Sense and Sensibility

Bath-based independent Palazzo is to publish illustrated editions of Jane Austen's novels to mark the bicentenary of their original publication. The Bath Bicentenary Editions will launch with Sense and Sensibility, first published on 30th October 1811. Palazzo's edition, which will come out on 28th September (h/b, £20), will have colour plate and silhouette illustrations by artist Niroot Puttapipat, who has also illustrated Austen for the Folio Society. The book will carry a foreword by Katherine Reeve, author of Jane Austen in Bath.

Palazzo publisher Colin Webb said Puttapipat's illustrations were "meticulous and beautiful," and that the publisher had "an ambitious plan" to publish a comparable edition of each book as its bicentenary date occurred. The next will be Pride and Prejudice, to be published at the end of next year.

"Bath held a special resonance for Jane Austen, who lived here during a major period of transition in her life, and the city undoubtedly contributed to the plotlines and characters in her wonderful stories," Webb said.

"This is why Bath makes the perfect backdrop for the publishing of the bicentenary editions of her famous novels." He called the illustrated Sense and Sensibility "not only a timely celebration of the enduring work of Jane Austen, but of Bath's unique cultural heritage as well."

http://www.saahub.com/illustrator/Niroot-Puttapipat

regency fashion.

Look at ekduncan.blogspot.com and my fanciful muse.blogspot and see beautiful fashion pictures from the Regency period.

Teatime in the Regency.

By the Regency period, tea was a well-established social ritual, though the concept of ‘high tea’ (as a meal served between lunch and dinner) wouldn’t be introduced until later by the Duchess of Bedford.

There are five types of tea that would have been available to Regency England: white, yellow, green, oolong, and black.

The most common teas then, as today, were green, oolong and black (the most popular). Tea was always served hot, with milk and sugar for enhancements, and always served in order of precedent. Social status was always to be observed!

So, by the Regency, tea as a social device and entrenched ritual in most English households had been deeply established.

But there was no Earl Grey tea during the Regency. Earl Grey tea is actually a blend of tea that wasn’t created until sometime in the 1830’s and named after Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, Prime Minister of England from 1830-1834. It’s a luscious blend of black tea infused with bergamot, an aromatic and flavorful citrus oil.

Tea time was an excellent place to share information and flirtatious remarks in a Regency romance because it was a common event that was suitable to both genders of the time. Elaine golden.sistergoldenblog

THE Crichel estate in Dorset, which has been in the Marten family for 300 years, is reportedly up for sale.

It includes three villages; a 25-room, 18th-century manor house; cricket club; and church and provided the backdrop for the 1996 film adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma starring Gwyneth Paltrow. The sale brings into sharp focus the plight of many owners who have inherited vast houses and estates which are too big to live in and cost too much to run. Accounts reveal Crichel made a loss of £176,500 in the 15 months to March 2010. Stately-piles-of-money

Clothing from the Austen era displayed at Sudley House

An exhibition of clothes and accessories from the Jane Austen era has opened at Sudley House, Liverpool.

Costume Drama: Fashion from 1790 to 1850 features clothing from National Museums Liverpool's collection.

The exhibition is at Sudley House until May 2012.

"We cover the period from 1790 to 1850 so it's about a 60 year span and during that time there were a lot of changes in costume in terms of the the style, as you would expect," Pauline Rushton said.

"There were political changes going on, economic changes and many social changes where people were rising through the social levels and fashion was filtering down for the first time."

National Museums Liverpool has a collection of thousands of items of clothing, and those from the 19th Century have been used for research by television production companies making costume dramas.

"Most of these garments were donated to us over many years, most in the 1950s and 1960s in particular," Ms Rushton said."There's a variety of colours, some of them are more vibrant than you would expect because at this period they are still using natural dye, but even so they could achieve these very bright colours. It was possible to get very vibrant, striking colours even with natural dyes.

Liverpool's 19th Century position as one of the world's busiest ports, and the wealth that came with that means the museum has a sizeable collection of clothes from the wealthy families who lived in the city.

"We were a very rich city in the 19th Century, increasing decade on decade. "The rising middle classes from the 1830s onwards were wanting to make a statement about themselves as a group, wanting to show off their wealth through what their wives and daughters wore in particular."

