The Wire, Volume 28, Number 2 Summer 2015

2015 “I have got some pleasant news for you, which I am eager to communicate.”

Jane Austen Society

of North America

Wisconsin Region The Wire, Volume 28, Number 3 Fall 2016

“I have got some pleasant news for you, which I am eager to communicate.”

Jane Austen Society

of North America

Wisconsin Region

Wisconsin members of JASNA gather after the banquet at last month’s AGM in Washington, D.C.

Another successful AGM in the books JASNA’s Annual General Meeting, held Oct. 21-23 in

Washington, D.C., was a rousing success. As usual, we

asked our Wisconsin members to contribute their thoughts

and impressions of the weekend’s highlights. Their respons-

es are below.

Among hundreds of your best friends As usual the AGM was like being among 800 of your best

friends. People who love to read, love Jane Austen, and love

to analyze in minute detail a few sentences in a paragraph of

Emma and come up with meanings so brilliantly deep, they

defy imagination--if that is even possible to Austen lovers.

We are always made to feel welcome, comfortable, edu-

cated and loved by the dozens of truly dedicated hosts each

year. Their attention to detail, smiles and helpful directions

made us feel at home for this, our third AGM in a row.

Our breakout speakers were well prepared, knowledgeable

and very witty. I thoroughly enjoy how much we laugh in

our sessions. What impresses me is that we are left wanting

more, and the supply of topics we can discuss is almost inex-

haustible.

Kelly VanderHeiden

Handmade vest accessorizes husband In 2014 my husband, Thomas, and I attended our first

JASNA meeting in

Montreal so I knew

we needed some

period costumes.

I bought my hus-

band’s jacket,

pants, and shirt

from Gentleman's

Emporium. I was

worried it would

not be good quality

or wouldn’t fit, but

it was perfect. Of

course I made the

cravat, which is just

a long white scarf. I

decided that I

would always make

a different waist-

coat to change it up

and get as much

use out of the

things I bought. We

also use these cos-

tumes when we go

to English country

dance weekends, so

the money was not

wasted on just one

event.

The pattern for the waistcoat comes

from Laughing Moon, which has lots

of patterns for period costumes. The

first vest was in red, but I decided it

was not quite long enough. The sec-

ond is blue. I was of course in a hurry

so I didn't put the bound pockets in

the blue vest; I don't think he missed

them. I did make it 2 inches longer

since my husband is so tall. The pat-

tern is pretty easy, and I am hoping to

use the material that I bought at the

Emporium at the Washington meeting

for next year's vest.

— Sandi Rutherford

Sense and Sensibility at the Folger My mother, sister and I attended the new adaptation of

Sense and Sensibility by Kate Hamill. It was performed at the

beautiful Folger Shakespeare Theatre following Sunday’s

brunch.

We all enjoyed the lively play and were awed by the actors’

agility on chairs with wheels during rapid scene changes. The

beautiful and intimate Elizabethan theater was a perfect set-

ting for the play and the close of our AGM experience.

— Susan Richard

Dinner and history at Mount Vernon One of the special tours several Wisconsin members took

advantage of was an exclusive tour of Mount Vernon. Dinner

in the Mount Vernon Inn was followed by an exclusive can-

dlelight tour of the mansion. I was surprised to learn Mount

Vernon has 11 bedrooms and most of the time they were full

JASNA’s dinner at Mount Vernon.

Susan Richard, her mother Yolanda Jensen, and sister, Kitty Rosenberger (NJ)

of visitors. Up to 677 visitors visited a year, and some stayed

for months at a time. Apparently, George and Martha were

very social people.

— Liz Philosophos Cooper

Meeting an author I had the opportunity to sit beside Collins Hemingway at

one of the plenary talks. I didn't know who he was but some-

one behind us said how much they enjoy his books and when

is the third volume coming out. I scribbled his name down by

noting it on his name tag. Then I went to the Emporium to

buy his book, The Marriage of Miss Jane Austen. I quickly read

the first volume (but unfortunately upon getting home I have

been too busy to finish the second volume).

I have to say that the book is well written especially the let-

ters throughout part II. The letters actually feel like you are

reading one of her letters. It seems odd to be thinking of the

marriage of Miss Jane Austen and if you can get around that

concept the thesis that she married seems plausible.

