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The C’s have it

August 1, 2007 by Vic

Fans have voted for their favorite photo of Colin as Mr. Darcy and “C” was the favorite by far. The image now proudly sits on my sidebar. Thank you everyone for participating! I am still recovering from the flurry of activity that the Firth/MacFadyen/Darcy battle engendered. Here are two more images for those who just can’t see enough images of these two handsome men.

Posted in Popular culture |

Becoming Jane Has Arrived

July 31, 2007 by Vic

But not in Richmond. We’ll just have to make do with multiple photos of Anne Hathaway arriving for the New York City premiere. Click here to see them.

And here for an interview with Anne in the San Francisco Chronicle.

You can catch Anne on Live With Regis and Kelly on Wednesday, August 1.

Here’s a trailer of the movie on Yahoo.

Posted in jane austen, Movie review | Tagged |

Masterpiece Theatre Presents the Complete Jane Austen

July 31, 2007 by Vic

Click here to enter the PBS site and see a preview of the shows coming in 2008.

Posted in jane austen, Movie review | Tagged , |

A Walk With Jane Austen: A Journey into Adventure Love & Faith, Review of the Book, Part One

July 30, 2007 by Vic

A WalkWith Jane Austen is a lovely book, full of unexpected insights and revelations. Lori Smith’s revealing and personal account is a pure joy to read. As a single, independent and talented woman she is in want of a man, but will not compromise her principles or her quest to experience romantic love in order to simply be with one. Sound familiar? This is one of the many parallels of Lori’s life to Jane’s. However, the one distinct difference between the two women is that Jane lived a geographically circumscribed and rather “eventless” life, whereas Lori is a seasoned world traveler who has embarked on a risky but life-altering journey.

In Part One of this very personal three part account, Lori travels to Oxford. Sitting in a church, she muses about Jane Austen’s faith. As I read Lori’s words, it occurs to me how universally loved Jane has become. Studying the world map sitting on my blog, Jane’s fans live in China, Korea, Italy, South Africa, Chili, Mexico, Canada, Iceland, New Zealand, Bahrain, and of course, all the former British Colonies. How is it that Jane is able to attract a close following from so many countries and faiths? As Lori points out, while Jane is religious and operates from a moral foundation, she was spiritually reserved. “‘She was ‘more inclined to think and act than to talk‘ about her faith.” Lori is so right, and I wonder if Jane’s reserved approach to faith in her novels is one of the reasons she is so universally approachable and loved. In addition to our admiration of Jane’s enormous writing talent, her novels about families, friends, and love gone awry and set right again resonate with people from a variety of backgrounds and religions.

At Oxford Lori meets several guys from D.C., one of whom is named Jack. At first impression she likes his easy going humor and affability. And although Jack confesses that he had just begun to see another woman and wasn’t expecting to meet someone else, Lori cautiously and inexorably begins to fall for him. Her analysis of life as a single woman and quest for a man to share her life echo those of many single women. This includes Jane, who also preferred to spend her life single rather than settle on a mate just for the sake of getting married. Part One of the book ends with Lori spending a wonderful evening with Jack and friends, one that is filled with conversation and laughter.

Part Two of the journey begins with Lori thinking the whole world beautiful. But I’ll reserve a more detailed analysis of this section for another time. Ever the optimist, I had hoped to review this book chapter by chapter, however my current schedule simply will not allow it. Look for my next synopsis of this wonderful book over the weekend.

Visit Lori’s website here: Jane Austen Quote of the Day
Visit Lori’s other website here: Following Austen
Pre order the book here: A Walk With Jane Austen, Lori Smith

Posted in Book review | Tagged , , |

Seaside Fashion in Jane Austen’s Day

July 27, 2007 by Vic

In the image of the seaside above by James Gillray (A Calm, 1810) one can see the high hem of a typical seaside dress of the day, and the bathing machines lined along the water. Bathing in the sea, especially during the cold season, became fashionable in seeking a cure for many illnesses. The following is a short passage from The Bathing was so delightful this morning: The bathing experiences of Jane Austen and others from The Jane Austen Society of Australia:

Within the Austen family there was a preference for using spas for ill health and visiting the seaside for pleasure. Edward Austen visited and James Leigh-Perrott lived in Bath for treatment of their gout. Jane and Cassandra Austen visited Cheltenham in 1816 to try to cure Jane’s declining health. Their visits to the seaside were planned as recreational visits only, with no specific medical purpose attached to them. It was only the prospect of annual visits to the seaside that made the move to Bath tolerable to Jane.

In fact, during the Regency Era few men and women wore bathing costumes. They often swam nude, and entered the sea in separate beaches sheltered by rented bathing machines drawn by horses (much like those in the photograph above, taken in 1885-1890). Bathers changed in and out of their clothes in these portable dressing rooms. An 18th century description of a bathing machine from The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker gives one a good idea of what being in one was like:

Imagine to yourself a small, snug, wooden chamber, fixed upon a wheel-carriage, having a door at each end, and on each side a little window above, a bench below – The bather, ascending into this apartment by wooden steps, shuts himself in, and begins to undress, while the attendant yokes a horse to the end next the sea, and draws the carriage forwards, till the surface of the water is on a level with the floor of the dressing-room, then he moves and fixes the horse to the other end – The person within being stripped, opens the door to the sea-ward, where he finds the guide ready, and plunges headlong into the water – After having bathed, he re-ascends into the apartment, by the steps which had been shifted for that purpose, and puts on his clothes at his leisure, while the carriage is drawn back again upon the dry land; so that he has nothing further to do, but to open the door, and come down as he went up – Should he be so weak or ill as to require a servant to put off and on his clothes, there is room enough in the apartment for half a dozen people.

In 1901 it became legal for women and men to bathe on the same seashore (one presumes they are clothed) and bathing machines became less popular.

 

Learn more about bathing and seaside resorts during this era on the following site:

Update:

Here are two more posts about bathing in the Regency Era:

Posted in Sea bathing during the Regency era | Tagged | 2 Comments »

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