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Jane Austen Society of Australia JASA News
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News
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Susannah Fullerton |
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Letter from the PresidentAnother successful year for JASA is almost over. Once again we have had a stimulating, varied and thought-provoking programme of speakers, a great weekend conference, a booked-out Study Day and more editions of our superbly-presented, interest-packed publications. Membership attendance at meetings is very high, the library is well used, Regency Fair continues to be popular and we have welcomed many new members to the society. There is one event still to come – our popular Christmas Lunch – and this year I must give my apologies. This will be the first JASA event I have ever missed since I joined the society ten years ago! I will not be attending because I’ll be in England: my family and I have arranged a house swap and will be staying in a 250-year- old thatched house only ten minutes drive from Chawton, and I will be able to explore Jane Austen’s beloved Hampshire to my heart’s content. I am also looking forward to meeting up with the London group of the Jane Austen Society and also with a small group on the Isle of Wight (Fanny Price’s ‘The Island’, which I have never visited before), so I hope to make new contacts for JASA and gain new ideas for future programmes. My children have never visited England and we are all excited about experiencing an English Christmas. I will be thinking of JASA members celebrating Jane’s birthday at the WatersEdge Restaurant, and I look forward to sharing with you another exciting year for JASA in 2003. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all, Susannah Fullerton
Current JASA PublicationsThe December 2002 issues of JASA publications Sensibilities and the JASA Newsletter, have been sent to all JASA members. You can read short online extracts of each of these articles from Sensibilities . The articles in this latest issue of Sensibilities are:
Papers from the JASA Conference 2002 Jane Austen: ‘With Regard to Education ...’
Items from the Newsletter (and from Practicalities, JASA's news update sheet published in March and September) are reproduced on this website. Most past issues of Sensibilities can be purchased for A$6.00 each. See the Sensibilities list of articles. For another taste of what members enjoy in Sensibilities, the JASA refereed journal praised for its consistently high literary standards, read a longer extract from a talk by Penny Gay to a JASA meeting in 1994, as reported in a previous Sensibilities: 'Emma and the Battle of Waterloo'.
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Juvenilia Conference reportThe much anticipated Juvenilia Conference was held on 17 November. Members will of course recall the delightful Juvenilia publications from Professor Juliet McMaster and her students, with her quite magic illustrations – such as Lesley Castle, Henry & Eliza, Jack & Alice, etc – most of which are available from Regency Fair. The current Conference, at which Juliet McMaster was the key speaker, was to mark the handing over to Professor Christine Alexander of the University of NSW, of the leadership of the Juvenilia Press, responsible for publication and promotion of juvenilia of a range of authors – including George Eliot, Margaret Atwood, the Brontës, Virginia Woolf, etc. Held at the University of New South Wales, with speakers including Susannah Fullerton, Jon Spence and Christine Alexander, the day was a great success. Those who need convincing that the writings of children and young people can be both fascinating and informative, should have been there! The day began with Juliet McMaster describing the beginnings of Juvenilia Press, and its aim of involving students in every aspect of publication of the juvenilia of Jane Austen and other famous writers. Christine Alexander, as the new general editor, spoke about her plans for the future, including publishing the youthful writings of Australian authors, and extending the idea into schools. Juliet McMaster always seems to give her lectures such lively titles – this one was Greasy Tresses, Base Miscreants and Horrid Wretches – and in this she spoke about Jane Austen’s wonderful ear for idiom and her skill with dialogue ... how the characters of her mature novels each have their individual style of conversing, and how they give away so much about themselves by what they say. Even the sound of different words, or whether they are of high or low register, can give information. Jane’s characters, Juliet says, ‘are never so much themselves as when they are talking!’ This is also true in her juvenile writing, though in a broader, racier way. Some people, according to Juliet, not only dislike these early stories but are embarrassed by their frequent references to alcohol, food, money or personal appearance, often in an insulting way. There is however, as she pointed out, a rhythm and irony in both the adult and juvenile literature, plus the growth of self-awareness in the ‘better’ characters. There is thus, she argues, a continuity of development rather than a complete change of style, in Jane Austen’s novels. Christine Alexander spoke on Precocious Journalism, particularly in the Brontës, and their now-famous tiny booklets. Christine discussed how this essentially ‘play’ activity became absorbing and serious, how the children’s skills and imaginations developed, and the liberation and happiness it brought them. The young people imitated adult works, especially Blackwood’s magazine, and wrote editorials, stories, poems, letters to the editor and sometimes scathing reviews, using pseudonyms. The youthful writings of Virginia Woolf were mentioned as being a wonderful source for her biographers. Our own Susannah Fullerton’s lecture was on Katherine Mansfield – how this talented, unconventional New Zealand girl rebelled against her respectable, middle-class family, and wrote wonderful short stories, many while she was still in her teens. One of these, called Juliet, will be published by Juvenilia Press. After lunch, we enjoyed an interesting piece by Jon Spence on Discovering Jane Austen. His forthcoming book, Becoming Jane Austen, concentrates on Jane herself, rather than her relatives or the social background of the times, since he feels that although much has been written about her, she has still got somewhat ‘lost’ in previous biographies. In his research he has focused on different periods of Jane’s life, and the years about which he could discover least were when she was between the ages of 13 and 18. His theme was that it was only through reading her juvenilia, and also ploughing through many editions of The Loiterer, with which her two brothers were so much involved at Oxford, that he was able to form theories about Jane’s thoughts and feelings during her adolescence, all of which are explored in his book. The last presentation of the day was a spellbinding reading by Juliet McMaster of extracts from the stories or diaries of three marvellous children – Daisy Ashford (UK), whose book The Young Visiters [sic] is well known and loved; and Iris Vaughan (Sth Africa) and Opal Whiteley (USA) who are not well known but deserve to be. Opal’s touching diary was written when she was only six years old, in capital letters on brown wrapping paper! (Extracts from her diary have been published by the Juvenilia Press under the title of Peter Paul Rubens and Other Friendly Folk.) The session was a fitting end to a most interesting and entertaining day. The latest Juvenilia Press publication was launched at the conference – Charlotte Brontë’s Tales of the Islanders, Vol.2. Halcyon Evans
Woodcut by Thomas Bewick (1752-1828)
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2002 JASA Conference report -
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Jane Austen and Education ~ Conference Quiz
1. Which two characters attended Cambridge University? 2. Which six characters attend or attended Oxford University? 3. Who learns Italian? 4. Who is the ‘former school-fellow and intimate’ of Mrs.
