Here are details for the March 13 meeting to the reading group, from our discussion leaders Nelson and Robin Bridwell.

This meeting will be an opportunity for all of us to become better acquainted with Jane Austen’s extended family. Please feel free to prepare yourself for as many of the following activities as you find appealing.
 
Destination: Golden Globes
 
The head of the studio has just called you to complain that they have totally exhausted every conceivable Jane Austen movie plot, and consequently need you to come up with a film script that centers upon another member of her extended family. Present a brief pitch for a new film about another member of her family that you feel could be a box office hit and a significant contender for motion picture awards. At the meeting, the group will vote on “Jannie” awards for the best drama, romance, and comedy.
 
What’s my line?
 
In this variation on the 1950s television quiz show, you can volunteer to play the part of a member of Jane’s extended family. Around the room, other members of the group will take turns asking you one yes/no question until someone has identified who you are.
 
An Austen Weekend
 
As everyone knows, amazing, surprising, and sometimes tragic things happen in bucolic English country estates, especially in Hampshire! As luck would have it, you find yourself invited to spend an idyllic weekend at such a place. Which Austen family member would you bring along with you, and why?
 
Trivia Quiz
 
In this activity, a series of facts will be stated about various members of Jane’s family. For each fact, everyone will be invited to identify which family member this fact applies to. The person who first identifies the correct family member for each fact will win one point. At the end, the person with the most points will win a nifty prize.

~ A woman especially if she has the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can. ~
 
Dear Janeites,  
 
The tiny book Jane Austen Speaks to Women (Edith Lank, 2000) that inspired this month’s readings contains many quotations from the novels and letters of Jane Austen, sometimes advice as above, so Deb and I wondered what other “advice” books were in vogue during Austen’s time.

​What was Austen reading when she writes the above? What inspired the spirited reply of Elizabeth to Mr. Collins’ proposal: “Do not consider me now as an elegant female intending to plague you, but as a rational creature speaking the truth from her heart” (Chapter 19). Various commentators have pointed out the echo from Mary Wollstonecraft’s: A Vindication of the Rights of Women Chapter 5: “ Speak to them the language of truth and soberness, and away with the lullaby strains of condescending endearment! Let them be taught to respect themselves as rational creatures, and not led to have a passion for their own insipid persons” (emphasis added). Thus Deb and I thought it would be interesting to look at the Vindication (only pieces from Chapter Five and Ten you’ll be glad to hear) to find other resonances with Austen’s lines about women…. Then after reading Susan Ford’s insightful essay on Fordyce’s Sermons (see Lydia’s reaction to Mr. Collins choosing that edifying treatise… end of Chapter 24…), we asked ourselves:

**“What do these works and Austen speaking to women mean for men and women in the 21st century?” **

Attached are Chapters 5 and 10 from Wollstonecraft [scroll down to view or download in PDF format], and here is the link to Susan Allen’s essay: http://www.jasna.org/persuasions/on-line/vol34no1/ford.html, and then some prompts to aid in our discussion that we hope to arrange first in small groups then coming back to the large group… a system that has worked very well in the past. 

Some points to ponder (as much or as little depending on time of course).

1) Answer the question above. **

2) Within the small discussion group (we will divide up the large group as smoothly as possible), you will be asked for two quotations from Austen’s works or the letters to aid in the discussion focusing on categories such as Marriage. Money. Old Age. Courtship. Mothers… these categories might help focus the discussion. You won’t know the category assigned to your group until the very moment… just to keep things exciting!

Finally, read the 1950s so-called advice sheet (a fake?) and see how far men and women have come… or not! http://www.snopes.com/history/document/goodwife.asp. For fun, check back to Wollstonecraft’s last paragraph in Chapter 5 in response to Dr. Fordyce…
 
Deb and I look forward to the discussion! Sunday November 8.

Hello JASNA members,

A reminder that our next Reading group meeting is coming up on Sunday, September 13th, at 1:00 PM. As I said in a previous email, our meeting venue has been changed, as Stephanie Vardavos is not able to host. Instead, Arnie Perlstein has graciously agreed to step in and host.

Please call or email your RSVP and let Arnie know if you will be bringing something for the table. We will be meeting in his garden if the weather is fine. We will hold elections for our next Regional Coordinator first (the only nominee so far is Margaret Christmann) and then discuss "Living in Jane Austen's World" led by Debbie Eley and Margaret Christmann. 