Questions that he tries to answer are: What went on during

Jane Austen's twenties? Why did her sister destroy her letters,

journals, and diaries from this period?

I recommend the books because they are well written.

— Sandi Rutherford

Visiting American history The AGM provided many opportunities to be amongst

American history. Our hotel, the JW Marriott, was across the

street from the beautiful Willard

Hotel where Abraham Lincoln

stayed prior to his inauguration.

We gathered for lunch on a beauti-

ful sun-filled day under the blue

umbrellas of the Willard’s Café du

Parc, basking in history. Next

door, we visited the Occidental

Grill, built in 1906, to view the

wall-to-wall autographed photo-

graphs of statesmen and states-

women hanging from ceiling to

floor including Eleanor Roosevelt,

Amelia Earhart, Robert Frost,

Franklin D. Roosevelt, Sandra

Day O’Connor and many others.

I especially enjoyed that our

hotel was a short distance to the

White House. On the route, I

walked past the US Treasury De-

partment and Blair House, stood

on the street directly in front of the

White House with the Lafayette

Square behind me. I enjoyed sit-

ting on a bench in the square eat-

ing my lunch, observing the tour-

ists and all the activity.

During the AGM, I enjoyed the

breakout session by Mackenzie Broderick, titled “Funny La-

dy: Dangerous Humor and Female Empowerment in Austen’s

Emma.” Broderick stated that in Emma, Austen used jokes and

riddles to put people in their place. Humor in Austen can veil

inappropriate comments. Emma made Miss Bates the butt of

her joke at Box Hill and was confronted by Mr. Knightley for

her rudeness and insensitivity to a much less fortunate wom-

an. Broderick proposed that Mr. Knightley’s direct rebuke of

Emma’s behavior causes her to recognize her own vanity. She

apologizes, leading to the evolution of her character and reali-

zation that she loved Mr. Knightley. Humor was the means to

move the story along.

Emma also used humor to manipulate her friends to do

what she wanted them to, especially Harriet Smith. Harriet

was especially vulnerable as she was so serious and susceptible

to Emma’s manipulations.

Broderick stated that Frank Churchill also uses humor to-

ward Jane Fairfax to show his power over her as he flirted

with Emma. This veiled humor was a means to hide the truth

of their relationship.

Emma attempts to use humor to put people in their place

and to manipulate her friends to follow her suggested path in

life, but she finds she is a good person despite her manipula-

tions.

— Phyllis Menne

Phylllis Menne (right) and Elizabeth Ireland visit the lobby of the historic Willard Hotel.

By Sara Bowen

Note: Sara Bowen took notes during all of her AGM sessions, and

has very kindly shared with us summaries of all the presentations she

heard. We are grateful to her for bringing some of the substance of the

meeting back to Wisconsin.

Digging up Steventon Rectory Deborah Charlton is an archeologist who directed the Ste-

venton Rectory Project, which spent nine years and a good

deal of lottery and English Heritage money trying to fathom

the dimensions of Jane Austen’s birthplace. Her AGM

presentation on the archeological digs at Steventon was an

example of the non-traditional AGM presentations than wid-

ened knowledge of Jane Austen’s life.

The site of Steventon Rec-

tory today is a meadow,

with only a pump location

indicating that there was

ever a dwelling on the

site. The rectory was dis-

mantled in the 1820s as a

later rector of the Austen-

Knight family chose to

move and not to live on a

former riverbed with a

very high ground water

level that led to flooded

cellars and unhealthy con-

ditions. When Jane Aus-

ten became famous, later

generations of the family

produced quite different

sketches from their mem-

ories of Jane Austen’s

birthplace, and one purpose of the dig was to use the latest

archeological tools to figure out the actual layout of the recto-

ry.

But while Jane Austen’s fame was useful in getting the

necessary funding and academic support, the dig’s purpose

was more extensive, as the 10,894 items excavated from the

site present a stunning picture of the material culture of a mid-

dle-class farming family in Austen’s lifetime. Pieces of table-

ware can be dated from records at the Spode museum; other

objects elucidate entries about life at Steventon in Austen’s

letters. There will be a BBC special on the project in 2017,

and Charlton’s book, Archeology Greets Jane Austen, will be

published later in 2016. Click here to see the project’s website.

