• Home
  • Audio/Podcasts
  • Austensites
  • AV/E-Texts
  • History
  • JA Novels & Bio
  • Links
  • Original Sources/19th C. Texts
  • Social Customs During the Regency
  • Teacher/Student
  • Writer/Literature Resources

Jane Austen's World

This Jane Austen blog brings Jane Austen, her novels, and the Regency Period alive through food, dress, social customs, and other 19th C. historical details related to this topic.

Feeds:
Posts
Comments
« Writing Jane Austen: A Book Review
Jane Austen’s Cabochon Ring: to be auctioned July 10th »

Review: Behind Jane Austen’s Door by Jennifer Forest

June 21, 2012 by Vic

Some books are so useful they are hard to pass up. Several months ago, I received the Kindle edition of Behind Jane Austen’s Door by Jennifer Forest, author of the delightful Jane Austen’s Sewing Box. Behind Jane Austen’s Door takes you on a tour of a Regency house, room by room – the entrance hall, drawing room, dining room, breakfast room, dressing room, bedroom, and kitchen – to
explore the challenges and lives of Jane Austen’s women. Included is an appendix that provides a quick overview of the Regency era.

More accessible in tone and organization than the excellent Behind Closed Doors by Amanda Vickery and If Walls Could Talk by Lucy Worsley, which cover similar but more comprehensive territory, this book can be used as a quick reference by people who want immediate access to the purposes and functions of the rooms in a Georgian household. What distinguishes this book is its close association to Jane Austen and her novels (much like Jennifer Kloestler’s book, Georgette Heyer’s Regency World, is associated with that author).

In these large houses [such as Pemberley], the women didn’t need to use the drawing room during the day. There were other rooms for use; they had their own office and other smaller parlors. The drawing rooms, and yes there could be more than one drawing room, in these big houses were just for receiving the morning visitors and for evening entertainment.

One gains close glimpses of a rich family as well as one of more modest means, such as the household that Jane Austen’s mother oversaw.

She works with the cook in preparing menus, sourcing food and caring for the vegetables, dairy and chickens. On washing day, she and her daughters work alongside the servants to get all the laundry completed: it was just so time consuming in the days before washing machines! A gentlewoman had to monitor the budget, find supplies and pay the bills for all those expenses, including the tea and wine. 

While much of the territory that Jennifer covered seemed familiar, it is arranged in such a pleasant and easy to use format that new authors to the Jane Austen genre or Regency romance will find it very useful, especially Jane Austen fans.

Jane Austen’s own mother used her dressing room at Steventon as a second sitting space, more casual and private than the drawing room. After five weeks of illness, Mrs Austen’s return to health allows a resumption of tea in the dressing room. “My mother made her entree into the dressing-room through crowds of admiring spectators yesterday afternoon, and we all drank tea together for the first time in five weeks … We live entirely in the dressing-room now, which I like very much; I always feel so much more elegant in it than in the parlour.” Letter from Jane Austen to Cassandra Austen, Sunday 2 December 1798.

Oh, there will be people who say that they already know this information and that the book provides nothing really new, but readers who are just discovering Jane Austen and the Regency world will think otherwise. I, for one, am happy to have another source to turn to when checking my facts about meal times and the precise function of certain rooms and furniture. The book, which is a quick read, is available in e-book format. I found this quite convenient, for I can access it on all my mobile devices and computers. Also, at $2.99 for the Kindle version, it is quite a bargain. I give it four out of five Regency teacups!

About the Author
Jennifer Forest has a Bachelor of Arts and a Graduate Diploma in Cultural Heritage Management. Jennifer is a museum curator with a love of beautiful old historic buildings. She lives in Australia, a country built by Regency England.

Blog: Behind Jane Austen’s Door

Print Length: 51 pages
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
Language: English
ASIN: B006YITPAS
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray: Not Enabled
Lending: Enabled

Share with others:

  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Posted in 19th Century England, Book review, Georgian Life, jane austen, Jane Austen's World, Regency Life, Regency World | Tagged Behind Jane Austen's Door, Georgian Home, Jennifer Forest | 6 Comments

6 Responses

  1. on June 21, 2012 at 11:52 LuAnn

    I can only find the digital version of this. Amazon and Barnes and Noble don’t carry it. Any suggestions?


