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Pride & Prejudice
Our look into Jane's story of the Bennets, Bingleys, Darcys, Collinses, Lucases and De Bourghs began with a tour of sites important in her life and in her novels through photographs taken by Rachel Dodge from her tour with JASNA. Once again, I wish I lived in England!
The photos included:
(from Jane's own life)
(from Jane's novels)
The pictures were all enticing, especially for anyone who wants to travel to England, and along with a cheerful and personal commentary by Rachel Dodge, with not too many facts crammed in about each location (which was nice for me, having read them all a hundred times before), which made a lovely presentation. (The projector screen made some pictures just a bit dark at times, sadly.) My favorites were of the Steventon Rectory's former site, so lushly green and peaceful, and the homes and gardens of Kent, since I've never been to either. Next time... Derbyshire, with it's mountains, mist and greenery, looks like a place filled with natural beauty! She read a couple quotes from P&P during the Derbyshire pictures -- loved it!
There was no book discussion this week, but we received a fascinating lecture entitled "How Much are They Worth? The Characters in Sense & Sensibility and Pride & Prejudice," by Dr. Bell, which included a description of the entail process (that was especially interesting -- and a bit confusing). He reminded us that a character's fortune (or lack of) is not just about numbers, that we can discover reasons for actions and see the moral fiber of many through their monetary circumstances' effect on them. Willoughby and Wickham are obvious examples of a bad effect, with their search for wealthy wives. We learned how to calculate the annual income of a lady's fortune -- quite enlightening for me -- which, if we use Jane's usual figure of 5% interest, means dividing the whole of the fortune by 20. So Miss Bingley's £ 20,000 would give her an annual income of £ 1,000. How gentlemen earned their thousands a year was another enlightening point to me. I've never been totally sure where exactly their money came from! Although I had my guesses. So to boil it down, their money came from tenants on their land and the sale of supplies (such as crops, livestock and timber) that came from their land. Voila! To find a gentleman's net worth, one does just the opposite of the lady's and multiplies it by 20. So Mr. Darcy with £ 10,000 a year has a net worth of £ 200,000 -- wow. Of course we're all wondering what the modern equivalent is! But Dr. Bell said that's very difficult to do accurately, with the change of what people buy and the value of money. And I understand that. Still, it would be interesting to at least have a guess.
Now, the entail... I won't attempt to explain all that! Only give the gist of it. Sacramento Library will be putting the audio of the lecture online, so if you want all the details, visit How Austentatious! Two important points: 1) Judges insisted property could not be divided without its' owners consent, and 2) To keep the power of the landed gentry, the estates should be passed on in tact. This all resulted in the pivotal point of "The Strict Settlement" (T.S.S. from now on), all the information on entails comes from that act, so remember it! This part of the lecture answered some long-nagging questions I've had, once I could wrap my head around it all. And I have to say that Dr. Bell did an excellent job of explaining this messy subject! T.S.S. basically laid out what was to be done with the estate on the death of it's current owner, and was drawn up and had to be agreed upon by him and his eldest son. When the son came of age or was married the estate and all its income was passed to him, but he could not do anything with it, like selling parts of it; it had to remain whole. He could decline making T.S.S. and be in total control of the estate to do what he wished with, but only after his father's death, plus he would get no income from it until that time, which could be many years away! So eldest sons usually chose T.S.S. option. Jointures for wives, provisions for younger sons and portions for daughters were written into T.S.S. as well.
So, we wonder, why couldn't Mr. Bennet pass his estate to a daughter instead of Mr. Collins? The De Bourghs' did it, didn't they? It all goes back to T.S.S.! If the passing on of the estate to the female line in the event of no sons was not written into T.S.S., there was nothing to be done about it. Sir Lewis De Bourgh and his father apparently thought of that event, but not Mr. Bennet and his father, much to the trying of the nerves of Mrs. Bennet. So instead, T.S.S. stated that the estate be entailed to the nearest male relation. And Mr. Bennet couldn't make a re-settlement of previous T.S.S. because Mr. Collins is not his son. I hope this makes some sense! Again, listen to the lecture, when they get it up on the website -- it was extremely interesting if you've at all wondered about these things!
This concludes my recap of the third week's events.
Next week, the 25th: a discussion of P&P, and a dancing lesson!!
Our look into Jane's story of the Bennets, Bingleys, Darcys, Collinses, Lucases and De Bourghs began with a tour of sites important in her life and in her novels through photographs taken by Rachel Dodge from her tour with JASNA. Once again, I wish I lived in England!