Allen? 5. Who is Miss Lee? 6. Who runs away from school? 7. What is the name of the family that is going to employ Jane Fairfax as
governess and how many children do they have ? 8. Who spends ‘seven years at a great school in town’? 9. Who ‘does not know the difference between water-colours and crayons’? 10. Which school does Sam Willmot attend? 11. Who describes her governess as ‘a treasure’ and what is the name
of the governess? 12. Who was taught ‘writing and accounts’ by her father and French by
her mother? 13. Which is the last of the Musgrove brothers to be sent to school? 14. How many years does Miss Taylor work for the Woodhouse family? 15. Who must ‘learn to brook being happier’ than he deserves? 16. Who learned music ‘a year, and could not bear it’? 17. Who reads the speeches of Mr Hume, Mr Robertson, Caractacus, Agricola
and Alfred the Great? 18. Which Oxford college was attended by George Austen and which of Jane’s
brothers went there? 19. Who was school-fellow to Mrs Hughes? 20. Who compares the governess trade to the slave trade?
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News and ViewsThe Susannah Fullerton IrisWe all acknowledge and appreciate the value of our President, Susannah Fullerton, but now she’s really famous! A bloom of the quite beautiful Louisiana Iris ( in a magnificent shade of crimson purple, with a yellow gold centre) has been named after her It will be commercially available next year, we believe. We will understand if you want to rush out and buy one when you can! PublicationsSales of ‘our’ publications are going well. Dianne Speakman tells us that Where’s Where in Jane Austen is ‘walking out the door’, which is brilliant. A Century of Wills from Jane Austen’s Family has been reprinted, and is nearly sold out (so hurry if you haven’t got your copy of either of these texts yet). And Susannah Fullerton’s Jane Austen: Antipodean Views is still selling well – particularly during her trip to the US for the JASNA conference, which resulted in a magnificent number of sales. Penny Gay’s Jane Austen and the Theatre is also being extremely well received. The special offer reducing the hardback to $A100 is still available. Use the attached form, and we will forward it on for you. We hope to be able to invite you to the launch of Jon Spence’s Becoming Jane Austen as soon as we have details – publication, we hear, is ‘imminent’. Westminster Abbey Memorial for Fanny BurneyReported by Maev Kennedy, Guardian News Service, London. On the 250th anniversary of her birth, the novelist Fanny Burney has been accorded the rare honour of a memorial window in Poets’ Corner at Westminster Abbey in London. Paula Stepankowsky, president of the Burney Society [and until recently editor of JASNA News], ruefully admits that the most common public reaction will probably be ‘who?’ Burney was one of the most successful writers of her day, author of the bestseller Evelina (1778), a friend of writer Samuel Johnson, and a significant influence on generations of later writers – including Jane Austen, who acknowledged the debt. The site of her grave in Bath in the west of England has been lost, and she is now little read, though there are signs that situation may be changing: a two-day conference in London to mark the anniversary is oversubscribed. Paula says:
Janeites in the makingDid you know that students and other Janeites visit our JASA website at the rate of 7000 visits per month – and growing?! This is quite an achievement for an organisation of our size, and is a compliment to the professionalism of both the Society and the website, created and maintained by our webmaster Deb Williams. It is obvious that very many more non-members than members are among those visitors, which means that some news about Jane, her life and times is reaching a much wider audience – a ‘very good thing’, to be sure. The reports of some of the searches made on the site however, while reflecting the topics set in the HSC for Jane Austen, can be seen (depending on one’s attitude) as either humorous or very sad. They include such items as:
One can only wonder about the intentions of some of the students – and in some cases their ability to use ‘search engines’ in today’s technology-driven world. Humorous it may be, but it does perhaps indicate that as a Society we could productively increase our assistance to students. Some work is in progress in this direction, and our webmaster would be delighted to design and publish student material on the site, but we need to hear from teachers or ex-teachers to assist with appropriate content – study guide items, questionnaires, reading lists or website lists – to direct students’ reading, questions and research. Please contact us if you can assist in any way – see following article. Jane Austen at School – HSC transformationsThe current Jane Austen topic in HSC English, continuing for HSC 2004 and 2005, is ‘transformations’. Module A of the HSC English (Advanced) Course Elective 1 – Transformations – requires students to ‘consider the ways in which transformations [how stories have been adapted to contemporary situations] generate reflections on the texts, contexts and the ways in which texts can be transformed.’ Insofar as Jane Austen is concerned, the comparison is between Emma and Amy Heckerling’s 1995 film Clueless. Students are directed to the superb article ‘Such a
