HOW JANE AUSTEN PERSEVERED

 

Jane Austen's House - Chawton 

Recently, I have faced some huge challenges in my life and have had many obstacles to overcome. My experiences have made me think of the challenges Jane Austen faced and how she overcame them. Jane did not always have an easy life. An example of this is the decision by her parents in 1801 for Jane’s father, a vicar, to retire from Steventon in Hampshire and, with his wife and their two daughters, move to Bath. Neither Jane nor her elder sister Cassandra were consulted.

A MOST CLEVER GIRL BLOG TOUR: TALKING JANE AUSTEN WITH ... JASMINE A. STIRLING

 

Hello Jasmine and welcome to My Jane Austen Book Club! My first question for you is “When was your first encounter with Jane Austen”?

I first fell in love with Jane Austen while reading Persuasion at age nineteen while studying abroad as an associate member of Keble College at the University of Oxford.

Soon thereafter, I read Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park. In all three instances, I was struck by Austen’s realistic heroines. It was the first time I had ever encountered female characters in any novel that seemed so relatable—so like me, in fact! I loved seeing complicated, bookish, outspoken, flawed women change and grow through the course of each novel.

GUEST POST - JANE LARK, THE AUTHORESS AND STONELEIGH ABBEY + GIVEAWAY

When I visited Stoneleigh Abbey about five years ago I discovered a story just waiting to be written. So many people think Jane Austen was middle-class but in fact she was only a generation away from a Baronetcy and her ancestors had been very wealthy.

So the story I discovered was that in June 1816 Jane moved from a property in Trim St, Bath, the poorest residence she lived in, which she never mentioned again, to then stay in the dramatically ornate, vast, residence of her ancestors, where she came face to face with their portraits and no longer needed to imagine the way they had lived.

Jane actually describes aspects of the area around Stoneleigh Abbey and rooms within Stoneleigh Abbey in Pride and Prejudice and in Mansfield Park.

When I stood in the entrance hall in Stoneleigh Abbey five years ago it did not take much to picture Jane Austen standing in that room, looking everywhere, and from that to imagine her character Fanny’s voice coming from such a visit. And then I learnt about the portrait of one of Jane’s relations whose real story was ridiculously close to that of Persuasion, and her surname is Wentworth.

I visit lots of historical properties, it’s how I generate ideas for my historical books - to learn true stories and scenes and then apply them to my fiction to make my fiction feel more realistic. So it became very obvious to me that Jane Austen had used fact to help create her fiction…

SYRIE JAMES, WHAT DID JANE AUSTEN WEAR AS A TEENAGER? - JANE AUSTEN'S FIRST LOVE BLOG TOUR + GIVEAWAY

Fashion was of great interest to Jane Austen. She often, in great detail, discussed aspects of her wardrobe in letters to her sister. The subject is equally important to her in my novel Jane Austen’s First Love, as in this moment in chapter 3 when Jane is contemplating their upcoming trip to Kent:

“Mamma,” said I over breakfast one morning, “what do you imagine the ladies will be wearing at Godmersham and Goodnestone? Will they be splendidly dressed?”

“I suppose they will,” replied my mother, as she thickly spread a piece of toast with butter and jam. “I shall never forget the elegance of Mrs. Knight’s gown when first I saw her all those years ago, nor her hat, which was the very height of fashion. I have no doubt the Bridges ladies will all be similarly attired.”

BOOK REVIEW - JANE AUSTEN'S FIRST LOVE BY SYRIE JAMES

OUT ON AUGUST 5th!  

INSPIRED BY ACTUAL EVENTS

Book blurb

Fifteen-year-old Jane Austen dreams of three things: doing something useful, writing something worthy, and falling madly in love. When she visits her brother in Kent to celebrate his engagement, she meets wealthy, devilishly handsome Edward Taylor—a fascinating young man who is truly worthy of her affections. Jane knows a match between her and Edward is unlikely, but every moment she spends with him makes her heart race—and he seems to return her interest. Much to her displeasure, however, there is another seeking his attention

Unsure of her budding relationship, Jane seeks distraction by attempting to correct the pairings of three other prospective couples. But when her matchmaking aspirations do not all turn out as anticipated, Jane discovers the danger of relying on first impressions. The human heart cannot be easily deciphered, nor can it be directed or managed. And if others must be left to their own devices in matters of love and matrimony, can Jane even hope to satisfy her own heart?

