At our September meeting last weekend, Regional Coordinator Kim Higgins announced she was collecting items for a raffle basket in preparation for our upcoming December event. If you would like to donate items of interest -- related to the Regency, Britannia, and/or Jane Austen-themed -- please contact Kim directly. Please see our Contacts page for contact info. Please see below for info about our December event, or visit our 2012 Events page. |
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Hello all you JASNA OR/SW Washington Fans! Below is a message/request from our member Debbie Guyol. She is working on a wonderful book project and could use our help!! If you can help her please let her know directly. Enjoy ~ Janet Rohrbaugh I reported in January that my co-author and I had an agent for our silly book project, Pride and Prejudice and Kitties, or Purr and Petulance [see the Austencats web site plus an earlier blog post about the site]. Well, now we have a publisher! And we have cat-photos to take. Well, I do anyway (my friend is back East). And perhaps some local Janeites could help.
Anyone who'd like to share can respond directly to me. Big thank you! Debbie Guyol dguyol@aol.com Thanks to member Debbie Guyol, here is an entertaining, and thought-provoking, article by John Mullan in The Guardian on Jane Austen's work and her genius use of details and accuracy. Mullan's book, What Matters in Jane Austen?, will be published in early June. Click here to view the article online in a new window, http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/18/ten-questions-jane-austen. "Jane Austen's admirer Virginia Woolf said that 'of all great writers she is the most difficult to catch in the act of greatness'. It is a brilliant insight. The apparent modesty of Austen's dramas is only apparent; the minuteness of design is a bravura achievement. But it cannot be shown by some grand scene or speech. Accuracy is her genius. Noticing minutiae will lead you to the wonderful interconnectedness of her novels, where a small detail of wording or motivation in one place will flare with the recollection of something that happened much earlier. This is one of the reasons they bear such rereading. Every quirk you notice leads you to a design. If you ask very specific questions about what goes on in her novels, you reveal their cleverness. The closer you look, the more you see. Try these 10 questions."
Jane Austen is included in this slideshow of analyzing writers' personalities from their handwritten manuscripts. Their insights into Austen's personality? "The slight right slant suggests a writer who is 'compliant' and 'outgoing.' The long lower loops on her letters indicate a 'strong physical drive,' and the defined left margin shows her to have a strong interest in her future, indicating one who is ambitious and 'socially oriented.' Kind of like a lady who would spend all her time writing novels about social events." It's interesting to note that this handwriting analysis comes from Austen's "Plan of a Novel, according to hints from various sources," written in 1816. She wrote this satiric parody of incorporating "helpful" advice from others, after meeting with the Prince Regent's librarian, who had strongly hinted that she dedicate her forthcoming novel, Emma, to the Prince. The complete e-text of her "Plan of a Novel" can be found online here at Pemberley.com. A huge THANK YOU from your friendly web manager Jennifer Snoek-Brown. :) The beautiful bouquet of flowers (and accompanying thank you card, see right) I received at last week's meeting makes for a lovely entrance to our home. I smile each time I pass by, and it's truly a delight to take time to "smell the roses." I really appreciate all the great comments and feedback about our new web site. I am so happy to be able to combine my love of Jane Austen with my love of web design. It's been really fun to put together our new site, which I hope continues to reflect the outlook and goals of our friendly region of members. And please let us know about any interesting Austen-related news, links, books, etc. for our home page blog (see our Contacts page to send us an email). One of best things about having an online home for our region is to highlight our shared interests! Better late than never... Did you make any resolutions for this New Year's? Or participated already in the grand tradition of breaking those resolutions? ;) Here's a fun look at some (hypothetical) New Year's resolutions for Jane Austen characters, from the Austen Authors blog. (I have to admit, I chuckled at Fanny Price's resolution.) Click to view this image and more at Austencats You can combine your love for Jane Austen AND cats with this site, Austencats, by member Debbie Guyol and friend Pamela Jane. It is a web site "for Jane Austen-lovers, cat-lovers, and people who love to laugh (in other words, just about everyone)." There's a Mr. Darcy-Cat contest, plus a "Purr and Petulance" photo gallery. Fun! FYI and for future reference, Austencats is also now included on our Links page. Click to view larger image and article _Isn't it exciting that the new "people's princess" Kate Middleton, aka Duchess of Cambridge, is (distantly) related to our favorite author Jane Austen? Ancestry.com researched and discovered the connection this past summer, after the royal wedding of the century. It turns out that Kate and Jane are 11th cousins, 6 times removed, and their common ancestor dates back to the 15th century: Henry Percy, the 2nd Earl of Northumberland. There's an interesting graphic (see right) breaking down the family connection in this Daily Mail article online. Click the link or graphic to view a larger image of the family tree and to read the entire article for more info. Just a bit of info from our member Debbie Guyol. Here's a link to an interview with the amazing PD James about her new murder-at-Pemberley novel, http://www.npr.org/2011/12/08/143276773/in-pemberley-james-picks-up-where-austen-left-off.
Enjoy! |
JASNA ORSWWAWelcome to the web site of the Oregon & SW Washington Region of the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA). We are a friendly and active group dedicated to the appreciation of Jane Austen's life and works. Categories
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