transformation!’: Translation, Imitation and Intertextuality
On http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/clueless.html we have found some parallels drawn between Emma and Clueless, and also one student’s essay on the comparison. We seek assistance from present or ex-teachers with the preparation of appropriate resource material for the topic: please do contact the Editor to discuss, if you can help. Earthly DelightsA group calling itself ‘Earthly Delights’ is organising a ‘Playford Ball’ in Canberra on Saturday 12 April 2003. They tell us that the programme features many of the dances featured in the BBC film of Pride and Prejudice, and offer to arrange accommodation for interstate visitors. One of the organisers, Aylwen Garden, also makes Regency costumes. See more at http://www.earthlydelights. com.au/Playford.html, or ring direct on 02 62811098. Jane Austen in top 100 BritonsDianne Speakman reports that, as mentioned in the last issue of Practicalities, Jane Austen has made the list of the top 100 Britons of all time, voted for in a telephone poll. The list has now been published, in part, airing on tele-vision in the UK in October, and the public has been voting for the order of the top ten. This list can only be described as eclectic, and includes William Shakespeare, Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Princess Diana, Elizabeth I, Oliver Cromwell, John Lennon, Horatio Nelson, Winston Churchill and engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Jane made it to number 70 on the list, which is probably not bad given that this makes her higher on the list than Geoffrey Chaucer (at number 81) and JRR Tolkien at 92. Charles Dickens is at 41, and William Blake at 38. Given also that the list includes a number of pop singers (such as Boy George, Cliff Richard, three of the Beatles – everyone forgets Ringo! – and Freddie Mercury from the band Queen), royalty (including Henry V, Henry VIII, Edward I and II, and Richard III), and scientists (Michael Faraday, Alexander Fleming and Stephen Hawking), the list can be considered to reflect a pretty broad cross-section of opinion. The list is available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/programmes/greatbritons/list.shtml. Harriet Veitch has contributed a Guardian article (5 Nov 2002) on the same list, introducing a piece on Emma Hamilton:
Yet another list ...There appears to be something of an epidemic of ‘little lists’ at the moment. Canberra Member Sue Terry reports a listing of the 100 ‘most meaningful’ books of all time (voted by writers from around the world). Our Jane’s Pride and Prejudice ranked No 4 in 2002, though it was first a short while back. Found at http://library.christchurch.org.nz/Guides/GoodReads/100alltime.asp VALE Oliver MacDonagh, 1924-2002Professor Oliver MacDonagh, valued member and contributor to our Society, and highly respected modern historian, died this year. To those of us who knew this gentle, courteous, self-deprecating gentleman, that is a real loss. His Jane Austen: Real and Imagined Worlds, published in 1991, quickly found its true place amongst the best Austen publications, reflecting as it did his extremely keen historical mind focused on the comparison between places Jane knew (in particular Chawton) and her fictional places (particularly Highbury). We much enjoyed his talk to us at a weekend conference down at Strathavon/Warners’ Lodge, Wyong. His obituary (SMH) describes well his writing and his approach:
He is missed. We offer our sincerest regrets to his widow, Mrs Carmel MacDonagh. Bridget bites back!Recently a Tory English commentator, David Willetts, made a speech about marriage and drew in Bridget Jones:
This produced a piece in the Sunday Times (22 September 2002) by Roland White on exploiting literature for political ends:
Helen Fielding’s reply was,
Harriet Veitch Sharing Jane’s BirthdayAnother woman of note shares Jane’s birthday, though she was born nearly 300 years earlier. Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Queen Isabella of Castile & Ferdinand of Aragon, first of Henry VIII’s six wives, was born on 16 December 1485. She was married to him for 24 years. An argument for the advantages of Jane’s single state, one would think. Austen ‘vogue’ fuels high pricesA set of first edition Jane Austen novels sold at auction in London by Christie’s last year for almost double the estimated price, bringing £59,572 in total for Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park and Emma. The estimate for the five books was £33,000: Christie’s attributes the eventual sale price to interest in Austen’s work. Mark Ghamramani told BBC News Online that ‘the real factor was the fact that Jane Austen is so in vogue and there was a lot of competition in the room.’ The highest price paid at the auction was for a pristine copy of Pride and Prejudice which sold for £23,500, plus copies of Sense and Sensibility for £15,275 and Northanger Abbey for £4,935.
