Jane Austen Society of AustraliaLady Susan
Study Day 1998
Lady Susan ~ Study Day
Members were asked to contribute some very brief ideas to describe
the Study Day, and blessed us with an over-abundance! Perhaps that demonstrates the joy
members get out of having the freedom to discuss our favourite topic in smaller groups The
following are extracts from those reports.
This was a lovely way to spend a rainy Saturday! Nora Walker initiated a
‘round the room’ quiz on the novel, and Christopher Cooper introduced a testing
chronology game on events in the work. Eight well-filled tables of eager participants were
each given a topic pertaining to Lady Susan to analyse and discuss – such as
parenting, education, seduction and ‘Who is the heroine?’ Much heated discussion
and of course lots of laughter. Our group had some difficulty coming to grips with
‘Who is the heroine?’ ‘Anti-heroine’ seemed a possibility for the
protagonist – even ‘villain’ in one participant’s view – and
Frederica has some right to the ‘heroine’ title. We concluded however that Jane
Austen, writing at such a tender age, was perhaps still toying with the concept of a
heroine, building on some of the melodrama of contemporary literature, as well as on
Sheridan and Restoration comedy for her characters.
Following lunch, group leaders gave their enlightening reports –
spokeswoman Meg Hayward gave her group’s summing up in the form of A Handbook on
Seduction for Young Ladies (or How to Catch the Man You want) (qv) to much
amusement. I’m sure I heard the Rev. Fordyce turn in his grave!
G K Chesterton’s statement ‘I for one would have willingly
left Lady Susan in the wastepaper basket’ was then most ably debated by Pamela
Whalan and Hilary Rudder. The ensuing discussion bristled with indignation in defence of Lady
Susan, with few supporting such heresy. However, the adroitness of both debaters
ensured the result was a draw.
The ongoing chatter as we prepared to leave certainly indicated that the
day had enthused us all.
Beth Cremer
Handbook for Seduction
How To Catch The Man You Want written for Cosmopolitan
Magazine
Never forget that you are first and foremost superior to everyone else,
and most particularly, to the man who is your quarry. Your prey should be a gentleman of
fortune and preferably one of agreeable appearance. A handsome man makes the sport so much
more worthwhile. In order to enjoy the fruits of your labours later, ensure that your
gentleman is not one of these tiresome ‘men of character’ full of scruples and
learning. Clever gentlemen full of impertinent and ridiculous questioning are excessively
troublesome.
Your countenance to the ladies of the household should be sweet, gentle,
frank and affectionate, with generous heart and temper, easy conversation, and a display
of warm attachment to their children. A quiet pleasing manner will serve better than a
display of cleverness or accomplishment. A little notice bestowed upon a man with a mild
countenance will bewitch him with very little effort or display of art on your part.
A private conference is essential to convincing difficult gentlemen of
your sincerity and innocence. When alone you will be able to calmly explain with a solemn
tenderness. Any woman should be able to soften and tranqualize(sic) his fears and quiet
any disturbances to her schemes.
Enjoy the pursuit. It is one of the blessings of existence to know that
exquisite pleasure of subduing an indolent spirit, in making a person predetermined to
dislike, acknowledge one’s superiority.
Special Guest Writer,
Lady Susan Vernon
Assisted by Meg Hayward
Conduct book heroines
Books setting out the proper conduct for young ladies were very common
in Jane Austen’s time, usually written by men, often clergymen. We know that Jane
Austen read the most popular and influential of them. Some of the qualities set out in the
Conduct Books as essential in young ladies included:
– Modesty (the ability to blush prettily, be retiring in
company and not to put oneself or one’s opinions forward, especially in the company
of young men).
– Quietness, obedience to parents and husband, neatness in
appearance at all times.
– Social graces and accomplishments (music, dancing,
languages).
– Ability to faint or burst into tears on receipt of shocking
news or in awkward situations.
[Yet note Jane’s early Love & Freindship: ‘Ran mad
as often as you chuse, but do not faint’!]
We decided that Frederica nearly satisfied the demands of the Conduct
Book, as did Anne de Bourgh, Jane Bennet, Isabella Knightley, Harriet Smith and others.
