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Shades from Jane Austen

October 9, 2012 by Vic

Shades from Jane Austen by Honoria Marsh was published in 1975-1976 in a series of limited editions. I saw this rare work at the silent auction table at the 2012 JASNA AGM meeting in NYC. There were many beautiful items, but this one was a standout with its colored illustrations, mostly silhouettes, and a few reproductions of Jane Austen’s writings. Bidding began at $50.00, but at the time I approached the table the price had gone up to $150.00, a bit beyond my price range but still less than the book attracts in online bookstores. The price reflects the book’s rarity, for only a few copies are available. I had seen a few illustrations before, but not the originals … until now.

The video shows a number of illustrations from the book not seen in this post. The portrayals of Jane Austen’s characters were painted by the author from life. Her sitters were either friends and acquaintances, or Jane Austen’s descendants or people associated with her! You can read their names below the title of the characters.

Part one of the book includes ‘Jane Austen’s Family in Silhouette’, a table showing Jane Austen’s Family and Chronology of Events During her Lifetime’ (written by Peggy Hickman), and Jane Austen’s family tree.

Part two includes an introduction and a discussion of Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion.

Silhouette of Mrs. Gardiner

Alas, I do not know who successfully bid for the book in the silent auction or what it went for. Does anyone know?

Posted in Book review, jane austen, Jane Austen Novels, Jane Austen's World, Popular culture, Regency Period, Regency World | Tagged , , | 7 Comments »

Antique Fans from the Regency Era

October 8, 2012 by Vic

I can’t believe it’s been a day since the excitement of my first JASNA (Jane Austen Society of America) Annual Meeting. This one was held in Brooklyn, which turned out to be a fabulous place for this Janeite, for I walked over half of the Brooklyn Bridge between sessions and loitered in Brooklyn Heights, a truly wonderful neighborhood in which to while away one’s time. Then there were the plenary sessions, break out sessions and the EMPORIUM, where money flowed from my pocket into the vendors’. (I had to ship my loot back!)

Feather fan. Only some discoloration and one blemish flaw this otherwise remarkably preserved fan.

One of the loveliest displays was the antique fan exhibition presented by Dr. Abbey Block Cash. The variety of fans was astounding. One, made entirely of feathers, was in almost pristine condition (see image). The fans were so delicate that I would be afraid to handle them and many were hand painted. One in particular caught my eye … a puzzle fan from 1820:

The fan is made of French brise with blond horn sticks. The four images that open in four directions are:

  • Bouquet of flowers
  • Marriage proposal
  • Farm house
  • Planting scene

I went to the website suggested in the brochure, the Fan Association of North America at this link. Information on this site was varied and practical. What I liked in particular were the links to other fan sites. FANA is well worth a visit and exploration if you are interested in these beautiful yet practical accessories.

Not all the fans belonged to the Regency Era. As you can see, most are hand painted with exquisite scenes. The last fan in this video was made ca. 1910 (I hope my memory serves me right) and depicts scenes painted by Kate Greenaway. It is obvious from the quality of the fans that all were destined for the upper crust. I did not see a fan of the sort that the lower classes could afford, such as those with advertisements. (Because I did not see such fans, does not mean that they were absent.)

I wish I had the presence of mind to ask about the language of the fan, for there are so many myths swirling around that topic, but those of you who have been to an AGM know how much there is to see and do, and how many people one MUST meet NOW.

The red fan was exquisite and dramatic. The fan in back of it sports Kate Greenaway images of children.

There were some notable absences at this year’s AGM: I so wanted to meet my frequent blog partner Laurel Ann Nattres (editor of Jane Austen Made Me Do It and Austenprose) and Margaret Sullivant (editrix of Austenblog), but alas they did not come this year. You will see over the coming weeks the people I DID meet, such as Joan Klingel Ray, Susannah Fullerton, Deb Barnum (my lovely roommate), Lori Smith, Syrie James, and Dianah Baycich. Some of us fell all over each other like twins separated at birth. Every Janeite should make at least one JASNA Meeting. You simply will not be disappointed. I must add that the folks from JASNA NY did a splendid job of putting this complex (and largest) JASNA conference together. Kudos to all.