More auction records ...We reported in Practicalities (September 2002) the finding (!) of a complete first edition of Pride and Prejudice in an Ayrshire Castle in July this year. Auctioneers had estimated that the rare set would fetch around £12,000 and were left stunned when it sold in July this year for more than three times that amount, at a world record for an Austen novel of £40,000, or A$111,891.41. Bidders flew to Edinburgh from as far afield as America eager to snap up the three-volume edition. The lot was finally taken up by a private collector who wishes to remain anonymous. The final price tag is the most ever paid for a Jane Austen novel. From http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_637728.html?menu [CBCArtsCanada – ArtsNews (http://www.cbc.ca/artsCanada/stories/austen290702.print) reported the sale at £34,000, or A$95,107.65. We have no information that would explain the difference in reporting.] Postcard from Jane?Checking my letterbox the other day I found a postcard, addressed to me, showing the Pump Room in Bath. I didn’t know anyone visiting or living in Bath so I quickly scanned the back to see who it was from. The signature just read ‘Jane’. But I didn’t know anyone called Jane, I thought. I read the message:
Then I saw the return address. It was from my cheeky relatives, living in Gloucestershire and on a mini-break in Bath, indulging our mutual love of all things Austen! It brightened up the morning! Cassie Futcher Life after ElizabethFrom an interview with Jennifer Ehle (which, by the way, turns out to be pronounced Ee-lee, when I’ve been saying ‘Earl’ all these years), from the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice production, in the Sunday Times Culture magazine, 22 September 2002, about life after Miss Elizabeth Bennet:
Harriet Veitch From the Hampshire Record Office, WinchesterMelisina Trench, a very minor author in the 18th century, married into the Austen Leigh family. Her diary is now in the HRO as part of the papers of James Austen Leigh. The BBC History of May 2002 quotes an encounter Mrs Trench had with Lord Horatio Nelson, which speaks extremely slightingly of Nelson and particularly of Lady Hamilton…
Caustic comments were not confined in the family to Jane! But hers of course were made with more wit. The same BBC History also reports that the Bath spa is re-opening at the end of this year – a brand-new ‘Millennium Spa’ costing £21 million, which will bring very many more visitors to ‘Jane’s’ city of Bath. A comment on priorities!Proportion of British schoolchildren who can correctly spell –
(John Croucher, Professor of Statistics, Macquarie
University. A Dickens Society.A new Dickens Society has been formed. If you’re interested, contact Mrs Valerie Weekes, phone 9909 2828. And a Trollope group!Susannah Fullerton is planning to initiate such a group next year. If you are interested in participating, please contact her on 9380 5894.
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Jane Austen and the SeasideJASA Country Weekend Friday 7th March – Sunday 9th March, 2003 at Otford We could not hope for a better location to suit our theme for the Country Weekend of ‘Jane Austen and the Seaside’. This year the Weekend will be held at Otford, less than two kilometres from the spectacular Bald Hill lookout over Stanwell Tops. The Uniting Conference Centre is located on the southern side of the Royal National Park, 90 minutes south of Sydney City. Situated on 10 hectares of natural bushland, the Centre has a peaceful country atmosphere. The site is prime bushwalking country, and yet is conveniently five minutes from Otford station, and 50 minutes by train from Central Railway station. This is the perfect atmosphere for new members to join in. We plan to hold lots of workshops and small discussion groups designed to get people talking. We will talk about everything from seabathing to holiday romances, elopements and hypochondriacs. Start saving up all those questions about Brighton or Frank and Jane’s flirtation at Weymouth. The Uniting Conference Centre offers basic dormitory style accommodation. You’ll need to bring your own sheets, pillowcase and towel; pillows and blankets are provided. We invite you all to enjoy this fun, intimate and inexpensive weekend in the bush. Cost for full residential is $100, or $60 for non-residential – see order form attached. Meghan Hayward
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2002 JASNA ConferenceAt the next JASNA conference in Toronto, Canada, in October 2002, JASA has two people presenting: Susannah Fullerton will present The Costly Pleasures of Adultery, an adaptation of her JASA 2001 Conference paper, and Pamela Whalan will speak on And what if Mrs Leigh Perrot had been found guilty? – exploring living conditions, and giving a ‘potted history’ of the colony of NSW Mrs LP would have found in 1801 if she had in fact been found guilty of shoplifting and transported. We wish them both well, and know that their professionalism will be well received.