My review

Syrie James confirms her skills as brilliant story-teller and creator of lively pictures of Regency life.  Well-researched historical novel as well as delightful summer read,  her  new Jane Austen’s First Love is based on an imaginative interpretation of Jane Austen’s  enigmatic  reference to a “Him, on whom I once fondly doated”    (from  one of Jane Austen’s  letters to her sister Cassandra).  Intriguing matter for a talented researcher and passionate Janeite like Syrie James. (1)

AUTHOR GUEST POST - JANE LARK: JANE AUSTEN & ILLICIT LOVE - BLOG TOUR + HUGE GIVEAWAY

Jane Austen’s Visit To Her Ancestral Home and How It Inspired Her To Write By Jane Lark                                               Everyone knows Jane Austen had a family home at Chawton, few people know she was the descendent of an aristocratic family who had an amazing stately home called Stoneleigh Abbey, near Warwick. Jane’s mother had in fact married beneath her when she married a vicar and although she was happily married she regularly bragged about her aristocratic relations, and had brought Jane and her siblings up on tales of her ancestral family achievements. One of Jane’s ancestors had been the Lord Major of London in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. It was a family joke that Jane’s mother had an aristocratic nose that she was very proud of. So can you imagine, after Jane had experienced the worst time of her life; through the period of her father’s illness and death, as her mother ran out of money, sending them firstly into cheap lodgings in Bath, and then to hit the height of humbleness and accept that they must live on the benefit of relations; how Jane felt to have an opportunity to visit the luxury of her ancestral home. It happened unexpectedly. 

WHAT WOULD JANE AUSTEN EAT?

  

(from guest blogger Virginia Cunningham)

Jane Austen, the author of Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Northanger Abbey and Emma has become something of a symbol for old England to many people. The time Austen lived in was actually known as the Regency period or Regency era.

While much of what we consider to be part of traditional English culture was formed in this era, many of the customs and traditions of the time bear little resemblance to anything we might think of as traditionally English. Some food items, like the still-prepared roast beef and vegetables, were introduced during the Regency period, while others have long been forgotten. In fact, they might even be considered strange by today’s standards.

Jane Austen, who lived a relatively modest life, often would have prepared her own meals along with her family. To shed some light on this version of England that no longer exists, let’s take a look at some of the foods Austen and others would have eaten during that time.

UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT - PAULA BYRNE, JANE AUSTEN. A LIFE IN SMALL THINGS

I'm sure 2013 will be filled with great Austen fun since it is the year of Pride and Prejudice bicentenary and there have been  many great events announced already. 

There are also several interesting books coming out, though not all of them related to Pride and Prejudice, but all of them Austen-related . Among the ones coming out soon, here is one   I'm really curious about.

Paula Byrne, Jane Austen -  A Life in Small Things

Paula Byrne announced she was writing a book about Jane Austen last year when she brought to our attention a mysterious portrait of a lady she declared to be of our beloved Jane. Many Austenites were and still are skeptical, but, maybe , Ms Byrne will win them over with her new achievement: an unusual biography of their favourite writer.

Book Blurb from publishers Harper Collins site

Who was the real Jane Austen? Overturning the traditional portrait of the author as conventional and genteel, bestseller Paula Byrne’s landmark biography reveals the real woman behind the books.

In this new biography, best-selling author Paula Byrne (bestselling author of Perdita, Mad World) explores the forces that shaped the interior life of Britain’s most beloved novelist: her father’s religious faith, her mother’s aristocratic pedigree, her eldest brother’s adoption, her other brothers’ naval and military experiences, her relatives in the East and West Indies, her cousin who lived through the trauma of the French Revolution, the family’s 

amateur theatricals, the female novelists she admired, her