JASNA Greater Sacramento: Meeting

Or JASNAGS

(As we affectionately call ourselves.)

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www.jasnasac.org 

Image Courtesy of JASNA GS

Formed in March of this year this fledgling branch of the Jane Austen Society of America has some delightful plans for the coming months and years. Sacramento Jane Austen fans will have opportunities to enjoy a Birthday Tea in December, readers' theaters and visiting speakers, and hopefully picnics, book clubs, more teas and a plethora of other things! I am privileged be a part of the founding committee, which is an experienced and quite diverse group of both women and a men. Our group's regional coordinator was the principal planner for the "How Austentatious" series at the Sacramento Library that I've posted about in the past.


Apart from introducing this group, I'm announcing our next meeting: this Saturday, June 25 at the Rancho Cordova Library, 10:00 in the morning (until 12:00). At this stage in the group's forming anyone is welcome to join us!

I'd like to mention that if anyone has any ideas for events that our regional group could put together or be involved in, please comment on this post! Or tell us on Facebook or Twitter. We'd love some ideas!



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(Directions to the Library) 

...and Charles Dickens Knew, My Review

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At last I'm giving my review of What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist -- the Facts of Daily Life in 19th-Century England. I would highly recommend this book! It's almost like an encyclopedia of background information on 19th century English life. But, unlike a real encyclopedia, it is much less daunting. Which means the way it is written makes it easy to read. 

Some of my questions it answered were:

• How exactly do you play whist, commerce, vingt-et-un, piquette, casino, etc.?
• Where did country houses get their names?
• Why were horses such a status symbol?
• What exactly did all the servants do?
• When is Michaelmas?
• What's the difference between an apothecary and a surgeon?

The book is neatly divided into sections such as: 

• "The Basics," with subcategories "Currency," "The Calendar," "London," etc.
• "The Public World," with "The Titled," and "Esq., Gent., K.C.B., etc." and so on
• "The Country," with "The Midland, Wessex and Yorkshire" and "Shire and Shire Alike: Local Government in Britain," etc.

It includes a handy glossary as well. Very helpful when you'd like to find a specific term.

Besides Mr. Dickens and Miss Austen Mr. Pool looks at works primarily by Anthony Trollope, Thomas Hardy and Charlotte and Emily Brontë. He covers the upper class, lower class and working class, transportation, titles, government (local and national), vocabulary, food, social life, crime, money, marriage, fashion -- from an "abigail" to a "yew," he'll inform you on all the important points of life in the nineteenth century.

I'd recommend it as a very interesting and helpful investment for any reader of 19th century novels!

The Collector's Library Sense and Sensibility: A Review

The Collector's Library Sense and Sensibility

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To celebrate the opening of our shop and information site ThitherJaneAusten.com, which carries this edition, this is a review of my favorite edition of Sense and Sensibility, which itself is celebrating in the form of the bicentennial of it's publication!

This is not a review to critique it's author -- who would dare?! -- only it's aesthetics and extra materials. To begin, I love it's size, which is approximately six by four inches. It is ideal for tucking into my purse or packing for a trip, especially one by airplane. The only downside to it's compactness is it's small print, which may be difficult to read, if that is an issue. It is an elegant little piece, with gold-gilt page edges, a built-in ribbon bookmark and a red cloth hardback cover under it's decorative dust jacket. But the most delightful addition is the artwork by Hugh Thompson scattered throughout it's pages! There are about forty illustrations in the volume.

"Apparently in violent affliction"

And speaking of volumes, this edition is sadly not divided into it's original three volumes. Which may not matter to many readers (I didn't care at first), but it would be a nice addition when studying the book.

The afterward is written by Henry Hitchings, and contains some insightful looks at the text, although I don't agree with them all, particularly his opinion on Marianne and Colonel Brandon's happiness at the close of the novel.

The Collector's Library has printed all of Jane's novels, and I would recommend them all!

A Timeless 21st Century Royal Wedding

Adding our congratulations!
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"Dearly beloved, we are gathered together here in the sight of God, and in the face of this congregation, to join together this Man and this Woman in holy Matrimony; which is an honourable estate, instituted of God in the time of man's innocency, signifying unto us the mystical union that is betwixt Christ and his Church..."

This wedding was more than a display of pomp and traditions, it will stand as a tribute to the loving relationship of William and Kate, and the sweetness and honor of marriage. Not only was her dress beautiful, but it was beautiful to see them being joined together as man and wife, and to see marriage celebrated as the sacred and joyful event it is! 

And the two kisses was one of the most romantic things I've ever seen! It's not often we see such sweet romance in real life. It was romantic and proper enough to be classed with the happy endings Jane herself created!

Along with being the HRHs they are...

• Duke and Duchess of Cambridge
• Earl and Countess of Strathearn
• Baron and Baroness of Carrickfergus

Prayers and thoughts are with you Will and Kate!

Mr. Tilney on His own Perfections: The Old Spice Parody

(We're still here!)
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I have heard much of this event, which occurred during the last JASNA AGM in Portland last October, and am so excited to be able to see it myself at last! This is for all you Mr. Henry Tilney admirers, of which I am certainly one:

"Unlike some gentlemen who refuse to dance, I love to dance." Yes!!

To Celebrate Jane's Birthday: Free eBooks of her Novels!

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Everyone's mentioning it in the Jane Austen blogosphere, so we might as well, too:

Sourcebooks.com is offering free downloads of all Jane's major novels -- illustrated! You can find them here.

Enjoy!

Happy 235th Birthday Jane!

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Miss Jane Austen

16 December, 1775

Steventon, Hampshire

The watercolor by her sister Cassandra
c. 1810

She grew up to be, in my opinion, the greatest author to ever grace the English page with her pen. Yet she led such a humble life, and wrote about such everyday subjects, little could anyone during her lifetime know how highly praised and popular her work would be!

She was born during a cold winter, but on the day she was born the famous naturalist Gilbert White noted: "fog, sun, sweet day." It was as if God was showing us what a happy event was taking place! Jane's father George wrote of her to a friend that she would be "a present plaything to her sister Cassy and a future companion. She is to be Jenny."

She was a loving daughter, sister, aunt and friend. And as great a writer as she was, that love was what makes her truly great and her work so enduring. God blessed this world when He gave us Jane Austen!

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"Jane lies in Winchester—blessed be her shade!
Praise the Lord for making her, and her for all she made!"

-- by Rudyard Kipling from The Janeites