Sacramento JA Book Club: Week 6

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Fun With Frank and Jane

A lecture by Dr. David Bell at the Sacramento Library JA Book Club

"Sometimes one conjectures right and sometimes one conjectures wrong." - Frank Churchill

Sadly, I missed this meeting, but the podcast is available from the Sacramento Library website, along with Dr. Bell's paper, which I have read, and they are masterful. To put it in a nutshell: the plot of Emma is one of the best mysteries or detective stories ever written. If you possibly can, read Dr. Bell's paper here, it's fascinating!

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Sacramento's JA Book Club: Week 5

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Emma

Ah, Emma! Jane called her the heroine "whom none but myself will much like." Although I, for one, am actually fond of Miss Emma Woodhouse and before you question my judgment of character, I call upon the excellent judgment of Mr. Knightley (who was quite fond of her) as my defense! She certainly has her flaws and I believe much of my fondness comes from my having many of the same. And she did catch a man like Mr. Knightley, which is no small feat. Anyway, enough of my opinions on Emma.

We began with a book introduction by Dr. Bell which was very enlightening. He first cleared up the issue of volumes. Which I was excited about! None of the editions of my Jane Austen novels is divided into volumes as the originals were, and as some editions now are. Emma contains three volumes: Volume I is chapters 1-18, Volume II is chapters 19-35 and Volume III is chapters 36-55. Each volume represents a section of the plot, beginning with a shift in the storyline, "dramatic divides," they could be called. Volume I ends with the overthrow of all of Emma's plans for Harriet and with Mr. Elton heading off to Bath in a huff. Volume II begins with Jane Fairfax's, and thus Frank Churchill's, arrival at Highbury and ends with Mrs. Elton's settling into the vicarage. Volume III begins with Frank Churchill's return to Highbury, the ball ensuing, and of course the happy ending of Emma's and Mr. Knightley's union!

Just as the volumes are dividing points in the story, Emma is a dividing point in Jane Austen's writing. Emma was a product of her more mature writing period at Chawton, when she was settled back in her beloved Hampshire countryside. Emma is also thought to be her most complete novel in terms of plot and character development. Dr. Bell brought up the widespread wonder at how the authoress of Pride & Prejudice could turn around and write a novel in the style of Mansfield Park, then immediately after that write a novel such as Emma! (Technically MP was written years after P&P, as many of you know.) But that was how Jane Austen was as a writer; she was always experimenting with her stories. All of her stories are different -- different in style, plot, mood and point. All three of those aspects are different in P&P, MP, and  Emma. It is quite apparent that she was born to write Pride & Prejudice! Yet each of her other novels is brilliant in its own way. I believe that's one reason why her writing is still so well-loved. Some people claim that all her plots are the same (none of said people has read any of the novels, of course) that each is merely a romance novel with people sitting around drinking tea and talking, talking, talking. In truth, the only similarities are that each contains a heroine (or two), a hero (or two) who are united in the end! They all also take place during the same historical period.

The second half of the lecture focused exclusively on Emma. What do you think dominates this novel? Well...

"Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.
    She was the youngest of the two daughters of a most affectionate, indulgent father, and had, in consequence of her sister's marriage, been mistress of his house from a very early period. Her mother had died too long ago for her to have more than an indistinct remembrance of her caresses, and her place had been supplied by an excellent woman as governess, who had fallen little short of a mother in affection.
    Sixteen years had Miss Taylor been in Mr Woodhouse's family, less as a governess than a friend, very fond of both daughters, but particularly of Emma. Between them it was more the intimacy of sisters. Even before Miss Taylor had ceased to hold the nominal office of governess, the mildness of her temper had hardly allowed her to impose any restraint; and the shadow of authority being now long passed away, they had been living together as friend and friend very mutually attached, and Emma doing just what she liked; highly esteeming Miss Taylor's judgement, but directed chiefly by her own.
    The real evils indeed, of Emma's situation were the power of having rather too much her own way, and a disposition to think a little too well of herself; these were the disadvantages which threatened to alloy to her many enjoyments. The danger, however, was at present so unperceived, that they did not by any means rank as misfortunes with her."

