The Intrigue at Highbury by Carrie Bebris - Book review ( And Giveaway )

I had the honour of reading this book before it was released. In fact, it's being released just today. I won it in a giveaway at Stephanie's Written Word some time ago and received a copy directly from the author, Carrie Bebris ( read my post HERE) . I really liked reading it. It was a delight! Here's my review.

As you start reading, it seems you are back where you had to stop. They are all there, just like you left them at the end of Jane Austen’s novel: Emma, now Mrs Knightley, with her fascinating loving husband and her father, Mr Woodhouse; The Westons and The Eltons, Miss Bates and her mother, Harriet Smith, now Mrs Martin; Jane Fairfax , now Mrs Churchill,  with Frank, her husband. Pleasantly indeed for the readers, though not in the best circumstances, their lives cross with Mr and Mrs Darcy’s and with that of handsome Mr Deal - who for the first time will make Miss Bates feel toungue-tied!

Plot summary 

Mr and Mrs Darcy are looking forward to a relaxing stay with dear friends when their carriage is hailed by a damsel in distress on a dark road outside of the village of Highbury. Little do the Darcys realize that gypsies roam these woods, or that both their possessions and the woman are about to vanish into the night.

The Darcys seek out the parish magistrate, who is having a difficult evening of his own. Mr Knightley and his new wife, the former Miss Emma Woodhouse, are hosting a party to celebrate the marriage of their friends, Mr Frank Churchill and Miss Jane Fairfax. During dinner, Mr Edgar Churchill, uncle and adoptive father of the groom, suddenly falls ill and dies. The cause of death : poison.

When the Darcys and the Knightleys join forces to investigate the crimes, they discover that the robbery and Edgar Churchill’s death may be connected…

What I most appreciated, apart from this book being a real page-turner, is Bebris’s hold on Austen’s witty style. Just a couple of examples:

1. “Emma would listen to Mrs Weston’s counsel, then act as she generally did: precisely as Emma wished” (p.31)

2. “(Mrs Elton) You must be very happy in your new establishment.

Harriet began to reply, but Mrs Elton’s interest in her happiness did not extend so far as wanting to hear any assurance of it. Before Harriet had uttered two words, Mrs Elton brought the discussion back to her favourite subject – herself” (p. 121)

It is a brilliant mystery- story- including sharades, riddles and word games - in which, eventually,  Emma finds a friend who is her intellectually equal, where our heroine proves her smart mind and her “talent at matchmaking” again. In this delightful series – this is the 5th issue - the Darcys take center stage in searching for truth between teatimes amid the social whirl of Jane Austen’s England.

Our beloved characters and the new ones are so well drawn that you can't but find them convincing and involving.

 As you can imagine, The Intrigue at Highbury is a real feast for Janeites. If you haven’t read the other Mr & Mrs Darcy Mysteries by Carrie Bebris, you may well start from this latest publication and, then, go back to discover the other ones: Pride and Prescience, Suspence and Sensibility , North of Northanger, The Matters at Mansfield.

As for me, I can’t wait for Bebris’s next Mr & Mrs Darcy Mystery inspired to my favourite among favourites: Persuasion!

Read an excerpt

Buy The Intrigue At Highbury online

Visit Carrie Bebris’s site

Read Carrie Bebris guest post on Fly High!

GIVEAWAY FOR ITALIAN READERS

After reading my review of The Intrigue at Highbury,

• leave your comment here , at MY JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB, under this post or comment Carrie Brebris's guest post at FLY HIGH (Two comments = two entries!)
• remember to add your e-mail address

and you will have a chance to win a copy of Carrie Bebris's L'ENIGMA DI MANSFIELD PARK, the Italian translation of The Matters at Mansfield. Winner will be announced on 10th March .

I know there are several Italians among you, so let's see if you are interested in these delightful mystery books based on Jane Austen's world. If you are Janeites, you'll love them.

Thanks to the Italian publisher TEA for granting me this copy of Carrie Bebris's latest Italian translation, released in January 2010. Other books by Carrie Bebris published by TEA are ORGOGLIO E PREVEGGENZA , SOSPETTO E SENTIMENTO , LE OMBRE DI PEMBERLEY.

And , of course, thanks to CARRIE BEBRIS for her kindness

and for the delight she gives us through her work!

This is my second task for the Jane Austen Challenge hosted at
The Life ( and Lies ) of an inanimate Flying Object

No Reading Club Meeting Today

I'm so sorry I had to postpone our meeting today! I actually feel deeply sorry but my health has forced me to stay off and away for a while from all my outdoor activities and from work (that's not the worst thing though!) . We are going to meet next Saturday, then . 6th March . Same book (Northanger Abbey), same time, same place. I hope you can forgive me, girls.

Meanwhile, here are the anwers to other 10 of the questions ( 1/11 to 1/20) I posted.

I / I I Where are James and John students?

Oxford; we don't know the college. We do, however, know two colleges where they are not: Oriel and Christ Church. How? Because John Thorpe identifies his friend Freeman as being at the second, and Jackson at the first. Sam Fletcher, we may assume, is of the same college (whichever) as James and John.

1 / 1 2 In Bath, after the Thursday evening ball, Catherine is exultant: 'her spirits danced within her, as she danced in her chair all the way home. ' What chair is this?

 A 'Bath chair' or 'sedan chair', presumably. The sedan chair was carried on shafts by two chairmen. As the Encyclopaedia Britannica puts it, the Bath chair was a 'chair on wheels intended for use by ladies and invalids. It was devised by James Heath, about 1750. For the next three-quarters of a century it rivalled the sedan chair and ultimately superseded  it as a form of conveyance in Great Britain. The most common variety was supported on two wheels joined by an axle beneath the seat, with a small pivoting wheel in front.' Catherine, of course, is not an invalid.

1 / 1 3 What is Miss Tilney's first name?

We learn from an unguarded comment of Henry's that it is Eleanor (the name was wildly fashionable, from Gottfried Burger's much translated ballad about a lover who returns from the dead to reclaim his bride).

