Posted in 250th Anniversary of Jane Austen, Christmas, Jane Austen's World, tagged Jane Austen Christmas on December 28, 2025| 8 Comments »
Ah, ’tis the season for celebrations! And what a better way to recall our dear Jane’s 250th birthday celebration than during the month of December?
This link leads you to a 2006 post of holiday celebrations Jane would have enjoyed.
Then, this YouTube video features both Chawton Cottage and Chawton House, and will take you on a walk past the beautifully preserved houses that Jane and Cassandra must have seen during their walks through the village.
Posted in Jane Austen's World, Music, Music popular in Jane Austen's lifetime, Music review, Regency Period, tagged Jane Austen music series, Jane Austen websites, Jane Austen's Desk on December 20, 2025| 3 Comments »
Interview by Brenda S. Cox
“no one can be really esteemed accomplished [without] a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages”–Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen and Company, who have given us many fascinating series of talks, have been focusing on Austen and music this year. We asked Inger Brodey, Eric Bontempo, and Susan Ellen Ford to tell us more about that.
JAW: Thanks for joining us, Inger, Eric, and Susan. I understand that the three of you are directing the Jane Austen & Company program. Jane Austen & Co has been doing a series on Music and the Regency this year. Readers can watch and listen to the recordings here. Can you tell us about that?
Eric:
Sure! Music making and music appreciation could be complicated—even contested—activities during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In 2025, Jane Austen & Co. wanted to look at aspects of public and domestic music in the Regency period, and zero in on Jane Austen’s own musical experience. Back in February, we kicked things off with Jeff Nigro’s talk on “Georgian Fangirls” and the influence that Italian castrati had on Regency Music in England. Then, Gillian Dooley discussed music in Austen’s life and work, including some of what Austen would have played and sang. Kathryn Libin moved our series outward to women and musical education during this period. In April, Laura Klein discussed the evolution of keyboard music during this period and considered the music Austen was practicing when she was writing.
This fall, we’ve added three more events to the series. Lidia Chang from Colorado College gave an insightful talk on “Frivolity, Foppery, and the English Gentleman at Music.” And just two weeks ago, Jeanice Brooks from the University of Southampton delighted us with her talk exploring how music making shaped perceptions of people and lands far beyond the British home. The grand finale of the series came in late November when Penelope Appleyard and Jonathan Delbridge revealed the new song they have commissioned, recorded, and released to celebrate Jane Austen’s 250th Anniversary.
JAW: Tell us a little about one of those recorded events that our readers might enjoy listening to.
Eric: I think our grand finale to “Music and the Regency” is definitely worth watching. The 90-minute episode has a little bit of everything: Penelope Appleyard and Jonathan Delbridge performed live, and you can watch their stunning renditions of songs that Jane Austen loved and copied down in her family’s music books. They performed “Robin Adair” and a “Song for Burns” before delighting us with their recently commissioned setting of Austen’s teenage poem “Ode to Pity.”
In between performances, they walked us through the historical context of these songs, the musical instrument being played by Jonathan, and their connection to Jane Austen and her novels. It was fascinating, and if you watch until the end, you’ll notice that the audience Q&A kept the momentum going!
JAW: What are a few interesting things that you personally have learned from that series?
Susan: One of my favorite episodes was the interview with Lidia Chang. She taught me a great deal about music and gender. I was interested to hear about how seldom amateur men would perform music, compared to women. She also drew connections to the few examples from the novels where men perform for private audiences.
JAW: What will the next series be?
Susan: Jane Austen & Company is launching a brand new series focusing on Jane Austen’s “Unsung Characters.” We are envisioning a series of presentations that explores Austen’s minor characters and the un-thought-of connections that may tie them together. We will be announcing the list of speakers and presentations soon!
JAW: A few months ago I reviewed your lovely new site, Jane Austen’s Desk. How is that going?
Inger: Yes, we were very grateful for your review! Since then, we have added a few things to Jane Austen’s Desk. Most importantly, we’ve added a new traveller: Eliza De Feuillide, Austen’s first cousin and sister-in-law. We included a new hand-drawn portrait of her and programmed in most of her travels during Austen’s lifetime. We really wanted another female traveller, along with Fanny Palmer Austen, to indicate what we are calling Austen’s “vicarious travels.” We are countering the image of Austen living a sheltered existence by showing visual, interactive representations of how much her correspondents travelled, giving her vivid, second-hand experience of diverse regions of the world.
Susan: In honor of our new holiday campaign to raise funds, we also added some professionally recorded Christmas music, performed by Laura Klein on a period harpsicord, and some holiday greenery. Have you seen them yet? (You have to ignore, momentarily, the unseasonable weather for March 30.)
JAW: I understand you are raising money for adding music to that site. What are you hoping to add? How will that enrich the site?
