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...

More to Read About the Festive Season in Georgian England

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and have enjoyed the festive season in your part of the world. I have enjoyed Christmas here in Hampshire, having visited Chawton for Jane Austen’s birthday and Bath after Christmas with my family.

On my visit to Chawton, I saw this book at a second-hand book shop window, and decided to treat myself to a little present.  Jane Austen’s Christmas – The Festive Season in Georgian England, is a collection of letters and excerpts from Jane Austen’s novels, compiled by Maria Hubert back in 1996.  The book cover had an attractive picture of Polly Maberly/Kitty Bennet of P & P 1995, and it just called out to me. As I knew a thing or two about the Georgian Christmas already, I was fascinated to find out if Maria Hubert had any interesting facts to reveal about Christmas in Jane Austen’s times.

I did not find the book a particularly exciting read, as the information is not presented in a very coherent or interesting way. However, the book does have a  good selection of letters from the Austen family and excerpts from her books that mention Christmas.

As we discover from Jane Austen’s Christmas, Georgian Christmas was a season of balls, parties and other kinds of entertainment. It was a time when families and friends would get together to dance, play games, cards, perform family plays, and eat well just as we do these days. We learn from the letters that there would be many guests and the party season could be quite exhausting for some.  In 1807, Jane wrote to Cassandra after the Christmas guests had departed, “When you receive this our guests will all be gone and going; and I shall be left to the comfortable disposal of my time, to ease of mind from the torments of rice puddings and apple dumplings, and probably to regret that I did not take more pains to please them all” (p. 38).

The book discusses the food eaten at Christmas and the social significance that the various types of food had at the time. For instance, while mutton was the most commonly served meat at the Christmas table, venison was a status symbol favoured by the very wealthy, such as Mr Knightley or Jane’s own brother, Edward, showing that one had enough parkland to graze deer. Turkey was also becoming popular at the Christmas table, as was the tradition of plumcake.

Various games, such as snapdragon, bullet pudding and charades are explained in detail in the book. The Christmas games make Jane Austen’s Christmas sound like a very jolly, playful time indeed! Jane Austen herself wrote some clever charades, which I will have to share with you soon.

As opposed to the contemporary Christmas, which is focused on spending and giving presents, the exchange of gifts was certainly less elaborate in the Georgian times. Presents were exchanged on December the 6th, in commemoration of St Nicholas, as in other parts of Europe. Jane Austen made a little Gingham needle bag for a departing friend in 1792 and wrote (p. 14),

This little bag, I hope, will prove

To be not vainly made;

For should you thread and needles want,

It will afford you aid.

And, as we are about to part,

‘Twill serve another end:

For, when you look upon this bag,

You’ll recollect your friend.  

Much of the gifting was centred around charity to the poor.  On Christmas Eve, 1798, Jane Austen writes to Cassandra, “I have given a pair of worsted stockings to Mary Hutchins, Dame Kew, Mary Steevens and Dame Staples; a shift to Hannah Staples, and a shawl to Betty Dawkins” (p. 25).

In Georgian times, Christmas ended on Twelfth Night, which was a grand celebration, often involving a ball. I have described the Twelfth Night celebration here.

With Christmas over and the New Year dawning, I now wish you all a very happy New Year and hope to be able to share many more stories from Hampshire in the coming year!

Austenesque Birthday Cake

Having celebrated Jane Austen's birthday at Chawton last week, it was my turn to celebrate mine yesterday. My husband surprised me by decorating a plain Victoria sponge cake with an image depicting Jane Austen's profile! Quite creative, don't you think?

Celebrating Jane Austen’s Birthday In Chawton

Now that I live in Hampshire, I had the brilliant opportunity to celebrate Jane Austen’s birthday (just 5 days apart from my own) at Jane Austen’s House in Chawton today. What better way to celebrate her than to have a peek into her world and to walk the roads that she walked on, in her beloved home of Chawton.

It was quite a different experience visiting Chawton Cottage in mid-winter rather than in mid-summer, as I last did when I visited Chawton. Taking photos certainly proved a challenge, as the dark, damp weather we had today seemed to produce dark, misty photos as opposed to the bright, clear ones I took on my previous visit.

However, it was wonderful to see Chawton Cottage all decked up for Christmas in a style familiar to the Austens, as I described a few years ago. The fireplaces and windows were adorned with cones and evergreens, such as boughs of holly with bright, red berries - a tradition followed already  in Jane Austen’s days, especially in houses in the countryside, where such greenery was in abundance.