Emma comes to America Emma was the only Austen novel to appear in America

during Austen’s lifetime. Juliette Wells of Goucher College

led the AGM brunch attendees through her detective search

for copies of the first American edition of Emma, published in

Philadelphia on Dec. 16, 1816, less than a year after the book

appeared in England.

The publisher, M. Carey, received two copies of Emma

from England, probably pursuant to a standing order for new

English fiction, but it is quite likely that Sir Walter Scott’s

enthusiastic unsigned review of Emma in the Quarterly Review

persuaded him to print 500 copies for American consumption,

using the Scott review as a marketing blurb. It was far cheaper

for Carey to publish his own copies rather than pay the high

tariff that was passed after the War of 1812 for more English

copies. In addition, it was viewed as patriotic for American

publishers to produce their own editions. Jane Austen and her

publisher, John Murray, almost certainly never knew of the

edition, and would have gotten no royalties in the days before

international copyright protection.

The major cost for Carey would have been the paper, still

handmade at that time, so Carey had his printer compress the

text and cram the book into two volumes instead of John

Murray’s three. The poor quality of the paper and the board

binding used for most copies meant that very few survive.

Wells has traced down six copies of this Philadelphia edition,

though there are rumors that an antiquarian bookseller has a

seventh and is holding out for a higher market.

Austen would not be published again in America until

1832, when the Carey firm would shorten Emma and bowd-

lerize Emma’s use of the Lord’s name in vain. You can see

Alberta Burke’s copy of the 1816 Emma, now at Goucher Col-

lege, online here.

Jane Fairfax, the Anti-Heroine Gillian Webster, chair of the Kent Branch of the Jane Aus-

ten Society, challenged her AGM audience to consider why

in Emma, we root for the dashing if imperfect Emma and not

for the noble, struggling Jane Fairfax, while in Mansfield Park,

we root for the struggling, perfect Fanny Price and not for the

dashing and imperfect Mary Crawford.

Webster noted that we don’t hear of Jane Fairfax until

chapter 10, and she doesn’t enter the action until chapter 20.

Even then, we know her only through the unreliable eyes of

Emma and the chatter of Miss Bates — until her breakout

moment at Donwell Abbey, where she finally reveals the ten-

sion of her life. But by then, it is too late for us to engage with

Jane Fairfax, and for in the rest of the novel, we hear very

little in her own words — rather, we see her primarily through

Frank’s eyes and writing. On the other hand, we experience

Mansfield Park and Mary Crawford primarily through Fanny’s

eyes, but Mary Crawford comes on stage early and engages

our attention with her verve whenever Austen lets us see her

directly through her own talk and actions.

Webster feels that Austen’s juxtaposition of these two her-

oines and two anti-heroines shows her enormous narrative

range. We are meant to sympathize with Emma Woodhouse

because Austen wants us to realize that we are as unreliable

as she is. Jane Fairfax is not as perfect as the reliable Mr.

Knightley thinks she is, as Austen’s contemporary audience

would have been appalled at Jane’s clandestine engagement

and correspondence. We are meant to acknowledge the trials

of Fanny Price and Jane Fairfax, but the zest and life of Em-

And what were some topics at the AGM?

ma Woodhouse and Mary Crawford reach us in ways the

pale Jane Fairfax and Fanny Price do not.

Letter Writing in Austen’s World When Marsha Huff and I planned the Milwaukee AGM

on “Jane Austen’s Letters in Fact and Fiction,” we hoped

someone would present a paper on the culture and conven-

tions of letter writing in Austen’s time. No one gave us a pro-

posal on that topic, but that lack was filled by Dr. Bao Bui of

Ball State University at the 2016 AGM, who spoke on

“Epistolary Networks, Private Space and Postal Culture in

Regency England.”

Dr. Bui gave a history of the postal service in England,

noting that until Austen’s lifetime, there was no expectation

of privacy in a letter sent by public post. However, with the

development of Enlightenment ideals and the lessening worry

about internal revolt in England, the postal service of Aus-

ten’s era gave a reasonable expectation of privacy between

sender and recipient. But letters sent by public post were only

delivered as far as the local post office during this period, so

Jane Fairfax was running a huge risk in sending and receiving

letters.