1 / 1 4 What aspect of Catherine's walk does General Tilney particularly admire?

Her 'elasticity'. The material 'elastic' was not, in fact, invented until 1823 and in 1798 the compliment would not have the odd associations it now carries. The implication here would be that Catherine's gait is springy, lithe, light-footed.

1 / 1 5 Where did Henry go to university?

Oxford. But he in no way resembles his fellow Oxonian, Thorpe.

1/16 What is Isabella Thorpe's family nickname?
Belle.

1/17 What profession is James intended for?
The Church. Isabella may have been slightly self-deluded on this issue, expecting her future husband will be something grander than a country parson.

1/18 In what service is Frederick Tilney a captain?
The army. His regiment is the 12th Light Dragoons (that is, mounted infantry— they would use their horses until engaged in battle).

1/19 Is Captain Frederick the elder, or younger brother?
Elder.

1/20 What was Northanger Abbey originally?

Once a richly endowed convent, it has belonged to ancestors of the Tilneys since the Dissolution (presumably through the female line, hence the initial on the old chest is not 'T'). Gothic in style (Austen applies the term to architecture, but never to fiction), the pile was partly modernized by General Tilney's father. In its modern

condition it requires scores of servants, gardeners, and grooms to keep it running. Hence, perhaps, its proprietor's avarice.

(stills from Northanger Abbey, ITV, 2007)

LITTLE AUSTEN WOMEN - FROM MARIANNE TO CATHERINE

Still re-reading Northanger Abbey for our meeting next  February 27th .

N.B. maybe we'll have to postpone it ... I might  be forced away and for some days so... it'll probably be the following Saturday, in that case. But the readers in the group will be all warned in time, from the library, of course.

Now, what did I want to tell you? Yeah! Here it is.  I met two of the girls in the reading group, two of the youngest ones, and they told me they are enjoying reading Northanger Abbey this , more than Sense and Sensibility last month. The girls I met are 16 years old, more or less the same age of Marianne Dashwood and Catheri ne Morland who are both 17, but times are so diverse!
 The youngest among Austen protagonists, Marianne and Catherine, are those I call little Austen women. Which is the reason why my two young mates like Nothanger Abbey more than S&S? Maybe because in the latter Austen sees facts from Elinor's point of view mostly? Because Marianne can't get the fulfilment of her passionate love? I really can't imagine but I'm going to ask them during  next meeting.

Meanwhile, what I would like to do is comparing the two little Austen women: Catherine Morland and Marianne Dashwood. Do they share any trait of their personality? Are their  stories more similar or more distant?

Let's see...

Marianne

1. She 's introduced like this ...

Marianne's abilities were, in many respects, quite equal to Elinor's. She was sensible and clever; but eager in everything: her sorrows, her

joys, could have no moderation. She was generous, amiable, interesting: she was everything but prudent. The resemblance between her and her mother was strikingly great.

Elinor saw, with concern, the excess of her sister's sensibility; but by Mrs. Dashwood it was valued and cherished. They encouraged each

other now in the violence of their affliction. The agony of grief which overpowered them at first, was voluntarily renewed, was sought for, was created again and again. They gave themselves up wholly to their sorrow, seeking increase of wretchedness in every reflection that could afford it, and resolved against ever admitting consolation in future. (chapt. 1)

Then described this way
(from chapter 10) "Marianne was still handsomer. Her form,though not so correct as her sister's, in having the advantage of height, was more striking; and her face was so lovely, that when in the common cant of praise, she was called a beautiful girl, truth was less violently outraged than usually happens. Her skin was very brown, but, from its transparency, her complexion was uncommonly brilliant; her features were all good; her smile was sweet and attractive; and in her eyes, which were very dark, there was a life, a spirit, an eagerness, which could hardily be seen without delight."

2. First meeting with Willoughby....

A gentleman carrying a gun, with two pointers playing round him, was passing up the hill and within a few yards of Marianne, when her accident happened. He put down his gun and ran to her assistance. She had raised herself from the ground, but her foot had been twisted in her fall, and she was scarcely able to stand. The gentleman offered his services; and perceiving that her modesty declined what her situation rendered necessary, took her up in his arms without farther delay, and carried her down the hill. Then passing through the garden, the gate of which had been left open by Margaret, he bore her directly into the house, whither Margaret was just arrived, and quitted not his

hold till he had seated her in a chair in the parlour.(...)

She thanked him again and again; and, with a sweetness of address which always attended her, invited him to be seated. But this he declined, as he was dirty and wet. Mrs. Dashwood then begged to know to whom she was obliged. His name, he replied, was Willoughby, and his present home was at Allenham, from whence he hoped she would allow him the honour of calling tomorrow to enquire after Miss Dashwood. The honour was readily granted, and he then departed, to make himself still more interesting, in the midst of a heavy rain.
His manly beauty and more than common gracefulness were instantly the theme of general admiration, and the laugh which his gallantry raised against Marianne received particular spirit from his exterior attractions.-- Marianne herself had seen less of his person that the rest, for the confusion which crimsoned over her face, on his lifting her up, had robbed her of the power of regarding him after their entering the house. But she had seen enough of him to join in all the admiration of the others, and with an energy which always adorned her praise. His person and air were equal to what her fancy had ever drawn for the hero of a favourite story; and in his carrying her into the house with so little previous formality, there was a rapidity of thought which particularly recommended the action to her. Every circumstance belonging to him was interesting. His name was good, his residence was in their favourite village, and she soon found out that of all manly dresses a shooting-jacket was the most becoming. Her imagination was busy, her reflections were pleasant, and the pain of a sprained ankle was disregarded.

3. Likes and passtimes....
Reading , playing the piano and singing, walking in the countryside
 
4. Temper.....
She was generous, amiable, interesting: she was everything but prudent (chapt. 1)

5. finally...

I've always thought that the end of Sense and Sensibility is very bitter if seen from Marianne's point of view. In the end, her pursuit of love against all  social conventions destroys her spirit and her romantic ideals. After Willoughby turns her down , she accepts and surrenders to the socially convenient marriage to Colonel Brandon.  We are happy for Elinor who finally marries the man she loves, but not for Marianne who longed for more and got the less.