See my email for specific contact info and directions.

Kim Higgins
Regional Coordinator of the Jane Austen Society of North America,
Oregon/ SW Washington Region

The next reading group discussion and meeting is scheduled for September 13. Please note that the host and location for the September meeting has been changed. Arnie Perlstein will be hosting the meeting at his home in NE Portland, and look for detailed directions to the next meeting in an email to members early next month. 

Also note that we will be holding an election for a new Regional Coordinator at the September meeting, as well as conducting a business meeting afterwards with the board and RC-elect.

In the meantime, our discussion leaders for the September meeting, Debbie Eley & Margaret Christmann, have sent along some suggestions for the upcoming reading group discussion:

Dear Janeites,
 
The September presentation and discussion will relate to the AGM theme:  "Living in Jane Austen's World".  Topics for discussion will cover "women's work" and looking for "hidden" clues about current events of the time that can be found in her novels.
 
We suggest reading a Jane Austen novel of your choice or an article in Persuasions or Regency World. There also books that inform you about every day life during the Georgian Times. The discussion will include questions and your examples that you found in your reading choice.
 
Margaret and Debbie

The topic for the upcoming Reading Group discussion, scheduled for this upcoming Sunday, March 8, is Jane Austen's final work, Sanditon. The discussion leaders will be Jennifer and Sam Snoek-Brown. Please read the following in preparation for the reading group discussion:

While Sanditon is an unfinished novel, comprised of only 12 chapters, there are so many opportunities for rich discussion and so many themes that we could potentially discuss as a group. While Sam and I were discussing the unfinished novel this weekend, within only a few minutes we had listed multiple potential discussion topics, including (but not limited to):

• Health fads and treatments in Jane Austen's time
  
• Seaside resorts and the commercialism and allure of sea-bathing in Jane Austen's time
  
• Jane Austen's own failing health at the time of writing Sanditon
  
• The theme of communication -- and miscommunication
• The theme of extreme change represented in Sanditon in multiple ways
• Comparisons to other works of Jane Austen
• Speculating what Sanditon reveals of Jane Austen's writing if this were the FIRST work of hers you read
• The meaning and importance of "subscription libraries" in society during Jane Austen's time
• Commentary of other novels and authors mentioned in Sandition
• Connections between Northanger Abbey and Sanditon
• Connections between Mansfield Park and Sanditon
• The writing and drafting process evident in Sanditon -- as well as the editing process of its subsequent publication
• The numerous versions and popularity of the continuations Sanditon has spawned

As you can see, there is so much potential represented within so few pages!

So how to narrow this down to a single discussion? Sam and I decided to go back to the source -- or rather, the source of Sanditon's initial presentation to the public, which was in 1870 through J.E. Austen-Leigh's memoir of his aunt Jane Austen. In that memoir, in Chapter XIII, Austen-Leigh described the writing of Sanditon and included his own personal summary of it, along with substantial excerpts from Austen's text. The full manuscript of Sanditon was not published until 1925. (Scroll down to the bottom of this message for links to his memoir online.)

Therefore, Sam and I have pulled out the following discussion questions/themes relating to J.E. Austen-Leigh's original introduction of Sanditon. 

• What do we make of the title, Sanditon? The nephew refers to Sanditon only as "The Last Work," but says it was untitled. The family named it "Sanditon," but some sources indicate Jane Austen's original working title was "The Brothers."

• Is there any indication as to why Jane Austen began this last work, and why did she set it aside a few months before her death? The nephew very clearly lays out the start and end dates of Austen's work on Sanditon, and uses metaphorical language to describe his own view of why Austen worked on this "last work" while she was ailing:  "...it is certain that the mine at which she had so long laboured was not worked out, and that she was still diligently employed in collecting fresh materials from it." 

• Is there a primary heroine? The nephew states, "...nor was any heroine yet perceptible, who, like Fanny Price, or Anne Elliot, might draw round her the sympathies of the reader."

• What indications are there of the story's direction? The nephew states, "... there was scarcely any indication what the course of the story was to be."

• And finally, what can we, as readers, judge about the work's quality? The nephew states, "It is more difficult to judge of the quality of a work so little advanced."
  

