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Archive for the ‘Jane Austen’s World’ Category

St George’s, Hanover Square and Mansfield Park

Posted in Anglican Church, Churches of the Austen family, Georgian London, Jane Austen's religion, Jane Austen's World, Mansfield Park, Regency London, Sense and Sensibility, tagged , , , , on February 24, 2025| 2 Comments »

By Brenda S. Cox

“. . . perhaps you would not mind passing through London, and seeing the inside of St. George’s, Hanover Square. Only keep your cousin Edmund from me at such a time: I should not like to be tempted.”—Mary Crawford, Mansfield Park, chapter 43

Mansfield Park includes much more discussion of the church than any other Austen novel. Not surprisingly, it also names more real churches than the other novels do.

In an earlier post we explored the Garrison Chapel, where Fanny Price and her family worship in Portsmouth. Henry Crawford attends with them on his visit. Perhaps this symbolizes his attempts to reform himself and become worthy of Fanny; attempts that ultimately fail.

Remains of the Garrison Chapel in Portsmouth where the Prices and Henry Crawford worshiped.

Henry’s sister Mary names another real church in a letter to Fanny. She wants Fanny to let her and Henry take Fanny back to Mansfield from Portsmouth, where Fanny has been staying with her family. Fanny is unhappy and unhealthy, but will not commit the impropriety of going back to Mansfield Park before her uncle sends for her. Mary wants to take Fanny to see Henry’s estate and then pass through London on the way to Mansfield.

She suggests visiting St. George’s, Hanover Square. This was a popular church for weddings among the upper classes of London. Mary hopes Fanny will marry Henry there. At the same time, Mary says it might tempt her to marry Edmund. She doesn’t want to marry a clergyman, or a second son who will not inherit an estate, but she is attracted to Edmund.

St. George’s Hanover Square exterior. According to the church website, “The classical front with six great Corinthian columns supporting a pediment represented a new trend in English Church design.”

St. George’s, Hanover Square Today

During a recent visit to London, I had the privilege of worshiping at St. George’s, Hanover Square on a Sunday morning. The service was a Sung Eucharist, a Communion service in traditional language, with beautiful singing from the choir and impressive organ music. During the service, the congregation renewed their baptismal vows.

St. George’s Hanover Square interior. The painting of the Last Supper over the altar, and the surrounding carvings, were installed in 1724. The seven silver hanging lights in the church represent the seven lamps of fire burning before God’s throne, according to the book of Revelation in the Bible.

The church also offers brief midday services from the Book of Common Prayer on weekdays and several other Communion services during the week. Weekday “Morning Calm” services are held during termtime, as “a short period of reflection, contemplation, and relaxation before the challenges of the day begin.”

Nowadays the area around Hanover Square is mostly offices and businesses. I was told that most people in the current congregation live farther away, since few people live close to the church now.

The signboard for St. George’s Hanover Square lists services, extensive opening hours, and rules such as no drugs in the church and no sleeping on pews.

Wealthy Mayfair

Hanover Square is in Mayfair. In Austen’s England, many wealthy people had large houses in Mayfair or surrounding areas. In Sense and Sensibility, the Palmers live in Hanover Square, while the Middletons, Mrs. Ferrars, and Willoughby live nearby in Mayfair. Mrs. Jennings and John and Fanny Dashwood live in Marylebone, an area just north of Mayfair. It developed when Mayfair could no longer accommodate all those who wanted fashionable, elegant housing. (Source: The Annotated Sense and Sensibility, David Shapard.)

St. George’s is the parish church of Mayfair, where the wealthy worshiped. In 1711, Parliament had passed an Act for the building of fifty new churches in and around London. The wealthy of Mayfair petitioned for a church, which was completed in 1725. The patron saint of the church is St. George, a Christian martyr of the third century who is also the patron saint of England.

Rectors of St. George’s Hanover Square during Austen’s time and thereafter. Some held other influential church positions as well.

The parish was large, with a vestry of 101 vestrymen. These included 7 dukes, 14 earls, 7 barons, and 26 other titled people. A vestry, led by the church’s rector and churchwardens, decides matters relating to the church and the secular parish. (Mr. Knightley, Mr. Weston, Mr. Cole, and Mr. Cox are apparently on the vestry for their parish, as they are “busy over parish business” in Emma.) The St. George’s, Hanover Square vestry dealt with local issues including street lighting, refuse disposal, nightwatchmen, and a workhouse for the poor.