Catherine

1. She's introduced like this

"No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy would have supposed her born to be an heroine. Her situation in life, the character of her father and mother, her own person and disposition, were all equally against her."

She's then ( at 17 ) described as....

"...pleasing, and, when in good looks, pretty--and her mind about as ignorant and uninformed as the female mind at seventeen usually is”.

2. First meeting with Mr Tilney

(from chapter 3) They made their appearance in the Lower Rooms; and here fortune was more

favourable to our heroine. The master of the ceremonies introduced to her a very gentlemanlike young man as a partner; his name was Tilney.

He seemed to be about four or five and twenty,  he was  rather tall, had a pleasing countenance, a very intelligent and lively eye, and, if not

quite handsome, was very near it. His address was good, and Catherine felt herself in high luck. There was little leisure for speaking while they danced; but when they were seated at tea, she found him as agreeable as she had already given him credit for being. He talked with fluency and spirit--and there was an archness and pleasantry in his manner which interested, though it was hardly  understood by her. After chatting some time on such matters as naturally arose from the objects

around them, he suddenly addressed her with--"I have hitherto been very remiss, madam, in the proper attentions of a partner here; I have not yet asked you how long you have been in Bath; whether you were ever here before; whether you have been at the Upper Rooms, the theatre, and

the concert; and how you like the place altogether. I have been very negligent--but are you now at leisure to satisfy me in these particulars? If you are I will begin directly."

3. Likes and passtimes (in her teenage)

Reading, especially gothic novels, but not only!

“...from fifteen to seventeen she was in training for a heroine; she read all such works as heroines must read to supply their memories with those quotations which are so serviceable and so soothing in the vicissitudes of their eventful lives.

From Pope, she learnt to censure those who

"bear about the mockery of woe."

From Gray, that

"Many a flower is born to blush unseen,


"And waste its fragrance on the desert air."

From Thompson, that--

"It is a delightful task


"To teach the young idea how to shoot."

And from Shakespeare she gained a great store of information--amongst the rest, that--

"Trifles light as air,


"Are, to the jealous, confirmation strong,


"As proofs of Holy Writ."


4. Temper

(from chapter 2) “In addition to what has been already said of Catherine Morland's personal and mental endowments, when about to be launched into all the difficulties and dangers of a six weeks' residence in Bath, it may be stated, for the reader's more certain information, lest the following pages should otherwise fail of giving any idea of what her character is meant to be, that her heart was affectionate; her disposition cheerful and open, without conceit or affectation of any kind--her manners just removed from the awkwardness and shyness of a girl; ...

5. Finally ...

She marries Henry Tilney. The Morlands are flattered and gratified, of course. And young Catherine, too. She succeeds in finding a very good match! And her fondness for him finally conquer Henry definitely. He actually doesn't seem so taken into it until he finally proposes. He is always very kind and generous but... doesn't look so passionately in love. However,  they get to marriage and even despite General Tilney's opposition.

Do you find more similarities or more differences between the two heroines? What traits of their personality do they share? I love them both but one of them MORE ... Which is your favourite one?

Now some  posts or articles about Northanger Abbey to enrich your analytical reading...

1. Northanger Abbey at Austenprose

2. Northanger Abbey and its Petulant Patriarch at JANE GS's Blog

3. Catherine Morland, her ancestor and her heiress at Fly High!

4. Catherine Morland and the Vice of the "Sympathetic Imagination" by Nicola Cummins

5. Irony and Political Education in Northanger Abbey  by Melissa Schaub

4. Gothic Austen ar Fly High!

And finally some answers to the questions I posted last time. Here are the first 10.
(from SO YOU THINK YOU KNOW JANE AUSTEN?, by John Sutherland and Deirdre Le Faye)

I / I What is Mr Morland's profession? How well off is he? What is the source of his wealth?
 Mr Morland is a country clergyman with two good livings (one of which, worth £400 a year, he plans to

give to his eldest son, James). He also has 'independent' wealth (in land, and the 'funds'—Isabella's fantasies magnify this wealth later in the narrative). He is sufficiently 'warm' to send his sons to school and university but is not, with such a large family, able (or inclined) to afford a governess for his daughters.

1/2 How many children do the Revd Mr and Mrs Morland have? How many of their Christian names do we know?
The Morlands have ten children. Catherine is 17 at the beginning of the narrative proper, 18 when she gets married. She has three older brothers. The eldest Morland son, at a putative 22, is James, the heir. Richard is a putative 20. A third son, unnamed, must be about 18. Early in the narrative Sarah ('Sally') is identified, aged 16. When Catherine returns to Fullerton at the end of the novel, we are briefly introduced to the two youngest of the family, George, aged 6, and Harriet who is just 4. There are three unnamed boys, between Sally and George. How do we know they are boys? Because they are away at school—an educational advantage denied the Morland girls.

1/3 What boisterous games does Catherine play as a girl?
Cricket and baseball. She also rides horses and, we are told, runs about the countryside. The influence of three older brothers, presumably. Had they been sisters it would have been dolls and gardening. The reference to both these manly sports has intrigued commentators. One ingenious Janeite has speculated that the author's interest in cricket was stimulated by the local, allconquering, Hambledon eleven and that 'We must assume that Jane was a Hampshire supporter'. 'Baseball' was, in the 1780s, more like 'rounders' than what the fans watch nowadays at  Dodger Stadium.

1/4 How many children do the rich Allens have?
None. He is, we gather from a number of references, a man of rather retiring tastes: she is a fashion-mad wife. They have no children, which may suggest that Mrs Allen's addiction to fashionable dress is a displacement neurosis, compounded by the boredom of living in the country.

1/5 How much money does Mr Morland give Catherine as her Bath allowance? What do we learn that she spends it on?
Mr Morland gives his daughter ten guineas. In the course of the novel we learn that Catherine spends her modest allowance on, inter alia: a sprigged muslin gown, a straw bonnet, and a new writing desk (the latter indicating a promising seriousness and indifference to the fashions which obsess Mrs Allen and Miss Thorpe).

