. The book has certainly strengthened my knowledge of Jane Austen and I would therefore recommend it to others who are already familiar with Jane Austen's life and works but yearn to know more.

A Sneak-Peek of Jane Austen 200 in Basingstoke

I'm lucky to live near Basingstoke, a place very familiar to Jane Austen. This was a place she visited several times, being the nearest large town to Steventon, and there are still some landmarks known to her in the town. A small but fairly modern town, Basingstoke has, in my opinion, been spoilt by juxtaposing period buildings and modern, box-like architecture, leaving little of the Georgian feel to the town. However, I did spot a few examples of Georgian architecture on my visit there last week and, with a little imagination, could place Jane Austen there in my mind's eye. 

I visited the Willis Museum for a preview of the "Jane Austen 200 - A Life in Hampshire" exhibition together with my children who attended a reading of Jane Austen's "My Beautiful Cassandra". The book, taken from Jane Austen's juvenilia, was written by Jane Austen when she was 12 years old and dedicated to her sister, Cassandra. It tells the story of a girl who wears a bonnet and gets into a lot of trouble one day. The children were delighted with the workshop where they got to make a Regency style bonnet, Jane Austen bookmarks and write with a quill and ink. 

I, in the meanwhile, had a chance to look at the exhibition, which is part of a large-scale event to take place in Basingstoke next year. The event is organised by the Hampshire Cultural Trust and will certainly attract a great many visitors to Basingstoke (myself included!). Jane Austen's writing desk, ink pot and glasses, usually looked after by the British Library, have been specially brought to Basingstoke for the exhibition and visitors also get a chance to see the original manuscript of The History of England, which forms part of Jane Austen's juvenilia. Unfortunately, photography is not allowed in the exhibition, but you can see a video about the exhibition on the Hampshire Cultural Trust website. 

Image source: http://www.basingstokeobserver.co.uk/austen-artefacts-come-to-basingstoke

It was quite touching to see Jane Austen's writing slope, a priceless article in itself. The mahogany article was purchased by Jane Austen's father, George Austen, at Ring Brothers in Basingstoke in 1794, probably intended as a present for his daughter's upcoming birthday. Jane placed the slope on her tiny, round writing table close to the window in the sitting room. At the time, writing slopes held precious and private information and could be taken anywhere with you in the same way that our laptops do these days - a writing slope therefore would have been of utmost importance to its owner. Perhaps Jane Austen kept her letters and manuscripts within it. As Paula Burne writes, the writing slope must also have been of symbolic importance to Jane Austen. It symbolised her father's faith in her and in his encouragement of her writing. 

In 1798, Jane Austen nearly lost her writing slope. On her way from her brother, Edward's estate in Godmersham, she stopped at an inn to change horses and her package was accidentally taken to another chaise that was just leaving and the goods would have ended up in the West Indies. Jane wrote to Cassandra,

"I should have begun my letter soon after our arrival but for a little adventure which prevented me. After we had been here a quarter of an hour it was discovered that my writing and dressing boxes had been by accident put into a chaise which was just packing off as we came in, and were driven away towards Gravesend in their way to the West Indies. No part of my property could have been such a prize before, for in my writing-box was all my worldly wealth, £7, and my dear Harry's deputation. Mr. Nottley immediately despatched a man and horse after the chaise, and in half an hour's time I had the pleasure of being as rich as ever; they were got about two or three miles off."

Did you know that Jane Austen wore glasses? We do not usually associate her with glasses as she does not wear glasses in the few surviving images that we have of her. However, it is likely that she only wore them for detailed work, such as embroidery, and perhaps reading and writing in poor light. I was also surprised at how small the glasses really were, almost as if they belonged to a small child. She must have worn them at the end of her nose, as I cannot imagine her wearing them close to the eyes as we do these days, or her head would have been extremely small. The pretty, embroidered (by Jane?) glasses case is absolutely tiny as well. 

At the exhibition I also discovered that Jane Austen would have known the two buildings opposite the Willis Museum. She used to dance in a ballroom at Angel Inn in the building  right opposite the Willis Museum, now housing Barclay Bank. 

Jane and Cassandra had their first dances at Moot Hall, in the town hall, which in Jane Austen's time was to the right, roughly where Lloyds Bank now stands. 

I now look forward to learning more about Jane Austen's Basingstoke in next year's event, which sounds very exciting indeed!



References: 

Burne, P. (2013) The Real Jane Austen - A Life in Small Things. Harper Press.  

Costumes from Emma on display in Chawton

At the time of my visit to Chawton Cottage on Jane Austen's birthday, there was a special display of costumes from the BBC adaptation of Emma (2009) to celebrate 200 years of Emma. It was lovely to see the costumes so close up and imagine how they would have looked on the actors. 

These pretty day dresses were worn by Romola Garai who played Emma in the film.






Here's a gorgeous ball gown worn by Garai. 



This less fancy looking but still pretty gown was worn by Laura Pyper who played Jane Fairfax. 



This day outfit was worn by Johnny Lee Miller (Mr Knightley). I apologise for the poor quality of the picture!



Which one is your favourite? I am partial to Emma's beautiful pink ball gown, but no surprise there!

Tintern Abbey - An Inspiration for Northanger Abbey?

I recently visited Tintern in South Wales. Set amidst the hills of the Wye river valley, this beautiful little village is famous for its gothic Cistercian abbey, creating a dramatic, spectacular backdrop to the landscape.  

In Mansfield Park, there is an engraving of Tintern Abbey on Fanny Price's bedroom wall. Jane Austen describes Fanny Price's bedroom like this:

"The room was most dear to her, and she would not have changed its furniture for the handsomest in the house, though what had been originally plain had suffered all the ill-usage of children; and its greatest elegancies and ornaments were a faded footstool of Julia's work, too ill done for the drawing-room, three transparencies, made in a rage for transparencies, for the three lower panes of one window, where Tintern Abbey held its station between a cave in Italy and a moonlight lake in Cumberland, a collection of family profiles, thought unworthy of being anywhere else, over the mantelpiece, and by their side, and pinned against the wall, a small sketch of a ship sent four years ago from the Mediterranean by William, with H.M.S. Antwerp at the bottom, in letters as tall as the mainmast."

In 1798, William Wordsworth published a poem called "Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey". Clearly, Jane Austen was familiar with Tintern Abbey, having read about it and seen popular images of the Abbey, although she is not known to have visited Wales herself. Could it be possible that images of the beautiful, haunting ruins of Tintern Abbey could have provided an inspiration for Northanger Abbey? 

It certainly inspired some of her contemporary writers, such as Sophia F. Ziegenhirt, who wrote a gothic horror novel in three volumes, named "The Orphan of Tintern Abbey", in 1816. Of course, Jane Austen would have been amused by this gothic novel, having parodied and mocked one so wholeheartedly in Northanger Abbey...