Inger: Music was key to Jane Austen’s creative process. As you know, in her years at Chawton Cottage, she got up early in the mornings to play her pianoforte and compose her thoughts. This Kickstarter will raise the funds necessary to give tribute to the specific music Austen knew, loved, and transcribed by hand. We will add interactive tools with access to this music to our free website, making it come alive for all kinds of Janeites. The music will be performed by professional performers on historical instruments. We will provide historic illustrations, information about composers and specific pieces, and crisp images of Austen’s own sheet music.
An exciting part of the plan is to link the mentions of music in the novels to recordings by Laura Klein, and vice versa. So when you read about Mary Crawford playing a glee, for example, you can play an example and learn about what glees are. It’s an important dimension of our plan to show how the many different parts of Austen’s lived experience come together in her masterful novels.
JAW: That sounds fantastic, Inger. Why do you need to raise the money with a Kickstarter?
Inger: The design and building of our site has been primarily funded by two “Digital Projects for the Public” grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities. We were hoping for the largest, phase 3 grant in this line, but the whole program has been cancelled at the NEH, so we are forced to look elsewhere for our funding. What we really need is a patroness!
JAW: Lady Catherine de Bourgh, take note. Or perhaps someone who has “more true enjoyment of music” than she does, or “better natural taste”! How can our readers contribute, if they wish?
Inger: Our Kickstarter campaign is at: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/janeaustencoll/adding-music-to-jane-austens-desk. On that site there are also two videos: one about our team that is making Jane Austen’s Desk and the other about the goals of our project. Kickstarter campaigns are all or nothing, so if we don’t meet our target by December 28th, then we don’t receive any of the promised funding! It’s a little nerve-wracking!
JAW: We very much hope you get all your need! Readers and music lovers, here’s an opportunity to contribute. Inger, Eric, and Susan, thanks for all your hard work to make so much great material available to us in such a fun way. (I vote that you do embroidery next 😊, but the music, “a very innocent diversion,” will be delightful!)
Brenda S. Cox is the author of Fashionable Goodness: Christianity in Jane Austen’s England. She also blogs at Faith, Science, Joy, and Jane Austen.
Posted in 250th Anniversary of Jane Austen, Jane Austen Festival, Jane Austen's World, tagged A Lively Mind exhibit, Austen and Turner Country House Encounter, Harewood House, Jane Austen Festival Cincinnati, Morgan Museum on December 18, 2025| 2 Comments »
By Brenda S. Cox
“One cannot have too large a party.” —Mr. Weston, Emma, volume 3, chapter 6
On Austen’s birthday, Dec. 16, we visited a few of the many events for Jane Austen’s 250th birthday this year. Here are a few more that my friends have attended:
(Reported by Christel Ford)
The yearly Jane Austen Festival in Louisville, Kentucky moved to Cincinnati, Ohio this year. The venue was the Heritage Village Museum, where sessions were held in historic buildings. The Post Office had examples of period letters, with docents answering questions about mail service of the period and letters.
Many attendees wore beautiful period clothing. A tent village offered many types of shops. Dresses, hats, fabric and sundries were for sale.
Next year’s Festival will be in April; get your costumes ready!
(Reported by Renata Dennis, JASNA regional coordinator for Georgia)
Many Janeites traveled up to New York City to see the fantastic exhibition hosted by the Morgan Library for Jane’s 250th birthday. A group from our Georgia region visited together on the opening weekend. Renata Dennis said the exhibit was jam-packed with fascinating materials. She enjoyed seeing everyday objects like letters, maps, a ledge of expenditures, and a reproduction of Jane’s pelisse. The exhibit addressed different aspects of Jane’s life, her family, life in England at that time, and her relationships. It also included her books in different languages and adaptations.
Some highlights were silhouettes of Jane’s parents, some of her music manuscripts, letters, and literary manuscripts, her turquoise ring, first editions of Emma and Mansfield Park, early illustrations of Sense and Sensibility, and much more.
The exhibition website says:
“A Lively Mind immerses viewers in the inspiring story of Jane Austen’s authorship and her gradual rise to international fame. Iconic artifacts from Jane Austen’s House in Chawton, England join manuscripts, books, and artworks from the Morgan, as well as from a dozen institutional and private collections, to present compelling new perspectives on Austen’s literary achievement, her personal style, and her global legacy.”
(Reported by Lori Mulligan Davis)
In 2025, Harewood House celebrated the 250th birthdays of two national icons, Jane Austen and painter J.M.W. Turner. They never met in life, but they mingle daily in wallets, with Turner on the £20 and Austen on the £10 banknote. Working with the Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies at the University of York, Harewood House Trust exhibited artworks and artifacts on topics of interest to Austen and Turner, including domestic tourism of country houses, the rising importance of sociability, the rage for the picturesque landscape, and the results of empire and slavery. Many first-time guests coming for Austen or Turner were equally glad to experience one of the finest of England’s great estates.