The very first words are Emma Woodhouse, and from then on the story is dominated by her consciousness! Jane even titled the book Emma! And it's the only one of her novels that is titled after its heroine. Emma is dominated by Emma! She is infused into its every aspect; its narrative, its opinions, its observations are all her's. And they are all right -- until Emma herself finds out differently. We experience the whole story through Emma's eyes. It's dominated not only by her opinions and observations, but by her social status. She is at the top of Highbury's and Donwell's social scale, the lady of the parishes at twenty years old! Being independently wealthy, with a fortune of thirty thousand pounds (fifteen hundred a year) helps secure Emma her current position. So, in light of Emma's dominance, evaluating her character is absolutely necessary before any discussion of the novel can take place.

The last point brought forward by Dr. Bell was what P.D. James, the well-known author of detective fiction, said about writing your own novel, specifically mysteries. Although I don't remember the precise words, the gist of it was this: When constructing a plot, consult Jane Austen's novels -- particularly Emma.

Dr. Bell then turned the podium over to Vima de Marchi Micheli who is a true expert in the area of historic textiles, especially lace, which was the focus of her presentation to us that day. She was introduced by Stephenee Borelli, our gracious hostess and a librarian for the Sacramento Library system who faithfully gives us introductions and announcements at every meeting, and keeps the website updated. Stephenee gave us quotes from Jane's novels that refer to lace; she also read passages from the novels referring to a variety of refined accomplishments displayed by her gentlewomen characters (other than lace making). Fineness of one's lace, or indeed the very presence or lack of, gave some indication of one's social status, and, as Jane so superbly and satirically points out, one's aspirations to appear to belong to a higher one. The ladies noticed for their lace are Mrs. Hurst, the "pretty, silly, expensive" Mrs. Wallis and the unforgettable Mrs. Elton, "as fine as lace and pearls could make her."

Vima de Marchi Micheli

Now, if you want all the excellent details of Vima de Marchi Micheli's expert presentation, I very highly recommend listening to the podcast of this week's meeting on the Library website, here. My notes are rather sketchy, and my reporting of the event will not be nearly comprehensive of what we actually heard! (And saw!) That is my disclaimer!

Mrs. Micheli brought many beautiful examples of antique needle lace, bobbin lace, battenburg lace, crochet work, tatting and netting. The amount of skill needed for the more complex of these methods, namely needle lace, is enormous! It is so exquisitely detailed. It cannot be exactly reproduced today because the needles and very fine thread are not manufactured anywhere; sadly there is not enough of a market for them anymore.

She informed us that they used the same stitches that are used today, such as the closed buttonhole stitch. That surprised me! White was the most common color used, which is called "white work." I think all of her lovely worked pieces were examples of white work; however, color was used occasionally.

Modern lacework was begun in the mid-15th century in Europe. The "needle lace" or embroidery with needles, and the "bobbin lace" or weaving the threads around pins in a special sort of pillow techniques began at that time. Also for most of lace-making history the netting that the lace was embroidered on was hand-made also!

Other popular, and less difficult, techniques included Renaissance or Battenburg lace, crochet work (which was used in less wealthy homes and looks much like needle and bobbin lace), and tatting (which has more limited shapes). Below are a few examples of some of the different techniques.

White work

Battenburg lace

Bobbin lace

Needle lace

So exquisite! So much skill and training was needed to produce these beautiful patterns and stitches. Girls learning needle or bobbin lace would spend an entire year just perfecting one pattern! A piece of lace a little larger than a foot square would take any lace-maker about a year to complete by hand! It's no wonder that lace was considered a symbol of wealth. It wasn't something that one could just run down to the nearest Joann's and buy a yard of!

All fine lace was made exclusively by trained lace-makers but the well-born of Jane Austen's time did contribute to their families' fine apparel by making all the shirts and cravats for the men and all the nightdresses. As we see in Mansfield Park, while Fanny is in Portsmouth helping her brother Sam get ready to go to sea:

"Fanny was very anxious to be useful... and therefore set about working for Sam immediately, and by working early and late, with perseverance and great dispatch, did so much that the boy was shipped off at last with more than half his linen ready."

As for dresses, coats and breeches, they were handed over to the skill of seamstresses and tailors (for the most part).

In the next book club post: the mystery in Emma!

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Sacramento's JA Book Club: Week 4

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Pride & Prejudice

[I'm a little behind with my posting -- my apologies! But hopefully I'm back on track, now.]


And now to the completion of our P&P study at the book club: We resumed our discussion using the questions previously handed out, which proved to be immensely interesting and insightful. Circles of chairs were scattered about the hall, almost completely filling it, and discussion filled the air! With the echo it was sometimes difficult to hear what the ladies in my group were saying, especially across the circle. We arrived a little late, so I came in to find myself apparently in the middle of a  discussion of this question: "To whom would you least wish to be related -- Elizabeth's mother or Darcy's aunt?"