Dr. Bui posits, with help from Linda Troost, that Mr.

Knightley’s reference to Frank’s feminine-looking handwrit-

ing gives us the clue to the success of keeping their corre-

spondence private — Frank could have sent his letters under

an assumed female name, and the postmistress would have

thought it was a female friend writing Jane. How did Jane

Fairfax get letters to Frank without gossip? Possibly by send-

ing them in the name of his aged nurse. Personal letters were

assumed to be open for consumption by all family members,

so Jane would have had to be extremely secretive about re-

ceiving and sending any letters.

Dr. Bui tied the letter writing in Emma to the larger com-

munications shifts beginning in the eighteenth century and

still ongoing. Emma and Knightley represent the old medie-

val village communication system of face-to-face discussion.

But Frank and Jane — and “Frank”, as in franking letters, is

no accidental name in Dr. Bui’s view — represent the future,

where the cohesiveness and insularity of the Highburys of

England would be smashed by the communications and

transportation revolutions. The postal use by Frank and Jane

Fairfax was not only shocking with respect to the courtship

mores of the times, but it represented modernity breaking into

human relationships. Frank and Jane’s secret letters are the

bridge between Highbury’s face-to-face community and the

anonymous world of the internet.

Robert Martin’s Reading List Emma Woodhouse scorns Robert Martin’s reading list for

its lack of elegance, but Susan Allen Ford in her AGM plena-

ry explained how Austen’s audience would interpret Martin’s

reading as that of an upwardly mobile farm manager interest-

ed in the scientific advances of his time. Emma, in her view, is

as much about reading as Northanger Abbey is, and Robert

Martin’s book list tells us much about him, just as Harriet’s

reading list warns us of the dangers facing her if she turns

down Robert’s proposal.

The 1809 General View of the Agriculture of Surrey (which

was on view in the Library of Congress special exhibit for

AGM attendees) was written by William Stevenson, a writer

on economic matters who was the father of Elizabeth Gas-

kell. If Martin is reading this avidly, it means that he is a man

looking to the economic future, sharing agricultural advances

with others and helping England prosper through the shortag-

es of the Napoleonic war period. The Elegant Extracts by

Vicesimus Knox, were two volumes of prose and poetry

which were defining a canon of literature — Jane Austen

gave a copy of the prose volume to her niece Anna. The Vicar

of Wakefield, one of the most popular novels of the late eight-

eenth century, celebrated English rural life without skimping

on its complexities. All his reading choices show Martin as a

man looking to the scientific future and cultivating his mind

and heart, not Gothic frivolity.

On the other hand, there are warnings for Harriet Smith in

her book choices. The Vicar of Wakefield’s daughter turns

down a proposal of marriage to a good farmer her father ap-

proves of, and runs off with a rake who tries to ruin her. The

Children of the Abbey has a woman from the lower economic

class turn down a poorer man because she thinks a clergyman

will marry her, and the book’s villain’s name is Woodhouse!

The Gothic genre in general often deals with orphaned wom-

en searching for their fathers, and finding the fathers, their

fortunes, and a husband in a happy ending after torturous

adventures.

One of Ford’s most striking insights was regarding Emma

as a modified Gothic novel. There is the failed abduction

from Mr. Elton; Mr. Woodhouse as the weak but tyrannical

Liz Cooper, in character as Emma, sends a text on her phone.

(You know that if Emma could, she would.)

father; Frank Churchill as the treacherous lover, and Mr.

Knightley as the rescuer of his protégé. Robert Martin stands

aloof from these modified Gothic stereotypes in his stolidity,

but he does heroically provide a safe harbor for Harriet once

she wills it.

The Working Women of Emma Sheryl Craig, who has done so much interesting work on

the economic background of Jane Austen’s novels, encour-

aged AGM attendees to look at the world of Emma not from

the perspective of the wealthy heiress Emma Woodhouse, but

from the perspective of all the working women of Highbury.

For, as she pointed out, Highbury was run by working wom-

en. She counts at least 16 working women in Emma.