1/6 How old is Henry Tilney?
seemed to be about four or five and twenty.' At the end of the novel we learn he is 25 at this point. In a marriage market, like Bath, these age calibrations are vital.

1/7 What is Henry's profession, and how does Catherine learn of it?
 He is a clergyman, but she does not learn this until later, after Mr Allen has made the guardian's discreet enquiries in the Lower Rooms. Mrs Allen learns a bit more about the wealthiness of the Tilneys from Mrs Hughes when they are in the Pump Room and walking in the Crescent, some days later. Clerics did not, at this period, have to wear clerical garb. See, for example, Mansfield Park, where Mary Crawford reminds herself that Edmund can look like any other young landed gent—'there is no distinction of dress nowadays'. Latitudinarian in his theology and mufti in his dress, Henry's vocation does not prevent  him dancing or hunting; at home in Woodston he is as much squire as parson. In Bath he is indistinguishable from other young gentlemen on the prowl for wives.

1/8 How much older than Catherine is Miss Thorpe' (that is, Isabella)?
Isabella is in her fourth (desperate) season as an unmarried woman at Bath. She is, presumably, 21; four years ahead of Catherine; a husband-hunter on the cusp of spinsterdom.

1/9 What is the first, and what the second, novel Catherine and Isabella read together?
Respectively, The Mysteries of Udolpho and The Italian. Both of these works by Mrs Radcliffe were hot off
the press—novels of 1796 and 1797 respectively. It is not clear that Catherine does read The Italian (Isabella has already done so). After a week, life at Bath becomes very busy for the young women.

1/10 How much did John Thorpe pay Freeman, of Christ Church, for his gig?
Fifty guineas. Around five times what Mr Morland gave Catherine as six weeks' allowance, and Sir Thomas Bertram gives Fanny Price as pocket money for her two months' punitive sojourn in Portsmouth. Did he squander this much of his mother's scarce wealth? Given what we know of John's grandiosity, he could be boasting, to display how rich he is: fifty guineas means nothing to him.

FEBRUARY - NORTHANGER ABBEY : A FEMINIST NOVEL ? TROUBLED PUBLICATION & QUIZZES

The book we are reading this month is NORTHANGER ABBEY. Our schedule is on my right sidebar, so as you can see I've planned to read Austen's six major works following the chronological order of their writing... more or less. I know NA was the third one but   I wanted to avoid reading the 2 most popular of her six one near the other , soon,  at the beginning. So, this is why my chronological order is not perfect. I wanted to put a novel my reading-mates in the club knew less between the two  most popular ones. In fact, several of them have already read (or seen adaptations) of Sense and Sensibility and Pride  and Prejudice. Instead,  very few know about Northanger Abbey or have already read it.

I'm going to start posting materials and reflections about this novel as well as some quizzes and their answers from time to time, till the end of the month. I hope you'll enjoy reading both the novel and my notes. Our next meeting is on Saturday 27th February 2010.

1. THE NOVEL & ITS PUBLICATION

 (From "So you think you know Jane Austen?" by J. Sutherland and D. Le Faye)

Northanger Abbey is reckoned to be the third written of Austen's six major novels—although it was the last published, in a bundled, posthumous four-volume set with Persuasion. The circumstances of its early composition and belated publication are given in James Edward Austen-Leigh's Memoir, the 'Advertisement'to the December 1817 first edition, and some surviving letters. It seems that Austen completed the novel in 1798/9 (aged 24). The novel was sold to the bookseller, Crosby & Co., for £10, in 1803 (he was not, as legend has it, based in Bath, but London). It was promptly advertised as 'In the Press' (as 'Susan'). But by 1809, no novel had appeared. Nor, apparently, was any explanation given to the frustrated author. When Austen (under incognito) complained, Crosby offered to sell back the property for what he had given. Austen did not, apparently, recover the copyright until 1816 (Crosby not realizing that he had a manuscript by the author of Pride and Prejudice).

Austen had a spare copy of the manuscript and may, over the years, have made other changes to 'Susan' than the title. But the consensus of scholarly opinion is that the novel is substantially what she wrote in 1798/9. The author died in July 1817 and Northanger Abbey was published, posthumously, by John Murray, six months later.

What reason can Crosby have had for keeping this vivacious work unread? It is suggested that he felt that its satire might dampen the inflamed demand for the 'Gothics' he specialized in.

This, one speculates, was the only time in literary history which the demure Miss Austen suffered censorship. For her wit, appropriately enough.

In the 'Advertisement by the Authoress' to Murray's edition, Austen notes that during its thirteen years in limbo 'places, manners, books, and opinions have undergone considerable changes'. Historically, the period between the Revolutionary Terror of 1789 and Waterloo changed the world utterly.

2. HERE IS  AN EXTREMELY INTERESTING ARTICLE PUBLISHED RECENTLY (January 28th, 2010) ONLINE BY THE LITERARY JOURNAL "ARTIFACTS". IT DEALS WITH FEMINISM IN NORTHANGER ABBEY AND WAS WRITTEN BY SARAH WHITECOTTON. THIS IS JUST A SHORT EXCERPT

"Austen’s Northanger Abbey is not outrightly depicted as a feminist novel, but by portraying Catherine in the way she does, Austen questions the literary ideal female type. Catherine’s individuality manifests itself within the very first page of the novel where Austen depicts the main character as anything but a heroine. Catherine “was fond of all boys’ plays, and greatly preferred cricket…to the more heroic enjoyments of infancy, nursing a dormouse, feeding a canary-bird, or watering a rose-bush” (Austen 5)".  GO ON READING

3. THESE ARE INSTEAD THE QUESTIONS YOU SHOULD ANSWER WHILE/AFTER READING .

I'll publish the answers, few at a time, in my next posts.