    • on June 21, 2012 at 11:54 Vic

      Write to the author at her blog, which I have listed at the bottom of this post. She mentions hard copies. Before I owned a Kindle or Nook, I downloaded their apps on my computer and was able to read the books on my iPod and laptop. This might be a solution!


  2. on June 21, 2012 at 23:57 haliegirl

    This sounds like a lovely book! The addition of information about Jane seem like it makes the book even more interesting.


  3. on June 22, 2012 at 01:17 Karen Field

    I definitely want this book. I’ve got the Amanda Vickery book and have read it. I haven’t got the Lucy Worsley bbook so that’ll have to come, too.


  4. on June 22, 2012 at 07:54 Christopher J Squire

    A book review for you:

    ‘What Matters in Jane Austen? by John Mullan – review. Two readable, gossipy, involving books about Austen that send the reader back to the originals with fresh pleasure’
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/15/what-matters-in-jane-austen-review?INTCMP=SRCH


  5. on June 24, 2012 at 01:45 Lisa Brown

    I contacted Jennifer Forest and the book is not yet out in a hard copy version.



Comments are closed.

  • Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

    Join 7,025 other followers

  • Item of Interest

    Black London by Gretchen Gerzina

    Free E-Book: Gerzina has written a fascinating account of London blacks, focusing on the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Because of a paucity of sources from blacks themselves, Gerzina had to rely primarily on glimpses through white eyes, especially those of antislavery advocate Granville Sharp. Gerzina is quite adept at culling evidence of a rich, complex black life, with significant interaction (and intermarriage) with the white community. Although subjected to much discrimination, London blacks never suffered as much as their American counterparts. The author rightly concludes that blacks have played an important role in the life of London for much of its history.

    Click on this link to Dartmouth.edu.

    Book cover of Black London

  • Follow Jane Austen's World on WordPress.com
  • Blog Stats

    • 16,099,067 hits
  • Highly Recommended a New Book! Bath -An Adumbration in Rhyme

  • Edited by Ben Wiebracht. Read the review of the book at this link. Click to order the book on Amazon US or Amazon UK

  • Book cover of Bath: An Adumbration in Rhyme by John Matthews
  • In Sri Lanka lies the grave of Rear Admiral Charles Austen CB, Jane Austen’s Brother

    The neglected tombstone found in an overgrown burial ground.

    Rear Admiral Charles Austen CB

    Died off Prome, the 7th October 1852, while in command of the Naval Expedition on the river Irrawady against the Burmese Forces, aged 73 years.”

    The grave after restoration

    Read the full article in The Sunday Times. June 27, 2021.

  • The Obituary of Charlotte Collins by Andrew Capes

    Click on image to read the story.

  • Comments

    “My idea of good company…is the company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversation.” – Jane Austen, Persuasion

     

    Gentle readers: Please feel free to post your comments and continue the conversation! Due to SPAM, we will no longer accept comments on posts after 30 days of publication. In some instances, links will be removed from comments as well.

  • Administrators and Contributors

    Vic Sanborn, founder of this blog, is supported by a team of talented and knowledgeable writers about Jane Austen and the Regency era. They are:

    • Brenda Cox
    • Rachel Dodge and
    • Tony Grant, who now contributes his photos from London and England

    Click on their names to enter their own blogs.

    In addition, we thank the many experts and authors who frequently contribute their posts and opinions, and who continue to do so freely or at our request.

  • Pin It!