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Foreign Correspondent
CanberraIn June the Canberra Jane Austen Group was treated to the most wonderful Jane Austen mid-winter feast. I can’t thank all the members enough for giving us all such a lovely, relaxed lunch. The day was a great sunny Canberra Saturday, Sue Terry had her dining table beautifully set with 18th century style crockery, cutlery, linen and glasses and both Jane Austen and Laurence Olivier (as Mr Darcy) kept us company on the table top. We were all welcomed to Sue’s house with amusing dinner-time quotes from Jane posted about the place. Gentle period music from composers such as Mozart, Clementi and Gluck wafted in the background while we enjoyed each other’s company and the sumptuous repast. The meal included Pease soup, White soup, Stew & potatoes, salad, chunky homestyle bread rolls, and finished off wonderfully with baked apples and Whipt syllabub (which everyone raved about!), all accompanied by delicious wines or cider and concluded with tea or coffee. It was so enjoyable that not many of us wanted to leave at the end of the afternoon, with our tummies full and our minds stimulated with great conversation and one of Jessie Terry’s ticklish quizzes (this one on clothes). Drag ourselves away we had to, but not before deciding what to do for the next meeting. I think it was Larry’s presence on the dining table that inspired us to have a viewing of the first movie adaptation of Pride and Prejudice for our July meeting – yes, the one with Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson. We all had a good laugh at how truncated the plot was and at the mannerisms of some of the characters and the frilliness and fussiness of the costumes. Sue and I had a chuckle over some of the dances and we all had a sigh during some of the more poignant moments. We agreed that Mr Darcy was much ‘smilier’ than in other versions and were surprised at how Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s visit to Elizabeth towards the end was somehow contrived by Darcy to ascertain Elizabeth’s feelings! (Lady C was his ally in this version!) In conclusion we were all treated to a scrumptious afternoon tea in the winter sunlight. In August we had a wonderful time at Jessie’s place. We had a great turnout – I think I counted nine of us – one of the biggest meetings we’ve had (which says something about our small and intimate group!). For homework we had all read through JA’s Love and Freindship which she wrote at the tender age of 14, and we were all impressed by the sophistication of Jane’s young writing in terms of style and themes. We all laughed heartily at the ridiculous imagery in the piece, the romantic names, the parodies of 18th century manners (eg. taking half-an-hour merely to respond to a knock on the door) and the convoluted plot. Many of us agreed that it would have made a wonderfully theatrical farce to amuse her relatives – who needs TV when you’ve got such a precocious talent living amongst you! Judy had done some great research into the philosophy of the time influenced by the writings of Rousseau (which, we decided, JA was certainly criticising) and Tracey had found some criticism of Love & Freindship which greatly illuminated our understanding and added to the discussion. We all agreed, I think, that many of the themes treated so hilariously in this piece were revisited in many of the later novels, and were clearly the sort of social commentary that concerned Jane Austen throughout her life. After this stimulating and interesting discussion we guessed quotes and struggled vainly through Jessie’s tough quiz on ‘Towns in Jane Austen’ – I think we got about half of them. Ros and I got stuck on ‘that place that starts with Dun .... something’ (Dunsford in S&S) at which point we broke up for a delicious tea and a chat. All in all a very enjoyable afternoon! On Saturday, 19 October, we watched the modern re-telling of Emma, the movie Clueless, and discussed it afterwards. We have our Christmas lunch on Sunday, 1st December. Any member of the Jane Austen Society who lives in or near Canberra – or is visiting! – is welcome to attend any of our meetings. Contact Heather Aspinall on (02) 6247 1137 or email: stoiver@ozemail.com.au for further information. AdelaideThe Adelaide Group had a rollicking workshop on Emma, starting with the question ‘Was Emma really going to change her outlook or did she really learn anything from her day at Box Hill with the friends whose lives she had meddled in?’ In the beginning we had Emma described as either a generous girl coming to a maturity, kind hearted, well meaning, intuitive, intelligent, genuinely ashamed of her actions and remorseful at their outcome or wilful, rich, sheltered, confined, naïve, self important, happy and a delightfully bright girl. So we decided she was hard to pin down. Our aim was to examine Emma in her relationships and see how she responded to other characters and events. As PD James says of Emma the Detective Novel, the clues are all out there. We sought, with the re-evaluation, to discover how and when she changed her outlook and if this change was sustainable in a believable fashion. Emma was generally torn limb from limb, and after the new reading of the novel we can say finally she was praised, vilified, pardoned and finally proposed for beatification. We are looking forward to a wonderful day for Jane’s Birthday where we are having a special performance of a surprise meeting with Miss Austen called ‘The Impertinence of Being Honest’. From Adelaide, we wish all members a joyous Birthday Celebration and a wonderful New Year. Lynnaire Hawker MelbourneThe Jane Austen Society of Melbourne’s mid-winter Meeting, held on Saturday 29 June, was very well attended despite the cold weather. We had two presentations. I gave a short paper entitled Jane Austen and Lord Byron 1813-1815, in which I discussed some of the known similarities and connections associated with these two authors during this period. In particular, I spoke about John Murray, who made his fortune as publisher to Lord Byron and later also became Jane Austen’s publisher. Our second speaker, JASM member Joan Boxshall gave a slide presentation on her recent trip to England and ‘Austen country’. Joan had taken a great deal of trouble in preparing a most entertaining commentary to accompany her many fascinating slides of the places with Austen connections she and her