(from "So you think you know Jane Austen?" by J. Sutherland and D. Le Faye)

I / I What is Mr Morland's profession? How well off is he? What is the source of his wealth?

1/2 How many children do the Reverend Mr and Mrs Morland have? How many of their Christian names do we know?

1/3 What boisterous games does Catherine play as a girl?

1/4 How many children do the rich Aliens have?

1/5 How much money does Mr Morland give Catherine as her Bath allowance? What do we learn that she spends it on?

1/6 How old is Henry Tilney?

1/7 What is Henry's profession, and how does Catherine learn of it?

1/8 How much older than Catherine is 'Miss Thorpe' (that is, Isabella)?

1/9 What is the first, and what the second, novel Catherine and Isabella read together?

1/10 How much did John Thorpe pay Freeman, of Christ Church, for his gig?

1/11 Where are James and John students?

1/12 In Bath, after the Thursday evening ball, Catherine is exultant: 'her spirits danced within her, as she danced in her chair all the way home.' What chair is this?

1/13 What is Miss Tilney's first name?

1 / 1 4 What aspect of Catherine's walk does General Tilney particularly admire?

1 / 1 5 Where did Henry go to university?

1/16 What is Isabella Thorpe's family nickname?

1/17 What profession is James intended for?


1/18 In what service is Frederick Tilney a captain?

1/19 Is Captain Frederick the elder, or younger brother?

1/20 What was Northanger Abbey originally?

1/21 What does Catherine realize she has found in the black cabinet?

1/22 Does Henry have a butler at Woodston?

1/23 What are the 'friends of Henry's solitude' at Woodston?

1/24 What pretext does the General give for throwing Catherine out of Northanger Abbey, with a bare eight hours' notice and no servant?

1/25 Who has disabused the General as to Catherine's prospects?

This post is my first one for the JA Challenge 2010 hosted by

http://haleymathiot.blogspot.com/2009/12/jane-austen-challenge.html

JOURNAL OF THE FIRST MEETING - SENSE, SENSIBILITY AND ... MISS BATES!

 4.30 p.m. AT HOME

Half an hour to the meeting. It rained and rained. What is it that you say on these occasions in English? It rained cats and dogs? Well, it was rainging all the cats and all the dogs in the universe. What then? Will it be another failure? Will they come this time?

17.00  SUBIACO PUBLIC LIBRARY

They came! Here they are!

(Look at Elisabetta laughing while Costanza tells about her favourite sister...Is it Elinor or Marianne? And have you noticed the cake on the table? Delicious! Thank you, signora Letizia!)

18.30

Here we are, smiling and proudly showing our copy of Sense and Sensibility at the end of the meeting: from the left Letizia, Maria Francesca, Marika, Maria Grazia, Ludovica, Marta, Martina, Costanza and Pina . Elisabetta is hidden behind Costanza and  Rosaria and Natalia are taking this picture. Thanks to all of them, our first meeting was a success. We really had a good time !

I opened with a game: the youngest girl, Ludovica,  picked a card with the name of one of the characters on it (Colonel Brandon) and the others had to ask yes/no questions to discover who she was. The questions didn't have to contain names of other characters. It was a good warm - up activity.

We talked about the protagonists, of course, and I was curious to discover which one of the sisters they all liked better: Elinor got 8 votes, Marianne 3 and one of us couldn't decide because, according to her, perfection would be a blend of the two. She got it right. Perfect! I think it is just what Jane would have said.

Among the male characters, well, not a surprise: Willoughby was considered the most interesting  one, though none of us  would have trusted him.

Then, we compared our opinions on many other topics :  the title, marriage, love, irony, Jane's uneventful life, Jane's illness,  Cassandra,  a woman's education at that time, inheritance and the law of primogeniture, balls, minor characters.The discussion was vivacious, lively and friendly.
We even had a Miss Bates among us and we had some problems at containing the flow of her enthusiastic comments.  Jokes apart,  she is such a nice lady, she's forgiven. It was great fun to listen to all her memories of old movies based on Austen and of all the things she had read about Austen and her novels.  We had a very good time thanks to "Aunt Jane" and to the kind enthusiastic contribution of all the readers. 

Next month , NORTHANGER ABBEY. Our next meeting will be on 27th February. 

READY FOR THE FIRST MEETING

This afternoon will be the first date of our JA reading club. I 'll tell you something about it. Promised. Meanwhile, I've been leafing through and re-reading my old Italian copy of "Ragione e Sentimento" (S&S) to get ready. Not that I needed revising the plot but I've always discussed about it and read passages from it in English lately while  we'll have to do it in Italian today. So I just wanted to choose some excerpts to quote and put some coloured stickers to find them easily while speaking with the others. Again: I'm not going to give a lesson. I want to stimulate their comments but you know ... one must be ready, they expect me to be the expert! I hope there won't be any lady loving embarassing questions... I mean those kind zelous ones who want to be answered in any case and are  never satisfied. Have you ever met one?

Anyhow, I'm sure my mates in this adventure will be all terrific! I still have to meet some of them and I'm so curious.

As for what I think of S&S and its characters and themes...maybe it is better to ponder what to say, I might frighten them. First it is better to listen to what they think and be ready to be ... polite... diplomatic... But I can say something here.

1. I definitely think Marianne is one of Austen's best written heroines. I love her as much as Emma. Elinor - and the narrator's perspective on her good sensical behavior - is not as convincing as Marianne. Not as involving as her. She's rather ...tepid as a heroine?

2. The male characters are indefinite, colourless. Especially Brandon and Edward. Jane didn't pay much effort at painting them. Willoughby is different. She spends so many pages to make Elinor and all of us re-think our negative opinion of him. In my copy and in my mind about 50 pages - the last ones - are especially meant to get to that purpose! What does darling (perverse?) Jane do after spending words and words to make us all understand Willoughby's reasons? She invites the reader not to believe he will leave the rest of his life in sorrow. And gives us a wink!I love perfidious Jane and ... Willoughby, of course!