Read my other post from the AGM:

Posted in Jane Austen's World, Regency Life, Regency Period, Regency society, Regency style | Tagged , , , | 34 Comments »

Upstairs Downstairs, Season 2

October 6, 2012 by Vic

When Upstairs Downstairs was not included in last spring’s Masterpiece Classic line up I worried that we would not have an opportunity to see the series this year. Not to worry. The first installment of six of Season Two will air this Sunday ,October 7 and end November 11, 2012.

Will sandbags protect Eaton Place?

In 2010, Upstairs Downstairs aired just after the wildly popular Downton Abbey, suffering in comparison. To begin with, Downton’s budget was astronomical compared to UpDown’s.  And UpDown’s script needed to find a way to tie in to the classic and unforgettable 70’s series with Jean Marsh as Rose and Gordon Jackson as Mr. Hudson.  That series was a hard act to follow.

Mr. Pritchard is in charge of bomb siren warnings and other dangers. What is his secret?

This year UpDown suffered unanticipated setbacks: Jean Marsh suffered a stroke and could not continue to play Rose full time (she appears in two episodes) and Eileen Atkins (Maud, Lady Holland) decided not to return. Frankly, Eileen was the only comedic respite in Series One and the closest that UpDown came to challenging Maggie Smith’s unforgettable Violet.

The new baby hardly plays a role in the plot, except to point out Lady Holland’s depression and long road back to health.

Season Two’s UpDown is a somber series compared to Downton, even with that show’s foray into  WW1.  At the beginning of Season 2 in UpDown, World War II is about to break wide open. Air raid drills are a fact of life. Houses are sandbagged and Londoners are preparing for war, even practicing wearing gas masks indoors.

The cook and new maid, Eunice

Nothing isquite  the same at 165 Eaton Place.

Mrs. Thackeray, Mr. Amanjit, and Mr. Pritchard. After Maude’s absence, Mr. Amanjit’s role is severely curtailed.

Elie Kendrick as Ivy is gone, replaced by two new maids: Eunice and Beryl.

Laurel Haddock as Beryl

Alex Kingston has come on board as Maude’s sister,  Dr. Blanceh Mottershead, an unwanted addition as far as Hallam Holland is concerend. Hallam is conerned 24/7 with diplomacy and making sure that the Brits aren’t totally bowled over by oily German diplomacy.

Hallam beset at all fronts

Then there’s Lady Holland’s story arc. Episode One starts with the birth of the Holland’s second child and Lady Holland’s struggle to regain her health after a difficult birth, which has resulted in post partum depression (or has it?)

Agnes, Blanche, and baby: A happy family?

A family tableau: Agnes, Blance, and baby. A happy famoly?

A handsome Hollywood producer appreciates her charms, even as Hallam is consumed by averting the war. Agnes’s sister Persey is ankle deep in Nazis, living abroad and living the high life until Kristalnacht, when she realizes that Nazi German politics is uber false and dirty and bent on annihilating innocent Jews.

Alex Kingston as Dr Blanche Mottershead

Fans of the original series know that UpDown was never ever a precursor of Downton Abbey. It always had a rather serious bent, with comedic elements toned down or nonexistent.

Sarah Gordy as Pamela Holland, Hallam’s long lost sister.

Downton Abby, which I adore, is in my opinion a phenomenon of our times – history mixed with rather outrageous elements that reflect our 21st century sensibilities. We cannot fault UpDown for staying true to its origins.

Claire Foy’s role as Lady Persey is dark this season. Who can love a mistress of the Nazis?

I watched all six episodes back to back, wanting to know how the story ends. It is sad to know that this intelligently written series was not renewed for a third season. Knowing this, I backpedaled, not allowing myself to get too invested in the story line, so that I would not be disappointed that the cliff hanger would not be resolved.

Blake Ritson as the Duke of Kent. His portrayal is highly stylized. I’m not sure I like this direction in his acting. Let me know what you think!

True to form, UpDown reverted to 1970s ways, not making a brouhaha at the end of the season, and almost tying up the story lines in a neat bow . Is Season 2 worth watching knowing that the series is at an edn? Absolutely. Click here to go to PBSs site.