"We do have a fantastic collection of clothes connected to merchant families, stockbrokers and cotton traders so we can represent those people very well.

Pauline Rushton has curated the collection of clothes Many of the items were acquired decades ago, and often with few details of who they belonged to but for some items the museum has been able to piece together the story of the family who owned them.

One of the dresses in the collection is linked to the slave trade that much of Liverpool's wealth was originally built from. "It probably belonged to the daughter of a Liverpool sea captain called James Goode who was a slave ship captain," Ms Rushton explained. "We know a little bit about his family, we don't know the name of his daughter who probably wore this in the 1820s but he certainly sailed in a number of sailing voyages between Liverpool, Angola and Trinidad. "It's interesting that we have a relic of a family directly involved in the slave trade in Liverpool at the time." She added: "What we don't have, which is true of most museums, are the working clothes that people wore more generally because they weren't considered the kind of thing you should collect. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-

Regency Shopping

I liked my walk very much; it was shorter than I had expected, and the weather was delightful. We set off immediately after breakfast, and must have reached Grafton House by half-past 11; but when we entered the shop the whole counter was thronged, and we waited full half an hour before we could be attended to. When we were served, however, I was very well satisfied with my purchases -- my bugle trimming at 2s. 4d. and three pair silk stockings for a little less than 12s. a pair.

Jane Austen to Cassandra

April 18, 1811

During the Regency, city shopping…for even a short list of items… could become an all day experience as one had to visit each individual proprietor, possibly in different parts of town (certain districts catered to different types of shops) wait for service from the staff (one could not simply help oneself and then find a cashier) and finally pay the clerk, who would dash off to the office for change before finally returning to the customer with their package.

There were markets (Billingsgate, Leadenhall, Farringdon, Newgate, Smithfield and Covent Garden were the largest) and street vendors for foodstuffs along with grocer's such as Fortnum & Mason in St. James' street; linen drapers in Piccadilly, Oxford, Regent and New Bond streets for fabric and trims, lace, gloves and shawls; libraries, booksellers in Piccadilly, tailors in Cork and New Bond street (most dressmakers and mantua makers would come to your home…there were few if any ready made clothes available), boot-makers in St.James' street, along with any number of milliners, jewelers, china showrooms and when you were exhausted from all of this, pastry-cooks, such as Gunter's, who specialized in tea, treats and ice cream.

http://www.janeausten.co.uk/

Jane Austen died on 18 july 1817

Jane Austen's death notice from Gentlemen's Quarterly, August 1817.

 It is 194 years ago that Jane Austen died on 18 july. She had contracted Addisons Disease, a tubercular disease of the kidneys (see Jane Austen's Illness by Sir Zachary Cope, British Medical Journal, 18 July 1964 and Australian Addisons Disease Assoc.). No longer able to walk far, she used to drive out in a little donkey carriage which can still be seen at the Jane Austen Museum at Chawton. By May 1817 she was so ill that she and Cassandra, to be near Jane's physician, rented rooms in Winchester. Tragically, there was then no cure and Jane Austen died in her sister's arms in the early hours of 18 July, 1817. She was 41 years old. She is buried in Winchester Cathedral. /the-room-where-jane-austen-died/

Rutland Arms Hotel

Jane Austen (1775 - 1817) came to Bakewell in 1811 and stayed at the Rutland Arms Hotel as a part of her travels around Derbyshire. She visited Chatsworth and other tourist destinations during her stay and she too took inspiration from her visit. Derbyshire’s dales and Chatsworth House are clearly the inspiration for settings in her novel Pride and Prejudice (1853).

The room in which she stayed (leftmost window on the 1st floor, overlooking Matlock Street) has the following notice posted outside.

"In this room in the year 1811 Jane Austen revised the manuscript of her famous book "Pride and Prejudice". It had been written in 1797, but Jane Austen, who travelled in Derbyshire in 1811, chose to introduce the beauty spots of the Peak into her novel. The Rutland Arms Hotel was built in 1804, and while staying in this new and comfortable inn, we have reason to believe that Miss Austen visited Chatsworth, only three miles away, and was so impressed by its beauty and grandeur, that she makes it the background for "Pemberley", the home of the proud and handsome Mr. Darcy, hero of "Pride and Prejudice".