St. George’s Hanover Square eagle lectern. Many churches of Austen’s time had lecterns similar to this, where the Bible was read to the congregation. (The eagle symbolized the Word of God because supposedly it could fly directly into the sun without closing its eyes, so it was like the Bible, leading people to God with eyes open. Eagles’ wings also symbolized carrying the gospel to the ends of the earth.)
Pulpit of St. George’s, Hanover Square

Rich and Poor

While the wealthy owned mansions in the area, most spent only the winter in London, passing the rest of the year on their country estates. The back alleys behind the mansions teemed with poverty and misery year-round. In the early 1800s, the Evangelical movement began to awaken the church to the needs of the poor. St. George’s established a parish school for poor children in 1804, supported by public subscriptions. Later in the century, the church initiated and supported extensive projects to help the working classes of the area.

But the wealthy ran the church in Austen’s time. Around the gallery (balcony) are listed the churchwardens, year by year. Anglican churches generally have two elected churchwardens, responsible for financial accounts, movable property of the church, keeping order, and other administrative responsibilities. The churchwardens listed on St. George’s galleries for the 1700s and early 1800s sound impressive: Viscounts, Earls, Lords, Sirs, Honorables, and Esquires.

St. George’s Hanover Square balcony listing early churchwardens. Many were titled men.

Music

The composer George Friderick Handel lived about a four minute walk from the church. He helped choose the organ and organist for the new church. He had a pew there and worshiped at St. George’s until he died. He wrote the Messiah in his house nearby on Brook Street, which is now a museum.

St. George’s Hanover Square organ pipes; a new organ was installed in 1972. The original organ had 1514 pipes and three manuals (keyboards for the hands). It cost £500 in 1725.

Weddings

Since it was at the heart of the wealthy district, St. George’s, Hanover Square was the popular place for weddings of the wealthy and influential. In 1816, the church hosted 1,063 weddings! Famous people including Percy Bysshe Shelley, Benjamin Disraeli, George Eliot (Mary Lewes), and Theodore Roosevelt were married at St. George’s. Mary Crawford was likely staying near there with her wealthy London friends, and she may have attended church there. So it was the first place she thought of for her own and her brother’s weddings. It is still a popular venue for weddings, though not as much so as in Austen’s time.

On Thursday, we’ll look at the other two real churches mentioned in Mansfield Park, the two most famous churches in England. Do you know which ones they are? We’ll also consider which London church Lydia and Wickham married in!

All images above ©Brenda S. Cox, 2025.

Churches mentioned by name in Jane Austen’s novels and letters

Garrison Chapel

St. Swithin’s, Walcot and other churches in Northanger Abbey

London Churches in Austen’s Novels

St. George’s, Hanover Square

St. Paul’s, Covent Garden: Actors’ Church

Austen Family Churches

Steventon

Chawton

Deane

Hamstall Ridware and Austen’s First Cousin, Edward Cooper

Adlestrop and the Leigh Family

Stoneleigh Abbey Chapel and Mansfield Park

Great Bookham and Austen’s Godfather, Rev. Samuel Cooke

Ashe and the Lefroy Family

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Book Review: Jane Austen Visual Encyclopedia

Posted in 250th Anniversary of Jane Austen, Book review, Georgian London, Inspired by Jane Austen, Jane Austen Films, Jane Austen in the modern world, Jane Austen Novels, Jane Austen's enduring popularity, Jane Austen's Influences, Jane Austen's life, Jane Austen's World, Popular culture, Regency Life on February 20, 2025| 5 Comments »

One of the most beautiful new books available for Jane Austen fans this year is the Jane Austen: Visual Encyclopedia by French authors Claire Saim and Gwen Giret. With sumptuous artwork throughout and gorgeous illustrations by Sophie Koechlin, this is one of the most extensive catalogs of the Jane Austen fandom I’ve seen in recent years.

It’s a showstopper and conversation-starter that you’ll want to keep on your coffee table indefinitely. While the sticker price is a bit steep (currently on sale on Amazon), this beautiful book is an investment many Jane Austen fans and book collectors will want to make. 

