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Re: Episode 1 of Miss Austen on Masterpiece
Elaborating jut a little, The script writer and director are two women whose names I repeatedly observe on the best TV dramas. One aspect of both book & film is Cassandra Is presented with having chosen not to remarry, and content with her choice. At least to her no other is possible, and that's largely because she loved Jane. Her grief is having lost Jane.
The authors all keep to the edges any disapproval of her choices. Where there is a problem is the book presents Jane as depressive -- a mature perhaps accurate reading of the letters, and fans don't like that. In the book you have letters which contain this and the darkness is therefore contained (not not explored even in the book). In the film we are given little of Jane and encouraged to see Isabella as our heroine, who does travel the trajectory, from unhappy to conventional happiness. More practically I suspect many Austen fans will not recognize these more distant relatives. They are there in the Austen papers and wuld, should be there on biographies, but romance ever rules, and women don't matter even here -- but for this book :) |
Bella da Costa Greene
Have I said I bought a book about Bella da Costa for Izzy on her 1st birthday, May 8
... A review which tells her life An obsessive theme of black women writers of the 1920s is passing as white. I used to research Richardson there. I've seen original manuscripts of Grandison. They are having a week's worth of events on Jane Austen for her 250 birthday. If I could really walk, I'd go. There are online classes. I have to sign up. Alas, it's Eventbrite and I often fail to reach their online stufh. I can't get the hang of it Ellen |
Episode 1 of Miss Austen on Masterpiece
I've just watched Episode 1, and I give it an A, it was surprisingly
excellent. How close it is to actual history, I am not so sure, but Gill Hornby has done such a brilliant job, and the acting in all the roles is pitch perfect, so it's worth watching regardless of how accurate it is. I eagerly look forward to seeing the whole series. ARNIE |
Just to say
Soon I'll be rereading John Wood Sweet's Sewing Girl's Tale and may
reread Judith Moore's The Appearance of Truth for the upcoming 4 week course I'm teaching at OLLI at AU Not far behind Winifred Holyby's outh Riding, to be followed by Vera Britain's The Dark Tide, for the summer 6 week course I'll be teaching at OLLI at Mason Andrea and I are exploring Anna Seghers and Christa Wolf in our weekend zoom. It is a genuine wonder to me why so few courses in women's literature are taught at any of the OLLIs I teach at or attend. Or Politics and Prose? The people at OLLI at York keep trying, but classes have too low enrollment and are cancelled. Why do most women seem indifferent to literary feminism? I stand out for continuing to do them frequently I try to get to Austen Variations blog I'm reading onwards ever so slowly Ellen |
Re: Janet Todd's Living with Austen
Yes it is.It shows the family were a literary bunch. Letters &
documents also survive when there is a huge house, with an attic that no one is using. James Austen regarded himself as a poet & writer; George, the father, was a scholar with a private library pof his own, the mother wrote social verse ... Ellen. On Mon, Apr 28, 2025 at 10:24?AM Nancy Mayer via groups.io <regencyresearcher@...> wrote:
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Re: Janet Todd's Living with Austen
Austen wrote to other people. We are told there were 3 packets between
her & Frank, the older sailor brother. The granddaughter, we are told, without asking permission, early one morning destroyed the lot. The tone in which that is told suggests disapproval, what of it's not clear.. There was a correspondence between her and Martha Lloyd, her and Ann Sharp, some few to Eliza, to other friends, her nephew, to the nieces Fanny and Anna. Most of all this destroyed, -- or never kept. Scattered business letters we may call them. Maybe to Edgeworth with that gift of a copy of Emma. Ellen On Sun, Apr 27, 2025 at 10:28?PM Nancy Mayer via groups.io <regencyresearcher@...> wrote:
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Re: Janet Todd's Living with Austen
It was the accepted practice that when a person died, the relatives
retrieved their letters to the deceased, if they had been kept. Letters were seldom solely for the person to whom addressed, particularly females. The letters were usually read aloud to the family. Postage was expensive so few sent letters to multiple people at the same address unless one had a birthday or other special day. Cassandra did cut up letters to give people just the autograph and some letters no doubt were lost. Cassandra and Jane usually lived together and i is only that Cassandra was asked to help Edward after his wife died and that she helped out elsewhere that we have any letters at all. Instead of blaming Cassandra for destroying mythical letters, she should be honoured for preserving so many. Nancy On Sun, Apr 27, 2025 at 10:01?PM Dorothy Gannon via groups.io <dorothy.gannon@...> wrote: Ellen, I well remember the Fanny wars. At the time I'd have said I wasn¡¯t |
Re: Janet Todd's Living with Austen
Ellen, I well remember the Fanny wars. At the time I'd have said I wasn¡¯t especially fond of the novel, but it was due to your defense of MP that I went back and reread it for the first time. Up till then, it was the only Austen novel I hadn¡¯t read multiple times. I¡¯ve since come to appreciate the richness of the writing and the characters, and that Austen was really trying something new.
