|
 |
A Century of WillsA Century of Wills from Jane Austen’s Family 1705-1806, published by JASA, with introductions by Jon Spence, is now in print! Successfully launched on 13 June at the NSW State Library, this publication is receiving good response from local and overseas purchasers/readers. As a Society, we should be delighted that it is our own Australian society which takes this ground-breaking step of itself publishing a work. And A Century of Wills is not only an excellent academic primary resource on the economic structure which formed the background to Jane Austen’s life, and even for some of her writings, it is also a fascinating read! Read more about this publication and use the wills order form to obtain your copy. Enjoy!
|
Susannah Fullerton |
|
Letter from the PresidentDeath is a subject we associate with the Brontës, who all died young and who depicted many death scenes in their novels. There are plenty of deaths in Charles Dickens’ books too - the long, lingering death of Little Nell is just one example. Jane Austen’s admired Samuel Richardson spent several chapters killing off his heroine Clarissa and the young Jane Austen was merciless in killing off various characters in her juvenilia. Death, however, is not a topic we normally associate with Jane Austen. Her characters ‘shuffle off this mortal coil’ off stage and their deaths are dealt with briskly and ironically by their creator. It is death, however, or rather the prospect of death, which forms the ‘raison d’être’ of JASA’s first book publication A Century of Wills from Jane Austen’s Family 1705-1806. This book, launched in June 2001, marks an important moment in the development of JASA. Our member Jon Spence has collected together 15 wills, written two hundred years ago by Jane’s various relations. The introductions Jon has written for these wills are fascinating. They show how Jane Austen was affected by the ways in which her relatives bequeathed their money, they show the patriarchal 18th century society upholding the status quo and they portray quite delightfully the ‘follies and nonsense, whims and inconsistencies’ of human nature. This book is a unique resource for Jane Austen enthusiasts and scholars everywhere and JASA is to be congratulated for bringing it into existence. This has been an excellent year for JASA so far. Members have enjoyed stimulating and wonderfully entertaining talks from Dr Peter Fitzpatrick (on Jane Austen and Dickens) and Dr Mary Webber (on the horrifying state of medicine in Jane Austen’s day). As usual, our Study Day on Sense and Sensibility was booked out months before and was hugely enjoyed by all who attended. We have our day conference on Jane Austen and Love to look forward to on Bastille Day (I’m not entirely sure that Jane Austen would have approved of connecting love with anything French!!) My thanks to all the committee for their endless hard work in making sure that JASA events run so smoothly and well, and to Helen Malcher and her editorial team who have, yet again, given us a newsletter and Sensibilities of the highest standard. Susannah Fullerton
Current JASA PublicationsThe June 2001 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:
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'.
|
 |
|
Letter from ChawtonDear Friends, Has anything really changed with that favourite conversation subject - the English weather - in 190 years? Doubtless, even in antipodean corners, news filtered through of torrential downpours and flooding (officially the worst in 200 years: Uckfield and Lowes in West Sussex which were inundated continuously are only 20 miles from here); and the Lavant Stream in the dip of the village cricket field opposite Jane Austen’s house is a veritable lake, though fortunately not reaching the road or threatening to cross it. So if we refer to "Chawton, Wednesday May 29 [1811] ... We sat upstairs ... and had Thunder & Lightening as usual. I never knew such a Spring for Thunder storms as it has been ... Thank God we have had no bad ones here ..." Then we have near panic over the Foot and Mouth disease outbreak nationally apparently ‘closing the countryside’ (much of the media hyperbole probably exacerbating this by not drawing a clear distinction on what was open or not). In fact, so far Hampshire as a County has not had any outbreaks, and we have not been affected by restrictions in practice, though the farm fields at either end of the village, and some of the Great House parkland have sheep on them. The commercial reality for our house is that although visitor numbers like almost everywhere universally were down 40% in March, the late Easter saw 883 visitors over the four day holiday compared with 844 the previous year. With about 100 visitors on many days now - a level which is comfortable both for them and does the house no damage - near normality has returned. Although some parks and footpaths are still closed for cross-country walking as a precaution, most other attractions, hotels and eating houses are fully open and accessible; so the message is that Britain is still welcoming its visitors, and of course especially those on vacation from Australia. But please do not imagine that all is or has