Available Now
Order HERE

Book Review

As I explored this gorgeous new collectible book, I felt as though I was immersed in the entire world of Austen’s life, novels, and film adaptations. It’s a rich compilation of all-things-Austen for the dedicated Austen fan. It’s a one-stop book for everything you could ever hope to know about Austen, and it’s rare to see so many photos, articles, and illustrations in one place. It is not a scholarly book or a research tool, as it sticks more to the more popular aspects of Austen’s legacy, but it is delightful all the same.

Most of all, this book provides an expansive introduction to the enduring popularity of Jane Austen. It makes a wonderful gift for new Austen fans who have recently discovered the films or books. For fans of the film adaptations, it has many interesting tidbits about the various films throughout.

This is the book I would have wanted to read in college or in my grad school years when my Austen addiction truly took hold of me. I read dozens of books about her and watched as many documentaries as I could find during my early “Jane years,” but this has everything in one place.

Lastly, I cannot say enough about the actual look and feel of this book. When it arrived, wrapped in plastic, I was impressed. Once I opened it, it was even more stunning than I expected. It has a nice heavy feel to it, but you can still hold it comfortably in your lap, unlike larger coffee-table books. It’s definitely a book people will pick up if they see it displayed, which is what I’m planning to do!

Book Description

From her beloved family and her romantic escapades to her literary adventures and her enduring popular culture influence, experience the life and legacy of Jane Austen in this full-colour, beautifully illustrated, definitive 312-page encyclopedia.

Bursting with over 200 photographs and illustrations, explore Jane Austen’s work, which consists of six completed novels, two incomplete novels, letters and early writings. From the written word to the screen, from adaptations to secrets and filming locations, this book invites you on a fascinating journey of discovery through Austen’s writing.

Want to walk in the footsteps of Jane Austen, dressing in Regency style or simply enjoying a delicious afternoon tea? This coffee-table book features a beautiful gold-foiled cover and is perfect gift for fans of Jane Austen, her works and their enduring legacy.

Book Outline:

  • PART 1: Jane Austen, a woman of her time
    • Essays on Jane Austen, her family, friends and potential lovers
    • Illustrations and photos from across Jane’s beloved England
    • Researchers discuss Jane Austen’s appearance
  • PART II: The world of Jane Austen
    • A complete chronology of Jane Austen’s work
    • The historical and fictional backgrounds to iconic characters such as Elizabeth Bennet, the Dashwoods, and Mr Darcy
    • Filming locations and production secrets from over 30 adaptations
    • The unfinished novels and how they were eventually published
    • Expert analysis of early works and other writings
  • PART III: Jane Austen’s legacy
    • A comprehensive guide to the best Austen festivals
    • Details on the famous museums and collections dedicated to Jane Austen
    • From postage stamps to Funko-Pops Jane’s indelible influence

About the Authors

This book was lovingly compiled by Claire Saim and Gwen Giret (French authors), Sophie Koechlin (illustrator, French writer, painter & designer, and Hermès scarf designer), Lizzie Dunford (contributor and current Director at Jane Austen’s House Museum), and Helen Moss (translator).

Claire Saim, deeply in love with everything English, from literature to history and culture – including scones, obviously – she has been a devoted Janeite for many years. Always looking around Paris in search of whatever could be a reminder of her dear Great Britain, she shares her adventures on Instagram @jane_austen_france_. Based in France.

Gwen Giret, Jane Austen is a long-time passion of hers which led her to create a blog titled Jane Austen and her world. Her favourite things include travelling through the Pride and Prejudice author’s footsteps, reading all about Captain Wentworth and eating tons of clotted cream. Based in France.

Book Interior

If you’d like to take a tour of the interior of the book, you can watch this lovely video posted by the Jane Austen Centre: 

Celebrating 250 Years of Jane

This book is a true testament to Austen’s timelessness and enduring legacy. Her life and work only become more popular with each passing year. It’s a comfort for many Austen fans to read about her life or sit down with one of her novels and slip into her world.

As we work our way through the many new books released and releasing in honor of Jane Austen’s 250th year, there is so much more to come! We have books to read and new shows to watch. What could be more delightful than a Year of Austen in books and on screen?

