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The Real Jane Austen
Topic Started: Jan 17 2013, 10:09 AM (501 Views)
caissier
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Heard any of this? Very good and well read imo ...... lots of details giving a very attractive picture of Jane's personality, her sense of fun and relationships with the people she knew, particularly the close, loving bond with her sister, Cassandra.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01ptbww/Book_of_the_Week_The_Real_Jane_Austen_Episode_1/

Austen-only site ...... http://austenonly.com/2013/01/13/paula-byrnes-book-the-real-jane-austen-is-this-weeks-bbc-radio-4s-book-of-the-week/

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Cassandra and Jane
Edited by caissier, Jan 17 2013, 10:44 AM.
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Mobson
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I haven't caught up with this yet - what I did catch though was Open Book which actually airs again at 3.30pm today on Radio 4...to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the publication of Pride and Prejudice, Mariella Frostrup invited a group of experts and enthusiasts to rendezvous at Jane Austen's cottage in Hampshire. It was quite entertaining....
Edited by Mobson, Jan 17 2013, 03:54 PM.
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Mobson
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...here's the link to the Open Book Pride and Prejudice - 200th Anniversary Special

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01pt99b
Edited by Mobson, Jan 17 2013, 03:57 PM.
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Mobson
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I am listening to the first episode now and love the fact that Emma Fielding is the reader - she's the perfect choice <happy>

On the second link, there is a picture of her writing box given to her by her father for her 19th birthday.....

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Edited by caissier, Jan 21 2013, 10:03 AM.
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Mobson
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deleted post!
Edited by Mobson, Jan 17 2013, 03:56 PM.
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caissier
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Ah! I was just going to add that picture, Mobs, but you beat me to it ....
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Mobson
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<wink> Well you know what they say Caiss, two great minds.....
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caissier
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Well .... quite!

I've been re-listening to this before it disappears. Jane was a fantastic woman. I suppose it's a pity she didn't get married. She would have given a lucky husband so many laughs but then he'd have had to cope with losing her young. What a stupid age when fortunes mattered so much that she wasn't besieged by besotted blokes. Perhaps she was too much of a romantic though.
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Mobson
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I've still got to listen to all the episodes ...I did catch the last bit of POTW last night where Simon Parke's made this part of his selected thirteen highlights of the week...*the penultimate choice, he praised the book by Paula Byrne and her cleverness in drawing out the story of Austen's ancestors and artifacts with the spin off story of each them...in particular the intriguing story of the Indian rosewood writing desk...

*@ 37.44
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01pz5j8

The references to the exchange of cultural gifts of silks, perfumes and spices from Bengal sounded wonderfully evocative and led me to search for the kasundi sauce (I'll put a recipe in our food thread) - a pungent mustard sauce - a bengali equivalent to ketchup ...Calcuttan's adore it with snacks...says Simon...."hard though to imagine a bottle of it ending up in the depths of 18th century Hampshire"
Edited by Mobson, Jan 21 2013, 01:06 PM.
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Mobson
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To add to the flavour, I snuggled down under a throw (should have been an Indian shawl) by the <fp> on Friday evening...

to watch the 1995 award winning film Sense And Sensibility, adapted by Emma Thompson from Jane Austen's novel published in 1811, and directed with great sensitivity by Ang Lee on More 4....just the ticket with so many great characters played by equally good actors...I can never have enough of the wonderful performance given by Elizabeth Spriggs as the marriage matchmaker Mrs Jennings...ok there's the Hugh's, Grant & Laurie;Kate Winslett; Emma Thompson; her real life hubby Greg Wise plays the bounder Willoughby, but it's the older actors who are a tour de force.. Ms Spriggs (again) greeting the demoralised and self-banished Mrs Dashwood played beautifully by Gemma Jones, and her three girls, whilst her son-in-law Sir John Middleton played with great gusto by Robert Hardy gabbles on and about this and that....there's rich seam of Austen's characters portrayed in this film. Finally my hero?....the dashing Colonel Christopher Brandon, caring and constant, can woo me any day...he's travelled to India so beneath that shy and reserved exterior there's a fire burning brightly inside .... <candle>


I like to think Miss Austen had great satisfaction in writing him into her novel with implements from that charming writing box close by....
Edited by Mobson, Jan 21 2013, 03:33 PM.
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Caro

I meant to reply to this ages ago - we had an interview with Paula Byrne on our radio one day and it was very interesting indeed. She talked of how Jane Austen was very much supported by her family and her talent was understood by them, especially her brother and father. Also quite a lot about how she wasn't really a romantic at all. Paula Byrne found it interesting that people like Lydia were not given any comeuppance in the novels - their very bad behaviour is, if not actually rewarded, certainly accepted. They are not punished by Jane Austen. (Though I do wonder how long it would be before Wickham's eye - and other parts of him - would be wandering to other women.)
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caissier
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The programmes were full of amazing details, such as her aunt, orphaned, being sent by a nasty step-mother to Covent Garden to be a milliner and under pressure to fall into prostitution, then having the courage to go to India to find a rich husband, which she quickly did - then having a child with Warren Hastings who grew up to marry a French officer, who styled himself as a Compte ..... who was guillotined in the French revolution.

They sound like a really lovely family, but, who like everybody of the time, had to live with the nearness of early death through childbirth and disease.

I think that in Pride and Prejudice there are references to the seamy side of Georgian life - doesn't Darcy go into that world to rescue somebody, which he typically doesn't mention - so she was well aware of the earthiness of the times.

This is the kind of R4 programme I wish could be permanently available. Well spoken by Emma Fielding too imo.


Edited by caissier, Jan 23 2013, 11:18 AM.
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