    Follow Me on Pinterest
  • Top Posts

    • Keeping a Clean House Regency Style
      Keeping a Clean House Regency Style
    • Sanditon Review – S 2, E 2: The Malacologist and a Brave Lambe
      Sanditon Review – S 2, E 2: The Malacologist and a Brave Lambe
    • Regency Hygiene: The Bourdaloue
      Regency Hygiene: The Bourdaloue
    • Highclere Castle Floor Plan: The Real Downton Abbey
      Highclere Castle Floor Plan: The Real Downton Abbey
    • You can watch Persuasion 2007 online
      You can watch Persuasion 2007 online
    • Regency Fashion: Men's Breeches, Pantaloons, and Trousers
      Regency Fashion: Men's Breeches, Pantaloons, and Trousers
    • Men's hair styles at the turn of the 19th century
      Men's hair styles at the turn of the 19th century
    • Regency “Privy” Matters: Feminine Hygiene, Bodily Functions, and Childbirth
      Regency “Privy” Matters: Feminine Hygiene, Bodily Functions, and Childbirth
    • Social Customs During the Regency
      Social Customs During the Regency
    • Pride and Prejudice Economics: Or Why a Single Man with a Fortune of £4,000 Per Year is a Desirable Husband
      Pride and Prejudice Economics: Or Why a Single Man with a Fortune of £4,000 Per Year is a Desirable Husband
  • Recent Posts

    • Sanditon Review – S 2, E 2: The Malacologist and a Brave Lambe
    • In the Garden with Jane Austen, by Kim Wilson
    • Jane Austen’s Last Years Without a Summer
    • BLOOMSBURY GIRLS: Book Review
    • Keeping a Clean House Regency Style
  • Links to Jane Austen Blogs

    Click here to enter the page. Topics include Regency fashion, historic foods, Jane Austen societies, British sites, related topics. Click on image.

  • Find Jane Austen on Google

  • May we suggest?

    Regent’s Canal Walk (Little Venice to Kings Cross): Tony Grant

    Canal opposite Masefield House-TonyGrant

    Take a walk along a portion of Regent’s Canal with Tony Grant and friend. His superb photos and commentary make you feel as if you’ve tagged along.

    John Masefield House

    Click on this link to stroll along with Tony & Guy. (Images: Barges along Regent’s Canal; John Masefield’s House. Copyright: Tony Grant)

  • Hello, my name is Vic and I live in Maryland, USA. I have adored Jane Austen almost all of my life. I am a proud lifetime member of the Jane Austen Society of North America. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me and my team. We do not accept any form of cash advertising, sponsorship, or paid topic insertions. However, we do accept and keep books and CDs to review.

    If you would like to share a new site, or point out an error, please email us. (Yes, we are fallible. We'll own up to our mistakes and will make the corrections with a polite smile on our faces.) Write us at

    gmailbw

    Thank you for visiting this blog. Your comments and suggestions are most welcome.

  • Project Gutenberg: eBook of Stage-coach and Mail in Days of Yore, Volume 2 (of 2), by Charles G. Harper

    STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE: A PICTURESQUE HISTORY
    OF THE COACHING AGE, VOL. II, By CHARLES G. HARPER. 1903. Click on this link.

     

  • Top Posts & Pages

    • Keeping a Clean House Regency Style
    • Sanditon Review – S 2, E 2: The Malacologist and a Brave Lambe
    • Regency Hygiene: The Bourdaloue
    • Highclere Castle Floor Plan: The Real Downton Abbey
    • You can watch Persuasion 2007 online
    • Regency Fashion: Men's Breeches, Pantaloons, and Trousers
    • Men's hair styles at the turn of the 19th century
    • Regency “Privy” Matters: Feminine Hygiene, Bodily Functions, and Childbirth
    • Social Customs During the Regency
    • Pride and Prejudice Economics: Or Why a Single Man with a Fortune of £4,000 Per Year is a Desirable Husband
  • Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape
  • Disclaimer: Our team makes no profit from this blog. We may receive books (physical or digitized) and DVDs for review purposes.

  • Copyright Statement: © Jane Austen's World blog, 2009-2022. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owners is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Jane Austen's World with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Blog at WordPress.com.

WPThemes.


  • Follow Following
    • Jane Austen's World
    • Join 7,025 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Jane Austen's World
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Copy shortlink
    • Report this content
    • View post in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: