ABOUT AUSTEN

"The reason no one married her was it was just all too much. Something truly frightening rumbled there beneath the bubbling mirth: something capable of taking the world by its heels, and shaking it."
- Fay Weldon

"Edmund and Fanny are both morally detestable and the endorsement of their feelings and behaviour by the author makes Mansfield Park an immoral book."
- Kingsley Amis

"The art is so consummate that the secret is hidden; peer at them as hard as one may; shake them; take them apart; one cannot see how it is done."
- Thornton Wilder

"Austen reveals so frankly and with such sobriety the economic basis of society."
- W H Auden

"This old maid typifies 'personality' instead of character, the sharp knowing in apartness instead of knowing in togetherness, and she is, to my feeling, thoroughly unpleasant English in the bad, mean, snobbish sense of the word, just as Fielding is English in the good generous sense."
- D H Lawrence

"Here was a woman about the year 1800 writing without hate, without bitterness, without fear, without protest, without preaching. That was how Shakespeare wrote, I thought. And when people compare Shakespeare and Austen, they may mean that the minds of both had consumed all impediments; and for that reason we do not know Jane Austen and we do not know Shakespeare, and for that reason Jane Austen pervades every word that she wrote, and so does Shakespeare."
- Virginia Woolf

"She is mistress of derision rather than of wit or humour. Her irony is now and then exquisitely bitter. The lack of tenderness and of spirit is manifest in Miss Austen's indifference to children, and as children through whom a mother may receive flattery from her designing acquaintance on her sensible friends... in this coldness or dislike Miss Austen resembles Charlotte Bronte."
- Alice Meynell

    

HE SAID SHE SAID: It would be mortifying...

Helena Bonham Carter Reading A Passage From Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 56


 She entered the room with an air more than usually ungracious, made no other reply to Elizabeth's salutation than a slight inclination of the head, and sat down without saying a word. Elizabeth had mentioned her name to her mother on her ladyship's entrance, though no request of introduction had been made.Mrs. Bennet, all amazement, though flattered by having a guest of such high importance, received her with the utmost politeness. After sitting for a moment in silence, she said very stiffly to Elizabeth,
``I hope you are well, Miss Bennet. That lady, I suppose, is your mother.''
Elizabeth replied very concisely that she was.
``And that I suppose is one of your sisters.''
``Yes, madam,'' said Mrs. Bennet, delighted to speak to a Lady Catherine. ``She is my youngest girl but one. My youngest of all is lately married, and my eldest is somewhere about the grounds, walking with a young man who, I believe, will soon become a part of the family.''
``You have a very small park here,'' returned Lady Catherine after a short silence.
``It is nothing in comparison of Rosings, my lady, I dare say; but I assure you it is much larger than Sir William Lucas's.''
``This must be a most inconvenient sitting room for the evening, in summer; the windows are full west.''
Mrs. Bennet assured her that they never sat there after dinner, and then added,
``May I take the liberty of asking your ladyship whether you left Mr. and Mrs. Collins well.''
``Yes, very well. I saw them the night before last.''
Elizabeth now expected that she would produce a letter for her from Charlotte, as it seemed the only probable motive for her calling. But no letter appeared, and she was completely puzzled.
Mrs. Bennet, with great civility, begged her ladyship to take some refreshment; but Lady Catherine very resolutely, and not very politely, declined eating any thing; and then, rising up, said toElizabeth,
``Miss Bennet, there seemed to be a prettyish kind of a little wilderness on one side of your lawn. I should be glad to take a turn in it, if you will favour me with your company.''
``Go, my dear,'' cried her mother, ``and shew her ladyship about the different walks. I think she will be pleased with the hermitage.''
Elizabeth obeyed, and running into her own room for her parasol, attended her noble guest down stairs. As they passed through the hall, Lady Catherine opened the doors into the dining-parlour anddrawing-room, and pronouncing them, after a short survey, to be decent looking rooms, walked on...

ARE EGGS HEALTHY?

Still Life by William Bailey

"Mrs. Bates, let me propose your venturing on one of these eggs. An egg boiled very soft is not unwholesome. Serle understands boiling an egg better than any body. I would not recommend an egg boiled by any body else—but you need not be afraid—they are very small, you see—one of our small eggs will not hurt you. Miss Bates, let Emma help you to a little bit of tart—a very little bit. Ours are all apple tarts. You need not be afraid of unwholesome preserves here. I do not advise the custard." - Mr Woodhouse, in Emma by Jane Austen

Weekend Reading List

Isn't this a nice cover? It's designed by Megan Wilson and pictures a detail of a dress from the V&A. On the subject of reading, I'm still struggling with P D James's (91) Death Comes to Pemberly - it's been three weeks since I bought the book in a swoop of joy (a cross of Pride and Prejudice with a crime thriller), but oh dear, it's so ploddingly dull. I'm puzzled by this book's glowing reviews. This is hardly Austen's style - there's no irony, no wit and no sparkle. Poor Elizabeth Bennet has lost all her spirit.