In addition to greenery and candles, there were also plenty of beautiful arrangements of dried fruit in various part of the house, as in the kitchen (below), adding to the festive charm in the cottage.

Although the weather was nothing to write home about, the cottage was packed with visitors, as you can see from the number of cars parked outside the cottage – there were obviously many of us wishing to spend this special day at Chawton. This was the view from one of the windows in the cottage, showing the busy thoroughway that Chawton was in the days of Jane Austen.

It was lovely to sip some tea and enjoy some mince pies, while strolling about the cottage garden. There was also some carol singing by the Regency piano, making it all very festive and atmospheric.

No pilgrimage to Chawton is complete without a look at (and touch of) Jane Austen’s modest, yet iconic writing desk.

And a look out of the dining room window, as famously was important for Mrs Austen to have a good view of the goings-on in the street.

My two-year-old travel companion had fun trying on some bonnets, and then we headed towards Chawton House Library. Although the views were less picturesque in this weather, come rain or sun, I love the walk towards Chawton House past some beautiful rolling hills and green fields dotted with sheep.

I have always wanted to see the interiors of Chawton House, as this was the great house of the estate owned by Jane Austen’s brother, Edward Austen-Knight, and Jane Austen spent a great deal of time with her family there.

Chawton House looked very inviting, with beautiful lighting in the windows,  but I was disappointed to find, once again, that the House was closed until March… however, that can only mean one thing  - another visit to Chawton in a few months’ time, something to look forward to! 

Happy in Hampshire!

Jane Austen adored her beloved birthplace and the place where she lived for the majority of her life – Hampshire. She led a quiet life as a rector’s daughter in a small village and yet, drew her inspiration and influences from the limited social circle around her. No doubt, the beautiful, rolling countryside of Hampshire must have been a great source of inspiration for her novels, and while many of her heroines delighted in the amusements a larger town could offer, it was apparent from her letters that she would always remain partial to the Hampshire countryside.

I am so happy and overwhelmed to reveal to you, my dear readers, that I am now living in Hampshire, too! A happy coincidence, although I should admit that the exact location might have had something to do with my preferences!  Or was it fate?

Persuasions or not, here I am, enjoying my life in a small country town in Hampshire, just a short bus drive away from Alton - and easily accessible to Chawton, which I plan to visit soon, perhaps on the occasion of Jane Austen’s birthday next week?

What have I been up to since I last wrote in my blog? Worried about the loss of electronic data, having lost a vast amount of my food blog that I had maintained online for years, I decided to print out my blog in the form of a picture book. Out came a collection of three picture books, including most of my posts from 2010 onwards – and all this for me to cherish my memories of my trips to Austen country and my other essays on Jane Austen’s life and literature.

In addition to that, several trips to the local library, picking up fun titles such as the ones below, to entertain me during the dark winter evenings.

Having said that, these days  I am more likely to be reading one of these instead:

My daughter loves this P & P counting picture book, and I love introducing her to some of the concepts in my favourite book!

I hope to  be able to gather some more material for my blog while I live here, children permitting of course…

A Moral Tale With Georgian Cougar As Anti-Hero

Much as I love the six great novels written by Jane Austen, there is one commonly classified as a minor work that has always ranked highly amongst my list of favourites: Lady Susan. It’s about time that I discussed this novel, which is so rarely touched upon in the Austenite world. Spoiler Alert!

Lady Susan is a short, early novel, most likely to have been written in 1793-94 when Jane Austen was just 18-19 years old, but not published until much later posthumously by his nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh in his 1870 Memoir. An epistolary novel, Lady Susan is cleverly written in letters, which requires perhaps more concentration than an ordinary novel written in prose, but gives us a thorough idea of Jane Austen ‘s early style of writing – we mustn’t forget that Sense and Sensibility, initially named “Elinor and Marianne,” started out as an epistolary novel, too. This was a style highly popular in the 18th Century and favoured by many of Jane Austen’s favourite writers, such as Fanny Burney for example.

I was excited to find out that Lady Susan is finally being adapted on screen -by none other than Whit Stillman who directed Metropolitan, an excellent modern adaptation of Mansfield Park back in 1990. Interestingly, the film is called “Love and Friendship”, not to be confused with another work from Jane Austen’s juvenilia. I can’t wait to find out how Stillman has adapted this epistolary novel  into a captivating screenplay with Austenesque dialogue, and to see the pre-Regency era costumes that we have had a glimpse through the Daily Mail. Stillman gives us an exciting preview of the movie in the making on Twitter: 

1st still #Love&Friendship as Emma Greenwell (Catherine Vernon), Jemma Redgrave & James Fleet (the DeCourcys) wrap: pic.twitter.com/bzY5qU3plh
— Whit Stillman (@WhitStillman) March 11, 2015

2nd still #JaneAusten #Love&Friendship - the lovely Morfydd Clark as Frederica Vernon, last shoot day tomorrow: pic.twitter.com/2om8r0ADuU
— Whit Stillman (@WhitStillman) March 11, 2015

What interests me about Lady Susan, however, is why did Jane Austen never revise the novel and submit an improved version for publishing? To be sure, she could have made it longer and more detailed, adapted the letters into prose and added in her trademark witty dialogue?