Those who failed to qualify demonstrated that Jane Austen was deliberately showing the
Conduct Book heroine to be untrue to life; that sometimes a lady could behave against
nearly all the rules of the Conduct Book, like Elizabeth Bennet, and still be a charming
young lady; and sometimes she could behave exactly according to the conduct rules, like
Jane Bennet, and almost end in disaster.
Bertha McKenzie
Education
Two aspects of girls’ education were considered on the Lady
Susan study day; the type of education available and its purpose.
Home education was most common for the middle class, provided by a
governess, the mother and/or various visiting ‘masters’. Establishments such as
Miss Summers’ in Lady Susan taught young ladies to be accomplished, and
perhaps supplied an alternative for daughters whose presence at home was inconvenient. Mrs
Goddard’s school catered for the lower middle class, enabling students to
‘scramble themselves into a little education, without any danger of coming back
prodigies’. (Emma, Ch.3)
In Lady Susan’s view, education taught the accomplishments
necessary ‘to finish a pretty woman’ (Letter #7) and enable her to gain a
husband. In Pride & Prejudice Caroline Bingley and Mr Darcy list the
educational requirements for an accomplished lady, and young women with uncertain marriage
prospects, such as Jane Fairfax, needed to be educat-ed in order to gain some means of
support.
The Jane Austen heroines who appear to be the best educated were those
who were widely read and self-reliant. The group concluded that Anne Elliot was the
epitome of an educated, accomplished lady.
Penny Morris
Town v Country
Jane Austen’s own country upbringing seems to have
given her an appreciation of the merits of a pastoral life over the excitement and variety
provided by town life. Many of her characters who have Town as their natural habitat
exhibit negative or immoral behaviour such as dissipation, vice, artifice, deceit,
ill-nature, meanness and bad manners. In some cases, these characters are attractive in
person or personality, for example - Lady Susan, Willoughby, Wickham, or the Crawfords.
The hardened Town villains are very uncomfortable when placed in a Country environment.
Lady Susan refers to ‘that insupportable spot, a Country Village,’ which to a
Janeite condemns her, and Mary Crawford seems unable to amuse herself without assistance
whilst at Mansfield Park, sneering at the ‘sweets of housekeeping in a Country
Village’.
The Country characters display the positive attributes of
morality, honesty, generosity, open and friendly manners and good humour; the Vernons,
Anne Elliot, the Misses Dashwood, Jane and Elizabeth Bennet and almost the entire village
of Highbury spring to mind as people who would be nice to know, though some exhibit a
certain naiveté or provincialism, such as Mrs Bennet, Catherine Morland and Mr Woodhouse.
In all the novels, however, it is when Country goes to Town
and vice versa that events are precipitated and the plot propelled forward. Lady Susan
goes to Langford and Churchill, the Bingleys and Mr Darcy come to Netherfield, Willoughby
goes to Allenham, Henry and Mary Crawford come to Mansfield Park, Frank Churchill to
Highbury. These characters bring an alien influence with them; a whiff of excitement,
fashion, decadence and unfamiliar manners - all of which disrupt harmony and alter lives
irrevocably.
It is worth noting, however that the incorruptible
characters are not corrupted by contact with Town, and the irreversibly corrupted
characters are not converted by the virtues of the Country!
Linda Collinson
A rewrite!
What would Lady Susan have been like had Jane
Austen written it later in life in the style of her mature novels? The following is a
light-hearted attempt at re-writing Lady Susan.
Susan Vernon, handsome, clever, but not as rich as she
desired to be, with no settled home and an ill-tempered disposition, seemed to unite in
her history some of the great difficulties faced by her sex: and had lived some
five-and-thirty years in the world with far too much to distress and vex her.
She had no family of her own and had, in consequence of her
husband’s early death, been left with little fortune, one daughter (born to be the
torment of her life), and the relations of her departed husband whom, in spite of
disliking them intensely, she is forced to visit for an extended period.
The real evils, indeed, of Lady Susan’s situation,
were the power of not having nearly enough of her own way, and a disposition to think a
little too well of herself. These were the disadvantages which threatened alloy to her
many enjoyments.
Lady Susan had few resources. The chief amongst her
amusements was matchmaking – not for other people, but for herself! Depend upon it,
when Lady Susan puts her great talents to work on a flirtation, every man in the
neighbourhood from six- or seven-and-twenty to six- or seven-and-seventy had better take
care of himself.
Susannah Fullerton
|
