Sisters

Watercolor of Jane Austen by Cassandra Austen 1804
As good as it gets for portraits

Event:        JASNA CWNY April Meeting

Topic:        A discussion of sisters in the novels with Marie Sprayberry and Wendy Jones

When:       Saturday, April 20, 2019 at 1 pm
Where:      Pittsford Barnes and Noble, Community Room

Jane Austen was very close to her sister Cassandra. Most of what we really know about Jane Austen comes from the letters she wrote to Cassandra. So it is not surprising that relationships between sisters figure prominently in Jane Austen's novels. At our April meeting Marie Sprayberry and Wendy Jones will lead a discussion of sister relationships in Jane Austen's novels.

Of Jane Austen's novels, Pride and Prejudice certainly involves the largest number of sisters. We have the five Bennet daughters to start. Jane and Elizabeth are very close and confide about almost everything. Lydia and Kitty are a pair, and Kitty "will follow wherever Lydia leads"(1). Mary is left by herself which is also a specific relationship with her sisters. Charlotte Lucas has a sister Maria. Mrs Bennet has a sister, Mrs. Phillips, in Meryton. Mr. Bingley has two sisters who conspire together to thwart his interest in Jane. Even Lady Catherine de Bourgh has a sister, Anne Darcy, who does not appear in the story, but whose influence is felt when Lady Cathrine confronts Elizabeth in the "prettyish kind of a little wilderness" (2).

The relationships between and among these sisters form much of the underlying substance of the novel. Yes, the relationship of Elizabeth and Darcy takes center stage in the novel, but these sister relationship provide much of the backdrop.

Northanger Abbey and  Emma, on the other hand, have, perhaps the smallest count of sisters. Emma has a sister, Isabella, whose main role is to discuss the importance of sea bathing. Catherine Morland has plenty of siblings but no significant sister relationships. Sarah and Harriet are present to welcome Catherine back from her travels. Sarah tries to be helpful, answering Henry's question about the location of the Allen's house with "You may see the house from this window, sir" (3). She is geographically correct but not helpful. Emma is somewhat isolated and looks for a sister to dominate in Harriet. Catherine's lack of close female relationships has, no doubt, contributed to her naiveté, and misplaced trust in Isabella.

The list goes on: Marianne and Elinor in Sense and Sensibility, the Bertram sisters in Mansfield Park, and the Elliot sisters in Persuasion. Sisters are important in Jane Austen's work. Please join us at our April meeting to learn more about these relationships and how they work in Jane Austen's novels.

1. Pride and Prejudice, chapter 41.
2. Pride and Prejudice, chapter 56.
3. Northanger Abbey, chapter 30.

Reader's Theater Jane Austen's Juvenilia

Jane Austen, The History of England
British Library

“I soon forgot all my vexations in the pleasure of dancing and of having the most agreable partner in the room. As he is moreover heir to a very large Estate I could see that Lady Greville did not look very well pleased when she found who had been his Choice.” Excerpt From: Jane Austen. “Juvenilia – Volume II.” Apple Books. 

Event:       JASNA CWNY March Meeting

Topic:        Reader's Theater - Lady Greville and The Three Sisters

When:       Saturday, March 16, 2019 at 1 pm

Where:      Pittsford Barnes and Noble, Community Room

At our March meeting local members of JASNA will perform two plays which have been adapted from Jane Austen's Juvenilia. These works, written while Jane Austen was a teenager, contain some of her wittiest dialog. They also explore themes and characterizations that will reoccur in her major novels. 

The adaptations we will be performing were written by Cecily O'Neil. Lady Greville is based on Letter the Third from the second volume of the Juvenilia. The script notes for Lady Greville set the scene and describe the characters.

"The teenage Jane Austen is clearly very conscious of the significance of money, rank and position. In her exchanges with Maria, Lady Greville reveals her close kinship to Lady Catherine de Bourgh in Pride and Prejudice. Maria might be an early sketch for Elizabeth Bennet, who describes Lady Catherine’s manner as ‘dignified impertinence.’ Like Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Lady Greville is outrageously rude, although her expressions are perhaps less decorous and genteel. It is unlikely that Lady Catherine would ever describe anyone as being ‘as poor as a rat.’"

In The Three Sisters, Jane Austen explores the romance of matrimony in a way that reminds us of Mr. Collins and Mrs. Bennet.