Many, many more events around the world celebrated Jane Austen’s 250th birthday this year. I hope you got to attend some of them! Tell us about your favorites!
Brenda S. Cox is the author of Fashionable Goodness: Christianity in Jane Austen’s England. She also blogs at Faith, Science, Joy, and Jane Austen.
Posted in 250th Anniversary of Jane Austen, Jane Austen Festival, Jane Austen's World, JASNA AGM 2025, tagged Austen Events 2025, Austen speakers on December 16, 2025| 7 Comments »
By Brenda S. Cox
“One cannot have too large a party. A large party secures its own amusement.”–Emma
2025 has been a full year of celebrating Jane Austen’s 250th birthday. Janeites around the country are having a wide range of parties for Jane this month. Here in Atlanta, our group held a fantastic one day conference in September, besides our December birthday party which included a dance demonstration. Some of our public libraries have had special Austen events throughout the year, ranging from a pre-release screening of Miss Austen, to film versions including Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and the Laurence Olivier Pride and Prejudice, to special talks by authors and fashion experts. They also gave out free copies of Austen’s novels to library visitors.
I had the privilege of attending three major Austen events this year.
In June the Jane Austen Summer Program explored Sensibility and Domesticity with great discussions, lots of dancing, and a display of early editions of Austen’s novels and contemporary books she would have read. I posted about that in July.
In September, I had the privilege of speaking at Bath Abbey during the Jane Austen Festival. This was the biggest one yet. The Promenade through Bath in Regency dress sold out at 2,000 wristbands almost immediately. Eight balls, eight dance workshops (some focused on specific types of dance, like waltzes or cotillions), and two assemblies (with dancing) also sold out rapidly. (At hefty prices—balls cost from £65 to £135 per ticket!) We enjoyed plays and musical programs in the evenings. The Theatre Royal (which Austen attended) showed a delightful version of Emma. Many ladies and gentlemen strolled around Bath in Regency dress all ten days of the Festival. A “pleasure garden” was recreated one evening, with appropriate foods and drinks, entertainers, and even fireworks at the end.
“Book clubs” discussed each of the novels. Hands-on activities gave opportunities to make bonnets, reticules, hairpieces, hussifs (sewing kits), dresses, visiting cards, or parasols; to stargaze, fence, shoot with bows and arrows, or play croquet, whist, and other Regency games; or to sing Austen’s favorite songs, write letters with a quill, bind books, or dye fabric with plants and flowers. Minibus tours took attendees to Meryton, Longbourn, Chawton, Steventon, and Winchester. Walking tours around Bath featured various themes including “What about the Workers?” and “Life and Death in Georgian England.”
Of course I loved the talks by Austen authors and experts. In “Assembly and Diversity in Jane Austen’s Bath” I learned that the Upper Assembly Rooms were established, by subscription, to be open to everyone, not just exclusively for the upper classes—the most inclusive venue in Georgian Britain, according to Dr. Tim Moore. At “Dye and Colour in Regency Life,” I learned that green was a difficult color to create, and they used copper arsenic for it, surrounding people with poison! Every talk I attended brought fascinating new knowledge.
On the first Sunday, I was glad I arrived early for the free Regency Church Service in Bath Abbey. It was so full they had to turn people away at the doors. I had had the privilege of giving the staff some guidance on what a Regency service would have been like, and was delighted at the beautiful service. (The clergymen even used some material from my book, Fashionable Goodness!) Later that week I had a lovely discussion in the Abbey with those who attended my talk on Hannah More, whom Jane Austen’s friends were “reading with delight.”
For Janeites in America, the JASNA AGM is always a highlight of the year. This one was the biggest ever, with 950 in-person attendees in Baltimore and about 225 on livestream. Our plenary speakers were all superb: Paula Byrne (The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things), Juliette Wells (A New Jane Austen: How Americans Brought Us the World’s Greatest Novelist), Vanessa Riley (Island Queen and other Regency fiction based on real women of color); and John Mullan (What Matters in Jane Austen?).
A panel of well-known authors discussed Austen’s genius (Janine Barchas, Inger Brodey, Collins Hemingway, and Devoney Looser). And, as always, a fantastic lineup of breakout sessions, special sessions, workshops, tours, and dancing gave us many challenging choices, since we couldn’t do everything!