RACHEL DODGE teaches college English classes, speaks at libraries, teas, and conferences, and writes for Jane Austen’s World blog. She is the bestselling author of The Anne of Green Gables Devotional, The Little Women Devotional, The Secret Garden Devotional, and Praying with Jane: 31 Days Through the Prayers of Jane Austen. A true kindred spirit at heart, Rachel loves books, bonnets, and ballgowns! You can visit her online at www.RachelDodge.com or on Instagram @KindredSpiritBooks.

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A Jane Austen Valentine

Posted in Holiday, Jane Austen's World, Regency Customs, Regency Life, Regency society, Valentine's Day on February 14, 2025| 2 Comments »

It’s “Heart Day,” and those of us here at JAW are dreaming of what it might be like to celebrate Valentine’s Day in the Regency Era with Jane and her best and silliest characters.

Valentine’s Day has a long history, and it dates back far beyond Jane Austen’s lifetime. For those interested in learning more about the history of Valentine’s Day or what Valentine’s Day looked like during the Regency era, here are several articles to peruse, most by our Vic:

  • History of Valentine’s Day: Initially, Valentines were usually handmade and given anonymously. During the 1800s much larger hand-painted copperplates molded in the shape of hearts replaced paper e-cards. You can read more HERE.
  • Ophelia’s Valentine’s Song: Jane Austen would certainly have known Ophelia’s Song, written by William Shakespeare in the 16th century. You can read it HERE.
  • Valentine’s Day in Jane Austen’s Day: By the middle of the eighteenth century, it was common for friends and lovers in all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes. You can read about it HERE.
  • Valentine Puzzle Purse, 1816: View a “puzzle purse” dated back to February 14, 1816! You can read about it HERE.
Valentine puzzle purse, February 14, 1816. Image by Nancy Rosin.

Be Mine, Austen Edition

And now for a reprise of a set of Austen-Themed Valentine’s created for your enjoyment! Perhaps you’ll send a few to a friend and have a good laugh together over Austen’s sense of humor:

True Romantics

And finally, a few beautiful quotes from Austen’s best literary moments for the true romantics among us. These are absolutely swoon-worthy and worth sending to a special someone:

A very Happy Valentine’s Day to you, from all of us here at Jane Austen’s World! May your day be filled with love, laughter, and good books!

RACHEL DODGE teaches college English classes, gives talks at libraries, teas, and book clubs, and writes for Jane Austen’s World blog. She is the bestselling author of The Little Women Devotional, The Anne of Green Gables Devotional and Praying with Jane: 31 Days Through the Prayers of Jane Austen. Now Available: The Secret Garden Devotional! You can visit Rachel online at www.RachelDodge.com.

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Walcot Church in Northanger Abbey and in Austen’s Family

Posted in Churches of the Austen family, Jane Austen in Bath, Jane Austen's World, Religion in Austen's England, tagged , , , , , on January 27, 2025| 4 Comments »

by Brenda S. Cox

“Hot! He [John Thorpe’s horse] had not turned a hair till we came to Walcot Church; but look at his forehand; look at his loins; only see how he moves; that horse cannot go less than ten miles an hour: tie his legs and he will get on.”–John Thorpe, Northanger Abbey, chapter 7

“Walcot Church” in Bath is one of several real churches that Jane Austen mentions in her novels. This particular church is closely connected to Jane Austen’s family. Austen made several visits to Bath and lived there for some years, so she knew Bath and its churches and chapels well.

As we’re celebrating Jane Austen’s life this year, we remember that church was an important part of her life. We’ve already looked at some of the churches she attended: St. Nicholas’ at Steventon, where she went as a child, St. Nicholas’ at Chawton, which she attended during the years she was writing most of her novels, and others (see links at the end of those posts).

St. Swithin’s Walcot in Bath. Completed in 1790, externally it is still much as it was when Jane Austen saw it.

“Walcot Church”

Walcot Church is the parish church of Walcot, right on the London Road coming into Bath. So it would have marked Thorpe’s arrival at the town. Wealthy and influential people worshipped there during the nineteenth century, so this may also be an indirect boast, as Thorpe tries to connect himself with a prestigious place.

A parish church can be called by the name of the parish or by the name of its patron saint. The patron saint of this church is St. Swithin, so the church is St. Swithin’s Walcot. St. Swithin (also spelled Swithun) was an Anglo-Saxon bishop. The patron saint of Winchester Cathedral, where Jane Austen is buried, is also St. Swithin.