The small market town of "Lambton", mentioned in the novel, is easily identifiable as Bakewell, and any visitor, driving thence to Chatsworth, must immediately be struck by Miss Austen's faithful portrayal of the scene - the "large handsome stone building, standing well on rising ground and backed by a ridge of woody hills." There it is today, exactly as Jane Austen saw it, all those long years ago.

Elizabeth Bennet, heroine of the story, had returned to the inn to dress for dinner, when the sound of a carriage drew her to the window. She saw a curricle driving up the street, undoubtedly Matlock Street which these windows overlook, and presently she heard a quick foot upon the stair - the very staircase outside this door.

So, while visiting this hotel and staying in this room, remember that it is the scene of two of the most romantic passages in "Pride and Prejudice", and "Pride and Prejudice" must surely take its place among the most famous novels in the English language." derbyshire heritage

Ang Lee' s Sense And Sensibility

I love the interior

of Barton Cottage

in the movie

Sense ans Sensibility

from Ang Lee

 

wiltshire/mompesson-house

The house of Mrs. Jennings in the movie

/sense-sensibility-norland-park-and-barton-cottage/

austen-film-locations-barton-cottage sense-and-sensibility-1995/

movie-locations.com/movies/s/SenseAndSensibility

Following in Austen's footsteps. Sense and Sensibility

Sense and Sensibility is the story of two sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, and their search for a place in society. Their pathway begins in Sussex, diverts to Devon in the West Country, gets sidetracked to London, then turns westwards again to Somerset.

Sense and Sensibility begins at Norland Park in Sussex, the ancestral home of the Dashwood family, with an estate earning £4000 a year. On the death of their father, Elinor and Marianne are left with little money by the heir, their half-brother, and are forced to move with their mother to a cottage on the Devonshire estate of a rich relative, Sir John Middleton.

Saltram House is one of Britain's best preserved Georgian mansions, located in Plymouth. In Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility, it is the setting for Norland Park, the "fine old house in the county of Sussex" which Elinor and Marianne are forced to leave when their father dies.

Devon

Austen set most of Sense and Sensibility in Barton Cottage in Devon, which she placed "four miles north of Exeter". Although a shock after the grandeur of Norland Park, Barton's prospect, set in a valley surrounded by hills, was pleasing and the nearby society tolerable. There's Colonel Brandon, "the wrong side of five and thirty" but owner of the Delaford estate in Dorset, worth £2000 a year; and John Willoughby, the heir of nearby Allenham and owner of a small estate over the county border in Somerset.

It's an ancient landscape marked by combes (valleys), rounded hills and wooded slopes of trees. Narrow winding lanes and high hedges block out the light and the surrounding farmland is still dotted with old cottages on the fringe of hamlets and villages.

Marianne twists her ankle on a hillside and Willoughby, out hunting with a gun and dogs, rescues her. She falls in love with him but he leaves for London suddenly. Elinor, meanwhile, has fallen for her sister-in-law's brother, Edward Ferrars, but learns that he is secretly engaged to Lucy Steele.

Today's Barton Cottage, while not the original and nowhere near Exeter - it was, however used by the BBC in its 2008 adaptation - can be hired by holidaymakers. It's a 15th-century cottage on the estate of Hartland Abbey, on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean in North Devon. Rates from £775 ($1262) a week
http://www.hartlandabbey.com/Cottages.htm

Barton Cottage http://www.janeaustensociety.nl/baroncottage.html

Ad Feedback Hartland Abbey is close to the village of Clovelly, 24 kilometres west of the 14th-century market town of Bideford. With its woodlands and walled gardens, Hartland is a stunning stopping-off point for walkers on the South West Coastal Path, a continuos path running along the wild coastlines of the West Country's Somerset, Devon, Cornwall and Dorset.

Sidmouth, the scene of Austen's three-week romance, figures in this year's Sense and Sensibility celebrations and is the venue for this year's Jane Austen Society (UK) conference on September 1-4 (http://www.janeaustensoci.freeuk.com/).

