Tag: Jane Austen

One Lady’s Birthday

On the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the birth of Miss Jane Austen.

Written “By a Lady” is a very special, even enigmatic, byline of sorts; and as thus did Jane Austen identify herself on the title pages of the four novels published in her life time. Was it modesty that prevailed or common-sense? To name herself; an unnecessary exposition perhaps, a vanity well suited to the social aspirations – and frivolities – of the landed class of Regency England from which she was not so far removed but not something to be trumpeted from the genteel surrounds of Chawton beholden to the conventions of village life? But, whilst closeting most of herself in anonymity, her gender Jane Austen seemed obliged to share – written “By a Lady”. As if to say: Please know that what you are about to read comes with all the sensibilities of a woman.

Depiction of Austen from A Memoir of Jane Austen (1871) written by her nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh, and based on the sketch by her sister Cassandra.

So it is that today we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth of the remarkable Jane Austen. In some respects the Brits and greater Anglophone world have been celebrating her all year with exhibitions, lectures, new editions, commentaries, etc., but in many respects very many more people all over the world pay tribute to her all the time in a multitude of ways: generation upon generation reading, studying, analyzing her work; being inspired by her literary genius, her gifts of observation, her humor, her optimism; translating her work, adapting her work into other art forms. A more beloved writer, a more iconic literary figure, is difficult to find. And how enigmatic she remains! We don’t really know what Jane Austen looked like nor have we an unprejudiced version of her personae and manner, and must depend on her sister, Cassandra’s depiction and hearsay and portraiture of other young women from the period. Much of her extensive correspondence was destroyed (again, Cassandra!) and all has been shaded in the last century of so by various factions competing for the right to define her narrative, and in more recent times all the countless cinematic portrayals of her work and pertaining to her person that show no sign of abating.

Earlier this year The Morgan Library and Museum in New York City had an exhibition dedicated to Austen, spotlighting the manuscripts in their possession and those held at Goucher College in Baltimore (both bequeathed by Alberta Hirshheimer Burke.) A video promotion is still available on YouTube:

A Lively Mind: Jane Austen at 250 that ran from June 6 through September 14, 2025 at the Morgan Library and Museum.

Miss Austen does have of course a significant presence in the internet, but very many sites do seem to be, either directly or not so, selling something! (Well, why not?) This one not: Jane Austen’s World, a personal blog out of the United States, appears to be simply a labor of love. To be found a bevy of information and links, not just specific to Austen but also the world and society in which she lived and wrote. (Unlike Jane’s narratives and characters, some of the links are as dead as Regency era door nails, but many are not!)

Happy birthday Jane! (If I may be so bold as to address you as Jane?)

Remembering Hilary Mantel still (1)

& with regret …

An abiding regret for the space left in my literary life with Hilary Mantel’s death; all those bodies and ghosts – royal and heavenly, and not – silenced. Now, just over a year later, today is published in the UK a collection of her essays, exquisitely – albeit misleadingly – titled A Memoir of My Former Self: A Life in Writing (pub. John Murray). Pulled together by her former editor (at Fourth Estate and now at John Murray), Nicholas Pearson, are pieces from Mantel’s long writing career – on many subjects and from the many stations of her personal and professional life. It is not, then, a memoir in the usual sense, rather I read somewhere it described as a ‘memoir of the mind’ – and what a singularly brilliant mind it was. Perhaps this book will go a little way to fill that space that I still feel.

As her unpublished work and diaries are being deposited with her other papers at The Huntington Library in California and sealed until her husband’s death, for some, this collection is perhaps the last opportunity to wonder at Mantel’s gifts.

In April, a memorial service was held at Southwark Cathedral, around about which time it was revealed that, at the time of her death, Hilary Mantel had been working on an adaption – mash-up of sorts – of Pride and Prejudice, told from the perspective of the over-looked Bennett sister, Mary (the ‘plain Jane’ middle one), and tentatively or maybe definitely titled: ‘Provocation’. Lordy! Pride, prejudice AND ‘provocation’! Jane and Hilary in conversation (and now in heavenly union)! Regency England given the Tudor treatment – what a treat that would have been.

Here is The Guardian magazine piece that ends with the extract provided by Mantel’s widower, Gerald McEwen, and which was read at the memorial service. (What a divine thought: Darcy is not the brightest!) There are interesting reflections from McEwen and others, and I was reminded of Mantel’s Reith Lecture in which she said: “the dead are invisible, they are not absent”. I didn’t remember that to be a quote from Saint Augustine (looking back, those were indeed the first words of her first lecture), but it does then seem appropriate that her memorial service was held in Southwark with its ancient Augustinian tradition.

As I say, there can only be regret.