    "To whom would you least wish to be related -- Elizabeth's mother or Darcy's aunt?"

The P&P Postcard, by Sue Harrison

As light-hearted as this question might appear, some very important observations arose from it. One is that Mrs. Bennet and Lady Catherine alike in that they are extremely intent on getting their daughters married to particular young men. I'd never really thought about that before! Now anyone who's read P&P knows that Mrs. Bennet employs all her powers to get Mr. Bingley married to Jane. Yet the earnestness of Lady Catherine is hardly less, when you consider she traveled all the way to Longbourn to make Lizzy promise not to marry Mr. Darcy because, as Lady Catherine angrily points out, "he is engaged to my daughter." Someone observed that Lady Catherine is herself quite un-intentionally instrumental in bringing Lizzy and Mr. Darcy together. For example, while they are both staying in Kent Lady Catherine invites Lizzy to Rosings often and Mr. Darcy has ample opportunities to meet her walking in the surrounding countryside. These meetings reach their climax with the disastrous first proposal and the ensuing letter which turns out to be the catalyst for both Lizzy and Mr. Darcy to begin seeing themselves as they really are and thus to their being finally drawn together. Of course we all remember the effect on Mr. Darcy of Lady Catherine's visit to Lizzy '"It allowed me to hope,' said he, 'as I had scarcely ever allowed myself to hope before.'"

    '"It allowed me to hope," said he, "as I had scarcely ever allowed myself to hope before."'


 Another insightful part of the conversation stemmed from this question: "In their conversation after his proposal, Elizabeth makes two accusations against Darcy, one concerning Wickham and one concerning Jane. In his subsequent letter how does Darcy defend himself against each of these accusations?"
 

The P&P Postcard, by Sue Harrison

Someone made the point that Lizzy is able to see more clearly, from reading Mr. Darcy's uncomplimentary description, how socially deficient her family really is. She'd always thought their behavior to be mortifying, but to think something to oneself is one thing; to hear it from an outside observer is quite another altogether! This realization cannot help but make small inroads toward softening Lizzy's opinion of Mr. Darcy's character. His observation of Jane's behavior, though partial, helps Lizzy to see how Jane is seen by other people, that her reserved nature does not convey an appearance of strong feeling to outside observers. This insight also aids in softening her opinion towards Mr. Darcy. Someone pointed out that Mr Darcy has a personality very similar to Jane's, another thought that had never occurred to me! Just as Jane's reserved is misread, so is Mr. Darcy's -- only instead of being seen as having a lack of strong feelings, as in Jane's case, he is seen as an uncaring and haughty man.


A discussion of Charlotte's and Lizzy's views on marriage then took center stage in our circle. How aware was Charlotte of what she was getting into? We all seemed to decide that she was quite aware, and had planned to find contentment in keeping a good household rather than in having a husband who is equal in mind and goals. "But were they really so incompatible, with not a single goal in unison?" someone wondered. (For, we all agreed, a common goal is indispensable to a successful marriage). Their marriage would not  necessarily be labeled an unsuccessful one; they don't seem to have argued or even complained. Their goal seems to have been to have a suitable marriage, as far as society's standards went, in regards to income, property, comfortable provision and producing an heir. Voila! With all those things present, we can just pronounce their marriage to be successful, and move on... Or can we?

The P&P Postcard, by Sue Harrison

While looking at Lizzy and Mr. Darcy, I believe some criteria should be added to what constitutes a successful marriage. Lizzy was looking for something more than Charlotte: a man who could meet and help provide for her needs on deeper levels, such as emotionally and in rational conversation. And of course she wanted romance! We all know that Mr. Collins falls short in all these categories. Jane Austen tells us that Lizzy and Mr. Darcy bring elements into their marriage that will add to it and improve each other.

"It was a union which must have been to the advantage of both; by her ease and liveliness, his mind might have been softened, his manners improved; and from his judgement, information and knowledge of the world, she must have received benefit of greater importance."

The P&P Postcard, by Sue Harrison

There could not be a much happier ending to a book or discussion than that!