To Work Filigree by Candlelight

“I am glad,” said Lady Middleton to Lucy, “you are not going to finish poor little Annamaria’s basket this evening; for I am sure it must hurt your eyes to work filigree by candlelight. And we will make the dear little love some amends for her disappointment to-morrow, and then I hope she will not much mind it.”
This hint was enough, Lucy recollected herself instantly and replied, “Indeed you are very much mistaken, Lady Middleton; I am only waiting to know whether you can make your party without me, or I should have been at my filigree already. I would not disappoint the little angel for all the world: and if you want me at the card-table now, I am resolved to finish the basket after supper.”
“You are very good, I hope it won’t hurt your eyes–will you ring the bell for some working candles? My poor little girl would be sadly disappointed, I know, if the basket was not finished tomorrow, for though I told her it certainly would not, I am sure she depends upon having it done.”
Lucy directly drew her work table near her and reseated herself with an alacrity and cheerfulness which seemed to infer that she could taste no greater delight than in making a filigree basket for a spoilt child."
- Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen

Weekend Reading List: Excellence is Pretty Fairly Divided Between the Sexes

Because I'm reading the Isabella Blow bio Isabella Blow: A Life in Fashion, I've decided to dip into Jane Austen's spoof of the gothic novel Northanger Abbey. The latter sparkles with wit and light compared to the bio, which has the fascination of a car crash. A fashion icon right up to the end, Mrs Blow's life seem destined for tragedy right from the beginning. The bio by Lauren Goldstein Crowe is sympathetic, inspite of the monsters and gargoyles of its story - as A said about A Line of Beauty (Alan Hollinghurst) "all the characters are aweful and repellant". I had skimmed through Blow by Blow previously, by Detmar Blow, and I think A Life in Fashion is the better book, with more emotional distance, and obviously researched by a professional writer. This is a fast and easy read, like a book-length article from a glossy, focusing equally on her work in fashion world as on her personal life and her obsessions with property, the aristocracy, sex and the gothic aesthetic.From Northanger Abbey:

“My dear madam, I am not so ignorant of young ladies’ ways as you wish to believe me; it is this delightful habit of journaling which largely contributes to form the easy style of writing for which ladies are so generally celebrated. Everybody allows that the talent of writing agreeable letters is peculiarly female. Nature may have done something, but I am sure it must be essentially assisted by the practice of keeping a journal.”

“I have sometimes thought,” said Catherine, doubtingly, “whether ladies do write so much better letters than gentlemen! That is — I should not think the superiority was always on our side.”

“As far as I have had opportunity of judging, it appears to me that the usual style of letter-writing among women is faultless, except in three particulars.”

“And what are they?”

“A general deficiency of subject, a total inattention to stops, and a very frequent ignorance of grammar.”

“Upon my word! I need not have been afraid of disclaiming the compliment. You do not think too highly of us in that way.”

“I should no more lay it down as a general rule that women write better letters than men, than that they sing better duets, or draw better landscapes. In every power, of which taste is the foundation, excellence is pretty fairly divided between the sexes.”
- Jane Austen

The Watsons

Jane Austen's original manuscript of the unfinished novel The Watsons has sold for over £990,000 although it was valued for no more than £300,000. The Bodleian Library in Oxford has purchased this rare item, the only surviving original manuscript of any of Jane Austen's novels. The manuscript descended from Jane Austen’s sister Cassandra to her niece Caroline Mary Craven Austen (1805-1880), the younger daughter of their eldest brother James. It was in Caroline’s possession when first published in 1871 by her brother James Edward Austen-Leigh. The draft of this unfinished novel is not complete. The Morgan Library in New York owns 12 pages of the manuscript. A few of its pages were lost by The University of London. The manuscript is remarkable in that it is a working draft, with crossings out, ink splotches, and many changes inserted into the lines and spacings.

They Gradually Ascended

"They gradually ascended for half-a-mile, and then found themselves at the top of a considerable eminence, where the wood ceased, and the eye was instantly caught by Pemberley House, situated on the opposite side of a valley, into which the road with some abruptness wound. It was a large, handsome stone building, standing well on rising ground, and backed by a ridge of high woody hills; and in front, a stream of some natural importance was swelled into greater, but without any artificial appearance. Its banks were neither formal nor falsely adorned. Elizabeth was delighted. She had never seen a place for which nature had done more, or where natural beauty had been so little counteracted by an awkward taste." — Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

Penguin Threads

Penguin Books has an illustrious design history, and it has tapped illustrator Jillian Tamaki to embroider several classics for the publisher’s Threads series. Tamaki wove each front and back cover—examples include Jane Austen’s Emma—with handcrafted detail. The retail versions, however, will not be handstitched; instead, they will be sculpt-embossed to maintain some of the “tactile texture” of the original designs.

Spencer or Pelisse

This would be a Jane Austen's wardrobe crisis: What will she wear this spring? A spencer, a short military style jacket (top), or pelisse, which was longer (bottom)? What would you wear?