It is not only the epistolary style that differentiates Lady Susan from Jane Austen’s later novels. It is the only novel where the main character is an anti-hero and a villain, a character that Jane Austen would most certainly not have liked. It is also the only novel where the heroine is not young.

Lady Susan is essentially a moral tale, echoing the themes of “Les Liaisons Dangereuses”. The main character is a beautiful and charming 35-year-old lady, very recently widowed and left with a 16-year old daughter, Frederica. At the beginning of the book we find out that Lady Susan has left Langford, the household of her friends, Mr and Mrs Manwaring, to escape the spreading rumours about her scandalous behaviour with the family. We learn that she has been flirting with   both Manwaring and with his daughter’s suitor, Sir James Martin who had been set to marry their daughter, Miss Manwaring. Angering the whole family, Lady Susan retreats to to Churchill to stay with her late husband’s family, the Vernons, who seem to be aware of her wrongdoings and about her frivolous nature.

                                Newbridge House in Dublin as the setting of “Love and Friendship” (image from Wikipedia).

Mrs Vernon describes Lady Susan as “artful and ungenerous”, but also “excessively pretty”, with “fine, grey eyes and dark eyelashes”. Lady Susan “possesses an uncommon union of  symmetry, brilliancy and grace”, “her countenance is excessively sweet, and her voice and manner winningly mild”. Lady Susan is “clever and agreeable”, and it is with these charming qualities that she is able to cast a spell on several men of her choice and deceive one person after the other.

“Unprincipled” and “deceitful”, Lady Susan flirts her way with men both young and old to secure a rich husband for herself  and for her daughter while engaging in a relationship with the married Mr Manwaring. With her universal charms, she manages to persuade Mrs Vernon’s brother, Mr De Courcy, that she was not at fault and was indeed a charming human being, although he had previously been convinced that Lady Susan was “the most accomplished coquette in England”. He has changed his mind and now finds Lady Susan attractive with “gentleness and delicacy of manners”. Others advise Reginald against the match, but the young man of 23 is bewitched by her charm. All the while, the reader realises that, in her search for “universal admiration”, Lady Susan is a narcissistic, conniving villain, putting on an act and manipulating others, always acting in her own interest.

Lady Susan is also considered to be cruel and unkind to her daughter. As discussed by Horowitz, in Georgian books of conduct to be a good mother was a central theme, and Lady Susan is certainly no example of one. She has no affection for Frederica, considering her a “tiresome” and “stupid girl”. She is determined to force her to marry Sir James against her will, and sends her off to boarding school in London to make her uncomfortable so that she would eventually agree to her schemes. In the end, as in any other novel by Jane Austen, vice is punished and Reginald realises the true nature of Lady Susan and breaks off the engagement.  The vicious Lady Susan ends up marrying second best, someone she had designed for her daughter, while the virtuous Frederica secures a match of her own heart.

Similarly to the other great novels by Jane Austen, Lady Susan is essentially a morality tale, reflecting the values of the age of Enlightenment. Jane Austen was interested in human character and what makes someone good or bad. Typical of its era, the novel teaches a lesson about virtue and vice, emphasizing on the virtue of good character. In Lady Susan, the vice is selfishness and the utter lack of consideration for the well-being of others.

Why did Jane Austen abandon the novel after the brilliant first draft? Was Lady Susan designed to be just a character study, a sort of practice, as opposed to a full novel?

It is likely that, with the open sexuality and the frivolous nature of the central character, the novel would have been found scandalous and Jane Austen’s family would have opposed its publication. It would surely have brought shame onto the family and provided an unsuitable kind of publicity for the young, unmarried daughter of a clergyman.

However, in my opinion, Lady Susan displays phenomenal talent of an 18-year-old with great potential to become one of the most clever novels written by Jane Austen. I look forward to the publicity that this minor work deserves through the upcoming film adaptation by Whit Stillman.

References and further reading:

To view the original manuscript of Lady Susan, click here.