3. Where is in the book the moving final scene in which Elinor discovers Edward is not  married followed by his fervent / honest proposal? Nowhere! But we have seen it in several film versions ! No trace of any romantic event between those two in Jane's prose! She, Elinor,  escapes from the room crying for joy as soon as she realizes he is free and he , Edward,  after  sitting still  stunned and perplexed for a while, leaves and goes back to the village!

As always, Jane Austen endings are rushed and very little convincing. Never romantic! But she is a genius in making  people think she wrote love stories!

4. And what about Marianne final and sudden love for Brandon? Jane never says anything about it. She says 19-year old Marianne felt  deep esteem and friendship for him! And in the paragraph describing Marianne's decision to marry (poor old) Brandon she is bitterly ironic! Go, re-read it.

5. Our time's problem respect to things Austenesque is that very few people ACTUALLY read her novels. Most of them  think Jane Austen is ... what they see in films and Tv series based on her novels. NOT AT ALL!!!  One gets everything  wrong and never knows Jane Austen's genius and real mind.

Mind you, I love watching adaptations of her novels, even when they differ from the original but ... I am happy to know that is NOT what Jane Austen wrote. That's it!

Wish me good luck!

Till very soon.

P. S. Final 5 answers to the questions I posted !

1/21 Whom does Mrs Ferrars intend her son, Edward, to marry, and how much is the young lady worth? Miss Morton, the daughter of Lord Morton. She is worth £30,000—the second most valuable such property in Sense and Sensibility, after Willoughby's Miss Grey.

1 /22 Who is the taller child, William Middleton or Harry Dashwood? William, although only Elinor is brave enough to say so among all the toadies in the ladies' withdrawing room.

1/23 How, when she visits him at Cleveland, does Elinor find Mr Thomas Palmer changed? He is polite.

1/24 What are Willoughby ‘ s last words to Elinor? 'God bless you!'

1/25 What is the only fly in the ointment for Edward and Elinor in the vicarageat Delaford? There is not enough good pasturage for their cows

Reading Sense and Sensibility - Part II -The protagonists, class distinction & more answers

THE PROTAGONISTS

Elinore and Marianne Dashwood are the heroines in SENSE AND SENSIBILITY. Which one do you sympathize with more?

I know I'm an "Elinore" but I've always admired Marianne, always admired her free spirit. Austen, instead, wanted her female readers learn from both of them. Their changes in the course of the narration should teach any young or less young reader the middle way ... the "aurea mediocritas" of the Ancient Romans? Maybe. Balance in on e word. Anyway, according to Jane Austen extremities  are always really dangerous.

Elinor's scupulous inner life is the dominant medium of the novel. She represents the author's conscience and is never a target of irony. Actually through her portrait Austen shows that the complete human personality needs certain qualities in balanced proportion. Sense and sensibility, reason and passion complement each other in her. She controls her emotions and regulates her behaviour according to the conventions of society, through this effort she achieves strength and balance of character.

Marianne, on the contrary, does not try to please other people , she refuses to conform. She is lively, sensitive, intelligent, but she is inclined to rely on first impressions - something Austen will exemplify in Pride & Prejudice . She regards sensitivity as a great quality; however, she will be so disappointed and hurt by her following her impulses and her heart that she will gradually acquire sense and settle down by prudent middle-class marriage.

CLASS & RANK

(from Juliet McMaster, The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen, 2008)

Class distinction was a fact of life for Austen and its acute observation a necessary part of her business as a writer of realistic fiction. She never presents royalty, nor any of the great aristocrats who still owned great tracts of the country, and were prominent in its government. In fact characters with titles are seldom admirable in her novels. The long-established but untitled landowning family does seem to gather Austen's deep respect, especially its income comes from land. (...)

Mr Bennet of Longbourn in Pride and Prejudice and Mr Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility are gentlemen of property and owners of estates but they lack the long-term commitment to the land that makes a good steward and moral aristocrat of Darcy.

The aristocracy and the inheritance of the land depended heavily on the system of the primogeniture which accumulated all property in the hands of one family member. It was developed as an arrangement for the preservation of the family name and estate through the generations. Austen highlights the injustice of this system of inheritance at the beginning of Sense and Sensibility. where both money and land must stay in the male line. (...)

Austen best sympathies rest with the professional class - her own, that is. A gentleman's son who must earn his living has limited choices: the church, the army, the navy, the law, and medicine. Austen locates few major characters in "trade". It is not surprising that  the gentry and the professional classes felt somewhat threatened by the large changes  that were coming with the Industrial Revolution. Austen pays close attention to the gradual assimilation if the trading classes  into gentility. Charles Bingley in Pride and Prejudice is a gentleman of pleasure, and already associated with such a prestigious member of the country gentry as Darcy. But his is new money, "acquired by trade" in the industrial north of England."

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS ABOUT SENSE AND SENSIBILITY

Let's go on discovering the answers to the questions previously posted  from John Sutherland and Deirdre LeFaye, So You Think You Know Jane Austen, A Literary Quizbook , 2005. Today questions/answers 1/11 - 1/20.

1/11 Where do the Miss Careys live? Newton village.

1/12 What time of day (according to Sir John Middleton) does Willoughby usually rise in the morning? Noon. Sir John, who has doubtless been kept waiting to get out into the fields with his fellow sportsman, is probably exaggerating. When it comes to paying court to Marianne, Willoughby is quite capable of making a mid-morning call at Barton Cottage.

1/13 Who, apart from Marianne, is Willoughby's 'inseparable companion ' at Barton Cottage? His pointer, a black bitch.

1/14 Where does Edward Ferrars stay when he comes to Devon and where does his horse stay? He in the cottage, the horse in the village. There is no stable at Barton Cottage, so Willoughby's proposed gift of Queen Mab to Marianne would have been a major expense.