[Mr. Watts the suitor]“Fine weather, Ladies." Then turning to Mary, "Well, Miss Stanhope, I hope you have at last settled the Matter in your own mind; and will be so good as to let me know whether you will condescend to marry me or not."
"I think, Sir (said Mary) You might have asked in a genteeler way than that. I do not know whether I shall have you if you behave so odd.”
“Mary!" (said my Mother). "Well, Mama, if he will be so cross… "
"Hush, hush, Mary, you shall not be rude to Mr. Watts."
"Pray Madam, do not lay any restraint on Miss Stanhope by obliging her to be civil. If she does not choose to accept my hand, I can offer it else where, for as I am by no means guided by a particular preference to you above your Sisters, it is equally the same to me which I marry of the three.” 

The text continues with what is basically a financial negotiation.

“I should have thought, Miss Stanhope, that when such Settlements are offered as I have offered to you, there can be no great violence done to the inclinations in accepting of them." Mary mumbled out something, which I who sat close to her could just distinguish to be "What's the use of a great Jointure, if Men live forever?" And then audibly "Remember the pin-money; two hundred a year."
"A hundred and seventy-five, Madam."
"Two hundred indeed, Sir" said my Mother.” Excerpt From: Jane Austen. “Juvenilia – Volume I.” Apple Books.

At a very young age Jane Austen was thinking about the realities of marriage and beginning to construct characters that would serve her in her later writings.

The young Jane Austen gives us an insight into how Jane Austen will develop as a writer. Her work at this stage is also hilarious with an unreserved edge. Also, the 2020 JASNA AGM will concentrate on these youthful writings. All of which are good reasons to join us at our March meeting.

History of Chocolate

Wedgewood Chocolate Pot ca 1790
Metropolitan Museum of Art

"They went to breakfast directly; but Catherine could hardly eat any thing. Tears filled her eyes, and even ran down her cheeks as she sat. The letter was one moment in her hand, then in her lap, and then in her pocket; and she looked as if she knew not what she did. The General, between his cocoa and his newspaper, had luckily no leisure for noticing her; but to the other two her distress was equally visible." Northanger Abbey chapter 25

Event:       JASNA CWNY February Meeting

Topic:       The History of Chocolate (with samples)

                  by Peggy Roll GCVM

When:      Saturday February 16, 2019 at 1 pm
Where:     NOTE LOCATION CHANGE
                  First Baptist Church
                  175 Allens Creek Rd
                  Rochester, NY 14618
                  just around the corner from B&N
Cost:         $5
                  PRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED

Click on the registration form below to register

Registration form

"On February 16 at 1 pm, Peggy Roll from the Genesee Country Village & Museum will be presenting a talk and demonstration on the history of chocolate and American Heritage Chocolate that is used in the museum’s confections.  Peggy is an historic cook and quilter, working as an interpreter in several of the museum’s 19th century houses.  She also is a baker and cook in the museum’s institutional kitchen where food is prepared for the Confectionary and for tastings." (1)

At our January meeting, held as a monstrous blizzard descended on western NY, a hearty group of Jane Austen fans met to discuss Northanger Abbey. Mr. John Knightley would have admired us greatly.

"I admired your resolution very much, sir," said he, "in venturing out in such weather, for of course you saw there would be snow very soon. Every body must have seen the snow coming on. I admired your spirit; and I dare say we shall get home very well. Another hour or two's snow can hardly make the road impassable;” Emma chapter 15

Of course, he may have been just a bit satirical.

Northanger Abbey is the only one of Jane Austen's six novels that mentions chocolate or cocoa. In Northanger Abbey it was a beverage so engrossing that General Tilney cannot see the tears on Catherine's cheeks. It wasn't just the gentlemen like General Tilney who had chocolate for breakfast. Bennet Weinberg and Bonnie Bealer, writing in The World of Caffeine: The Science and Culture of the World's Most Popular Drug, note that "In London, when men left for the day, the women often had their servants bring tea or chocolate to their bedrooms" (2).