Posted in Jane Austen's World, Popular culture | Tagged , , , , , , | 19 Comments »

Northanger Abbey: Catherine Morland as a Young Girl

October 4, 2012 by Vic

Inquiring readers: While I am at JASNA’s meeting in NYC this weekend, I leave you with this delightful description of Catherine Morland as a very young girl. I have often wondered how much Jane Austen described her own character. After all, she lived with a house full of boys and must have played cricket with them and slid down the slope behind Steventon Rectory during the snow! Interestingly, Jane Austen wrote the description in one long paragraph, which my images break up. I love the tongue-in-cheek quality of her depiction of Catherine, yet she manages to describe exactly what a young lady’s accomplishments OUGHT to be.

**A family of ten children will be always called a fine family, where there are heads and arms and legs enough for the number. (Portait of Sir William Young and family, Johann Zoffany.) Walker Art Gallery

Description of Catherine Morland

A family of ten children will be always called a fine family, where there are heads and arms and legs enough for the number; but the Morlands had little other right to the word, for they were in general very plain, and Catherine, for many years of her life, as plain as any. She had a thin, awkward figure, a sallow skin without color, dark, lank hair, and strong features,— so much for her person. And not less unpropitious for heroism seemed her mind.

Embroidered 18th century handkerchief. “The ball once struck off, Away flies the boy, To the next destind post, And then home with joy.” *Image @CNN

She was fond of all boys’ plays, and greatly preferred cricket, not merely to dolls, but to the more heroic enjoyments of infancy, — nursing a dormouse, feeding a canary-bird, or watering a rose-bush. Indeed, she had no taste for a garden; and if she gathered flowers at all, it was chiefly for the pleasure of mischief, — at least so it was conjectured, from her always preferring those which she was forbidden to take. Such were her propensities. Her abilities were quite as extraordinary.

Girl sketching, by Henry Raeburn. c. 1811 Image @Sudley House

Catherine Morland’s Accomplishments

She never could learn or understand anything before she was taught; and sometimes not even then, for she was often inattentive and occasionally stupid. Her mother was three months in teaching her only to repeat the “Beggar’s Petition;” and after all, her next sister, Sally, could say it better than she did. Not that Catherine was always stupid,— by no means: she learnt the fable of “The Hare and many Friends” as quickly as any girl in England. Her mother wished her to learn music; and Catherine was sure she should like it, for she was very fond of tinkling the keys of the old forlorn spinnet; so, at eight years old, she began. She learnt a year, and could not bear it; and Mrs. Morland, who did not insist on her daughters being accomplished in spite of incapacity or distaste, allowed her to leave off. The day which dismissed the music-master was one of the happiest of Catherine’s life. Her taste for drawing was not superior; though whenever she could obtain the outside of a letter from her mother, or seize upon any other odd piece of paper, she did what she could in that way, by drawing houses and trees, hens and chickens, all very much like one another.

Dancing Masters Ball, 1794, Isaac Cruikshank. Childrens balls were arranged so that children could practice their dancing lessons. Image: Courtesy of Yale University, Lewis Walpole Digital Image Library Call Number 794.8.27.1

Writing and accounts she was taught by her father; French by her mother: her proficiency in either was not remarkable, and she shirked her lessons in both whenever she could. What a strange, unaccountable character!— for with all these symptoms of profligacy at ten years old, she had neither a bad heart nor a bad temper; was seldom stubborn, scarcely ever quarrelsome, and very kind to the little ones, with few interruptions of tyranny; she was moreover noisy and wild, hated confinement and cleanliness, and loved nothing so well in the world as rolling down the green slope at the back of the house.

Below: Catherine as I envision her when she meets Henry Tilney


Head of a girl
Louise Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun

Citations:
*Did baseball begin in 18th-century England?, By Simon Hooper, CNN, June 9, 2010 8:29 a.m. EDT

**A portrait of Sir William Young and his large family shows a picture of 18th century wealth in a fashionably bucolic setting. A “conversation piece”, this depiction was meant to tell a story. The artist, Johann Zoffany, helped develop this type of piece, positioning the sitters as if they are actors. The family is wearing a type of fancy dress, 17th century costumes inspired by century-old portraits by Sir Anthony Van Dyck . This type of nostalgia was extremely popular in Britain around 1770.  Michael Henry Adams, A Queen for Today! Huffington Post, April 22, 2009.

