The Real Jane Austen – Paula Byrne

I saw this in Dymocks and had to have it although I do wonder how many biographies one person needs to own. This is an interesting way of presenting a person’s life. Byrne has found a series of objects (meant to be meaningful to Austen) and then used them as a stepping off point to write about Austen’s life. The objects include, a shawl, the vellum notebooks, the topaz crosses, and many more. Not all of the objects were owned by Austen, but they affected her in someway. For example, one chapter is on Bathing Machines. As she writes in the Prologue …

Both her world and her novels can be brought alive through the texture of things, the life of objects.

 I think Byrne occasionally makes assumptions about events in Austen’s life translating into the novels and I don’t think the evidence is there. For example,

There can be no doubt that Captain Harville’s carpentry is both a compliment to Frank and a family joke. By acknowledging the allusion after Jane’s death, Admiral Austen is giving her readers warrant to make connections between the people his sister knew and the characters she created. By implication, he is also licensing us to make links between her novels and the places she went to (and those she heard about), not to mention the historical events through which she lived.

 I am not convinced. Also, in ‘The Family Portrait’ chapter she states ‘In Emma, Frank Churchill is adopted into the family of a rich but childless couple, and Jane Fairfax, an orphan, is bought up with the Dixons.’ we all know she is raised by the Campbells (and the Campbell daughter marries Mr Dixon). However, these are my only negatives.

The chapter on Lord Mansfield is fascinating (who knew there was a Lord Mansfield who was anti- slavery?). This biography has re-ignited my interest in Jane Austen and I want to read the novels again in the light of her findings.

This is an easy read (no academic jargon) and worthy to be included in the library of any Jane Austen fan.

More reviews …

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/08/the-real-jane-austen-review

http://austenprose.com/2013/04/27/the-real-jane-austen-a-life-in-small-things-by-paula-byrne-a-review/

http://janeaustensworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/07/musings-on-the-real-jane-austen-and-a-review-of-the-book-by-paula-byrne/

A Dance with Jane Austen – Susannah Fullerton

At first I wasn’t entirely convinced by the need for this book. It seemed to be jumping on the Austen band wagon. A bit like  Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. However, having read it I am convinced it belongs in the library of all Austen fans.

It is split into 12 chapters ordered in the same sequence as a ball. That is, learning to dance, dressing for the ball, getting to and from a ball, etc.

The chapters are then further divided into a section on the novels, a section on Austen’s personal experience and some interesting historical detail.

For example, did you know James Austen improved his dancing as a method of securing a second wife or that gloves were always worn?

What Ms Fullerton does particularly well is to analyse the dance scenes in the novels.

For example, describing the assembly ball in Northanger Abbey

In fact, Jane Austen describes the crowd as a ‘mob’, requiring Catherine and her chaperone Mrs Allen to make their way through all its possible dangers (such risks as damaged finery and dresses ‘torn asunder’) with ‘necessary caution’ and ‘continued  exertion of strength and ingenuity’. The rooms are so packed that Catherine cannot even get a proper view of them to search out handsome young men as potential partners. All she can see are the high feathers on the tops of ladies’ heads. The two women have to squeeze out for tea, get wearied by ‘being continually pressed by’ people and, worst of all, she finds no partner. She goes to a ball and she does not dance a single dance! The event is presented by Jane Austen with light irony as a form of ‘imprisonment’ and near-torture. Just as Gothic heroines in the fiction Catherine loves to read are locked away and ill-treated in dungeons, so Catherine is trapped and pressed by this assembly ball crowd.

This book is beautifully presented and the illustrations are lovely.

More reviews …

http://janeaustensworld.wordpress.com/2012/09/15/a-dance-with-jane-austen-by-susannah-fullerton-a-review/

http://austenprose.com/2012/10/13/a-dance-with-jane-austen-by-susannah-fullerton-a-review/

Frederica – Georgette Heyer

I like Georgette Heyer novels (here is one I read earlier and here). They’re fun and a quick read and obviously well-researched. However, sometimes that research can get in the way – all of those regency expressions can get annoying.

Here is what Georgette Heyer wrote to her publisher about Fredrica …

Where was I? Oh, yes! DRIP FOR THE TRADE! Here you are! This book, written in Miss Heyer’s lightest vein, is the story of the adventures in Regency London of the Merriville family: Frederica, riding the whirlwind and directing the storm; Harry, rusticated from Oxford, and embarking with enthusiasm on the more perilous amusements pursued by young gentleman of the ton; the divine Charis, too tenderhearted to discourage the advances of her numerous suiters; Jessamy, destined for the church, and wavering, in adolescent style, between excessive virtue and a natural exuberance of spirits; and Felix, a schoolboy with a passion for scientific experiment. In Frederica, Miss Heyer has created one of her most engaging heroines, and in the Marquis of Alverstoke, a bored cynic who becomes involved in all the imbroglios of a lively family, a hero whose sense of humour makes him an excellent foil for Frederica.

The Private World of Georgette Heyer - Jane Aiken Hodge

Lord Alverstoke is definitely a Mark 11 hero – Suave, well-dressed, rich and a famous whip. The Merrivilles are a distant connection and when Frederica asks him to help her launch Charis into the world of the ton he agrees to help because it will annoy his sisters. He is bored with his life – all of those people ‘toadying’ and find the Merriville’s refreshing. He rescues them all from many scrapes (some very contrived) and a long the way falls in love with Frederica (because she, of course, hasn’t tried to attract his attention).

This book is full of regency detail – clothes, carriages, social life, medical treatment, which make it an interesting read. I can’t think of anyone else who writes regency romances like Georgette Heyer.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say lovers of Austen will also like Heyer, but I am sure there is a substantial intersection.