Mrs. Goddard runs her school and has three other teachers

— does her gratitude to Mr. Woodhouse indicate that he gave

her some capital to start up the school? Mrs. Wallace runs the

bakery; Mrs. Ford runs the emporium; Mrs. Stokes runs the

Crown Inn — no mention of any husbands for any of them.

Mrs. Hodges and Mrs. Wright run the Knightley and Elton

homes; there is an unnamed housekeeper at Highbury, in ad-

dition to housemaids like Hannah and the cook Serle. Mrs.

Martin has two housemaids, but the Bates’ household can

only afford Patty, who is probably an apprentice out of the

poorhouse working only for room, board and clothing. And

Miss Taylor has managed to leave the governess/companion

world through marriage just as Jane Fairfax contemplates en-

tering it.

Craig described the meager wages available for women

employees, noting that women in Austen’s time were paid at

most half the wages of men for the same job. Mary Wollstone-

craft argued that keeping women from education led to the

claims that they weren’t intellectual or emotionally competent

to perform jobs outside of the home. Austen’s portrayal of the

working women of Highbury — and her acknowledgement of

women in poverty such as the cottager, the elderly servant and

the gypsy women — show her understanding of the strengths

and the challenges of economic realities for women, strengths

and challenges she personally knew well.

JASNA-WI charter member Mary Anne Gross sells calen-

dars at Ford’s Emporium.

A table full of

JASNA-WI

members at the

AGM banquet.

Emma at 200 “No One But Herself”

was the theme of the Jane Austen Society

of North America’s 38th Annual General

Meeting. Twenty Wisconsin Region

members attended, but we had several

spouses, sisters, and daughters in attend-

ance as well, swelling our numbers into

the mid-30s. Two former Wisconsin

members, Julie de Witt and Kathleen

Madden, who now live in Massachusetts,

joined our group. The JW Marriott, the

state-of-the-art host hotel, was not only

spacious but beautiful in its furnishings

and glitzy surfaces. The “smart” elevator

was a wonder. You pushed one button

and it told you what car to take.

I believe there were some 800-850 Austen devotees seated

at the banquet and we still had oodles of room. Despite the

modern surroundings, the ambience of this AGM took us

back in time to Emma’s Highbury and the Regency period.

Many from my 2013 Pride & Prejudice-themed tour to England

were present, and it was fun to catch up if even for a few mo-

ments. The late Joan Philosophos once told me that she

would see friends from year to year, the conference was al-

ways like a reunion to her.

There were only four breakouts over Friday afternoon and

Saturday, unlike other years when there would be six. Howev-

er, one had to choose from eight or nine in each time slot, and

in some instances that was really tough. Please take the time

to read all of the articles in this issue. Our own prolific Sara

Bowen has contributed greatly, and I think you will get a feel

for the conference and all the nuances and artistry of Austen

and Emma, as well as a feel for our nation’s capital. Many of

the speakers’ presentations will be included either online or in

the published Persuasions.

Huge thanks go to not only Sara Bowen, but also Phyllis

Menne, Susan Richard, Sandi Rutherford, Liz Cooper and

Kelly VanderHeiden for their articles in this issue. I admit to

taking many of the photos, and I hope you find them flatter-

ing. In addition to these mentioned, I also appreciated the

help at Ford’s Emporium (selling our Region’s 2017 calendar

and jewelry), the following: Sue Forgue (Greater Chicago

Region), Janet Johnson, Dee Kuech, Mary Anne Gross, Julie

deWitt, Kathleen Madden, Vicki Teal, Elizabeth Fadell, Cor-

al Bishop, Kim Wilson, Rosemary Cummings, Sandi Ruther-

ford’s husband Thomas, and my husband David. As you

might expect the AGM is jam-packed with plenary and

breakout sessions, and many took the time to keep our Re-

gion’s treasury stoked.

Don’t forget to look at our website, www.jasnawi.org.

Have a look at the Fall program’s photos. Sue Forgue and

Vicky Hinshaw’s presentation was well attended.

This column is my last as your Regional Coordinator. Kim

Wilson will be taking the helm and may change things up a

bit. I feel very confident that you will be in excellent hands.