Posted in jane austen, Jane Austen Novels, Jane Austen's World, Northanger Abbey | Tagged , | 6 Comments »

Jane Austen Emma: An Annotated Edition by Bharat Tandon, A Review

September 30, 2012 by Vic

Inguiring readers, I literally SWOONED when I received a review copy of Emma: An Annotated Edition edited by Bharat Tandon. Readers of this blog know how much I have cherished this annotated series of Jane Austen’s novels by Harvard University Press. Click here for my review about the Annotated Pride and Prejudice and here for the Annotated Persuasion.

Lushly Illustrated Jane Austen Annotated Edition

Foremost, the books are lushly illustrated, beautifully produced, and well-researched by known Jane Austen scholars. Jane Austen Emma: An Annotated Edition is no exception. Considering the beautiful package, the book is very reasonably priced at $35 U.S., a perfect gift for the Janeite or historian in your family. Jane Austen Emma: Annotated Edition begins with a comprehensive introduction by Bharat Tandon, an academic, writer, and reviewer, who has lectured at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford and specializes in teaching British literature after 1700 and American literature after 1900.

Emma is the only novel Jane Austen named after her heroine. Although she was fond of this eponymous character, she did not foresee Emma becoming a general favorite with the reading public, saying, ‘I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like.’ Truth be told, I’ve never quite warmed up to Emma Woodhouse, but in relation to 99% of the novels I’ve read my dislike is minor.

Annotated and Scholarly Insights on Emma

Her father, Mr. Woodhouse, on the other hand, has completely won me over with his odd, endearing hypochondriac ways, encouraging Mrs. Bates to eat a soft boiled egg and a very little bit of apple-tart, and a small half glass of wine put into a tumbler of water, for instance. Later in the novel, Mr. Woodhouse engages in a discussion with Frank Churchill about the room at the Crown, in which Frank tries to reassure the older man that the room reserved for the ball will be so large that there would be no occasion to open the windows and let in cold air upon heated bodies. Mr. Woodhouse nearly goes apoplectic at the thought, for both men are convinced that sweaty bodies should not be exposed to fresh air, a concept wonderfully explained by Tandon, who quotes The Code of Health and Longevity by John Sinclair (1807) as an explanation. Then there is this quote:

They were stopping, however, in the first place at Mrs. Bates’s; whose house was a little nearer Tandalls than Ford’s; and had all but knocked, when Emma caught their eye. – Immediately they crossed the road and came forward to her;”

I was delighted to discover that Jane Austen’s use of ‘catching an eye’ was one of the earliest citations of that particular use of that phrase in the OED, which cited Pride and Prejudice in the instance when Darcy catches Elizabeth’s eye and withdrew his own.

“The Linen Draper” from The Book of English Trades; and Library of the Useful Arts (London: Richard Phillips, 1818). (Image in the book)

Tandon discusses the meaning of making an entrance, the etiquette of dinner seating, square pianos, the plight of governesses, and so forth, and while I have seen some of the illustrations quite a few times before, such as the two that sit in this post, the author chose many that are new to me and add to my visual repertoire. Annotated books are such treasures for the serious reader of Jane Austen’s novels, explaining her words and old-fashioned idioms and making long dead customs come alive. This generously illustrated annotation from Harvard University Press both instructs and entertains with its running commentary along the margins, enhancing our enjoyment of one of Jane Austen’s most perfectly realized novels.

An Assembly Ball, plate 10 from the series “The Comforts of Bath”
1798, Colored aquatint. Image @Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wesley College. (Image in the book)

Jane Austen Emma: An Annotated Edition is well worth the purchase.

I give this new addition to the Harvard University Press annotated Jane Austen novels five out of five regency teacups.

Purchase information: Harvard University Press

HARDCOVER

$35.00 • £24.95 • €31.50

ISBN 9780674048843

Posted in Book review, Emma, jane austen, Jane Austen Novels, Jane Austen's World | Tagged , , | 14 Comments »

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