Why I love Jane...

Okay, I figured after dedicating so many posts to Jane Austen I should give a glimpse into why I love her as a writer.

Her writing is:
humorous, thought provoking, insightful, accurate to life.

She has a definite moral guide to what is right and wrong. In her books if you are good, even when everyone is telling you to do something else and sometimes things look bleak, good things always come to you in the end.

Jane believes in Girl Power. Her heroines are not shrinking violets. They are not scared to speak their mind and stand their ground.

And finally, Jane is just a good romance writer! I can always use a little more of that.

So, here is to Jane. Your writing is still entertaining us (well, at least me) almost 200 years after you wrote it!

England Odds and Ends

Here are a few other highlight from Suzanne's trip.

While at King Cross Station she found Platform 9 3/4, and even though she's a Muggle managed to push her trolley through. (Harry Potter)



She visited C.S. Lewis's grave site. (FYI, she said it was very hard to find it. It's not well marked)


Okay, this isn't technically literature, but doesn't Stonehenge look cool?!

Plain Jane

So, it has come to my attention as I have been doing these past post, not everyone knows who Jane Austen is.

Very simply, Jane Austen is a famous author.

Just in case you want a little more information about Miss Austen , here it is.

An original sketch of Jane Austen done by her sister, Cassandra.

Jane Austen was born in Steventon, England on December 16, 1775. She was the seventh child of a George and Cassandra Austen. Her father was a rector. The family was what would be considered middle class. Jane spent most of her life living with her immediate family. Jane Austen never married. She spend most of life with her sister, Cassandra. Cassandra never married either. Cassandra had been engaged but her fiancee dead on a trip to the East Indies. When her father retired in 1801 the family relocated to Bath. Jane's father passed away there in 1805. After that, Jane, her mother and sister's financial situation was very unstable. The ladies moved around for the next four years. In 1809 her brother, Edward, was able to offer them a cottage close to his home. Jane lived there in Chawton Cottage for the next 8 years.

Chawton Cottage

(Suzanne with her complete works of Jane Austen that she carried everywhere and had signed at every Jane Austen or story location)

Jane's writing desk


Jane became ill and decided to move to be closer to her doctor. She moved to Winchester in May of 1817.


The town of Winchester


Jane passed away on July 18, 1817 at the age of 41.


Though Jane's life was short, she still was able to produce many literary works. Some of her famous novels include.

- Sense and Sensibility
- Pride and Prejudice
- Mansfield Park
- Emma
- Northanger Abbey
- Persuasion

There is so much more to Jane Austen, but this is just a brief overview of the real Jane.

Pride and Prejudice

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife"

One of my favorite quotes said at Rosings Park
"I certainly have not the talent which some people possess," said Darcy, "of conversing easily with those I have never seen before. I cannot catch their tone of conversation, or appear interested in their concerns, as I often see done.""My fingers," said Elizabeth, "do not move over this instrument in the masterly manner which I see so many women's do. They have not the same force or rapidity, and do not produce the same expression. But then I have always supposed it to be my own fault- because I would not take the trouble of practising..."(Ch. 31)


"What are men to rocks and mountains?"

"My dearest sister, now be serious. I want to talk very seriously. Let me know every thing that I am to know, without delay. Will you tell me how long you have loved him?""It has been coming on so gradually, that I hardly know when it began. But I believe I must date it from my first seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberley."

The stairs Mr. Darcy races down to stop Lizzie from leaving Pemberly (1996 version)

The ceiling in the 2005 Pemberly. Probably the real building that inspired Jane Autsen's Pemberly.

The statue room

The statue focused on in the 2005 movie

"You are too generous to trifle with me. If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged, but one word from you will silence me on this subject for ever." (Ch. 58)
Elizabeth, feeling all the more than common awkwardness and anxiety of his situation, now forced herself to speak; and immediately, though not very fluently, gave him to understand that her sentiments had undergone so material a change, since the period to which he alluded, as to make her receive with gratitude and pleasure his present assurances.

Can I just say, I LOVE PRIDE AND PREJUDICE!

Persuasion

Oh, Persuasion. Is this a glimpse in to Jane's heart or some "auntly" advice?

"She had been forced into prudence in her youth, she learned romance as she grew older: the natural sequence of an unnatural beginning."

Here is the bulk head in Lyme. Shouldn't it be overcast?


Captain Harville's home from the movie.


The infamous stairs! Did you know those are floating steps, not a staircase? I never noticed that in the movie. This is where Louisa decides to jump despite being warned "Louisa, I would not be so foolish.." When she lands Louisa collapses in a heap. Thank goodness for Anne's ability to handle a stressful situation. Captain Wentworth starts to notice her strengths again.


Here is Bath in its grandeur.



The colonnade where Anne and Captain Wentworth kiss at the end of the movie.

"You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight and a half years ago. Dare not say that a man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant."

Emma

For this movie, I only have one picture as well. Luckily, it is the grounds. Face it Emma is often out of doors in the movie. It looks so beautiful there!

"It darted through her with the speed of an arrow that Mr. Knightley must marry no one but herself!"


"I cannot make speeches, Emma . . . If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more."

Sense and Sensibility

Okay, life happened and it took a little longer then I had hoped to do this. Back to an evening with Jane.

We started by having a traditional English dinner.
We had roast beef, mashed parsnips, Yorkshire pudding, Cornish pasty (I think that is what they were called. It is some meat mix in a half-moon shaped pastry), and of course, gravy!
Suzanne has tons of pictures from her trip. It was wonderful looking through the albums she created. My favorite part was she had scenes from the movies, then underneath the picture of the real location. She did such a fantastic job remembering the scenes to take the picture while she was on the trip. Unfortunately, I don't have all her pictures. We'll just have to enjoy what she passed on to me.

There is only one picture from the movie "Sense and Sensibility"(1995 version). This is the house(Charlotte's) that Marianne was sick at. Remember, her physical condition matches the feelings in her heart after discovering her love, Mr. Willoughby, was engaged to a rich lady. Thank goodness most people do not die of a broken heart. This is also where see begins to notice Colonel Brandon.

"She felt the loss of Willoughby's character yet more heavily than she had felt the loss of his heart . . ."

"How is she, Miss Dashwood?--Poor thing! she looks very bad.-- No wonder. Ay, it is but too true. He is to be married very soon--a good-for-nothing fellow! I have no patience with him. Mrs. Taylor told me of it half an hour ago, and she was told it by a particular friend of Miss Grey herself, else I am sure I should not have believed it; and I was almost ready to sink as it was. Well, said I, all I can say is, that if this be true, he has used a young lady of my acquaintance abominably ill, and I wish with all my soul his wife may plague his heart out. And so I shall always say, my dear, you may depend on it. I have no notion of men's going on in this way; and if ever I meet him again, I will give him such a dressing as he has not had this many a day. But there is one comfort, my dear Miss Marianne; he is not the only young man in the world worth having; and with your pretty face you will never want admirers. Well, poor thing! I won't disturb her any longer, for she had better have her cry out at once and have done with."