The discussion time having ended, the entire room then cleared their chairs away, making ample space down the gallery for a short and comprehensive lesson to us all on English Country dancing! This was provided by a group connected with the Sacramento Country Dance Society (or SCDS). After a demonstration, they called everyone on to the floor to join in. What great fun! There were smiles and laughter everywhere as we all tried to remember what we were supposed to do. I've never seen such long lines of dancers! Except for the missing period clothes and the sideboard with a bowl of punch, the long gallery with it's balcony above and live music below, almost transported me back to Regency England!

A view of the dancers from the balcony

A view of the balcony from the floor below

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The next meeting will be on September 12 and will focus on Mansfield Park. It will consist of an introduction by Dr. Bell, and a discussion of volume I. (Get a copy of Dr. Bell's discussion questions here.)

In the next book club post: Emma! (My favorite!) 

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Sacramento's JA Book Club: Week 3

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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)

• 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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Sacramento's JA Book Club: Week 2

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At last!
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Sense & Sensibility

"All those other Jane Austen fans are real people!" I'm always reading things they've written and seeing their pictures in magazines and the like, but I've never really seen any in person outside of my family and friends. So, this experience was special and exciting for that very reason. Talking with them and seeing them with their own copy of S&S tucked under their arm made me realize: I am not alone! And I loved it!

It was my first formal book club experience! My mom and I arrived at the Central Library at a few minutes past two (after circling the block a few times to find a parking spot...). A pair of what we discovered were fellow Janeites directed us to the second floor to join the discussion. The group had to be divided into two to make room for everyone! The first group was sitting in on the lecture by Ed Ratcliffe on Regency transportation on the first floor, while the rest of us discussed S&S on the second floor.

Out of the 5 tables set up, only one of them was used because of the small size of our group. The discussion was led by an excited young lady who's finishing up her degree from one of our local universities. There were only about twenty of us, and the discussion, though rather subdued at first, became more exciting as we all grew more comfortable around one another.







We began with discussing the displays of (or lack of) propriety of some of the minor characters, such as John Dashwood and Mrs. Jennings. That was so interesting! People's remarks were all different. Finding the lack of propriety in these characters wasn't too difficult, but seeing how they really did display propriety, whether from the heart or just through outward conformity, led to an insightful conversation. We also wove into that talk how certain characters changed, and how some didn't. John Dashwood and Mrs. Jennings, for example, are on exact opposite ends of the scale of propriety, and in how their characters changed! Mrs. J. comes across as paying almost no heed to society's rules for propriety, but by the end we see that she possesses the most important kind: a real concern for others. Mr. J. D., on the other hand, does not change in the least. Although outwardly conforming to society's definition of propriety, he still lets his impulses toward kindness be squashed by his selfish wife.



Next was the discussion of secret engagements, both actual and supposed, and the danger of entering in to them. The actual is of course between Edward and Lucy, with the dangers of being cut off from the family and dis-inheritance. The supposed is between Marianne and Mr. Willoughby, the dangers being that when people found out that it wasn't an engagement, Marianne's reputation could be considered damaged, with their open and apparent regard people had witnessed, plus her writing him letters (as you know, only engaged couples were permitted to do).




We shared our opinions on who displayed the most exemplary conduct, which most of us who spoke up believe to be Colonel Brandon, and I most heartily agree. But I must say that I believe Edward to be a close second, as far as his conduct during the story is concerned. I was a bit timid about sharing this opinion, because of his accidental misleading of Elinor during his stay at Norland. But I needn't have been, especially when our discussion leader, when asked who she thought behaved the most exemplary, named Edward as one! Indeed, his faithfulness and willingness to stand by Lucy -- Lucy -- even after he is disinherited, which lesser men would have seen as an ample excuse for breaking their engagement, must be seen as particularly exemplary qualities. (Remember, in Regency society only women were allowed to break engagements.) And, as to showing those qualities, I must say that Willoughby failed most miserably! And he even had the chance to be married to a very amiable woman in Marianne! Badly done indeed! (Pardon my outbursts... that subject gets me quite excited.) Of course the kindness, discretion and steadfast heart of Colonel Brandon will always rank as one of the highest displays of exemplary conduct with me.

"Do you think that Austen intends Elinor to be the embodiment of sense and Marianne the embodiment of sensibility?"

I felt brave enough to just dive into this question! I began by "wisely" saying that at the beginning of the novel they do seem to embody those characteristics, but by the end, they learn better how to balance the two, which seemed to receive a murmur of general agreement from the group. Which led to discussing what the novel suggests about the proper relationship between those two characteristics. The idea was brought up that Jane seems to show a degree of both is important.