been gloom or despondency. As I pen (or key) this note we have sun and the temperature reaching the 70 deg F mark for the first time this year. Again "May 29 [1811] ... Some of the Flower seeds are coming up very well ... & the whole of the Shrubbery Border will soon be very gay with Pinks and Sweet Williams, in addition to the Columbines already in bloom." Well our shrubbery border is still doing well with Pinks and Sweet Williams in addition to Columbines (plus ça change). The swallows have taken up their usual summer tenancy in the Granary Alcove, and are joined by a Robin and family as neighbours (not always harmoniously!). Indeed the garden is a continuous symphony of song. "Castle Square, Tuesday Dec 27 [1808] ... Yes, yes we will have a Pianoforte, as good as can be got for 30 guineas ... & I will practice country dances, that we may have some amusement for our nephews & nieces when we have the pleasure of their company." Although not Jane’s own, our 1810 Clementi pianoforte in the Drawing Room, now restored to full playable condition and looking very smart through JASNA’s kind donation, has been earning its upkeep. A professional recording session with modern sophisticated equipment was done in October and a new CD "Jane Austen Entertains" has just been issued. The pieces are all from music books in the collection played by Dr Martin Soutar, with Sara Stowe (soprano) and Jenny Thomas (German flute). Once again we can enjoy exactly the sounds which Jane herself did in her own drawing rooms (available Classical Communications label CCL CD805 at STG12.99 available from here). On Easter Monday, Lady Angelica Warburton and her constant companion Lady Patience Belmont (our fictitious widowed characters from 1808) called by. Much animated (period) conversation ensued - Lady Angelica demonstrating her still life painting accomplishments, and Lady Patience delighting us on the pianoforte in between teaching children how to make and write with a real quill pen - ink all over their fingers! Lady Angelica is ‘in reduced circumstances’ so did not have her large entourage of earlier years, but still recommends some extremely potent (and unpleasant sounding) remedies for all your ailments. Our visitors were entertained, and sometimes bemused. "Our Chawton home how much we [continue] to find it to our mind ..."but then you already know the rest. As many of you know, Jean Bowden is relaxing in her full and well-earned retirement in her cottage after 16 years here, though she will still help once a month as a Sunday steward. Our Trust is much in her debt for the splendid work she has done. Good wishes to you all, Tom Carpenter PS: Thank you all for your support on the Planning Objection to the development opposite – we still await to learn if there will be an Appeal.
|
 Alberta and Henry Burke, founders of Goucher College’s extensive Jane Austen collection |
|
25 Years of Jane AustenThe venerable Goucher College in Baltimore Maryland has, importantly for us, a great deal of Jane Austen material, known as the Henry and Alberta Burke Collection. The Goucher website describes the collection as ‘more than 1000 catalogued items and twenty linear feet of related materials’. So, who were Henry and Alberta Burke, and how did their collection end up in a private American college so far from Jane Austen’s home? Perhaps you know the name of Henry Burke as one of the founders of JASNA, and Goucher College as the home of the present editor of JASNA’s journal Persuasions, but what is the story behind them and their connection? In 1928, the then Alberta Hirshheimer graduated from Goucher College with an English degree, then went on to do her Masters (with a thesis on writer Maria Edgeworth) at the University of Wisconsin. In 1930, she married Henry Burke of Wisconsin, and from that moment there was no stopping this pair of indefatigable collectors. To give you some idea of their acquisitional instincts, not only did they put together over 45 years what became the Goucher College Jane Austen collection, but also huge collections of ballet books and programs, of fabrics and clothing, of 1000 books on dress and costume, as well as art books. The Austen collection, according to Henry Burke, started with Mrs Burke. She was always a great reader and brought to her marriage a copy of Keynes Bibliography. The real beginning was in London in 1935, when she was looking for items from Keynes. Funnily enough, the man who helped her most in London was Mr Cohen of Marks & Co. the very bookshop made famous years later by Helene Hanff in 84 Charing Cross Road (in the book Ms Hanff confesses that the only non-fiction(!!) work she had been able to read was Pride and Prejudice). Mrs Burke didn’t start out to make a collection, it’s just that once she got it started the two of them couldn’t stop, and couldn’t stop relating all their interests to Austen. The result is a collection not just of books about Austen, but books and magazines and ephemera of anything that relates to Austen and her world of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, as well as many pieces about theatre and film productions and modern audiovisual material. At one stage it also included the lock of Austen’s hair now in Chawton Cottage. Mrs Burke donated that in 1949 after Mr Carpenter, who had acquired the cottage as a memorial to his son killed in World War II, complained that ‘an American’ had bought the hair. At a meeting of the Jane Austen Society Mrs Burke rose and said ‘I am the American who bought Jane’s hair and if the society would like to have it, I shall be glad to make a contribution of it.’ Mrs Burke kept collecting until her death in 1975. The collection was then sent to Goucher in memory of her parents, and with it a bequest to help to keep it up to date. In 1979, Mr Burke helped to form JASNA, and he lived until 1989. Unfortunately of course, we can’t just pop in and visit the collection from here, and although the website (www.goucher.edu/ library) gives a good introduction to the collection, it does not provide examples. The website says, however, that scholars can use the collection with a computer and a modem, so anyone interested could follow this up through the website. Scholars in JASA will be interested to hear that the college now offers a biannual Scholar-in-Residence Grant for use of the materials. Details of this can also be found on the website. Harriet Veitch
|
|
|
John Knatchbull - not so black as he's paintedIn the JASA Newsletter 17, we published an excerpt from Ruth Park’s Sydney, of a most entertainingly lurid story about Jane Austen’s remote connection John Knatchbull who died on the gallows in Sydney. A contact from a law student who read the piece suggests that it may have been just a little too lurid – and he backs his claim up with court documents of the day. Knatchbull was certainly no prize, but doesn’t seem to have been quite the psychopath depicted. He was certainly dismissed from the Navy with gambling debts, despite having a record for bravery, and was transported to New South Wales for being a pickpocket. He was also sentenced to death for forgery (under the name of John Fitch) in 1831, but this was later commuted and he was sent to Norfolk Island. Back in Sydney, he certainly murdered a Mrs Jamieson and was sentenced to hang for it. The night before his execution in February 1844 he confessed to the murder, although he resolutely maintained that he had not gone to Mrs Jamieson’s house with intent to murder. The hanging in front of Darlinghurst Gaol was certainly a spectacle. All the Sydney newspapers of the time reported it, some in sombre, serious and moralistic tones, some with the air of reporting on a racemeeting where a jolly good time was had by all. It is always hard to size crowds, and the numbers given, from 5000 to 10,000, are no wilder than guesstimates made today. The crowd is reported to have filled all the streets around Darlinghurst, and all the papers, whatever their views of the day, had strongly disapproving words to say about the number of women and children attending the ‘show’. Some papers had the crowd chastened by the dreadful spectacle, others have the crowd jeering as the body twitched its last, so we’ll probably never know the truth. However, although movies would have us believe that hanging is a swift and painless
death, an English study of capital punishment, The Hanging Tree, points out that
death by hanging is frequently a long and painful process, sometimes aided by the hangman
or friends of the executed swinging on the legs of the suffering object to hasten
strangulation or neck-breaking. So it is not impossible that Knatchbull did take some time
to die, affording the crowd plenty of time to heckle and disparage. There was even a
somewhat ghoulish pamphlet produced about the affair, for the price of sixpence with
‘full particulars’, his ‘dismissal from the Service for tyranny’, his
capture as a pickpocket’, and his history to ‘the last dreadful act of atrocious
Of course there were plenty of unsavoury characters in Sydney and no doubt many of them worse than Knatchbull. His misfortune was to be nobly connected, and unwittingly connected to Jane Austen, however remotely. Otherwise he would be today barely a footnote to history. Harriet Veitch
|
|
|
Foreign CorrespondentFor contact details of other Jane Austen societies and links to other Jane Austen web sites see LINKS. Jane Austen in the Blue MountainsThe afternoon of Saturday 26 May was bright and sunny when six dedicated Janeites got together in the Blue Mountains for the first time to discuss ‘things Jane’. After some debating as to which direction the fledgling group should take, it was decided over a delicious afternoon tea by the fire, to start off by discussing one of Jane’s books in depth, and by vote, Persuasion was chosen. The next meeting will be on Saturday 30 June at 2.30, The Glen, 71 Lalor Drive, Springwood. Any one interested in coming please contact Elizabeth Lindsay on (02) 4751 6697 or e-mail BethofTheGlen@bigpond.com Elizabeth Ayres Report from CanberraThe Canberra Branch of JASA has launched itself successfully with a nice little group of interested members of the ‘mother’ group. We now have about 8 people interested in attending regular meetings of the group, thanks to the generous assistance of Dianne Speakman and Susannah Fullerton. We’re still a fledgling group settling into a