I loved hearing Susannah Harker, a special guest, talk about her role as Jane Bennet in the 1995 Pride and Prejudice. Did you know that she was pregnant all during filming, so they had to film her very carefully to not show that? Or, have you ever noticed that Darcy rides a black horse at the beginning of the movie, and a white horse later on? I had to rewatch the movie to confirm this; what a sacrifice! 😊
A special offering this year were pop-up museums. We got to see some of the artefacts discovered in an archaeological dig at Steventon (as well as a talk on how they are developing a virtual version of the Steventon rectory). Caroline Knight brought treasures from the Knight family. Candice Hern shared some of her lovely items that would have been carried in a reticule. Alden O’Brien shared garments of the time. And much more.
As one example of a special session, Dan Macey talked about the variety of smells of the time, most of which were bad (think tanneries, chamber pots, slaughter houses, poor hygiene, tallow candles, mutton . . .). But at the end we all got to smell a perfume used at the time, still produced by a perfumer from the 1700s (DR Harris & Co.)
I got to participate in a “pecha kucha,” a Japanese presentation style that has become very popular worldwide. Three of us had ten minutes each to give the headlines of a talk (20 seconds per slide). I spoke on Hannah More, Nili Olay spoke on LM Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables), and Joy Prevost spoke on AI imaging trying to capture Austen’s genius. People seemed to enjoy these quick talks, and asked great questions at the end. Regular breakout sessions explored topics ranging from philosophy to headgear and shoes to Jane Austen’s “Genius of Place.” (Did you know Austen consulted atlases to find appropriate place names for her fiction, such as situating Highbury in an area with many towns ending in -bury? Hazel Jones told us all about this; she will be one of the keynote speakers next year.)
Next year’s AGM will be in Tuscon, on the “Bath Novels,” Northanger Abbey and Persuasion.
What have you been doing to celebrate Jane’s 250th birthday? Let us know in the comments. In a few days I will share a few more events that my friends have attended this year.
If you’re looking for Christmas gifts for the Austen-lovers you know, check out these options.
All photos ©Brenda S. Cox, 2025; please request permission for re-use.
I was not able to track down everyone in all these photos. If you were at one of these large events and you object to your photo appearing here, please contact me through my website and I will take the photo down immediately. (Or if you want your name added to the photo description!)
Brenda S. Cox is the author of Fashionable Goodness: Christianity in Jane Austen’s England. She also blogs at Faith, Science, Joy, and Jane Austen.
Posted in Book review, Jane Austen's World, tagged Caroline Jane Knight, Jane Austen Literacy Foundation, Jane Austen's 250th Birthday on November 29, 2025| 5 Comments »
Inquiring Readers: One of our most loyal readers is publicist and author Denise Stout Holcomb. She leaves her comments on almost every post on this blog as far back as I can recall. Denise recently sent us this alert for a new book coming out at the end of this month: To Mark the Occasion: Birthday Tales for Jane Austen’s 250th. What a wonderful gift for this important month celebrating Austen’s life. – Vic
Celebrate 250 years of Jane Austen with a thoughtful collection of birthday tales inspired by her unforgettable characters!
In honour of Austen’s milestone jubilee, ten Austenesque authors reimagine the lives—and fêtes—of her most beloved (and occasionally infamous) creations. Join the festivities for Pride and Prejudice favourites such as Mr Darcy, Elizabeth Bennet, Mr Bingley, Charlotte Lucas, Kitty Bennet, and Georgiana Darcy, celebrate Captain Wentworth’s long-awaited occasion after Persuasion, attend the debut of Mansfield Park’s Mary Crawford, while two funerals and a birthday return us to Northanger Abbey.
Each story sparkles with wit, warmth, and a few surprises in the spirit of dear Jane. Brimming with humour, romance, and a keen understanding of the human heart, To Mark the Occasion: Birthday Tales for Jane Austen’s 250th is an enthusiastic tribute to Austen’s enduring genius—and a joyful reminder that every year (and every story) is worth celebrating.
All proceeds from this anthology will be donated to Jane Austen Literacy Foundation.
Foreword by Caroline Jane Knight. Below sit links to Caroline’s connection to her famous aunt Jane.
“Caroline is the fifth great niece of Jane Austen, and is the last of Jane’s nieces to grow up in Chawton House, in the South of England, on the family’s ancestral estates where Jane herself lived, wrote and published her most famous works…
Caroline has unique insight into the life, works and family of a literary icon. The worldwide celebrations of the 200-year anniversary of Pride & Prejudice in 2013 inspired Caroline to establish the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation to harness the passion for Jane Austen and support the practice of literacy across the world, in honour of Jane. ..
Click here to read Caroline’s Story, a Q&A interview with Ms Knight on the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation website.
Click here to join Caroline’s FB page
Authors:
Melissa Anne * Christina Boyd * P. O. Dixon * Cathleen Earle * Harry Frost * Susan Kaye * Melanie Rachel * Denise Stout * Bethany R Tolson
Editor:
Zarilda Belle Frost
2025 AGM in Baltimore
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