Jane Austen's London
I am preparing for Saturday's Jane Austen's Walk (10.45 Green Park Tube 2nd Nov 2013). After struggling for a while I found a very good book 'Walking Jane Austen's London' by Louise Allen. I have now bought the kindle and the physical volume. It is almost too good because, instead of making up my own walk, I am following Louise's.
What is good about the book is that she has written it from the novels and from contemporary guides/directories and some really good information about shops in Jane Austen's time. On the other hand there is a lot of background information I can add to the walk which, should begin to make it my own.
Preparing for a walk, is a great way to get to know an author because it means you need to do a close reading- normally you just consume a novel - driven onwards by involvement with the story, but for a walk you have to read carefully to work out what can be used on a walk and what it means about the author - and life and times.
My main reading has been the London section of 'Sense and Sensibility' - I was not so aware before of what an enormous amount of snobbery underpins the book, both intentional and otherwise. The key figures seems to be Mrs Jennings - she is condemned by the weak Mr John Dashwood because of her dead husband's association with people who made money by trade. But a similar criticism comes from the Dashwood females. When they leave for London it is said they are staying with Mrs Jennings but it is the Middletons who will give them status. Marianne can hardly be civil to Mrs J, and Elinor, although patient makes it clear there is a certain looking down the nose at her. And yet she is clearly concerned and kindly. I think Austen changed her mind as she wrote the book - Mrs Jennings begins as a figure of fun - a gossip who does not know 'propiety' (which with 'bloom' and money are what underpins Jane Austen's world) but we begin to see her as a kindly woman with no airs and graces - which for us is surely a good thing. Not so sure that a lady brought up in Basingstoke thought quite the same thing but Jane warms to Mrs J as the book develops.
The research also begins to make it clear that, at least in part, Austen was a London author.
What is good about the book is that she has written it from the novels and from contemporary guides/directories and some really good information about shops in Jane Austen's time. On the other hand there is a lot of background information I can add to the walk which, should begin to make it my own.
Preparing for a walk, is a great way to get to know an author because it means you need to do a close reading- normally you just consume a novel - driven onwards by involvement with the story, but for a walk you have to read carefully to work out what can be used on a walk and what it means about the author - and life and times.
My main reading has been the London section of 'Sense and Sensibility' - I was not so aware before of what an enormous amount of snobbery underpins the book, both intentional and otherwise. The key figures seems to be Mrs Jennings - she is condemned by the weak Mr John Dashwood because of her dead husband's association with people who made money by trade. But a similar criticism comes from the Dashwood females. When they leave for London it is said they are staying with Mrs Jennings but it is the Middletons who will give them status. Marianne can hardly be civil to Mrs J, and Elinor, although patient makes it clear there is a certain looking down the nose at her. And yet she is clearly concerned and kindly. I think Austen changed her mind as she wrote the book - Mrs Jennings begins as a figure of fun - a gossip who does not know 'propiety' (which with 'bloom' and money are what underpins Jane Austen's world) but we begin to see her as a kindly woman with no airs and graces - which for us is surely a good thing. Not so sure that a lady brought up in Basingstoke thought quite the same thing but Jane warms to Mrs J as the book develops.
The research also begins to make it clear that, at least in part, Austen was a London author.
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