routine. So far, we have had two meetings where we’ve watched some very amusing, ‘picturesque’ and educational videos on Jane’s life and works (kindly supplied by JASA’s library service). At this stage we plan to meet on the first Saturday of each month at 1.30pm at a member’s house for a very casual and informal meeting over afternoon tea where lots of chat is enjoyed and perhaps we’ll learn something more about our favourite author along the way. Any Canberra, or region, member is welcome to attend (we encourage non-members to attend too as perhaps they’ll want to join!) and can contact me for further information (02) 6247 1137 or stoive@ozemail.com.au. On behalf of the group, I’d like to thank the Sydney members for all their generous support in getting the Canberra Group up and running. Heather Aspinall Report from ChristchurchFirst, we are delighted to praise the generosity of our friends at the JA Society in Adelaide, Christchurch’s sister city. They have provided us with a copy of a scholarly paper on the legal position of women in Jane Austen’s time and it has certainly heightened our appreciation of the sharp distinctions to be made between life in 1800 and how we live in 2001. As planned late last year, a local reading group undertook a journey of discovery into another of JA’s novels and this time the subject was Northanger Abbey. Once again participants found much to praise. In particular, its wonderful cast of minor characters earned an enthusiastic response, for who could fail to enjoy the picture of Mrs Allen’s inanities, Isabella Thorpe’s roving gold-digging eye and brother John’s boorishness? Readers felt they had actually met such individuals or at least their present day parallels in places much closer to home than Bath! Speaking of that spa as the setting for much of Northanger Abbey, some of the group’s readers expressed disappointment with the deliberately unromantic picture Jane Austen provides of Catherine’s uncomfortable experiences in the cramped Assembly Rooms. We were fortunate that more than one of our number had visited them, and were able to confirm that the Rooms are not especially spacious and so overcrowding would have been a fact of life at such gatherings. From assemblies talk moved on to the nature of JA’s world. In her writing she chose to concentrate upon a well defined section of the society she knew. Her consummate skill in presenting that world is measured by the great success her work continues to enjoy among readers living some 200 years after she wrote about her own contemporaries. Perhaps, as Elizabeth Vallance has noted, one of the reasons for the perennial appeal of Jane Austen is ‘...To live for a little in a world where a smile means a smile and a kiss means a wedding, is a welcome relief from our own moral laissez-faire.’ We have discovered more material on this theme, including some from the celebrated critic, Lionel Trilling. He wrote an unfinished essay, truncated by his final illness, entitled ‘Why We Read Jane Austen.’ He concluded that we read ‘about the conduct of other people as presented by a writer highly endowed with moral imagination’ and that when we ‘see this conduct as relevant to our own... it redeems the individual from moral torpor.’ Twenty years earlier, musing on Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, he had written ‘... never before had the moral life been shown as she shows it to be, never before had it been conceived to be so complex and difficult and exhausting.’ Besides exploring critical studies, we have also found time to involve ourselves in other projects. Christene Evans has embarked on a new version of Pride & Prejudice called Pride & Precedence. In this she intends that the Bennet’s last child turn out to be a son, who of course will break the entail. Unfortunately though, he is destined to be a male version of the unborn fifth daughter, Lydia, and to cause just as much trouble and worry as she did to her family. Eventually he even comes under Wickham’s evil influence, as she did, if in a different way, and his reckless actions threaten to ruin his sisters’ love lives ... further developments are awaited! Finally the 1995 film adaptation of Persuasion has screened on TV here recently and while we had to wait six years for it to appear on a free-to-air channel – almost as long as Anne Elliot did to see Captain Wentworth again – we were pleased to see this thoughtful dramatisation secure both prime time and a slot free of advertisements. We salute the programmers on this occasion! Ruth Williamson & Christene Evans Jane Austen Society of MelbourneThe Jane Austen Society of Melbourne’s year got off to an interesting start with the guest speaker at its first meeting for 2001 being a professor of ... biochemistry! Yes, intriguing as it may sound, JASM’s February meeting included a talk from Dr Gideon Polya from Latrobe University on the subject of Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility, and Truth in an Open Society, which drew parallels between Jane’s works and social upheavals of the time, particularly in colonial India. In contrast, the guest speaker at JASM’s April meeting was in slightly more familiar territory. Patricia Begg