Do please step up to volunteer your time and talents. The

Wisconsin Region is one of 76 throughout

the US, and we number about 160. There

are some 4,850 members throughout the US

and Canada, as well as several countries.

The Jane Austen Society members in Eng-

land count their members separately and, at

this writing, I do not know their number.

My thanks also to the Executive Board

members who have served with me: Phyllis

Menne, vice president of Madison and book

club coordinator; Tara Jordan, vice presi-

dent of Milwaukee; David Lewellen, our

Wire editor; Janet Johnson, our treasurer;

Veronica Jaeger, our membership coordina-

tor, Kathleen O’Brien, historian and book

club coordinator; and Vicki Teal, our web-

master. At the election held in September, Sara Bowen took

over from Vicky Hinshaw as recording secretary, and Susan

Flaherty took over from Diana Burns as hospitality chair. To

Vicky and Diana, many, many thanks, and welcome to Sara

and Susan. The position of new members chair was vacant,

and I will be serving the Region in that post. So you see, I’m

not going away!

by

Judy

Beine

Coordinator’s term ends with fine AGM

Judy Beine (left) with Lorraine Hanaway, the last remaining

founding member of JASNA.

The “Will & Jane” exhibition at the Folger Shakespeare

Library took 3 ½ years to prepare, and 2016 AGM attendees

thought it was worth every minute of the effort. Much of the

publicity for the show has emphasized “the shirt” that Colin

Firth wore for his swim in the 1995 Pride and Prejudice televi-

sion version, but curators Janine Barchas of the University of

Texas and Kristina Straub of Carnegie-Mellon University pro-

duced an in-depth presentation of the celebrity culture that has

attached to Shakespeare and Austen.

Barchas and Straub led tours of the exhibition and gave a

detailed talk at the AGM about their discoveries linking the

explosion of “Bardolatry” about 200 years after his death and

the current celebration of Austen 200 years after her death.

For instance, the porcelain figurines produced in Austen’s

lifetime celebrating actors such as David Garrick, John Philip

Kemble and Edmund Kean in Shakespearean roles have their

counterpart with late twentieth century porcelains portraying

Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth Bennet or Gwyneth Paltrow as

Emma. Shakespeare and Austen have been used to merchan-

dise any number of products: Jane Austen Bath Gin, “Gin of

a Different Persuasion” anyone?

The exhibition, which closed in early November, con-

tained items fascinating to Austen and Shakespeare fans: Aus-

ten’s copy of “Sir Charles Grandison” from Chawton House

Library; Emma Thompson’s original notes in her screenplay

copy of “Sense and Sensibility”; Walt Whitman’s personal

copy of Shakespeare’s poems; and Cassandra Austen’s copy

of Emma. There were programs showing that two famous

Shakespearean actresses of the eighteenth century were Mrs.

Crawford and Mrs. Yates! AGM attendees rejoiced at the

chance to view in one compact exhibition Shakespeare treas-

ures collected by the Folgers and Austen collections from

many sources including the Burke collection at Goucher Col-

lege and Chawton House Library. There are no current plans

to re-install the exhibition elsewhere, though the curators

wonder whether English audiences would respond to their

findings as fervently as American audiences.

‘Will & Jane’ exhibit delights AGM attendees

‘The Shirt’ worn by Colin Firth in the 1995 adaptation of Pride

and Prejudice.

Information about the next three JASNA AGMs is now

available at www.jasna.org. The 2017 AGM, “Jane Austen

in Paradise: Intimations of Immortality,” will celebrate how

Austen has affected culture in the 200 years after her death.

Paradise, for attendees, will be the Huntington Beach, CA,

Hyatt Regency Resort and Spa, which overlooks the Pacific

Ocean. The dates are Oct. 6-8, and the room block will open

in January. As experienced attendees know, if you hope to

attend an AGM, it is important to reserve your room early —

rooms at the meeting hotel have sold out before AGM regis-

tration opens, and it is easier to cancel a room if plans change

than to come off the wait list.