Many “monuments”–the plaques on the walls–commemorate wealthy and influential people who have worshipped at St. Swithin’s Walcot through the years. In Northanger Abbey, Catherine contemplates a similar monument to General Tilney’s wife at the fictional Northanger parish church.

St. Swithin

St. Swithin was associated with various miracles. He came to be connected mostly with the weather. July 15 is St. Swithin’s Day (each saint has a day associated with him or her in the church calendar, usually the day of their death). According to tradition, if it rains on St. Swithun’s day, it will rain for the next forty days, but if it’s clear that day, it will be clear for forty days.

Just before she died, Jane Austen wrote a humorous poem in which St. Swithin threatens Winchester race-goers with rain because they have forgotten him.

Interior of St. Swithin’s Walcot Church today. The stained glass window was first added in 1841 and replaced in 1958 after it was shattered in World War II. It portrays Christ ascending into heaven, surrounded by his disciples. Modern seating on the main floor, rather than pews, allows the church to host a variety of events.

Austen’s Parents’ Wedding

How was the Austen family connected with St. Swithin’s?

Jane’s father, George Austen, studied at Oxford University. He eventually became an assistant chaplain, then a proctor (in charge of student discipline), called “the Handsome Proctor.” At some point he met Cassandra Leigh, niece of the Master of Balliol College at Oxford. Cassandra was the daughter of a clergyman. Her father eventually retired and moved with his family to Bath. After he died, Cassandra Leigh agreed to marry George Austen, and they were married on April 2, 1764, at St. Swithin’s Church. The register states that Cassandra was living in Walcot parish, while George was in the parish of Steventon in Hampshire. Cassandra’s mother came to the wedding, and her brother, James Leigh-Perrot, and her sister, Jane Leigh, signed as witnesses. George was 32 and Cassandra was 24. They were married by license, presumably a common license, not by banns. 

By then George Austen had been ordained and gained the living of Steventon, through his relatives. The young couple went straight to Hampshire, where they rented the parsonage at Deane while the Steventon parsonage was prepared. Of course, Jane Austen was born in 1775 in that Steventon parsonage.

Copy of the entry in the marriage register for George and Cassandra Austen, married at St. Swithin’s Walcot on April 26, 1764.
Another famous wedding at St. Swithin’s Walcot: William and Barbara Wilberforce were married there on May 30, 1797, after a six-week whirlwind courtship in Bath. Wilberforce led the fight against the trade in enslaved people and slavery.

George Austen’s Death

In 1801, George Austen left his Steventon parish to his son’s care and moved to Bath with his wife and two daughters, as his wife’s father had done much earlier. In 1805, George Austen died there. He was buried at St. Swithin’s, where you can still see his grave. Jane Austen wrote to her brother Frank, on Jan. 21 and 22, 1805:

“Our dear Father has closed his virtuous & happy life, in a death almost as free from suffering as his Children could have wished. . . . We have lost an Excellent Father. . . .The funeral is to be on Saturday, at Walcot Church. . . . [his body] preserves the sweet, benevolent smile which always distinguished him.” 

Jane did not have a suitor waiting in the wings (as her father had been waiting for her mother in a similar situation). She and her mother and sisters had to depend on her brothers for financial help after her father died.

George Austen’s grave at St. Swithin’s Walcot. He died Jan. 21, 1805. The inscription on the gravestone is worn and hard to read. It identifies him as the rector of Steventon and Deane, who died age 75 (meaning, in his 75th year). The newer brown plaque, added in 2000, adds information about his daughter Jane Austen and her residence in Bath.
The author Fanny Burney, Jane Austen’s contemporary, is buried and commemorated nearby.

Did Austen ever attend church at St. Swithin’s? I’ve written another post exploring where she may have gone to church and chapel in Bath. It’s likely that she went to St. Swithin’s when she was visiting her aunt and uncle Leigh-Perrot who lived on the Paragon in Bath. That’s the edge of Walcot parish. The church is a steep walk uphill from their home. Later on, when Jane lived in Bath, she more likely went to chapels closer to her family’s various lodgings.

St. Swithin’s is a busy, thriving church today, with many activities going on. Some events of the Jane Austen Festival last fall took place there. The Charles Simeon Trust, started in 1836 by Evangelical clergyman Charles Simeon, is a patron of St. Swithin’s, as well as of Bath Abbey.