spoke on Lace and Fashions during Jane Austen’s Era. Perhaps most enticing is a report in the April edition of the JASM newsletter about a new biography of Jane written by American Professor John McAleer to be published next year, in which Professor McAleer shows a link between Jane Austen and current US President George W. Bush through royal ancestry dating back to the Plantagenets. Caroline Bingley would be impressed! Dianne Speakmann Report from WAOur Jane Austen group has been busy, immersed in much of Austen life, with guests speaking of lace and daffodils. Mrs Olwyn Scott from the Lace Guild of WA gave us all a very interactive and informative talk, and allowed us to handle some of her beautiful lace, though we also learned that during Jane Austen’s time, lace wasn’t as popular as previous or later times in history, due to the desire for simple, classical lines! Our end-of-year excursion last year was to Woodbridge House, which had been the home of Fanny Harper, nee Fanny de Burgh! The owner of Woodbridge, Mr Charles Harper, founded Guildford Grammar, a boy’s school. The house was considered in the late 19th century to be ‘one of the most gracious of WA’s homes’. With such contacts, we expected of course nothing less! and I am sure there was a Mr Collins back then to give such comments too. Do call Susan Evans on (08) 9375 9909 if you are in WA. if you would like to join us. Katarina Bavcevic
|
|
Jane & the InternetJane in CyberspaceRosalind Gordon <rosgo@att.net> reported on the Janeites mailing list that ‘the t.v. broadcast about Ellen MacArthur, who was the fastest woman and youngest person to sail around the world alone, showed a dog eared copy of Pride and Prejudice in her cabin. Wise choice!’ On the net where everything is possible, contributors are free to speculate about how JA’s heroes might have related to each other. Also from the Janeites list is Nancy Mayer <nmayer@bellsouth.net> with her reaction to Emma’s leading man: ‘I do like Mr. Knightley. He has something in common with Wentworth. I think he, Wentworth, and Col. Brandon could be friends. I am not certain about Darcy, Edward, or Edmund.’ Perhaps we might also look at how the different ladies from the novels would get on: the potential for Fanny to shrink from Emma, who might well clash with Elizabeth Bennet, whereas Elinor could well appreciate the good company of Anne Elliot or the refreshing honesty of Catherine Morland! Ever wanted to identify those errors and anachronisms present in movie adaptations of JA’s work? See details of faux pas in Emma Thompson’s adaptation of S&S and others. JASA members with fond memories of the Ehle/Firth version of P&P may enjoy visiting this web site for everything they could ever wish to know about the series at a site called The P&P Paradise Christene Evans has read that a modern version of Pride and Prejudice is going to be filmed, according to the director of the new film of Bridget Jones’ Diary. Read the Guuardian review. What do members think of attempts to ‘modernise’ P&P? Would five girls live at home in the country these days? Christene has been amusing herself by trying to bring all the characters into the 21st century, so that Mr Bennet is a writer, Jane is a nursery-school teacher; Elizabeth is at a red-brick university reading Law and Mr Darcy an up-&-coming Oxford don and a devotee of Jane Austen! Other JASA members are welcome to indulge themselves in this exercise. Ruth Williamson & Christene Evans Chawton House Library (www.chawton.org)The Chawton House ‘Novels-on-line’ project continues apace. In the December 2000 issue of the Newsletter, we reported that the first of a collection of novels by early English women writers had been placed online. The good news is that The Unexpected Legacy is now joined by an additional ten titles, ranging from the prosaically named Romance Readers and Romance Writers : A Satirical Novel by Sarah Green to the exotic-sounding Drelincourt and Rodalvi; or, Memoirs of Two Noble Families : A Novel by Elizabeth Byron [Strutt]. Each online novel includes an index with publication details and a short description. For example, the description of Romance Readers and Romance Writers : A Satirical Novel (published in 1810) begins, ‘A brilliantly amusing burlesque noir, lampooning the absurdities and affectations of the contemporary novel. Having read too many romances, the heroine, Margaret, who prefers to be known as ‘Magritta’, is like Don Quixote in seeing romance and sensation in the most everyday situations.’ My favourite though has to be Agnes de Courci – A domestic tale by Anna Maria Bennett, the description of which reads in part, ‘The heroine, Agnes, embodies every perfection, but suffers nonetheless when she unknowingly marries her half brother. He commits suicide rather than live with the incestuous passion, and Agnes, mad with grief, dies a raving maniac (having leapt over the ha-ha)’. This is what the internet is for! Dianne Speakman
|
|
|
  FEEDBACK: info@jasa.net.au 29 January 2004 HOME | What's New | About Jane | About JASA | JASA News | Sensibilities | Calendar | Conference | Book Reviews | JASA Library | Writing Competition | Mrs Goddard's School | Regency Fair | LINKS |