Horwitz, B. J. (1987). Lady Susan: The Wicked Mother in Jane Austen’s Novels. Persuasions, Vol. 9: JASNA.

For interesting speculations about the plotting of Love and Friendship, see AustenBlog.

Pride and Prejudice Goes Graphic

Have you ever read Jane Austen in the form of a comic? Well, this was a first one for me, too! My husband attended a Comic Con recently and brought me this this Pride and Prejudice graphic novel.

The graphic novel is written by Laurence Sach, illustrated by Rajesh Nagulakonda and published by Campfire whose mission is to “entertain and educate young minds by creating unique illustrated books that recount stories of human values, arouse curiosity in the world around us and inspire with tales of great deeds of unforgettable people.”  And having read the novel, I too feel that a graphic novel is a great way to introduce a classic to a young audience that might find the original a tad too challenging to grasp.

While I didn’t expect to like the graphic novel one bit, not being used to the genre, I was positively surprised to discover that this version has captured the essence of the novel so well. The graphic novel has stayed faithful to the original, changing nothing and removing nothing essential. The original language of the novel has been largely pertained, although the dialogue does remind me a great deal of the 1995 BBC P & P Miniseries; in fact, I’m quite sure that the authors have seen it and have based a large amount of the storyline on the TV adaptation.

Captions have been added to the illustrations to explain the story clearly, and the thought bubbles add to the effect, showing us what each character thinks, which is obviously missing from Jane Austen’s original novel. This is a helpful effect in Pride and Prejudice in particular, as we can see how Elizabeth and Darcy’s feelings change throughout the story, making the story accessible to anyone.

While the costumes and backgrounds in the illustrations look appropriate, the characters’ faces look chiselled to perfection, making them look super modern. Perhaps this can be forgiven, though,thanks to the style in this genre! The language, however, is not quite perfect in places, with some grammatical errors here and there and some slips, such as the title in Mr Lucas (for Sir Lucas).

Nonetheless, Pride and Prejudice Graphic Novel is certainly a fun addition to my Jane Austen collection and I would recommend it to anyone who wishes to be introduced to the author. Funnily enough, my one-year-old daughter loves browsing through the book and looking at the pictures…I’m hopeful that she’ll grow up to love Pride and Prejudice one day as much as I do!

'Jane Austen always hits the spot' says Alexander McCall Smith | Daily Mail Online

As we await the publication of Alexander McCall Smith’s Emma, here is a link to a wonderful, insightful article written by him earlier this week on why Jane Austen has the answer to all of life’s problems!

There is also an excerpt from the upcoming book in the article, so it is definitely worth a peek!

'Jane Austen always hits the spot' says Alexander McCall Smith | Daily Mail Online:



'via Blog this'

McCall Smith Re-Creating Emma!

What a coincidence!

Soon after I had written about how Alexander McCall Smith was the modern counterpart of Jane Austen, I found out that none other than the man in question had been called out to rewrite Jane Austen’s Emma into a modern tale! The book will be part of the Austen Project, taken on by several significant modern writers, such as Joanna Trollope, who will be re-writing Sense and Sensibility.

Although, in principle, I’m hardly what you could call a fan of Jane Austen’s sequels, as I feel that it is hard to do justice to her genius, I was excited and relieved to hear that the best person for the job would be writing one of them. The book will be published this November.

Here is a blurb of his upcoming book (from http://bit.ly/1lX3VGt):

Emma Woodhouse's widowed father is an anxious man, obsessed with nutrition and the latest vitamins. He lives the life of a country gentleman in contemporary England, protectively raising his young daughters, Isabella and Emma. While Isabella grows into a young woman, marries a society photographer for Vogue at the age of 19 and gets down to the business of reproducing herself, Emma pursues a degree in interior design at university in Bath, and then returns to set up shop in her home village. With her educated eye for the coordination of pattern and colour, Emma thinks she can now judge what person would best be paired with another, and sets about matchmaking her young friend, Harriet, with various possible suitors. Little does she know she is not the only person encouraging romantic pairings in the village. As Emma's cupid-like curiosity about her neighbours, both young and old, moves her to uncover their deeper motives, she is forced to confront a few surprising truths about her own.

On his Facebook page, McCallSmith recently described the experience of writing Emma. He says that he enjoyed writing it but that it was a “real challenge…to portray Emma in such a way that we sympathised with her, while at the same time we saw through her interfering ways”. I urge you to check his Facebook page for some exciting snippets of his yet-to-be-published book! You can also follow the recent developments of the Austen Project on their Facebook page.

Are you familiar with Mr McCall Smith’s works and as excited as I am to get your hands on Emma?