Miss Bennet's Inbox

It was a heavy, melancholy day

"It was a heavy, melancholy day. Soon after the second breakfast, Edmund bade them good–bye for a week, and mounted his horse for Peterborough, and then all were gone. Nothing remained of last night but remembrances, which she had nobody to share in. She talked to her aunt Bertram— she must talk to somebody of the ball; but her aunt had seen so little of what had passed, and had so little curiosity, that it was heavy work.Lady Bertram was not certain of anybody’s dress or anybody’s place at supper but her own. “She could not recollect what it was that she had heard about one of the Miss Maddoxes, or what it was that Lady Prescott had noticed in Fanny: she was not sure whether Colonel Harrison had been talking of Mr. Crawford or of William when he said he was the finest young man in the room— somebody had whispered something to her; she had forgot to ask Sir Thomas what it could be.” And these were her longest speeches and clearest communications: the rest was only a languid “Yes, yes; very well; did you? did he? I did not see that; I should not know one from the other.” This was very bad. It was only better than Mrs. Norris’s sharp answers would have been; but she being gone home with all the supernumerary jellies to nurse a sick maid, there was peace and good–humour in their little party, though it could not boast much beside."
- Mansfield Park, Chapter 29, Jane Austen

The last bit about Mrs Norris taking the jellies just kills me. Picture: Georgian jelly moulds made by Josiah Wedgwood.

It is a Truth Universally Acknowledged...

Would Jane Austen have approved of this adaptation of her most famous opening line? Austen was quite a keen shopper in her time.

Annotated!

It looks like something to have! This is such a nice cover, designed with much clarity, by Megan Wilson of Random House. Her other covers from the Jane Austen series:

Jane Austen in the News

A flurry of articles featuring Jane Austen scholar Kathryn Sutherland has been in the news. Ms Sutherland is claiming that Austen was barely literate, and an editor rewrote all her books. Here are some sensational headlines and leads:
The Daily Mail: How Jane Austen failed at spelling: Study shows author wrote in a ‘regional accent’ and used poor punctuation
The Telegraph: Jane Austen’s famous prose may not be hers after all
Reuters: Austen’s “polished prose” not so polished: academic claims.
As if this wasn't undignified enough, there's a new Austen mashup Emma and the Vampires by Wayne Josephson. Happy Halloween!

He Said She Said: Auntie!

"Anyone who has the temerity to write about Jane Austen is aware that there are 25 elderly gentlemen living in the neighbourhood of London who resent any slight upon her genius as if it were an insult to the chastity of their Aunts." - Virginia WoolfDear Reader, quite a wonderfully bitchy comment, you have to agree.

Undead

Be very afraid: Jane and the Damned by Janet Mullany, apparently a Jane Austen and Twilight mash-up. I really wouldn't bother.

Prada and Prejudice

You've now seen everything, of course.

Weekend Reading List

Have you ever read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn? I've read about this Mark Twain American classic so many times but never got round to it, and finally, this weekend, I shall, in a bout of virtue. It doesn't begin badly, if the territory isn't exactly familiar; Never mind, I shall press on - reading is discovery isn't it?

My dear friends, whom I've known for more than a decade, have also given me books which, in a way, represent who they think I am; but really, the choices are as much about the giver, aren't they? PH, the movie buff (and avid collector of movie posters) gave me Sam Wasson's Fifth Avenue, 5 AM: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and The Dawn of the Modern Woman, which the NYT says is "crammed with irresistibale tidbits..."
I do not at all mind the association with Ms Hepburn, the movie, or the novel.

JY, a teacher, gave me two books: Diana Darling's The Painted Alphabet: A Novel based on a Balinese Tale and Gao Xingjian's Soul Mountain. Mr Gao is the first Chinese author ever to win the prestigious Nobel Prize for Literature (with this book) about modern-day China.

For refreshment, I'm also skimming (daintily, yes, but still skimming) through Tea with Jane Austen, by Kim Wilson. This is a lightweight and diverting social history on the luxury item tea during Jane Austen's time.

The magazine covers: They haven't dropped yet at this point but initial thoughts are (top to bottom) W Michelle Williams has been photoshopped to look like what Nicole Kidman wants to look like. That man kissing her wig (poor thing!) is supposed to be Ryan Gosling, but could be anyone. Not that you know what Ryan Gosling looks like. I certainly don't. Fantastic Man I like this cover. Bryan Ferry looks quite jolly, does he not? And interesting.

The Gentlewoman I'm interested to read about Inez van Lamsweerde but I just think it's desperate sensationalism to call her "the world's best fashion photographer". I like Ms Van Lamsweerde's work as much as anyone else, but "world's best"? Let's check with Ms Meisel first, shall we? Vanity Fair Is that Michelle Pfeiffer? Vogue My goodness, they are determined to make Carey Mulligan into a fashion personage aren't they (Chanel couture!)? You know what? Ms Mulligan could very well be Michelle Williams on the W cover, or vice versa, and nobody would bet an eyelash. No one would know.