|
Good God! . . . Jane
actually on the
point of going as
governess!
-Emma
|
|
Sitting with Jane
The town of
Basingstoke,
Hampshire, is
preparing to
commemorate the
200th anniversary of
Jane Austen's death
next year with a
public art trail
featuring
25 Austen-themed "BookBenches."
The art initiative
will celebrate
Austen's life and
her connections to
Basingstoke and
nearby Steventon.
|
|
|
|
"The House
that Jane
Built"
BookBench,
Jane Veveris
Callan
(2016)
|
|
Local
professional artists
have been invited to
submit design ideas,
and Jane Veveris
Callan has already
painted the first
bench, titled "The
House that Jane
Built." When asked
about her
inspiration for the
design, Callan said,
"I have always loved
dolls' houses and as
Jane Austen's
stories epitomise
life in Regency
England, I thought a
doll's house
decorated and
furnished in the
Regency style would
illustrate her world
in a fun way. The
dolls in the house
are imagined as
typical characters
in her books."
|
LearLearn
M
|
"A History of Royal
Food and Feasting":
A Free Online
Course
Do you have a
craving to learn
more about
the foods and dining
practices enjoyed by
the Tudor, Georgian,
and Victorian royal
houses? FutureLearn
is offering a free,
online course that
will explore these
topics and more
through a series of
articles, videos,
and recipes
prepared by historians,
curators, and food
scientists from the
University of
Reading and Historic
Royal Palaces.
The class will begin
October 31 and will
run for five weeks.
|
|
Reminders
2016 Annual
Memberships Expired
on August 31
Many thanks to those
of you who
have already renewed.
If you have
not yet
paid dues for the
new membership
year, please do so
now to ensure that
your benefits
continue
uninterrupted. You
may either send a
check with the
renewal form you
received in the mail
or log in to
JASNA's Member
Portal and
follow the
instructions on the
welcome page for
renewing online.
Please contact
membership@jasna.org if
you have any
questions or need
assistance logging
in to the Member
Portal.
*
* *
* *
Applications now
being accepted for
the 2017 IVP grant;
Special pre-AGM
session slated for
Oct. 19 in DC
As reported last
month, applications
for the 2017
International
Visitor Program
Grant are being
accepted now through
December 15, 2016.
And we have
more
news. If you are
thinking about
applying and will be
going to the AGM
later this month,
you may want to
attend a special
information session
for potential
applicants on
Wednesday, October
19, at 4:30 pm. You
will be able to meet
with former
International
Visitors and learn
about the program,
their projects and
insights, and the
application process.
Not able to attend
the session? Information
about the program
and the application
process is
already available on
the JASNA website.
|
|
From the Persuasions Archive
"Eyeing Mrs. Elton:
Learning Through
Pastiche"
Diana Birchall
reminds us in her
article "Eyeing Mrs.
Elton: Learning
Through Pastiche" (Persuasions On-Line,
V.30, No.2, Spring
2010), that Bristol
was, in Austen's
day, a major port in
the slave trade and
that
Emma was
written a few years
after the abolition.
Mrs. Elton, née
Augusta Hawkins,
would have grown up
in Bristol at a time
when ideas,
anti-abolitionist
and also feminist,
were circulating
there. These ideas
would have been
vital topics of
discussion during
her formative years.
By the time
Emma
opens, Bristol is
becoming anxious to
dissociate itself
from its history,
and Mrs. Elton is
more than happy to
escape the stigma of
the city's past by
marrying a clergyman
she meets in Bath.
However, Birchall
believes readers
would be wrong to
conclude that Mr.
Hawkins actually
made his fortune
from the slave
trade. True, Mrs.
Elton's father left
her a tidy fortune
of £10,000, but such
a sum is modest
compared to the
enormous wealth
accumulated by those
profiteering from
slavery.
Other writers, such
as Mary Deforest,
take the contrary
view, reminding us
that it was Sir John
Hawkins who
introduced the slave
trade to Britain.
Deforest believes
the
pairing of Bristol
and the name Hawkins
would have been
unmistakable clues
for readers in
Austen's time as to
the truth of Mrs.
Elton's family
history.
|
|
Region News
JASNA is pleased to
welcome a new
regional group in
Florida! On Oct. 3
the Orlando Region
became the Society's
76th regional group
and its 5th in
Florida. Sandy Elder
has been elected
Regional
Coordinator, and the
group already boasts
18 enthusiastic
members! For more
information about
the new region and
its meetings, please
email Sandy at
mimolou@aol.com.
* *
* *
*
JASNA members are
travelers. If you
will be vacationing
or spending time at
a second home this
winter, you might
want to participate
in some of the great
activities our
Regions have
planned.
|
|
A Jane Austen
Snippet
Emma "could not be
satisfied without a
dinner at Hartfield
for the Eltons."
After that dinner
the following
conversation takes
place between Jane
Fairfax and Mrs.
Elton.
"When I am quite
determined as to the
time, I am not at
all afraid of being
long unemployed.
There are places in
town, offices, where
inquiry would soon
produce something -
Offices for the sale
- not quite of human
flesh - but of human
intellect."
"Oh! my dear, human
flesh! You quite
shock me; if you
mean a fling at the
slave-trade, I
assure you Mr.
Suckling was always
rather a friend to
the abolition."
"I did not mean, I
was not thinking of
the slave-trade,"
replied Jane;
"governess-trade, I
assure you, was all
that I had in view;
widely different
certainly as to the
guilt of those who
carry it on; but as
to the greater
misery of the
victims, I do not
know where it
lies."
-Emma,
Vol. II, Chapter
XVII
|
|
The image used in
this month's banner
is Victorian, but
the mood it conveys
is evocative of the
"misery of the
victims" of the
"governess-trade."
The painting is The
Governess by Richard
Redgrave (1844), ©
Victoria and Albert
Museum, London.
|
|