Other Churches Mentioned in Northanger Abbey

Northanger Abbey refers to four other real churches or chapels, more obliquely.

Thorpe says he bought his gig from a “Christchurch man.” He is referring to one of the colleges at Oxford University. Oxford and Cambridge are made up of semiautonomous colleges, and a student’s studies were mostly at his own college. Christ Church is a college at Oxford, and its college chapel is also Christ Church Cathedral for the diocese of Oxford. Thorpe shows a cavalier attitude toward “Christchurch” as well as toward everything else.

(A cathedral is the seat of a bishop, who leads a diocese made up of a number of parishes. A parish is a geographical area which was generally served by one main church, like the parishes that Edward Ferrars and Mr. Collins serve.)

Catherine and Isabella expect to worship together in a chapel in Bath; Austen doesn’t tell us which one. It may have been the Octagon Chapel, which would have been convenient to both of them.

Northanger Abbey also indirectly refers to Bath Abbey. Twice the “church-yard” in the center of Bath comes up. The two young men Catherine and Isabella are following go “towards the church-yard,” and later Catherine trips “lightly through the church-yard” to go make her apologies to the Tilneys. This would be the church-yard of Bath Abbey, in the center of Bath. Roger E. Moore, in Jane Austen and the Reformation, argues that Austen purposely did not name the abbey, which was historically the spiritual center of the town. She may have wanted to critique the fact that Bath in her time was a place of pursuing shallow entertainment rather than deeper spirituality.

Near the end of the novel, Catherine is headed home. She looks out for the “well-known spire” of Salisbury. This is ancient Salisbury Cathedral, which has the tallest cathedral spire in England. Her father’s parish is in Salisbury diocese.

While Jane Austen invents country parishes for her characters, she also connects them with spiritual places in the real world.

Bath Abbey towers above the city of Bath. It is not mentioned by name in Northanger Abbey, though its church-yard is mentioned.

All images above ©Brenda S. Cox, 2025

Austen includes real-life churches in her novels, such as Salisbury Cathedral, with the highest spire in England. This is Catherine Morland’s landmark as she heads home.
Photo by Diego Delso, CC-BY-SA license.

Real Churches in Austen’s Novels and Letters

Garrison Chapel

St. Swithin’s, Walcot and other churches in Northanger Abbey

St. George’s, Hanover Square

London Churches

St. Paul’s, Covent Garden: Actors’ Church

Austen Family Churches

Steventon

Chawton

Deane

Hamstall Ridware and Austen’s First Cousin, Edward Cooper

Adlestrop and the Leigh Family

Stoneleigh Abbey Chapel and Mansfield Park

Great Bookham and Austen’s Godfather, Rev. Samuel Cooke

Ashe and the Lefroy Family

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Jane Austen’s Bookshelf

Posted in 250th Anniversary of Jane Austen, Book review, Books Jane Austen Read, Jane Austen's Influences, Jane Austen's World, Pride and Prejudice Review, What Jane Austen Read on January 20, 2025| 7 Comments »

In honor of our year-long celebration of 250 years of Jane Austen’s life and novels, I have compiled a list of new books you can add to your personal library each month. My selection this month is a much-anticipated book by Rebecca Romney, rare book specialist, titled Jane Austen’s Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector’s Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend.

Romney’s new book provides Janeites with a brand-new perspective on the female authors Jane Austen would have read during her lifetime. The very fact that Romney is a rare book specialist caught my eye! While many of the authors she highlights are known to us, this book takes a deeper look at their works and the reasons why their novels are unknown to the general public.

Release Date: February 18, 2025
Pre-order: HERE

Book Description

From rare book dealer and guest star of the hit show Pawn Stars Rebecca Romney comes a page-turning literary adventure that introduces readers to the women writers who inspired Jane Austen—and investigates why their books have disappeared from our shelves.

Long before she was a rare book dealer, Rebecca Romney was a devoted reader of Jane Austen. She loved that Austen’s books took the lives of women seriously, explored relationships with wit and confidence, and always, allowed for the possibility of a happy ending. She read and reread them, often wishing Austen wrote just one more.