At the time of Northanger Abbey, chocolate had been around in England for over one hundred years.  Kathryn Kane writes:

The first chocolate shop known in England was opened about 1657, in Gracechurch Street, London, by an enterprising Frenchman. He not only sold chocolate ready to drink, but he sold a recipe book for various chocolate drinks and gave lessons on how to make this fashionable new beverage at home. It was at about this same time that England gained access to a rich source of cacao, when they took Jamaica from Spain, in 1655. (3)

Gracechurch Street, as all Jane Austen fans will know, is the location of the Gardiner's home in Pride and Prejudice.  Perhaps Jane and Elizabeth savored hot cocoa as they confided in each other during Lizzy's visit to Gracechurch Street.

There is so much more to learn about chocolate. Please join us for a tasty experience of the history of chocolate. 

Please note the change in location. The First Baptist Church is located on the corner of Clover Street and Allens Creek Road, less than a mile from the Pittsford Barnes and Noble. The parking lot is in the rear and may be entered from either Allens Creek Road or Clover Street.  The building entrance faces the parking lot. Look for signs.

1. My thanks to Peggy Roll of GCVM for this information about the talk, and other links to all things chocolate.

2. Weinberg, Bennet, and Bealer, Bonnie, The World of Caffeine: The Science and Culture of the World's Most Popular Drug, Routledge, 2002, p. 170.

3. Kane, Kathryn, The Regency Redingote, https://regencyredingote.wordpress.com/2011/05/13/regency-chocolate-mdash-pale-thick-and-frothy/

Northanger Abbey - More Than Gothic

"The luxury of a...frightened imagination over the pages of Udolpho"
http://www.mollands.net/etexts/northangerabbey/naillus.html

"And are you prepared to encounter all the horrors that a building such as 'what one reads about' may produce? -- Have you a stout heart? -- Nerves fit for sliding pannels and tapestry?" 

Northanger Abbey chapter 20

Event:       JASNA CWNY January Meeting

Topic:       Northanger Abbey discussion led by Celia Easton

When:       Saturday January 19, 2019 at 1 pm
Where:      Pittsford Barnes and Noble, Community Room

We will have registrations available for our February meeting

The History of Chocolate (with samples)

More on that later. For now the registration form can also be found by clicking below

February Meeting Registration Form

This is the year of Northanger Abbey. Although Northanger Abbey was originally published along with Persuasion in 1818, JASNA has made the novel the theme for the 2019 AGM in Williamsburg, VA. So, we begin our year with a discussion of Northanger Abbey led by Celia Easton. Bring along your thoughts and opinions about Northanger Abbey and chime in, or, if you prefer, just enjoy listening to “the company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversation”.

Northanger Abbey is most often interpreted as Jane Austen’s dissection of the Gothic novel. Catherine Morland’s fascination with gothic novels forms the backbone of the novel. It’s a fascination that leads her into plenty of trouble at Northanger Abbey.

However, one may ask, is there anything more to this novel? As with all of Jane Austen’s novels, the answer is yes. In her paper “Northanger Abbey: Money in the Bank” [1] Sheryl Craig interprets the novel in terms of the 1797 Restriction Act. The Restriction Act basically severed the connection between paper money and the gold that was supposed to provide the value behind paper money. Sheryl writes

“…the 1797 Restriction Act, [was] an event that had an economic impact upon everyone living in Britain at the time as it called into question the value of paper money, the reliability of the Bank of England, and the honesty of the British government.”

Viewed this way, Northanger Abbey is a story about truth, honesty, and reliability.

Celia Easton in “Jane Austen and the Enclosure Movement: The Sense and Sensibility of Land Reform”[2] takes on the issue of enclosure in Jane Austen’s novels. She points out that the issue of land enclosure turns up in many of Jane Austen’s novels. Celia writes,

“Northanger Abbey’s “kitchen garden” is walled, and includes numerous hot houses. Catherine believed “a whole parish to be at work within the inclosure”… Catherine’s immediate view romanticizes farm work: …The enclosed kitchen garden may be blissfully viewed with no evocation of the losses enclosure effected in rural villages. “

As always with Jane Austen’s novels, Northanger Abbey is about many things: economics, land use, and, of course, Laurentina's skeleton.

What do you find most interesting in Northanger Abbey? Is Henry Tilney your favorite Austen hero? Please do come and join us for a discussion of Northanger Abbey. We will keep the skeletons in the closet.

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[1] Sheryl Craig, "Northanger Abbey: Money in the Bank", Persuasions, 32, p. 144, 2010.

[2] Celia Easton, "Jane Austen and the Enclosure Movement: The Sense and Sensibility of Land Reform", Persuasions, 24, p 71, 2002.