Strictly Jane Austen | Resources on Her Life & Works updated Mon Jul 30 2012 5:46 pm EDT
Updated: 2012-07-31 00:46:31
Jane Austen is loved and noted for her witty observations of 19th-century English society. Her works combine romantic comedy with social satire and keen personal insight. With an ever-growing fan base, Jane Austen's novels have also been interpreted into several film versions. Presented here is free access to all of Jane Austen's works and several biographies, as well as a selection of commercial versions and other items of interest to Jane Austen fans.
Inquiring readers, One of the benefits of overseeing a long-lasting blog is the number of Jane Austen aficionados one meets via email and online. Ronald Dunning, a descendant of Jane Austen’s brother, Francis, recently emailed me to discuss his new genealogy site and Jane Austen family website. After I visited the sites and read Deb [...]
Gentle Readers, author Colette Saucier has written a description of her journey on writing Pulse and Prejudice, a vampire adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Those of us who are fascinated with the vampire myth can relate to her journey! You can find more information about Colette and her book on Colette Saucier.com This is a [...]
Inquiring readers: Paul Emanuelli, author of Avon Street, has contributed a post for this blog before about the City of Bath as a Character. He has graciously sent in an article about crime and an incident involving Jane Austen’s aunt, Mrs James Leigh-Perrot. Paul writes about Bath in his own blog, unpublishedwriterblog. It is well [...]
Fire! Can there be a more frightening word in Georgian London? The great fire in 1666 changed the landscape of that city forever. Once a densely packed city riddled with overcrowded, wood-timbered houses and dark, narrow lanes, the fire led the way to a change in building regulations that ushered in brick and stone edifices, [...]
Some of you may be familiar already with the Ancestry.com Jane Austen Family Tree created by Ronald Dunning. It is quite the amazing compilation of ancestors and descendants of “Dear Aunt Jane” – a resource for Austen fans and scholars alike the world over. So we are happy to announce that Mr. Dunning has continued with [...]
I will be away for a couple of weeks on holiday from today, so no more posts from me for a while. Do enjoy the archives while I’m away. I’m not sure that anything I’m going to be doing or seeing will be Jane Austen related, but if I can winkle any Janeite items out [...]
Well, another year and yet again I am not attending The Annual Jane Austen Festival in Louisville, Kentucky that begins tomorrow; so I thought I would share the schedule so you all can be as depressed as I over what we shall be missing… you can watch this video to get into the spirit of things: The 5th [...]
I’ve known about this for some time, but I can now tell you that the fantastic Threads of Feeling exhibit, which I saw in 2010 at the Foundling Hospital Museum in London and reported on here, is going to be on show at the De Witt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum, Colonial Williamsburg, throughout 2013. This [...]
You may recall that Janet Clarke of the Jane Austen Society asked for our help in voicing our objections to the closure of a twitten, a few months ago. The twitten in question- which is ancient Sussex dialect for a small passageway between buildings – was in Worthing, and was almost certainly was used by Jane Austen when [...]
On July 18, 1817 Jane Austen died at the age of 41 of Addison’s disease, a diagnosis that remains largely disputed. Her last hours are described by her grieving sister Cassandra to Fanny Knight, Jane’s beloved niece. Other posts that Tony Grant and I have written on the topic sit below. My dearest Fanny, Doubly [...]
Dear Readers: You might recall a post from several months ago [March 2012] alerting all to the impending closure of the twitten [called the "Library Passage"] in Worthing – a place associated with Jane Austen as she visited there in 1805 for several months – and it is very likely one of the main sources for the [...]
Today is the anniversary of Jane Austen’s death. She died on the 18th July 1817 in a rented house, Number 8 College Street, Winchester, where she had gone from Chawton in order to seek better medical attention. Mr Curtis, the apothecary in Alton, the small town near to Chawton, who had treated Jane Austen, had [...]
Inquiring readers, Josh Kurz, an independent filmmaker, just finished a piece for the Chemical Heritage Foundation, A Distillations Explainer about tears. This funny yet educational two-minute segment features Elizabeth Bennet. Thanks, Josh, for pointing me to your video. There is evidence to suggest that crying relieves stress. While Elizabeth Bennet is not some namby pamby [...]
Kew Palace-once known as the Dutch House because of its building style- you can see the Dutch Gables in the roof, above- is a fascinating place to visit. It has had associations with the royal family since the early 18th century, and is now well known as the home of George III and Queen Charlotte who [...]
Found in my research travels for the 2008 Persuasions “Jane Austen Bibliography”: a poem by X. J. Kennedy on Jane Austen. Mr. Kennedy is a ”poet, translator, anthologist, editor, and author of children’s literature and textbooks on English literature and poetry.” Jane Austen Drives to Alton in Her Donkey Trap Disappointing waters at Cheltenham Spa Hadn’t erased [...]
The eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed a new “button” which has appeared on the side bar to the left of this page: The Pinterest Button. I confess…I have finally caught the Pinterest bug. For those of you who are unaware of this phenomenon ( and do beware, it is a procrastination tool par excellence) [...]
I know…an embarrassment of riches this week from good old Auntie Beeb. Episode One of Jane Austen’s novel, Emma, my favourite of all her works, was broadcast today, and Episode Two will be broadcast tomorrow. They will both be available to listen again to, to you all, wherever you are in the world, so do [...]
You may recall how enthralled I was by this wonderful book some time ago. Full of images of the England that Jane Austen saw and sometimes wrote about- with images of Hackwood Park and Boxhill amongst them- it is a wonderfully informative book, detailing the life and works of Paul Sandby. Ruined Abbeys… Views from [...]
at Sotheby’s this afternoon for £ 126,000 (plus buyers premium of 20%, making a total purchase piece of £152,450) to a bidder, identity currently unknown, who was bidding by telephone. An announcement was made prior to the sale to the effect that tests have revealed that the stone in the ring is in fact a [...]
Gentle readers, I have been staying inside during this week’s heatwave, which shows no signs of letting up. As I showered, I wondered how people in days of yore dealt with their sweat and overheated bodies. Karl Philipp Moritz’s excellent and delightful travel journal from 1782, ‘Travels in England’, gave me a clue. Here are [...]
This beautiful marquetry table transforms into a desk with a turn of a key. This short animated film shows you how it operates and how an elegant French lady in the 18th century would have used it. Enjoy. Read about metamorphic furniture (which is different from mechanical furniture) at this link. Filed under: 18th Century [...]
Today U.S. citizens are celebrating July 4th and the independence of our nation from Great Britain. Grand firework displays will play a pivotal role in our national revelry tonight, culminating a day long celebration. Fireworks were not unknown during the Georgian Era, and were used for grand effect in public celebrations. I will point out [...]