Nancy wrote: The other subject on which I am adamant is that Cassandra didn't burn Jane's letters to her , but she burned her letters TO Jane. Never thought of that, Nancy. It almost makes more sense, tho. Dorothy |
Re: Janet Todd's Living with Austen
To Nancy, I remember. I was a defender of Fanny. Imust love the six
novels as I never tire of them. The best Austen faithful style film for me is the 1995 Persuasion with Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds. I don't dislike Austen's letters exactly; they are not easy to understand cut out of context, and bowdlerized. They are written by the same person who wrote the fiction and can help us understand her books and something of her life and character. On your last belief that's not the sense of Mary Austen's statement; Edward Austen-Leigh's daughter is one of those who writes Austen destroyed a majority of the letters. This is from memory, but I recall she does not specify which or what, just "a majority." Ellen On Fri, Apr 25, 2025 at 11:20?AM Nancy Mayer via groups.io <regencyresearcher@...> wrote:
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Re: Janet Todd's Living with Austen
I like her letters for being a view into life of the day. They tell us,
also, that she was a real person. A person with links and dislikes and a sometimes sharp tongue( or pen). I think Fanny Price is the most misunderstood character in Austen's novels. Remember all the Fanny wars that used to erupt on Austen-L and other fora? I don't understand how so many can say they hate her, However, I do believe that a good many of those who say they love Austen mean they love the movie versions of Pride and Prejudice. The other subject on which I am adamant is that Cassandra didn't burn Jane's letters to her , but she burned her letters TO Jane. Nancy On Fri, Apr 25, 2025 at 11:07?AM Ellen Moody via groups.io <ellen.moody= [email protected]> wrote: I'm reading this between sequels -- I might reread The Other Bennet |
Janet Todd's Living with Austen
I'm reading this between sequels -- I might reread The Other Bennet Sister. I'm finding it very fresh, stimulating, but not sure how to blog/write about it. It seems to me Todd is doing something unusual: she comes in at an angle which is usually omitted: her gut reactions, partly founded in personal history and hr reading of other l'ecriture-femme I'd call it.This is the level that undergirds and explains a close reading or other kind of book (scholarly, source study &c) about books. The problem I'm not sure how to write coherently myself. But it is very interesting. I find my gut reactions to Austen's books were intially and still are quite different, but think hers are the more frequent. And thus it has explanatory power for me. For example my favorite heroine is Elinor Dashwood, and after that Fanny Price; the book I'd start with Sense and Sensibility. Far from finding Austen's letters captivating, I find them interestingly bitchy, resentful, always partisan.
More when I've finished. I plan an omnibus blog when I finally am feeling stronger not so tired. Ellen |
Serial video watching
I've been watching the superb 7 part 1978 serial written by Dennis
Potter, featuring Alan Bate & Anna Massey. I read the book some years ago, and I think, like the recent Far from the Madding Crowd, featuring Carey Mulligaan, and 2018 Woman in White by Fiona Seres , Potter captures the best of the book, its moral design and inner spirit. Often recent British serials are travesties (especially when backed by US money), but when they are good, they are superb, witness the 2018 Little Women (Emily Watson as Marmee),. The Mirror and the Light, by Peter Straughn, featuring Rylance (he carries it) improves on the book. An older one hour documentary not to miss: India's Partition A Forgotten story by Gurind Chadha (Bhaji on the Beach On other hand, after all the Miss Austen serial is lugubrious, takes itself and Keeley Haws to seriously. I hated Bride & Prejudice Ellen |
Re: What Else Is Everyone Reading?
I'm neck-deep in a revived interest in Juana I of Castile, and am
stockpiling a slew of primary documentation related to her. It's amazing to me how accessible some of this material has become. I remember crying along with my parents, around 1975, because we couldn't afford a series of medieval chronicles which we really, really wanted. They're all available now on Google Books and Archive.org! Oh, I wish our parents, especially our mom, were still here to take advantage of this. Maria On Sat, Apr 12, 2025 at 12:22?PM Ellen Moody via groups.io <ellen.moody= [email protected]> wrote: I mention them more often because I can't cover as much, and sometimes |
What Else Is Everyone Reading?
I mention them more often because I can't cover as much, and sometimes
am behind or skip a given group read. So I tell of these others as sometimes they are the same kind of book Beyond Duke's Children restored, I'm reading The Bertrams for another Trollope group, and following a favorite FB group of readers (TWWRN) by watching a 1978 many episode Mayor of Casterbridge, and I read all the postings, and try toget to the text. In some ways it seems to me far more interesting than some of the more famous Hardys. The script is by Dennis Potter!. I do find that often a superb adaptation can improve on the book. I've now begun Forster's A Passage to India for my teaching, and am reading about the Raj, Anglo-Indian lit. I love it. Last night a terrific documentary by Gurinder Chad on India's Partition: The Forgotten (pr distorted) story On my own for sheer pleasure: Janet Todd's Living with Austen. She really is intelligent, the one is wonderfully relaxed. I often disagree but she separates her views from the text. That's unusual A feminist biography of Vera Brittain The Mirror and the Light by Mantel -- along with delving into the women therein (Anne of Cleves, Katherine Howard) to discover why Cromwell was beheaded,and I believe I've understood. He was in the crosshairs of Henry's deranged sexual anxiety and deep shame because he was often impotent, More on this Sunday night. I've had to put aside for a couple of Week's Outlander 3, Voyager but I'll get back to her, Ditto an excellent fictional biography of Water Scott: Ragged Lion And I attend a very few classes Ellen On Sat, Apr 12, 2025 at 11:06?AM Tyler Tichelaar via groups.io <tyler@...> wrote:
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Re: from Rory: new 6 partnPride and Prejuice
I agree. I doubt you can find and number all the Jane Eyres that have
been made. Ellen On Fri, Apr 11, 2025 at 9:39?AM Nancy Mayer via groups.io <regencyresearcher@...> wrote:
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Re: from Rory: new 6 partnPride and Prejuice
Haven't there been enough movies based on P & P? Austen wrote six novels
and the minor works. Why don't they look at Edgeworth's Belinda or Burton's Self Control. The latter would be a great one as it wouldn't matter too much if the producer wrecked it. While a solid core of readers still do read Austen, many more get their ideas of her books and of the regency period from the movies. Nancy On Fri, Apr 11, 2025 at 6:20?AM Ellen Moody via groups.io <ellen.moody= [email protected]> wrote: ?Jack Lowden |
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