The photos included:
(from Jane's own life)
- The site where Steventon Rectory formerly stood
- Steventon St. Nicholas church where Mr. Austen preached
- Wheatsheaf Inn where they came to collect their post
- Ashe House, home of the Lefroys
- Deane House
- Ibthorpe, which has been well-preserved and hardly changed, home of their friends the Lloyds
- No. 4 Sydney Place, Bath, the Austens' first residence in the city
- Castle Square in Southampton
- Chawton Cottage, of course
- Goodnestone Park in Kent, home of her brother Edward's mother-in-law Mrs. Knight
- Godmersham Park in Kent, Edward's home, now a place for businesses and a conference room!
- Winchester and its cathedral
(from Jane's novels)
- The Pump Room in Bath, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion
- The magnificent Upper Rooms in Bath, Northanger Abbey
- Box Hill, Emma
- Lyme Regis, Persuasion
- Portsmouth, Mansfield Park
- Derbyshire: Matlock Bridge, Dovedale, Bolsover Castle (not from the JASNA tour; different source), Pride and Prejudice
The pictures were all enticing, especially for anyone who wants to travel to England, and along with a cheerful and personal commentary by Rachel Dodge, with not too many facts crammed in about each location (which was nice for me, having read them all a hundred times before), which made a lovely presentation. (The projector screen made some pictures just a bit dark at times, sadly.) My favorites were of the Steventon Rectory's former site, so lushly green and peaceful, and the homes and gardens of Kent, since I've never been to either. Next time... Derbyshire, with it's mountains, mist and greenery, looks like a place filled with natural beauty! She read a couple quotes from P&P during the Derbyshire pictures -- loved it!
"Edward Ferrars: only £ 100 per year, poor boy"
There was no book discussion this week, but we received a fascinating lecture entitled "How Much are They Worth? The Characters in Sense & Sensibility and Pride & Prejudice," by Dr. Bell, which included a description of the entail process (that was especially interesting -- and a bit confusing). He reminded us that a character's fortune (or lack of) is not just about numbers, that we can discover reasons for actions and see the moral fiber of many through their monetary circumstances' effect on them. Willoughby and Wickham are obvious examples of a bad effect, with their search for wealthy wives. We learned how to calculate the annual income of a lady's fortune -- quite enlightening for me -- which, if we use Jane's usual figure of 5% interest, means dividing the whole of the fortune by 20. So Miss Bingley's £ 20,000 would give her an annual income of £ 1,000. How gentlemen earned their thousands a year was another enlightening point to me. I've never been totally sure where exactly their money came from! Although I had my guesses. So to boil it down, their money came from tenants on their land and the sale of supplies (such as crops, livestock and timber) that came from their land. Voila! To find a gentleman's net worth, one does just the opposite of the lady's and multiplies it by 20. So Mr. Darcy with £ 10,000 a year has a net worth of £ 200,000 -- wow. Of course we're all wondering what the modern equivalent is! But Dr. Bell said that's very difficult to do accurately, with the change of what people buy and the value of money. And I understand that. Still, it would be interesting to at least have a guess.
Now, the entail... I won't attempt to explain all that! Only give the gist of it. Sacramento Library will be putting the audio of the lecture online, so if you want all the details, visit How Austentatious! Two important points: 1) Judges insisted property could not be divided without its' owners consent, and 2) To keep the power of the landed gentry, the estates should be passed on in tact. This all resulted in the pivotal point of "The Strict Settlement" (T.S.S. from now on), all the information on entails comes from that act, so remember it! This part of the lecture answered some long-nagging questions I've had, once I could wrap my head around it all. And I have to say that Dr. Bell did an excellent job of explaining this messy subject! T.S.S. basically laid out what was to be done with the estate on the death of it's current owner, and was drawn up and had to be agreed upon by him and his eldest son. When the son came of age or was married the estate and all its income was passed to him, but he could not do anything with it, like selling parts of it; it had to remain whole. He could decline making T.S.S. and be in total control of the estate to do what he wished with, but only after his father's death, plus he would get no income from it until that time, which could be many years away! So eldest sons usually chose T.S.S. option. Jointures for wives, provisions for younger sons and portions for daughters were written into T.S.S. as well.
So, we wonder, why couldn't Mr. Bennet pass his estate to a daughter instead of Mr. Collins? The De Bourghs' did it, didn't they? It all goes back to T.S.S.! If the passing on of the estate to the female line in the event of no sons was not written into T.S.S., there was nothing to be done about it. Sir Lewis De Bourgh and his father apparently thought of that event, but not Mr. Bennet and his father, much to the trying of the nerves of Mrs. Bennet. So instead, T.S.S. stated that the estate be entailed to the nearest male relation. And Mr. Bennet couldn't make a re-settlement of previous T.S.S. because Mr. Collins is not his son. I hope this makes some sense! Again, listen to the lecture, when they get it up on the website -- it was extremely interesting if you've at all wondered about these things!
This concludes my recap of the third week's events.
Next week, the 25th: a discussion of P&P, and a dancing lesson!!
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