But Austen wasn’t a lone genius. She wrote at a time of great experimentation for women writers—and clues about those women, and the exceptional books they wrote, are sprinkled like breadcrumbs throughout Austen’s work. Every character in Northanger Abbey who isn’t a boor sings the praises of Ann Radcliffe. The play that causes such a stir in Mansfield Park is a real one by the playwright Elizabeth Inchbald. In fact, the phrase “pride and prejudice” came from Frances Burney’s second novel Cecilia. The women that populated Jane Austen’s bookshelf profoundly influenced her work; Austen looked up to them, passionately discussed their books with her friends, and used an appreciation of their books as a litmus test for whether someone had good taste. So where had these women gone? Why hadn’t Romney—despite her training—ever read them? Or, in some cases, even heard of them? And why were they no longer embraced as part of the wider literary canon?

Jane Austen’s Bookshelf investigates the disappearance of Austen’s heroes—women writers who were erased from the Western canon—to reveal who they were, what they meant to Austen, and how they were forgotten. Each chapter profiles a different writer including Frances Burney, Ann Radcliffe, Charlotte Lennox, Charlotte Smith, Hannah More, Elizabeth Inchbald, Hester Lynch Thrale Piozzi, and Maria Edgeworth—and recounts Romney’s experience reading them, finding rare copies of their works, and drawing on connections between their words and Austen’s. Romney collects the once-famed works of these forgotten writers, physically recreating Austen’s bookshelf and making a convincing case for why these books should be placed back on the to-be-read pile of all book lovers today. Jane Austen’s Bookshelf will encourage you to look beyond assigned reading lists, question who decides what belongs there, and build your very own collection of favorite novels.

About the Author

Rebecca Romney is a rare book dealer and the cofounder of Type Punch Matrix, a rare book company based in Washington, DC. She is the rare books specialist on the HISTORY Channel’s show Pawn Stars, and the cofounder of the Honey & Wax Book Collecting Prize. She is a generalist rare book dealer, handling works in all fields, from first editions of Jane Austen to science fiction paperbacks. Romney is the author of Printer’s Error: Irreverent Stories from Book History (with JP Romney)and The Romance Novel in English: A Survey in Rare Books, 1769­–1999. Her work as a bookseller or writer has been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Forbes, Variety, The Paris Review, and more. In 2019, she was featured in the documentary on the rare book trade, The Booksellers. She is on the Board of the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (ABAA) and the faculty of the Antiquarian Book Seminar (CABS-Minnesota).

Expertise In Rare Books

Rebecca Romney has been in the rare book trade since 2007, when she was hired by Bauman Rare Books for their new location in Las Vegas. In 2010, she became manager of that gallery. She eventually moved to Philadelphia to manage the central operations of the firm, where she also handled the acquisition of libraries and oversaw catalogue production. After a stint at the Brooklyn-based Honey & Wax Booksellers (where she co-founded a book collecting prize), she founded her own rare book firm, Type Punch Matrix.

Rebecca is on the board of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America (ABAA), the Council of the Bibliographical Society of America (BSA), and on the board and faculty of the Antiquarian Book Seminars. She is a member of the Grolier Club, the Association Internationale de Bibliophilie (AIB), the American Antiquarian Society (AAS), and the Baker Street Irregulars (BSI).

January New Release

While you’re waiting for Rebecca’s new book to arrive, if you’re looking for something brand-new for January, look no further!

Canterbury Classics released a refreshed Word Cloud Classics edition of Pride and Prejudice just last week. Featuring colorful sprayed edges and a heat-burnished cover with foil stamping, this edition of Pride and Prejudice is a stylish addition to your bookshelves!

Jane Austen Must-Reads for 2025

This is just the start of a wonderful journey. Many authors and publishers are coming out with new projects this year to celebrate Jane Austen’s 250th year. I am excited to explore all the options, learn a lot more about Austen, and expand my library this year. If I could attend some of the events in England this year, I would, but until then, I’ll live vicariously through online events and new books! What are you looking forward to most during this year-long celebration?

RACHEL DODGE teaches college English classes, speaks at libraries, teas, and conferences, and writes for Jane Austen’s World blog. She is the bestselling author of The Anne of Green Gables Devotional, The Little Women Devotional, The Secret Garden Devotional, and Praying with Jane: 31 Days Through the Prayers of Jane Austen. A true kindred spirit at heart, Rachel loves books, bonnets, and ballgowns! You can visit her online at www.RachelDodge.com or on Instagram @KindredSpiritBooks.

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