In 2018, the AGM returns to the Midwest. “Persuasion:

200 Years of Constancy and Hope” will be the theme for the

Kansas City AGM, which will be within a day’s driving dis-

tance of most parts of Wisconsin. Kansas City, with its won-

derful museums and attractions, will be a vibrant — and eco-

nomical — location for an AGM. This AGM will be held

earlier than usual — Sept. 28-30, 2018.

In 2019, “Northanger Abbey: 200 years of Real, Solemn

History” beckons us to one of the great historical locations of

the United States, Williamsburg, VA. The meeting will be

held at the conference center of the Williamsburg Lodge,

which is adjacent to the famous restoration of Virginia’s colo-

nial capital city and close to its museums. A highlight of this

AGM will be a staging of the new musical of Northanger Ab-

bey. It is anticipated that there will be a huge demand for this

AGM, so mark your calendars now for Oct. 4-6, 2019.

Williamsburg announced as site of 2019 AGM

Milwaukee Report By Kathy O’Brien

A bright, summery day welcomed 15 members of the Mil-

waukee Book Group to Marsha Huff’s to discuss Virginia

Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own on Nov. 6. The book itself, mi-

nus preface, chronology, introduction, and end notes, is only

about 112 pages long. However, all these extras are almost

necessary for understanding the book, as you can’t take much

of anything literally. It originated out of two lectures given by

Woolf, and thus is perhaps more spoken than written. You

can just read along, nodding, until something makes you say

WHAT? WHO? This made for a lively discussion by our

group. In fact, this is best read by a group, as different readers

catch different things.

There are various made-up writers, like Shakespeare’s sister

Judith, and the four Marys—Mary Hamilton, Mary Beton,

Mary Seton, and Mary Carmichael. These women are named

in an old ballad. Without the end notes, you’d be stuck. The

narration sometimes seems stream of consciousness, but as

Marsha pointed out, the words are carefully chosen. There’s a

lot to argue about, discuss, and learn.

The central idea is that a woman writer needs 500 pounds a

year, and a room of her own that locks. What the 500

amounts to today, we can’t determine, but it certainly means a

competence, and the room gives her freedom. Some of these

things have changed for the better, but many have not.

Northeastern Report By Tracy Rysavy

Is it possible to modernize Jane Aus-

ten’s Regency gothic satire? The Northeast

Wisconsin JASNA book club pondered

that question in September when we met

in Green Bay to discuss Val McDermid’s

Northanger Abbey, the second Austen up-

date by a bestselling author to come out of

what is now the four-book Austen Pro-

ject*.

McDermid’s retelling has “Cat” Mor-

land heading not to Bath but to the Edin-

burgh Festival, a large arts and cultural

festival in McDermid’s native Scotland

that brings in a similar influx of summer-

time tourists as the attractions of Bath did

in Austen’s day. And rather than gothic

novels, Cat gloms vampire novels, from

Twilight to the original Dracula.

While in Edinburgh, Cat meets Bella

Thorpe and her overbearing sports-car afi-

cionado brother John. Our group felt McDermid was at her

strongest when translating the superficial self-centeredness of

the former and the overbearing sexism of the latter. Her Bella

and John work well as modern-day antagonists, while bearing

more than a passing resemblance to their Regency doppel-

gangers. We agreed that Bella’s text-speak, in particular, is

hilariously shallow.

And of course, there’s Henry Tilney, his sister Eleanor, and

their father. Here, Henry is a lawyer rather than a clergyman,

but he retains that same love for both edifying and delighting

Cat as his namesake does in the original. Northanger Abbey

itself moves up to the Scottish borderlands, so it’s just as iso-

lated as one would want a gothic abbey with a potentially

Marsha Huff (left) welcomed Milwaukee-area members to her house to discuss “A

Room of One’s Own.”

mysterious past to be.

While Austen’s Catherine conjures up melodramatic plots

at every turn, McDermid’s Cat sees vampires—in fact, she

wonders if Henry himself isn’t a possible vampire!

The majority of us loved McDermid’s reworking and

thought she pulled it off successfully. I confess to being the

lone dissenter, feeling that Cat’s visions of vampires didn’t

quite feel believable, and so this important element of the plot

came off to me as rather forced. I also didn’t quite buy the

scene where John Thorpe whisks Cat off in his sports car,

whizzing past the Tilneys while Cat begs him to stop because

she has promised to go on a hike with them. Cat decides

against sending them a text because it’s “too difficult” to ex-

plain herself, and she prefers to wait until she sees them in

person. I had to wonder what millennial wouldn’t just let

those fingers start flying and immediately try to make her

apologies via text.

