The 9th Annual Jane Austen Festival.

Welcome to the Jane Austen Society of North America- Greater Louisville Region!

Who are we? We are fans of Jane Austen either through her books or many movie adaptations.  We formed in July of 2007 and haven’t looked back!  We now have approximately 160 members.  We meet monthly at Locust Grove and have wonderful programs (see Calendar of Events) and serve afternoon tea at the conclusion of each meeting.

Mark your calendars for July 14, 15, & 16, 2017- the 9th Annual Jane Austen Festival is returning to Locust Grove! 

Jane Austen at 200: still a friend and a stranger.

As the anniversary of her death approaches, Jane Austen and her work will be celebrated across the country. Lucy Worsley explores why such a well-loved author remains so mysterious

Downright nonsense” was the verdict of Mrs Augusta Bramston, a Hampshire friend and neighbour of the Austen family, on reading Pride and Prejudice. In 1814, Jane Austen published Mansfield Park, a sophisticated study of love and family life. Mrs Bramston nevertheless thought she ought to give it go, and having struggled through volume one, “flattered herself she had got through the worst”.

Jane Austen recorded this and other hilarious remarks from friends in a list of opinions on Mansfield Park. The document, in Austen’s own neat handwriting, is just one of the funny and sad items in the British Library’s new exhibition, Jane Austen Among Family and Friends, which opened on Tuesday.

Austen surely recorded the comments in a spirit of malicious mockery rather than regret. Even if only a small number of readers appreciated her at the time of her death in 1817, she hopefully knew just how brilliant a writer she was. Two hundred years later, everyone knows it. Her face is to appear on £10 notes and £2 coins, and the bicentenary of her death will see a slew of exhibitions showcasing her writing and world. Read all: theguardian/jane-austen-200-anniversary

Wentworth Woodhouse

When the chancellor of the Exchequer announced this week that the British government planned to pour £7.6 million, about $9.48 million, into restoring Wentworth Woodhouse, an English stately home “said to be the inspiration for Pemberley in Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice,’” he probably didn’t expect a backlash. But that’s just what he got.

“There is absolutely no evidence that Jane Austen ever traveled further north than Lichfield in Staffordshire,” the Jane Austen Society of the United Kingdom said after the announcement, part of the Autumn Statement by the chancellor, Philip Hammond, which outlines the government’s overall spending plan. Wentworth Woodhouse is about 70 miles north of Lichfield.

“Jane Austen, herself only too keenly aware of the value of money, and of the need for veracity, would have been savvy enough to know that a building the size of Wentworth Woodhouse with its estimated number of over 300 rooms and its estate of over 15,000 acres could not possibly have been supported on Mr. Darcy’s reported income of a mere £10,000 per annum,” the statement continued. nytimes

Nieuwe biografie over Jane Austen aangekondigd

Historica Lucy Worsley komt in 2017 met een nieuwe biografie over Jane Austen. Dat meldt de boekenvakwebsite The Bookseller. Het boek heeft de werktitel At Home with Jane Austen. Het vertelt het levensverhaal van de schrijfster aan de hand van locaties en bezittingen die belangrijk voor haar waren.

Lucy Worsley is ‘Chief Curator’ bij de Britse Historic Royal Palaces. Daarnaast schrijft ze geschiedenisboeken en historische romans en maakt ze programma’s over historische onderwerpen voor de BBC.

‘Perfect biographer’
Maddy Price van uitgever Hodder Staughton licht de keuze voor Worsley als volgt toe:

“I have long admired and enjoyed Lucy Worsley’s books and television work, and I am thrilled to be publishing her biography of Jane Austen, another hero of mine. Lucy’s knowledge of the period makes her the perfect biographer and her wonderful writing style will truly bring Jane Austen and her world to life.”
Read all: janeausten

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Happy Easter.

Literary Bath

Emma 1816:"" English verdure, English culture, English comfort, seen under a sun bright, without being oppressive.”

Chawton House Library is celebrating the 200^th anniversary of the publication of Jane Austen’s Emma, by John Murray, in December 1815, with a landmark exhibition ‘Emma at 200: from English Village to Global Appeal’. Dr. Gillian Dow, Executive Director, Chawton House Library and curator of the exhibition said, “I am pleased to say that the interest in our exhibition on the much-loved novel has already been “global” and we are looking forward to welcoming visitors from around the world when we open the exhibition on the 21^st March.”

