Jane Austen: 08/01/2015

zondag 23 augustus 2015

Marmite

Jane Austen's House ‏@JaneAustenHouse

Our busy sunny day has all been a bit much for Marmite #MuseumCat pic.twitter.com/Oh4VYQwo1q

dinsdag 18 augustus 2015

zondag 9 augustus 2015

Selected cast and director of 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice to attend Chawton conference

MEMBERS of the original cast and the director of the 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice are to take part in an autumn conference at Chawton House Library.

The conference will form part of a full day celebrating the 20th anniversary of the hugely popular series.

The critically acclaimed six-part TV drama, adapted by Andrew Davies and produced by Sue Birtwistle, elevated Colin Firth, who at that time was a relatively unknown British actor, to international stardom.
Twenty years after its broadcast gripped the nation in September 1995, director Simon Langton and original cast members including Benjamin Whitrow (Mr Bennet), Crispin Bonham-Carter (Mr Bingley), David Bamber (Mr Collins) and Joanna David (Mrs Gardiner), will reveal secrets from the set and the series.
On September 5, they will discuss how one of the most unforgettable moments in television history – Mr Darcy’s iconic wet shirt scene – came about.
Simon Langton said: “I look forward to celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Andrew Davies version of Pride and Prejudice that has done much to prolong the genius of Jane Austen, not only for the last twenty years but for generations to come.”

A host of academic experts on Jane Austen and the many adaptations of her work will reflect on the place of Pride and Prejudice in popular culture before and after 1995.
The author of Jane Austen and Discourses of Feminism, Professor Devoney Looser from Arizona State University, will give a talk titled ‘Playing Mr Darcy, from Archery to Wet Shirts’.
The library will also have a display relating to Pride and Prejudice and other treasured works by Jane Austen. The event runs from 10am to 6pm and finishes with drinks and canapés.

Find out more online at chawtonhouselibrary.org. basingstokegazette

zondag 2 augustus 2015

ChawtonHouseLibrary

Edward Austen Leigh wrote down this description of Jane's appearence in the years just after the family left Southampton.

"She was tall and slender; her face was rounded with a clear brunette complexion and bright hazel eyes.

Her curly brown hair escaped all round her forehead, but from the time of her coming to live at Chawton she always wore a cap, except when her nieces had her in London and forbade it."

Henry Austen said of his sister, " Her stature rather exceeded the middle height; her carriage anad deportment were quiet but graceful; her complexion of the finest texture, it might with truth be said that her eloquent blood spoke through her modest cheek." Henry applied these lines to Jane: " Her pure and eloquent blood spake in her cheeks and so distinctly wrought that you had almost said her body thought."

Portraits of Jane

There have been only two authentic surviving portraits of Jane Austen, both by her sister Cassandra, one of which is a back view! (A poor-quality greycale JPEG and a poor-quality color JPEG of this are available.) The other is a rather disappointing pen and wash drawing made about 1810 (a somewhat manipulated JPEG of this original sketch is available). The main picture of Jane Austen referenced at this site (JPEG) is a much more æsthetically pleasing adaptation of the same portrait, but should be viewed with caution, since it is not the original (for a more sentimentalized Victorian version of this portrait, see this image, and for an even sillier version of the portrait, in which poor Jane has a rather pained expression and is decked out in cloth-of-gold or something, see this image -- for some strange reason, it is this last picture which has been frequently used to illustrate popular media articles on Jane Austen). Here's the silliest version of this portrait ever.
For a fun modern re-creation of the Jane Austen portrait, see the "Photograph" of Jane Austen lounging at a Hollywood poolside (as seen in Entertainment Weekly). See also a deliberately contemporized (but not silly) version of the portrait by Amy Bellinger. The silhouette included at the top of these files (if you have a graphic browser) is not actually known with certainty to be Jane Austen's. Here is another silhouette said to be of Jane Austen, taken from The Illustrated Letters of Jane Austen edited by Penelope Hughes-Hallett (formerly published as My Dear Cassandra: The Letters Of Jane Austen).
Silhouettes of Jane Austen's father and mother (that of her father apparently taken at a rather earlier age), a silhouette of Cassandra, and Cassandra's portrait of their niece Fanny Knight (JPEG) are also available.
In 1994, another portrait, claimed to be of Jane Austen, has been discovered among Mr. Clarke's papers, and published in a limited edition (this portrait was reportedly printed in the Daily Telegraph book section of Saturday, March 4 1995). Go to this site for more information (and a scanned image) of the portrait.
A picture of the Austen family coat of arms is also available (both the original greyscale and a rudimentary colorization). The heraldic "blazon" (description) is "Or, a chevron gules between three lions' gambs erect, erased sable armed of the second. Crest: on a mural crown or, a stag sejant argent, attired or." (Note that the ornamental winged child's head at the bottom of the heraldic shield is not actually part of the coat of arms.) The Latin motto, "QUI INVIDIT MINOR EST", can be translated as "Who(ever) envies (me) is lesser/smaller (than I)".

Trifle

Original recipe from Jane Austen's sister-in-law Martha Lloyd:
"Take three Naple biscuits. Cut them in slices. Dip them in sack. Lay them on the bottom of your dish. Then make a custard of a pint of cream and five eggs and put over them. Them make a whipt syllabub as light as possible to cover the whole. The higher it is piled, the handsomer it looks."

Cheesecakes
"Our journey yesterday went off exceedingly well; nothing occurred to alarm or delay us... At Devizes we had comfortable rooms and a good dinner, to which we sat down about five; amongst other things we had asparagus and a lobster, which made me wish for you, and some cheesecakes, on which the children made so delightful a supper as to endear the town of Devizes to them for a long time."
—Jane Austen writing to her sister Cassandra, Queen's Square, Friday (May 17) 1799

Jane Austen

zondag 23 augustus 2015

Marmite

dinsdag 18 augustus 2015

Summer in Chawton Cottage

zondag 9 augustus 2015

Selected cast and director of 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice to attend Chawton conference

zondag 2 augustus 2015

JANE AUSTEN/ BLOGS

JANE AUSTEN/ WEBSITES

MUSEA

COSTUMES PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

Fashion and shoes

Jane Austen

JANE AUSTEN/ PINTEREST

trifle