More reviews …

http://austenprose.com/2010/08/29/frederica-by-georgette-heyer-–-a-review/

http://janeaustensworld.wordpress.com/2009/01/23/frederica-by-georgette-heyer-a-review/

http://bestfriends-books.blogspot.com.au/2011/02/book-review-frederica-by-georgette.html

Dear Mr Darcy – Amanda Grange

I found this novel while on holiday (at the local newsagent) how serendipitous. I was pleasantly surprised.

Here is the blurb …

In this imaginative retelling of Pride and Prejudice, Amanda Grange now tells the classic story through the eyes of its compelling romantic hero, Fitzwilliam Darcy – in a series of revealing letters that casts a sparkling new reflection on the manners and morals of the landed gentry in 19th-century England.

Here, for the first time, are the letters written by the exceedingly proud and stubborn Mr. Darcy, covering the life-changing events that defined him – from the death of his father, to his control of his Derbyshire estate of Pemberley to his conflicted courtship with the lively, intelligent, and delightfully willful Elizabeth Bennet. Try as he may, he cannot deny his attraction to this woman with fine eyes, a playful spirit, a mind of her own. and an embarrassing family that is frankly, and utterly, beneath him. But it is Elizabeth who controls both their destinies, and whose surprises will change Darcy’s life yet again.

It is an epistolary novel, which fills in the back story and Darcy’s perspective during the action of Pride and Prejudice. I thought Ms Grange captured the wicked Mr Wickham extremely well. There were extra characters added – Bingley had a mother, a brother (who worked in trade) and a whole raft of younger siblings and Mr Darcy had a cousin (Phillip Darcy). These characters  were really there to reveal a bit more about existing characters. For example, Caroline Bingley’s letters to her mother reveal her as the terrible snob she is – whereas Darcy’s to Phillip show him working through his feelings for Elizabeth. Mary’s letters to her friend and fellow Learned Women were hilarious – they’re reading The Mysteries of Udolpho and taking it seriously.

This is a quick light-hearted read, which will make you want to read Pride and Prejudice all over again.

More reviews…

http://austenprose.com/2012/08/15/dear-mr-darcy-a-retelling-of-pride-and-prejudice-by-amanda-grange-a-review/

http://bookwormink.co.uk/2/post/2012/10/review-dear-mr-darcy-by-amanda-grange.html

2012 at JaneAustenReviews

Well I did a little bit better than last year. This year I made it to 24 posts! My aim for next year is 50. I’m also planning on having my own personal Pride and Prejudice festival. I shall watch as many adaptations as I can find, re-read the novel and as many of the reference books that I can. I have this one already in my pile and I ordered this one yesterday.

So this year I had a bit of a Sense and Sensibility festival. I think my favourite adaptation is the new one …

2008 Sense and Sensibility

I also made a cross word.

If you live in Australia, you can watch a documentary about this (possible) portrait of Jane Austen at SBS on demand (I only found it today so there isn’t much time left). It was very fascinating and well worth watching.

I like doing jigsaw puzzles although as I get a bit obsessed 500 pieces is perfect for me.

I bought this one from the JASA regency fair, but you can get a similar one from here.

It is 500 pieces and the quotes (from various Austen novels) make it quite easy to do – it is much easier to match words that make sentences than different bits of pink or grey!

I found the edge the hardest bit to do – I like to put the edge together first – it had a pattern and it was difficult to work out which bit went where.

I have just pre-ordered  this – it is released on the 4th of October.

I finished reading this book – it is a interesting read and makes me want to read the novels again (that has to be a good thing).

Here is the description …

 Is there any sex in Austen? What do the characters call each other, and why? What are the right and wrong ways to propose marriage? And which important Austen characters never speak? In What Matters in Austen, John Mullan shows that you can best appreciate Jane Austen’s brilliance by looking at the intriguing quirks and intricacies of her fiction – by asking and answering some very specific questions about what goes on in her novels, he reveals their devilish cleverness. In twenty-one short chapters, each of which answers a question prompted by Jane Austen’s novels, Mullan illuminates the themes that matter most to the workings of the fiction. So the reader will discover when people had their meals and what shops they went to, how they addressed each other, who was allowed to write letters to whom, who owned coaches or pianos, how vicars got good livings and how wealth was inherited. What Matters in Austen explores the rituals and conventions of her fictional world in order to reveal her technical virtuosity and sheer daring as a novelist. Though not a book about Jane Austen’s life, it uses biographical detail and telling passages from her letters to explain episodes in her novels; readers will find out, for example, what novels she read or how much money she had to live on or what she saw at the theatre. Inspired by an enthusiastic reader’s curiosity, written with flair and based on a lifetime’s study, What Matters in Austen will appeal to all those who love and enjoy Jane Austen’s work.

There are chapters on: “What do the characters call each other”, “How much money is enough”, “Which important characters never speak”, etc. Did you know that the only married couple to use each others first names is Charles and Mary Musgrove? This book is crammed full of interesting information and also highlights parts that a contemporary reader what have interpreted differently to a modern reader. Mr Mullan has an easy (can I say non-academic) writing style, which makes this book a pleasure to read.

I think this book is a must not only for Austen fans, but for anyone interested in English Literature and the development of the novel.

More reviews …

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/9317284/What-Matters-in-Jane-Austen-Twenty-Crucial-Puzzles-Solved-by-John-Mullan-review.html

http://austenonly.com/2012/06/10/book-review-what-matters-in-jane-austen-twenty-crucial-puzzles-solved-by-john-mullan/

Letter to Cassandra, 23 September 1813