London

Austen set nearly a third of the novel in London, where Elinor and Marianne stay at the house of a family friend, Mrs Jennings. At a society party Marianne is snubbed by Willoughby, who has left her for an heiress.

When Austen was in London in April 1811 to read the proofs of Sense and Sensibility, she stayed with her brother, Henry, in Sloane Street. Henry had married their exotic cousin, Eliza de Feuillide, whose first husband, a French aristocrat, had been guillotined in the revolution.

Somerset

Austen disliked Bath society but after her family moved there she took the chance to travel around the countryside and is thought to have visited Weston, presumably Weston-Super-Mare, a drab seaside town on the Bristol Channel.

Nearby is the small town of Clevedon, called Cleveland in the novel, and turned into the house of Mrs Jennings' married daughter, Charlotte Palmer. Elinor and Marianne break their journey to Devon here and Marianne, fancying she might glimpse Willoughby's estate over a distant ridge of hills, catches a chill on a twilight walk and falls seriously ill.  in-search-of-jane-austen-at-stoneleigh
Marianne recovers and back at Barton Cottage she agrees to marry Colonel Brandon. Elinor discovers Edward's engagement has been broken off. He has decided to be ordained as a priest and is offered the curacy of Delaford parsonage by Colonel Brandon. Elinor accepts Edward's proposal of marriage.

The golden hues of Bath stone and its Georgian street architecture still evoke Austen's world. At 4 Sydney Place is the bronze plaque commemorating Austen's "principle domicile" in Bath.

Hampshire

After her father died in 1806 Austen was able to leave Bath, with "happy feelings of escape!" and, with her mother and sister, moved briefly to Bristol, then to Southampton in much reduced circumstances. Her brothers donated towards their upkeep and, in 1809, Edward, newly widowed, offered them a cottage in Hampshire at Chawton.

Austen settled back to her writing and from Chawton House would complete six novels and begin a seventh. In a letter to Cassandra about the excitement of Sense and Sensibility, her first published novel, she wrote: "I can no more forget it, than a mother can forget her suckling child."

A two-storey brick Georgian house, Chawton sits on the old London to Winchester road and was to be Austen's last home. It's a museum now and many personal items have been carefully preserved, including letters and her music books (Austen loved to play the piano). There is the family china, jewellery and the patchwork quilt made by Austen, her mother and Cassandra.

From the mahogany writing desk she submitted the manuscript of Sense and Sensibility to her London publisher, Thomas Egerton, in the autumn of 1810. It was accepted for publication the following year.

The museum is celebrating the Year of Sense and Sensibility with musical events: on June 25 is a recital by harpsichordist Christian Matjias; on September 10 a piano recital by Katharine May; on November 26 is Marianne's Songs, an evening of songs from the period reflecting the character of Marianne. There will be writing workshops and lace and quilting demonstrations (jane-austens-house-museum.org.uk).

College Street House

Winchester

At 41, Austen was dying of what is now thought to have been Addison's disease, an endocrine disorder, and was sent to a physician in the city of Winchester, 16 miles from Chawton and once the capital of Saxon Wessex. She and Cassandra lodged at College Street House. Austen died on July 18, 1817, and was buried in the north aisle of Winchester Cathedral, England's longest cathedral, built in the Norman style in 1079.

Literary pilgrims can visit her tomb and a new permanent exhibition to commemorate this year's bicentenary. Rare items of memorabilia are on display: the burial register that records the wrong date for her death, Henry Austen's draft of the text of her memorial stone, a poem by James Austen on her death and one of Austen's poems (winchester-cathedral.org.uk).

- Sense and Sensibility, published anonymously "By A Lady", appeared on October 30, 1811, in three volumes, priced at 15 shillings. The first edition sold out by the summer of 1813. The second edition, published in November 1813, cost 18 shillings, and Austen was still receiving royalties a few months before her death.

De eerste aflevering van deze serie wordt op donderdag 11 augustus om 20.55 uur uitgezonden.

Bodleian acquires Jane Austen manuscript

The Bodleian Libraries have acquired at auction the autograph draft manuscript of Jane Austen’s unfinished novel The Watsons. The last major Austen manuscript to have been in private hands, The Watsons is the most significant Austen item to have come to the market in over twenty years.

