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JASNA-NJ meeting, December 7: Devoney Looser, Wild for Austen

Although Jane Austen holds a secure place in both academic and popular culture, she is still sometimes misunderstood--seen as a quiet, retiring spinster rather than as the bold, pioneering artist she was. In her new book Wild for Austen: A Rebellious, Subversive, and Untamed Jane, Devoney Looser, Regents Professor of English at Arizona State University, … Continue reading JASNA-NJ meeting, December 7: Devoney Looser, Wild for Austen →

JASNA-NJ meeting, November 15: The Watsons and Sanditon

For Janeites, it’s a source of enduring sadness that Jane Austen completed only six novels in her too-short life. Imagine all the wonderful characters we might have encountered if she had lived another twenty or thirty years! Tantalizingly, two unfinished Austen novels survive—both abandoned by their author at very different moments in her life, and … Continue reading JASNA-NJ meeting, November 15: The Watsons and Sanditon →

JASNA-NJ meeting, October 18: Miss Caroline Bingley, Private Investigator, by Kelly Gardiner and Sharmini Kumar

It’s fair to say that Caroline Bingley, Pride and Prejudice’s quintessential mean girl, is not one of Jane Austen’s most sympathetic characters. As she schemes to outmaneuver Elizabeth Bennet in the competition for Mr. Darcy’s affections (not to mention his big estate), Miss Bingley reveals herself to be arrogant, snobbish, manipulative, and petty. But what … Continue reading JASNA-NJ meeting, October 18: Miss Caroline Bingley, Private Investigator, by Kelly Gardiner and Sharmini Kumar →

JASNA-NJ meeting, Sept. 20: Visit to Battleview Orchards

Emma Woodhouse’s visit to Box Hill goes disastrously wrong: “There was a languor, a want of spirits, a want of union, which could not be got over,” even before Frank Churchill flirts outrageously, Mr. Weston proposes a foolish word game, and Emma publicly humiliates Miss Bates. Nevertheless, it’s a JASNA-NJ tradition to hold a summertime … Continue reading JASNA-NJ meeting, Sept. 20: Visit to Battleview Orchards →

JASNA-NJ meeting, July 19: Austen at Sea, by Natalie Jenner

In 1852, a Boston Janeite named Eliza Susan Quincy sent a fan letter to Austen’s brother Francis. “For many years her talents have brightened our daily path, and her name and those of her characters are familiar to us as ‘household words,’ " wrote Quincy, daughter of a former president of Harvard University. Then she … Continue reading JASNA-NJ meeting, July 19: Austen at Sea, by Natalie Jenner →

JASNA-NJ meeting, June 21: Tour of the Morgan Library’s Jane Austen exhibit

The major Jane Austen pilgrimage sites may be located in England, but we Americans have access to a wealth of Austen material on this side of the ocean—notably at the Morgan Library & Museum, in New York City, which holds an important collection of Austen letters and manuscripts. This summer, the Morgan will commemorate the … Continue reading JASNA-NJ meeting, June 21: Tour of the Morgan Library’s Jane Austen exhibit →

JASNA-NJ meeting, May 17: Jane Austen and the Price of Happiness, by Inger Sigrun Bredkjaer Brodey

Despite Jane Austen’s reputation as the ur-romance novelist, her happy endings are notoriously odd and unsatisfying—short on swoony declarations of love and long on ironic detachment. In other words, quite different from the popular screen adaptations of her novels, which give viewers all the ardent avowals and tremulous first kisses they could possibly want. The … Continue reading JASNA-NJ meeting, May 17: Jane Austen and the Price of Happiness, by Inger Sigrun Bredkjaer Brodey →

JASNA-NJ meeting, April 12: The Other Bennet Sister, by Janice Hadlow

The heroine of Pride and Prejudice is Elizabeth Bennet, whose wit and cleverness have captivated readers for two centuries. But what about the middle Bennet sister? Plain, bookish Mary comes across as pedantic and charmless—but some readers can’t help wondering why Jane Austen, a bookish girl herself, portrayed her so harshly. Doesn’t Mary Bennet deserve … Continue reading JASNA-NJ meeting, April 12: The Other Bennet Sister, by Janice Hadlow →

JASNA-NJ meeting, March 15: Jane Austen’s Bookshelf, by Rebecca Romney

Jane Austen’s reputation is so towering that it’s easy to assume she must have been unique—the only female writer of her era to produce work of lasting value. But in fact Austen wrote in the context of an emerging female literary tradition whose contours can be glimpsed in her novels and letters, with their references … Continue reading JASNA-NJ meeting, March 15: Jane Austen’s Bookshelf, by Rebecca Romney →