Regardless of these nitpicks, since Northanger Abbey is not

updated as often as other books in Austen’s catalog, it was a

treat to read McDermid’s version.

In addition, each of us read and reported on a different

Georgette Heyer novel, from The Grand Sophy to Venetia to

The Unknown Ajax. Some of us had read and reread nearly all

of Heyer’s books, while for others, this was their first foray

into her work. We all enjoyed our Heyer selections, and those

new to her work look forward to reading more.

Our next meeting will be on Jan. 8 at the Atlas Coffee Mill

in Appleton at noon. We will be discussing Cranford by Eliza-

beth Gaskell and First Impressions by Sarah Price. If you’d like

to be added to our email list for meeting notices, please email

Tracy Fernandez Rysavy at tracyrysavy@gmail.com.

*Though the project was originally intended to modernize

all six full-length novels, the publisher has announced no

plans to update Mansfield Park or Persuasion, and the Project’s

website has been redirected to the publisher’s main site. You

can still view the Project’s Facebook page at Facebook.com/

austenproject.

Madison Report A group of seven met to discuss Lady Susan and the film

Love and Friendship that was based on it.

Those who attended the AGM discussed the meeting, which

sounded interesting. We talked about the Shakespeare First

Folio that is on display in Madison, and also an interesting

presentation by APT founders Anne Occhiogrosso and Ran-

dall Duk Kim about the first ten years or so at the theater.

The tea was, as usual, delicious with contributions from the

members.

Please remember to send Vicki Teal events for the

Wisconsin web site--www.jasnawi.org. We wel-

come any kind of Austen event that is happening in

the area. Vicki's email is vtl@chorus.net.

Also, we can share all kinds of Austen-related tidbits

on our Facebook page, facebook.com/

jasnawisconsin.

Please send news and notes for The Wire to editor

David Lewellen, davidlewellen@gmail.com

Don’t forget to check the

Wisconsin Region

website sometimes!

http://jasnawi.org/

For questions on membership,

please call 1-800-836-3911 or

email the U.S./international

membership secretary, Carole

Stokes, at

carolestokes@cableone.net.

Veronica Jaeger, membership

coordinator for the Wisconsin re-

gion, should also be notified of

any changes.

Veronica can be reached

at vjaeger711@aol.com

More perspectives on Austeniana Jane Kivlin recommends to our attention the blog Jane’s

Addiction, and in particular this long, thoughtful review of

the recent movie Love and Friendship and the book Eligible, a

modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice.

Darcy versus Poldark, or vice versa The PBS website includes this note: “Mr. Darcy has found

himself up against a serious rival for the hearts of the nation in

the form of Winston Graham’s Captain Poldark, in the BBC’s

smash hit adaptation of the best-selling Georgian and Regen-

cy romantic novels. Our primary loyalty will always be to

Jane’s characters of course, but we couldn’t ignore this phe-

nomenon entirely! As such, we beg Darcy’s indulgence and

discreetly bring to your notice the superb World of Poldark, a

lavish, beautifully illustrated companion to the novels, the

series and the times, with features on everything that makes

the series so memorable: the characters, the plots, the loca-

tions, the costumes and the landscape.”

In the Milwaukee area, Poldark can be seen at 8 p.m. on

Sundays. Season 2 is playing now.

Women writers beyond Austen Lily Miceli recommends the recent book Not Just Jane: Seven

Amazing Women Writers Who Transformed British Literature, by

Shelley DeWees. Here is a link to a Wall Street Journal re-

view, which may or may not be behind a paywall, depending

on what kind of mood your browser is in.

Liz Cooper snapped this picture of Austen’s one-time love inter-est Tom Lefroy at Trinity Col-lege in Dublin, Ireland.

Hazel Jones, who spoke at the AGM, knitted these figures of Darcy

(above) and Anne and Wentworth (left). Pattern are in the book

Pride and Preju-knits.