JANE AUSTEN’S BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION A LITTLE EARLY…

Yes, JASNA-WI pushed ahead a month or so so that we could  hear the Jane Austen Society of North America’s President Claire Bellanti address us.  The weather cooperated and it was a sunny and warm day for our usually dreary November in Wisconsin. I guess Claire brought her California weather along for the trip.

“You Can Get a Parasol at Whitby’s”: Circulating Libraries in Jane Austen’s Time 

The above print from Ackermann’s Repository of Arts shows the premises of Lackington Allen and Company in the late 18th C. James Lackington’s bookshop was one of the illustrious sights of London. The sales and rental of books grew dramatically from the middle of the 18th century as the number of readers grew with the increase in literacy and the widespread use of whale oil lamps to provide evening light suitable for reading, a great improvement over candles.

A close look shows you Pride and Prejudice fifth from the bottom of this list.

Jane Austen’s family members were novel readers, but not all persons in the period admired novels in general and particularly the Gothic novels written by many women authors which were  very popular. As with today’s romance novels, many people look down their noses at the female-centered stories, grouping them all together. A  writer of historical romance myself, I must say such people are denying themselves a comforting form of varied entertainment…but that is another lecture for another day!

Ms. Bellanti distributed a list of library references found in Jane Austen’s six novels along with Sanditon, the unfinished work.  For Austen, the library was an essential of life, and so it was for her characters.

The Circulating Library in Scarborough, c.1818

In conclusion, Ms. Bellanti suggested that in moving her publication to John Murray in 1816, Jane Austen and Henry Austen may have ensured that her novels were taken seriously, for Murray was a serious and distinguished publisher of fine works of both fiction and nonfiction.

Image from Milsom Street, Bath

In honor of the topic of the day, libraries, Susan Flaherty created favors for all with illustrations from Austen;s novels and a “gone but not forgotten” checkout card we all loved to see again.
Great idea, Susan.

Thank you Claire Bellanti, President of JASNA, for taking the time to share our celebration of our favorite author’s 240th birthday.

Clair Bellantil JASNA President

Victoria here. Following the meeting of the Jane Austen Society of North America in Louisville, Ed and I spent a day at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, then drove to Cincinnati. The art museum was a goal of mine for a long time, since they had a fine exhibit of Gainsborough portraits in 2010 that I could not travel to see.  So the next day, I decided to take a look!

Though it’s considerably later than the Georgian period in Europe and the U.S., I enjoyed seeing these two lovely landscapes by Corot, recalling the day long ago when a pal and I traipsed all over the Louvre looking for the Barbizon School — and found literally hundreds of examples eventually, by which time we were really too exhausted to do more than stumble to a bench and stare at them from a distance.

The exhibition is entitled “Sublime Beauty: Raphael’s Portrait of a Lady with a Unicorn” and will run until January 03, 2016. Here is the museum’s description: “The Cincinnati Art Museum and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco in collaboration with the Foundation for Italian Art and Culture, presents Raphael’s Portrait of Lady with a Unicorn on loan from the Galleria Borghese in Rome. Painted about 1505, this mysterious blond and blue-eyed sitter epitomizes Raphael’s excellence in female portraiture during his Florentine period.”

For more, click here.

And to conclude, later in the day, we drove through Chicago under the usual signs! 

Victoria here, to share my eagerness to read the newest release from best-selling British author Nicola Cornick. The recently-published three-tiered story centers around the National Trust’s Ashdown Park in Oxfordshire, a 17th-century house filled with mystery and secrets.

Here is an excerpt from the Word Wenches Blog (where you will find wonderful news and views from some of your favorite authors). Cara Elliott a.k.a. Andrea Penrose interviews her fellow Word Wench, Nicola Cornick about House of Shadows.

“The Sarsen Field is the first thing you see on the left of the drive as you approach the car park. This is open to everyone to walk in and is a fascinating are of Special Scientific Interest where the huge, ancient sarsen stones lie amongst the grass as they have done for thousands of years. Legend says they are an army turned to stone by the magician Merlin….

“The woodland dates back to when this was a medieval hunting ground and the deer still live here…
 The badgers have been digging up the area around the grand avenue for almost 1000 years! There are also hidden geocaches, a tree trail and our Pixie Path. In the fields behind the wood the Balleroy ponies graze…”

The Staircase

Visitors are guided up the flights of stairs to the cupola at the top where the views of the surrounding ancient landscape are stunning. Along the way, guides relate the history of the house and the family for whom it was created.

Elizabeth Stuart, Elizabeth of Bohemia, the Winter Queen

On her blog, Nicola has also written about one of her favorite secondary characters from House of Shadows, here.

Ashdown House

 The house was originally designed as a hunting lodge.According to the 1994 edition of The Blue Guide to Country Houses of England, Ashdown’s “exaggeratedly tall doll’s-house-like proportions derive from the need to treat the house as a viewing stand for the chase–hence the balustrated platform and glazed cupola at the top of the typically 1660’s hipped roof.”

At Ashdown House in Oxfordshire, Nicola has been a volunteer guide and historian for the last fourteen years. Follow her on twitter @NicolaCornick and Facebook.

Nicola Cornick

Patience required!

Now I just have to settle in and bide my time until the book arrives! I hope to report back soon with a review and an interview with Nicola. 

To see the upcoming schedules, click HERE

FOR THE ENCORE TRAILER, CLICK HERE. Scroll down  little for the trailer.

Hamlet might be the most well-known of Shakespeare’s tragedies and only second among the his total output to Romeo and Juliet. The role is one of those markers of an actor’s prominence — and it might even be the pinnacle of most careers.

In the conversation preceding the play from the NT, Cumberbatch is asked how he feels about reciting those most familiar lines “To be or not to be? That is the question.”  You will enjoy his answer!

Among the outstanding performances, actually the best of all, in my view, was Ciarán Hinds as Claudius, the Uncle/Stepfather of Hamlet.

Here is a comment on the Cumberbatch version,  directed by Lyndsey Turner, from a review in the New York Times by Ben Brantley on August 25, 2015:  “Full of scenic spectacle and conceptual tweaks and quirks, this “Hamlet” is never boring. It is also never emotionally moving — except on those occasions when Mr. Cumberbatch’s Hamlet is alone with his thoughts, trying to make sense of a loud, importunate world that demands so much of him.”

Sometimes the “conceptual tweaks” got in the way of the play, in my opinion, as when the characters in the darkened background moved as in slow motion, which drew my attention — but perhaps would have been unnoticed within the theatre.

For obviously, watching the play from the stage is a very different experiences from sitting there live, but I’ll take it when it gives me the opportunity to attend “live” theatre in London from my local movie  seat, armed with popcorn and a fizzy drink.

The Telegraph reviewed the show and added a list of ten great recent Hamlets. To see their ratings, click here.

I remember well being enchanted with the film of 1996, made by Kenneth Branagh and featuring Blenheim Palace as part of the set. Other actors in that excel
lent film were Kate Winslet, Derek Jacobi (who had performed the title role in years past), Julie Christie , and many other famous  names making cameo performances. For the Branagh Hamlet trailer, click here.

Although his portrayal is definitely in an earlier tradition of the stage, it is also interesting to see Hamlet portrayed by Laurence Olivier, a true film classic from 1948. Click here for Olivier with Hamlet’s famous soliloquy.