1/15 Mrs Ferrars has been trying to push Edward into taking up a profession. What has she suggested, what are his objections, and what does he eventually do, at the end of the novel? Her first choice for him was the army, as being very smart; Edward felt 'it was a great deal too smart for me'. Her second choice was the law, as young barristers could likewise present a dashing appearence as menabout-town; Edward has no inclination for the law, nor is he interested in a political career. The navy 'had fashion on its side'; but at 18 Edward was already too old to sign on as a midshipman. He himself wanted to enter the Church, but 'that was not smart enough for my family'. He went to Oxford as a time-killing last resort, and now that he has left, has no occupation at all (other than potential bigamist). Eventually he does drift into ordination, thanks mainly to Colonel Brandon promising him the living of Delaford.

1/16 What is the epithet most accurately applied to Charlotte Palmer? Silly.

1/17 Who (before Elinor is spitefully told) is the only other person who knows about the secret engagement of Lucy and Edward? Nancy Steele.

1/18 How much does the public postal service, for a letter, cost in the world of Sense and Sensibility? Two pence within the area of London, considerably more for the countryside beyond London.

1/19 What is MrsJennings's favourite meal'? Breakfast (taken, at this period, around noon).

1/20 What is given Marianne to relieveher 'hysteria ', in the extremity of her disappointed love? Lavender drops—smelling salts, designed to stimulate and revive (they were not taken internally).

Reading Sense and Sensibility - Part I : Title, Publication and some answers

My reading group is going on with the reading of SENSE AND SENSIBILITY .We are meeting and talking about this experience next Saturday 30th January. Meanwhile, I'm leafing through everything I have about this novel and preparing ideas to moderate the discussion. I'm going to listen more than to speak. At least, this is what I intend to do! I hope not to find myself in the funny situation Geraldine Granger (The BBC Vicar of Dibley) found herself once with her reading group. Well, you can't understand if you haven't seen the last episodes of the series (Christmas special 2007).

Title & Publication

First written in the epistolary form as Elinore and Marianne, it became Sense and Sensibility on its publication. It seems probable that Jane started it in 1795, changed the epistolary novel in a straightforward narration in 1797-98 (more or less the narrative we know now), then laid the manuscript aside for some years till she had moved to Chawton Cottage. In the summer of 1809 she looked at it again with a view to publication. She made little update changes and with her brother's Henry's assistance she offered it to a London publisher, Thomas Egerton. The book came out at the end of October 1811 with the anonymous wording "By a Lady" on the first page.

This is how Deirdre Le Faye explains the title of Austen's first published novel:
"First, the title needs a little explanation for a modern reader:"sense" has not changed its meaning, but "sensibility" is a word not now in common use. At the end of the eighteenth century it meant having a nature that was exceptionally sensitive, emotional and susceptible, and Jane Austen uses her sister heroines, Elinor and Marianne, to personify and contrast such a nature with one of calm, rational, practical good sense. Nowadays we might express something of the contrast by calling such a story "Head and Heart" or "Reality and Illusion".
(from Jane Austen. The World of Her Novels, p. 154)

And now some answers to the questions I posted previously. Only from 1.1 to 1.10. For the rest of them ...stay tuned!

I/I Under what circumstances did the Henry Dashwood family move in with Henry's uncle, old Mr Dashwood? He was unmarried, and when his sister, who was also his housekeeper, died, he invited the Henry Dash woods (wife, husband, three daughters) to move in with him as his future heirs, and the companions of his old age. They sold all the furniture in their house, Stanhill, keeping only the linen, china, and plate (wedding presents, presumably). We may suspect that the Henry Dashwoods are not prosperous. Henry's second marriage is to a woman much younger than himself (she is still a nubile late-thirty-something, at the beginning of the narrative). He, we assume, with a grown-up son from a first marriage, is probably at least a decade older. After ten years of this shared family life, old Mr Dashwood dies, leaving a life interest in the Norland estate to Mr Henry Dashwood.


1/2 How much money do the Dashwood women have between them, and how much do each of the three daughters individually possess? On his premature death, Henry Dashwood leaves his wife £7,000. His daughters are left £1,000 apiece by heir great-uncle. This will yield, as we are precisely informed, an annual income (from the Consols) of £500.

1/3 How much does the Norland estate yield annually to its new owner, Mr John Dashwood? A cool £4,000 a year. As the tenant for-life he evidently feels free to cut down its Valuable woods', starting with the 'old walnut trees' to make way for a conserva-tory and flower garden. Luckily, Marianne is not present when John Dashwood talks of this modernizing vandalism.

1/4 Mr John Dashwood's first intention was to honourhis father's deathbed wish by giving his half-sisters £3,000. How much, after being persuaded by his mercenary wife on the matter, does he finally resolve to give them? And how much does he actually come across with? The couple eventually decide that a 'a present of fifty pounds, now and then' will be appropriate. It never materializes.

1/5 What is the largest and most cumbersome object the Dashwood ladies have to transport to Barton Cottage? Marianne's pianoforte.

1/6 In which month of the year do the Dashwoodladies arrive at Barton Park? September. The fact that it is late in the year means that (1) Mrs Dashwood cannot immediately carry out her 'improvements' (the implication is that, as in Sterne's Shandy Hall, they never will happen); (2) with the onset of winter, the fallow season, and long nights there will be the field sports and evening parties which 'social' Sir John loves. It may well be that he invited the ladies to his estate with that in mind.

1/7 What is Sir John’s favourite term for handsome young girls (for whom he clearly has an eye)? 'Monstrous pretty!'

1/8 Mrs Jennings is a widow with 'an ample jointure'. What is that? A life interest in property, settled on her by her deceased husband. She cannot dispose of it as she might wish, through a will. It will go to her children. Mrs Jennings is one of the two women in the novel (the other is Mrs Ferrars) who are in charge of considerable wealth, and the social power which goes with it. She seems to get on very well with both her daughters, different characters though they are. They, on their side, seem to get on very well with their mother (there is no mercenary interest, of course; the terms of their father's will make it clear the family wealth will eventually come to them). Such happy families are not found everywhere in Austen's fiction.

1/9 Whatis Willoughby, a Somersetshireman,doingin Devon? He comes down every year for the shooting (he is evidently friendly with Sir John) and to pay his addresses to his patroness and elderly cousin Mrs Smith of Allenham.