husband had visited. The presentation gave the Society an opportunity to christen its new slide projector, which I am sure will be a great asset to us for future meetings. At our August 31 Meeting, Captain John Potter, Officer commanding No.1 Company, 42nd Royal Highland Regiment (1815), gave a fascinating, illustrated lecture entitled, The British Army in the Regency Period. Captain Potter, looking resplendent in his regimental uniform of the period (which included a Waterloo campaign medal) commenced his address by drawing attention to the number of naval and military characters present in Jane Austen’s novels. He also spoke about the involvement of three of her brothers, Frank, Charles and Henry, who served in the navy and militia during this period. Captain Potter had on display a number of interesting items of uniform and equipment, and members were further entertained with selected video clips of famous battles, at afternoon tea. At the Society’s AGM, held on Saturday 26 October, our guest speaker was Vice-President Andrea Richards, who presented a most interesting paper entitled Jane Austen Shopped till she Dropped. In her address, Andrea spoke about the kind of shopping that was available to Jane Austen and her contemporaries. Our final meeting for 2002 will be a ‘Jane Fest’ to be held on Saturday 30 November with guest speaker well-known Melbourne ceramics historian, Patricia Begg, lecturing on the 18th century Georgian Dessert Table. This should be a most enjoyable day, particularly as the Committee is planning to serve cakes and sweetmeats made to authentic 18th century recipes. We would be delighted to welcome any JASA members who may be visiting Melbourne in 2003 to come along to our meetings. Fay Jones BrisbaneOur first year as a group has gone by very quickly and was most enjoyable. At our last meeting Patrick Wilson gave us a greater insight into the making of his recent book Where’s Where in Jane Austen. He talked also about the July weekend conference at Maitland that he attended: Jane Austen – ‘With regard to Education ...’ I must say we were green with envy, it sounded a fantastic experience. [Note to all to attend next conference! – Ed]. We ended the year with a BBQ at Samford and a special reading of one of Jane’s Juvenilia works, great fun! Meetings in 2003 are planned for the following dates: Sat 8 Feb, Sat 12 April, Sat 14 June, Sat 9 Aug and Sat 11 Oct. Meetings generally start at 1 pm and finish around 3 pm. For address details of the meetings please contact Joan Lucas. We have established a great group and have a relaxed and informal time. If you would like to join us we would make you most welcome. Joan Lucas (07) 3289 5120 Brisbane or joan007 @ ozemail.com.au. Joan Lucas ChristchurchLocal media have recently broadcast material of particular interest to Janeites. First, NZ radio journalist Kim Hill embarked upon a regular series of talks about classic novels with Kate Camp, Writer in Residence at the University of Waikato. The novel chosen to open the series was Pride and Prejudice. Both speakers enthusiastically endorsed it and also the 1995 mini-series well known to most of us. Then TVNZ began another screening of that adaptation in prime time on Saturday evenings. We note that promotional material touts P&P as having inspired Bridget Jones’s Diary, as if the latter is better known than the former! Nevertheless if a new audience takes the opportunity to become acquainted with Jane Austen via TV, we can only applaud the programmers. After all, the series may also encourage some to embark upon reading not only P&P, but also the rest of the canon. By way of the Janeites list on the net we heard of another radio discussion about P&P. The novel was the subject of a discussion on BBC radio by PD James, biographer Claire Tomalin and Fay Weldon in the first instalment of a four part series entitled Cover Stories. We were able to locate the programme online and heard the contributors speak about the book’s enduring charm, while Emilia Fox and Teresa Gallagher provided readings to accompany the proceedings. Print media also continues to reflect the enduring appeal of Jane Austen. We are sure many JASA members will know of the success of book groups in both Australia and New Zealand. In a British publication on this phenomenon called Reading Groups (Oxford UP 2001), author Jenny Hartley records JA’s appearance in the top 50 authors read by groups (between June and December 1999) at No 24, with 17 entries for 6 books. This book also quotes Waterstone’s Reading Survey of the top 30 writers, UK, 1999 with Jane Austen No 18. By the way, Bill Bryson was No 1. Jenny Hartley also notes that Austen is the only author who appears on both the reading groups’ top 50 authors and on the list of top ten writers in the Independent’s survey of 40,000 readers in January 2000 where she is No 8. More than one group listed P&P as particularly successful in terms of discussion, but for others ‘we all enjoyed [it] so it didn’t provoke a lot of discussion.’ We are sure JASA members would have enlivened any such debate! What of our own group’s focus in the past few months? Stimulated by the appeal of JASA’s competition topic this year we amused ourselves by devising correspondence between Catherine Morland and her sister Sally on the subject of Sense and Sensibility, and Christene Evans also enjoyed devising Emma Woodhouse’s probable views on the Dashwoods’ adventures. Naturally Emma took it upon herself to suggest improvements to the plot! Unfortunately these gems were lost upon her somewhat distracted correspondent, Isabella Knightley, who responded (by way of Ruth Williamson’s pen) but failed to acknowledge her sister’s ideas. After all, Isabella was in the midst of domestic crisis with offspring exhibiting possible symptoms of ill health! Christene Evans has also begun work upon an imagined encounter between Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë. While these two literary figures never actually met, Christene has worked upon a scenario in which JA survives her serious illness of 1817 and goes on to write many more highly successful novels. Through an acquaintance with George Henry Lewes and extensive correspondence with him, she meets Charlotte Brontë just after the publication of Jane Eyre in 1847. What would have been the atmosphere of their encounter and the nature of their conversation? Would personal qualities have overcome the antipathy