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We adjourned downstairs, joining the rest of us who had been unable to fit into the lecture before. And this lecture was splendid! Ed Ratcliffe described the status and appearance of every sort of wheeled vehicle in the Regency period, with pictures from William Felton's book of 1795. We covered public transport, starting with the "long wagon" which is like a present day 18-wheeler and very uncomfortable, with no suspension. The next step up was the stagecoach, then the Royal Mail coaches, which were very fast, with 8 coaches leaving every night to deliver mail to 320 post offices in the country! (But traveling all night...) Horses were rented, just like present day rental cars, and changed at inns, every 20 miles or so.



Private transportation included the 4 wheels: chaise, coach, chariot, low phaeton, landau, barouche, landaulet and barouche-landau. Most had a suspension system of a "cee" spring with two leather straps each on the front and the back attached to the corners of the bottom of the carriage box. Except for the chariot, which had real springs that the leather was attached to. Make sense? It wasn't the best system -- the box still rather bounced around -- but certainly better than nothing!

Then there is the 2 wheeled: gig, curricle and whiskey. A gig is quite unpretentious (no matter how much John Thorpe might brag on his) with usually only one horse, but the curricle was the Regency sports car! And it often had two horses. A whiskey was so named for its practice of whisking around larger coaches, and could be hung very high, and could therefore be quite dangerous.



An interesting tidbit is the reason for a swordcase on the back of a vehicle. That was where a gentleman would place his sword, therefore marking him as a gentleman. Even when gentlemen stopped carrying around their swords, a case still indicated his genteel status, so they were placed on the vehicles anyway as a "status symbol."

From memory, here's a list of the vehicles owned by Jane's characters:

• Chaise: Mr. Bingley, General Tilney, Mr. Suckling, Mr. Willoughby, Sir Walter Elliot and Mrs. Jennings
  
• Curricle: Mr. Tilney, Charles Musgrove, Mr. Darcy, Mr. Elliot, Mr. Willoughby and Mr. Rushworth
• Gig: Admiral and Mrs. Croft, John Thorpe, Mr. Collins and Sir Edward Denham
• Coach: The Bennets, the Musgroves
• Chariot: Mrs. Jennings, the older Mrs. Rushworth and Mr. and Mrs. John Dashwood
• Phaeton: Miss De Bourgh
• Landaulet: Anne Wentworth
• Barouche: Henry Crawford, Mr. and Mrs. Palmer and Lady Dalrymple
• Barouche-Landau: The Sucklings (of course)

If you'd like to read a sort of transcript from Ed Ratcliffe's lecture, here is a link with lots of pictures and a lot more information: JANSA NorCal: Transports of Delight

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I hope this tempts you to join us! As I said before, one of the most enjoyable things of the day was meeting fellow admirers of Jane. As Anne said, "My idea of good company, Mr. Elliot, is the company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversation." And that is what I've found so far. It's hard not to enjoy oneself in the company those who also appreciate the work and world of Miss Jane!

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An Apology and Reminder

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I have been abominably derelict in my blogging duties -- please forgive me, dear readers! There is a post coming soon!

And a reminder to all in the Sacramento area: The Jane Austen book club is meeting this Sunday, July 11 at the Central Library from 2:00-4:00, and this month's book...? Pride & Prejudice! With a virtual tour by Rachel Dodge of all the locales and architecture in Jane's novels. Don't miss it! It is a rewarding experience -- for free! (Parking, too!)















Oh, how Austentatious!
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At the Library in Sacramento, CA

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For admirers of Jane Austen, during the next six months, there will be a Jane Austen Book Club meeting at the Central Library in Sacramento! Every 2nd and 4th Sunday from June to November, 2-4pm, no registration required. Each month will focus on an individual novel, beginning with Sense & Sensiblity and ending with Persuasion. Here's their own description:

Immerse yourself in all things Jane and join our Jane Austen Book Club!
Go on a guided tour of each novel, as Austen scholars, experts, and enthusiasts lead the way.
Meet to discuss the novels and enjoy informative presentations and entertaining activities.

Activities include a carriage ride, dancing lessons, scenes performed from 'Lovers Vows,' and a Regency fashion show (at which dressing up yourself is encouraged), among others! It sounds extremely diverting to me! So, if you live in the Sacramento, California area, join me to admire and enjoy the world and works of Jane Austen!

Take a look at the library's more detailed schedule: Sacramento Public Library - How Austentatious!