1/10 What word sums up Lady Middleton? Insipid.

SENSE AND SENSIBILITY - Some information and factual questions

Sense and Sensibility was the first published of Jane Austen's novels. Composition was begun perhaps as early as 1795 (some authorities suggest a year or two later). What is certain is that the novel was published in November 1811, on commission (that is, the author paying for the production costs, in return for a larger

share of profit) by the London publisher Thomas Egerton. Austen began negotiations with Egerton (with her brother Henry as her intermediary) in 1810. While the manuscript was still in her hands, she made some updating references (to Scott's being a popular poet, for example). The first edition of Sense and Sensibility was obviously successful, a second edition appearing in November 1813.

Much may have happened between the novel's conception, composition, and belated publication. No manuscript and little other primary evidence remains. It was begun as an epistolary work (that is, a novel narrated in letters), originally entitled 'Elinor and Marianne', and read to the Austen family in 1795. It

was reorganized as a third-person narrative (with Elinor as principal centre of consciousness and Austen's narrative voice) probably in 1797. The work was then in hand for more than a decade - at which point Austen already had Pride and Prejudice ready for publication.

It is significant that Jane Austen was 19 (Elinor's age, and the age at which Marianne marries) when she began to write the story. The author, that is to say, was herself passing through the years which are at the centre of the narrative.

It is not easy to locate the exact historical time period of Sense and Sensibility. Is it a 1790s novel, or a Regency novel? There is, even by Austen's standards, an absence of helpful historical markers. None the less, the balance of evidence seems to point to the 1790s rather than the Regency. The references, for example, to Marianne's curls being 'all tumbled down her back', and 'the pin in her ladyship's head dress' scratching little Annamaria when Lady Middleton cuddles her—recall hairstyles of the earlier period. Ten or fifteen years later, Lady Middleton would have been wearing a cap, not a head-dress; and it is likely that

Marianne's curls would have been lifted up into a ponytail style, rather than falling down loose. A reference in passing to a needlebook 'made by emigrants' also implies the 1790s

Sense and Sensibility: Questions

Level One: Brass Tacks

I/ I Under what circumstances did the Henry Dash wood family move in with Henry's uncle, old Mr Dashwood?

I/2 How much money do the Dashwood women have between them, and how much do each of the three daughters individually possess?

1/3 How much does the Norland estate yield annually to its new owner, Mr John Dashwood?

1/4 Mr John Dash wood's first intention was to honour his father's deathbed wish by giving his half-sisters £3,000. How much, after being persuaded by his mercenary wife on the matter, does he finally resolve to give them? And how much does he actually come across with?

1/5 What is the largest and most cumbersome object the Dashwood ladies have to transport to Barton Cottage?

1/6 In which month of the year do the Dashwood ladies arrive at Barton Park?

1/7 What is Sir John's favourite term for handsome young girls (for whom he clearly has an eye)?
1/8 Mrs Jennings is a widow with 'an ample jointure'. What is that?
1/9 What is Willoughby, a Somersetshire man, doing in Devon?
1/10 What word sums up Lady Middleton?
I/I I Where do the Miss Careys live?
1/12 What time of day (according to Sir John Middleton) does Willoughby usually rise in the morning?
1/13 Who, apart from Marianne, is Willoughby's 'inseparable companion' at Barton Cottage?
1/14 Where does Edward Ferrars stay when he comes to Devon and where does his horse stay?
1/15 Mrs Ferrars has been trying to push Edward into taking up a profession. What has she suggested, what are his objections, and what does he eventually do, at the end of the novel?
1/16 What is the epithet most accurately applied to Charlotte Palmer?
1/17 Who (before Elinor is spitefully told) is the only other person who knows about the secret engagement of Lucy and Edward?
1/18 How much does the public postal service, for a letter, cost in the world of Sense and Sensibility?
1/19 What is Mrs Jennings's 'favourite meal'?
1/20 What is given Marianne to relieve her 'hysteria', in the extremity of her disappointed love?
1/21 Whom does Mrs Ferrars intend her son, Edward, to marry, and how much is the young lady worth?
1/22 Who is the taller child, William Middleton or Harry Dash wood?
1/23 How, when she visits him at Cleveland, does Elinor find Mr Thomas Palmer changed?
1/24 What are Willoughby's last words to Elinor?
1/25 What is the only fly in the ointment for Edward and Elinor in the vicarage at Delaford?

Check answers on this blog in the following days . If you score  over 15 you can proceed to Level Two ('Factual but Tricky' questions). If you scored over 10 but under 15, skim the novel again. Over 5 but under 10, reread the novel. Under 5, ...............watch TV!

The information and the questions in this book are taken from John Sutherland and Deirdre LeFaye, So You Think You Know Jane Austen, A Literary Quizbook , 2005

OUR READING SCHEDULE & PLANS FOR THE FIRST MEETING

Our reading club was inspired by the movie The Jane Austen Book Club. We are a group of Austen fans ranging from 16 to 70 something. We are starting getting in touch and organizing our meetings that will take place at the public library in Subiaco (Rome) monthly,  every last Saturday afternoon at 5 p.m.

Our first meeting will be to friendly talk about Sense and Sensibility with tea and cakes, of course. After the chatting and delicious tea time we will even compare some scenes from two different adaptations of the novel: 

• 1995 movie with Emma Thomson, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant, Greg Wise and Alan Rickman  

• 2008 BBC 3-part series

We are reading the six major novels in a chronological order, thinking of their writing not their publication

30 January – Sense and Sensibility (written between 1795-1797 as Elinor and Marianne)

27 February – Northanger Abbey (written between 1798-99 )

27 March – Pride and Prejudice (written 1797 First Impressions)

24 April – Mansfield Park (written 1813)

29 May – Emma (started in 1814, published in 1815)

26 June – Persuasion (started 1815, published a.d. 1817)

We are going to read and discuss in our language, of course, that is Italian. But I'll let you all know about our impressions and discoveries in English  in this blog . Any suggestion and comment will be welcome.