of their outlooks? We may only speculate … Finally we’ve often mused about the reasons readers turn to JA: perhaps some, like ‘Another Lady’ who wrote a completion of Sanditon, claim that ‘we turn to her for relaxation on plane journeys, in family crises and after the sheer physical exhaustion of a servantless world’. Others, like Martin Amis (‘Tinkering with Jane’ in The War Against Cliché, Vintage 2002) ‘suggest that her appeal must be rather broader than that’. We agree with Peter Barnard, a British radio critic, who wrote in the Radio Times magazine (June 2002): ‘… Some books matter a great deal to individuals, whose lives have been altered, influenced, enlivened, re-ordered, just by reading a book …’ We believe Jane Austen’s novels have that sort of impact and that is why they matter to us. Ruth Williamson and UKWe were contacted in September by a group of Chawton residents calling themselves the Friends of Chawton seeking our help in objecting to the Hampshire Council to a development on the old blacksmith’s forge site in the village. As you know, the voice of JASA was significant in having an inappropriate development opposite the Jane Austen House Museum in Chawton declined in the year 2000, which is probably the reason this group sought our support on this occasion. We investigated this as much as distance and the time frame would allow, and finally decided against voicing objections. This decision was assisted by much-appreciated input from high-profile Austen author Maggie Lane, who is also on the board of the JA House Museum Trust (and has now taken on the secretaryship of the UK Jane Austen Society). Though we are of course against any development that would present a real threat to ‘Jane’s’ village, or change its ambience in any major way, we do not want to be seen to be automatic objectors to any development at all in Chawton; the forge site could not support itself in its original purpose, and extension to it evidently does not impinge on the outlook of the JA House. The extension proposed is said to be a sympathetic two-storey one at the rear of the current building. Should any member wish to voice a personal objection, please feel free to do so, addressing your comment to: The East Hampshire District Council, Penns Place, Petersfield, . o . 0 . o . Helen Lefroy reports in the UK JAS Newsletter that the ‘historic family publishing business’ of John Murray has been sold, after 234 years. The publisher for Byron and Walter Scott, Murray also published Emma and Mansfield Park. Ms Lefroy quotes Jane’s reaction to him from a letter to Cassandra (17 October 1815) as ‘A Rogue … but a civil one … He sends more praise however than I expected.’ Ms Lefroy also reports that the early Georgian Ashe House in Hampshire, home of Jane’s friends the Lefroys, is on the market – for an astonishing £5.3 million (A$15 million). The Knight Frank brochure says it was here that Jane ‘was in love as seriously as she ever was with anyone; he was George Lefroy’s nephew who came from Ireland, who is known to have chased Jane around the gardens.’ !! Ms Lefroy’s commonsense reaction to this extraordinary real estate ‘hype’ is to wonder, since the visit was at Christmas in 1795, ‘what on earth they were doing in the garden in midwinter’. . o . 0 . o . A part of Stoneleigh Abbey, Warwickshire is also up for sale. Readers will recall this magnificent property had been in the Leigh family for generations, then through the Will of the unmarried Mary Leigh went to James Leigh Perrot (Mrs Cassandra Austen’s brother - who took a financial settlement instead), thence to James Henry Leigh in 1806. Jane and her mother visited in the same year. Agents Knight Frank have announced that A spectacular apartment and self-contained annexe in Grade 1 Listed Stoneleigh Abbey in a parkland setting. Reception hall, 3 reception rooms, 3 bedroom suites, 3 ensuite bathrooms, two garages, Separate guest/staff annexe will cost a mere £850,000.
Meghan Hayward
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Good news for Austen scholarsCambridge University Press has just begun a new scholarly edition of all of Austen’s work – the first full, scholarly edition since the 1920s. It will note, and weigh, the understanding of Austen ushered in by recent approaches to her work. The 10-volume Cambridge set – including the six published novels, the juvenilia, the unpublished later work, and two volumes of commentary – is scheduled for completion by 2004. It will be the first full scholarly edition since R W Chapman’s 1923 edition, which was the first such treatment of an English novelist and has been the basis for most Austen volumes since. The following is extracted from ‘With Sex and Sensibility, Scholars Redefine Jane Austen’, by Peter Monaghan, in The Chronicle of Higher Education, August 17, 2001, submitted by Meghan Hayward. In the pantheon of ‘serious’ literature, Austen enjoys the kind of broad acclaim shared perhaps only by Shakespeare. Her brilliantly modulated depictions of characters interacting amidst country balls, parlor entertainments, minutely inflected courtship rituals, and little, but significant, outings, appeal to general readers and literary critics alike. …Throughout the 1990s, Austen scholars increasingly presented the novelist as more radical and subversive than is generally supposed. More recently, scholars have begun to address the spate of film and television adaptations of Austen’s novels and what they mean for her cultural status. In Recreating Jane Austen, published in November 2001, John Wiltshire, a reader in English at Latrobe University in Australia, tries to develop ‘grounds for choosing one kind of adaptation over another,’ he says. Many critics have commented that Austen’s novels approach Shakespeare’s plays in their artistry. ‘I use Jane Austen’s relationship to Shakespeare as a kind of model for the whole question of adapting from one medium to another,’ says Mr. Wiltshire. Few Austen adaptations succeed, not because they distort the novels – ‘I don’t think the notion of fidelity to the novel gets you anywhere,’ he says – but because they fail to ‘re-create the novel and do it on their own terms.’ Analysing movies is something that many Austen scholars find themselves doing. ‘The films certainly have added another arrow to the quiver of Austen scholars,’ says Ruth Perry, a professor of literature at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who is completing a volume of her essays about Austen. Although the movies have swelled the ranks of her annual course on Austen, in the majority of adaptations ‘most of the intellectual content gets dropped out,’ she complains – particularly ‘the complicating lines, the deeply ironic ones, where the mind has a lot of play.’ Some filmmakers have their eye on academe. The Canadian director Patricia Rozema’s 1999 film version of Mansfield Park responded to old but still-disputed criticisms of Austen made by the scholar Edward Said. Mr Said argued that the novel, in which the head of the family appears to be enriching himself with slave labour in Antigua, contributed like many classics of Western culture to the English privileged classes’ moral reasoning for colonialism. Ms Rozema proposed a kind of anti-imperialist Austen by making Fanny Price an appalled witness to the impact of slave trading. For Mr Wiltshire, the merits or demerits of the film aside, Ms Rozema’s work resembles much current Austen scholarship that seeks to ‘understand "Jane Austen" in inverted commas – her reputation and her image.’ The film also has drawn popular attention to a now well-established school of feminist, gender-studies, and other non-mainstream analysis of Austen. … ‘There’s been an explosion of new literary research based on the fallout from literary theory, which is really problematising a lot of aspects of Austen,’ says Michael Wheeler, a professor of English at the University of Southampton, in Britain. His catholic stance is noteworthy, since he is one of two co-directors of Cambridge’s new scholarly edition, which will include extensive glosses and will note variants among early editions. The Cambridge edition’s ten editors, including Mr Wiltshire, are based in Britain, the US, and Australia [with Professor Jocelyn Harris in New Zealand]. They will take note of old-style textual studies – nailing down the precise chronology of Austen’s writings – as well as the newer approaches and recent work on Austen’s place in the history of the book and of book publishing. More fine-tuning in Austen scholarship relates to the increased attention to woman writers generally. Mr. Wheeler, the Cambridge editor, [was until recently] also the director of the new Centre for the Study of Early English Women’s Writing (1600-1830) which will open in 2003 in Chawton House, the home of one of Austen’s brothers, on whose estate she lived the last eight years of her life. The centre, largely financed by a private foundation backed by Sandy Lerner, a Silicon Valley-enriched Austen enthusiast, will house an extensive library of books by women. The collection of more than 4,000 novels and other publications includes rare books that Jane Austen probably read, for her name is on lists of subscribers who pre-ordered them. With such compelling titles as Lovers and Friends; or Modern Attachments (1821), by Anne Hatton, of Swansea, the Chawton collection will no doubt increase a trend of historicisation in Austen scholarship. Janet Todd, a professor of English at the University of Glasgow who is Mr. Wheeler’s fellow director of the Cambridge edition, considers that ‘Austen becomes in a sense much funnier and more acute if you put her in context. Because quite often she’s satirizing her sisters. She finds them, I think, moving, but also ridiculous.’ You may visit The Chronicle via the World Wide web at: http://chronicle.com John Wiltshire, a co-editor for the Cambridge Jane Austen Project, and Jocelyn Harris, who is currently editing Persuasion for the same project, will be speaking to us in 2004 about their work for this important new Cambridge University Press publication.
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Jane & the Internet
Jane Austen Concordancehttp://www.concordance.com A handy site for Austen scholars – use this site to search the text of each of Austen’s novels, and Lady Susan and other early works. On this site you can:
But for faster, simple text searches of all 6 of Austen’s novels, simultaneously, it’s better to use http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/novlsrch.html How Jane Austen’s characters talkhttp://www.dsu.edu/~johnsone/austench.html In this article Eric Johnson, Professor of English and Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Dakota State University, discusses how the use of pronouns (and other words) in the dialogue of the characters in Austen’s novels can be revealing, and sometimes surprising. For example, the characters that use the lowest percentages of first-person pronouns (I, me, my, myself) are Fanny Price and Anne Elliot — Austen’s most selfless heroines. While (surprisingly) the character with the highest percentage is … Jane Fairfax! London in 1827http://www.bathspa.ac.uk/greenwood/imagemap.html On this clickable Greenwood’s map you can zoom in and out on the streets of London as they were in Austen’s time. Lit QuizAnd JASA members wishing to test their knowledge of Pride and Prejudice may do so at http://www.cliffsnotes.com/tests/pride/quiz.asp. The questions are ‘perfectly reasonable’ for readers who know the novel, such as ourselves! 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongueftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext04/dcvgr10.txt This work by Captain Grose et al will tell you, among other things, that Jane Austen was an ape leader, i.e. an old maid; whose punishment after death, for neglecting to increase and multiply, would be, it was said, leading apes in hell; and in Northanger Abbey, when James Morland described his friend John Thorpe as a "little of a rattle" he might have meant rattle-pate, i.e. a volatile, unsteady, or whimsical person. Travels in England in 1782ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext04/teng10.txt Charles P Moritz was an early backpacker! A young Prussian clergyman, Pastor Moritz travelled for 7 weeks, chiefly on foot but on occasion among the luggage on a stage coach, with a copy of Milton’s Paradise Lost in one pocket and a change of linen in the other. His story presents to us ‘as much of the England of 1782 as he was able to see with eyes full of intelligence and a heart full of kindness’. Ships of the Old NavyAlso on a scholarly note, a site with all those technical details you may have been wondering about concerning the Royal Navy in JA’s time: http://www.cronab.demon.co.uk/INTRO.HTM Ruth Williamson |
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