The acquisition which cost in excess of £1 million was made possible with a substantial grant (£894,700) from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF). Other generous funders are the Friends of the National Libraries, the Friends of the Bodleian, Jane Austen's House Museum (Jane Austen Memorial Trust) as well as other supporters.

The Watsons is Jane Austen’s first extant draft of a novel in process of development and one of the earliest examples of an English novel to survive in its formative state. Only seven manuscripts of fiction by Austen are known to survive. The Watsons manuscript is extensively revised and corrected throughout, with crossings out and interlinear additions. It is a testimony of Jane Austen’s efforts to give shape to the earliest ideas as they pour onto paper, as she reviews, revises, deletes and underscores. The Watsons is the very genesis of fiction from one of the Britain’s greatest and best-loved writers.

http://www.bodleian/news/2011-jul-14

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts Here you can see a video with pictures of the manuscript.

Jane Austen Manuscript Sold for $1.6 Million

A heavily corrected unfinished draft of an early Jane Austen manuscript sold at auction at Sotheby’s in London on Thursday for almost 1 million pounds ($1.6 million), three times the estimated presale price, The Associated Press reported. The draft of “The Watsons” went to an unidentified buyer; Sotheby’s said it is the only major manuscript by Austen still in private hands.
Austen wrote “The Watsons,” an unfinished and unpublished novel, in 1804. It is the story of a poverty-stricken young woman whose only friend is her ailing clergyman father. A Sotheby’s book specialist, Gabriel Heaton, said the draft “has afforded an extremely broad audience an insight into the author’s process and reworkings.”

One of the few Austen manuscripts to survive, “The Watsons” was revised and corrected in Austen’s tiny, precise handwriting. The manuscript shows, for example that after describing a character named Lord Osborne as exhibiting “carelessness” and “awkwardness” she went back and added “coldness.”

Austen, who died in 1817 at age 41, published six novels. They include “Sense and Sensibility” and “Pride and Prejudice.” She wrote “The Watsons” the year before her father died and after the early versions of what eventually became “Sense and Sensibility,” “Pride and Prejudice” and “Northanger Abbey.”

The first part of the manuscript, some 12 pages, was sold during World War I to benefit the Red Cross and now belongs to the Morgan Library & Museum. The other 68 pages had been in private hands in Britain.

/Jane-austen-manuscript-sold-for-1-6-million/

Anne Lefroy

Anne Lefroy, known as Madam Lefroy, was born in 1749.  Anne married the Reverand in 1778 and they lived as Ashe, making them the Austen’s closest neighbours.

Anne and Jane, despite their age difference, formed a friendship that was marked by intelligence and respect. This friendship started when the Lefroy’s invited the 11 year old Jane to play with their 7 year old daughter. Due to a mutual love of literature, Anne and Jane began long literary discussions about novels, poetry and plays. It is believed that Jane shared her writing with Anne who acted as her friend and mentor. She was given free reign of their library at the Ashe parsonage. This must have acted as a important source of self-affirmation for Jane who was a child that was of limited confidence and needed encouragement and support in her early years.

Anne was a woman of charm, intelligence and means and soon became hostess to the neighbourhood. She opened a school for the poor children of the surrounding neighbourhood and taught them to read; this shows her determination and strong will, character traits that Jane would have greatly admired. She also personally vaccinated hundreds of people in her husband’s parish against smallpox. The Lefroy’s had a carriage and Anne would often lend out the carriage to families without, such as the Austen’s. These acts of kindness led her to be named ‘Madam’ Lefroy by all who knew her.

Anne was the aunt of Tom Lefroy who came to visit them in December 1795 after recently graduating from Trinity College in Dublin. It is unclear as to the role she played or her opinion of the loving relationship forming between Tom and Jane.

Anne died prematurely in a riding accident on December 16th 1804, Jane’s 29th birthday, when she was just 55 years old. The few months following Anne’s tragic accident must have been a very difficult time for Jane as her father died a month later on January 21st 1805.

Read also: Austenised/jane-austens-colonial-connections