We have been fortunate enough to have a wide range of exhibits offered to us on loan from some of the world’s most prestigious research libraries, including the National Library of Scotland, the Huntington Library in California, King’s College, Cambridge, and the University of Göttingen, Germany. We will exhibit unique items such as a letter from Charlotte Brontë on her reading of Emma, a rare first English edition, the first American edition and the first French translation, first editions of books mentioned in Emma, and manuscript material, including music books, commonplace books, and original letters from other nineteenth-century women writers who read and responded to Jane Austen.

However, the opportunity to exhibit such treasured possessions for the very first time at Chawton House Library does come at a price. For even though the items are kindly being loaned to us for free, we have to cover all the extra logistical costs, such as transport, security and insurance.

To help us meet these exceptional costs, we need to raise at least £8,000.
Every donation, no matter how small, will be gratefully received and will help contribute towards the cost of staging this important exhibition.
chawtonhouse

Spring is coming. !!

 

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Charlotte Rampling to star in Jane Austen adaptation 'Sanditon'

Oscar-nominee Charlotte Rampling (45 Years) is to star in a film adaptation of Jane Austen’s never-before dramatised final novel Sanditon. Jim O’Hanlon (A Hundred Streets), director of the 2009 BBC TV adaptation of Austen’s Emma, will direct from a script by British playwright Simon Reade who produces with Guy de Beaujeu for Fluidity Films (Private Peaceful). Goldcrest Film has boarded sales and finance on the project on the verge of the EFM. Goldcrest’s Nick Quested and Pascal Degove will serve as executive producers. Production is anticipated to begin in summer 2016 in the UK with additional casting underway. Austen died in July, 1817 having written the first eleven chapters of Sanditon. The unfinished manuscript, which blends the writer’s hallmark coruscating satire and romantic comedy, was bequeathed to her niece.

Rampling is due to play the imperious nouveau-riche Lady Denham in the feature which charts the story of Charlotte Heywood who is invited by eternal optimist and entrepreneur Tom Parker to spend the summer season at Sanditon. Intrigued to see (not so) polite society at play in the newly fashionable sea bathing resort, Heywood encounters a string of familiar Austen characters including Denham, the lecherous Sir Edward and the dashing, feckless Sidney Parker and his hypochondriac sisters. Pascal Degove, managing director at Goldcrest Films commented: “Charlotte Rampling is responsible for so many indelible performances, she is perfect for the crucial role of the scheming Lady Denham. This is a genuinely fresh take on a well-loved genre – we expect enormous excitement from cinemagoers and distributors alike.”

Simon Reade and Guy de Beaujeu of Fluidity Films continued: “This is a brand new, never before seen Jane Austen. Her legions of fans worldwide will be thrilled with Sanditon’s romance, comedy, sardonic wit and its clever take on the modern obsessions of health and wealth that is quintessentially Jane Austen.” Screen icon Rampling - who found herelf in the middle of a media storm last month following comments made about diversity during an interview with French radio - has been universally acclaimed for her performance in Andrew Haigh’s drama 45 Years, which saw her pick up acting awards in Berlin and Edinburgh, among other festivals. She will next be seen in Ritesh Batra’s The Sense Of An Ending alongside Jim Broadbent, Michelle Dockery and Emily Mortimer.

Spring is coming.

 

JaneAustensHouseMuseum/photos

 

Happy New Year.

In Pride and Prejudice, Lizzie writes letters mentioning the holiday season: "Mr. Darcy sends you all the love in the world that he can spare from me. You are all to come to Pemberley at Christmas."

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I wish you all a Happy NEW YEAR

Jane Austen's writing desk

 

The British Library ‏@britishlibrary                        

See Jane Austen's writing desk in Basingstoke, on loan to Willis Museum 

Forgotten Carols of Jane Austen’s Time

 

Because of laws restricting festivites at Christmastime, Christmas carols weren’t as common in the Regency Era as they are now. However, country people continued to sing carols in their homes and sometimes in churches. In 1822, shortly after Jane Austen’s death, Davies Gilbert, a native of Cornwall, published a collection of carols from his childhood in the West of England, which wasn’t too far from where the Austens lived. (You can find the entire volume here.)
I suspect that Jane may have been familiar with a few of these carols. Here is the first in the volume,entitled “The Lord at First Did Adam Make.”

In all, the carols he shared were as follows (click on each title to link to the words to each carol):

1. The Lord At First Did Adam Make
2. When God At First Created Man
3.  A Virgin Most Pure
4. When Righteous Joseph Wedded Was
5. Hark, Hark! What News The Angels Bring
6. Whilst Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night (You may recognize this one since it’s still a popular carol.)
7. God’s Dear Son Without Beginning
8. Let All That Are To Mirth Inclined

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