For sources and/or further reading, please feel free to explore the following:

• E-text of Sanditon available online in multiple formats at https://archive.org/details/Sanditon
• E-text of J.E. Austen-Leigh's 1870 memoir available online through Project Gutenberg (scroll down to Chapter XIII, "The Last Work")
• Links to more info about seabathing, seaside resorts, health issues, etc. relating to Sanditon here on the Austenonly website, http://austenonly.com/about/jane-austens-sanditon/

Elaine and Stephanie will be leading the discussion this Sunday on early Janeites and Jane Austin in War Time. What began for them as a look into the Janeites of World War I (soldiers who were reading Austen in the trenches, as documented by Rudyard Kipling in his short story,The Janeites), grew into a look at how Austen’s work has been read in wartime generally (especially in World Wars I and II), and to a consideration of the relationship of Austen’s work to the major and long-lasting conflict of her own time, the Napoleonic Wars.  

The focus for the discussion will be:  Jane Austin’s novels as wartime literature.

To help prepare for the conversation this coming Sunday, Stephanie and Elaine have prepared the following discussion guide. Please give thought to the following questions.

In the 20th century:

We know that Jane Austen’s work was read avidly during WW2 I and II, both by soldiers in the field, and also by British people at home (including, famously, Winston Churchill).  In addition, Austen’s work was prescribed as treatment for shell-shocked soldiers and as a source of solace for mourning families.

• Why do you think soldiers read Jane Austen?  Is there something uniquely appealing in her writing?  (Other authors also were popular, such as Kipling, Doyle, and London.)
• What might be the therapeutic value of Jane Austen’s stories?
• What insights can we glean from Kipling’s account of The Janeites?  With regard to shared culture and fellowship?  As a means for coping with the stresses of war both during and after combat? 
• In what ways were Austen readers experiencing war differently in the 20th century than Austen and her contemporaries experienced war in the 19th century?  What was the same? (See comments about the Napoleonic Wars, below)

In the 19th century:

Jane Austen wrote her books during the lead up to and actual conduct of the Napoleonic Wars.  Despite the fact that she had brothers in active naval service, that military officers are major characters in her works, and that we know civilians at the time were affected both economically and by occasional fears of French invasion, war receives little if any explicit mention in any of Jane Austen’s novels (Persuasion being the notable exception).  Some scholars have argued that Austen can be read as addressing issues of war in her time, notably:

• As expressions of “alarm” reflecting societal anxiety (e.g., the anxiety of Catherine Moreland and others in Northanger Abbey)
• In descriptions of waiting among those not directly involved in the conflict, as in waiting for men to come home (e.g., in many of the her books, families and especially women are depicted as waiting for action to happen).
• In her depiction of the military in a satirical or negative light (e.g., Colonel Forster and his silly wife in P&P, General and Captain Tilney in NA), though not always (e.g., naval officers in Persuasion, Colonel Brandon in S&S).
• Impacts of war on social structure – e.g., new wealth among successful naval officers.

 Questions:

• Did Jane explicitly ignore the Napoleonic Wars?  If so, why?
• Where can we find evidence in support of theories that Jane Austen, did, indeed, address war issues in her work?  Where do we see anxiety?  Where are illustrations of waiting?
• Can we find any evidence of a theory advanced by critic V.S. Pritchett, which pushes the military association in an unexpected direction:  "I have even seen," he continues, "a resemblance of that second visit to Darcy's house as [to?] a naval battle; for notice there how the positions of the people in the drawing room are made certain, where Elizabeth like a frigate has to run between the lines"?  Or of American novelist Eudora Welty’s opinion, also shared during the backdrop of the Vietnam War, that Austen’s fiction resembles the formidable technology of a trans-historical military industrial complex: “Each novel is a formidable engine of strategy.  It is made to be – a marvel of designing and workmanship, capable of spontaneous motion at the lightest touch, and of travel at delicately controlled but rapid speed toward its precise destination.  It could kill us all…it fires at us, all along the way, using understatement in good aim.  Let us be thankful it is trained not on our hearts, but on our illusions and vanities…. She could be our Waterloo; she is our Waterloo…”
• Can we draw any conclusions about Jane Austen’s attitude toward the military?
• Could the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars and how characters in Austen’s works survived have provided a supportive context for people faced with surviving and coping with war in the early 20th century?

Happy New Year!

It is almost time for our January reading group meeting! We will begin 2015 with a discussion about "The first Janeites: why and how they read," led by Elaine Blatt and Stephanie Fleming. We will gather on January 11th at 1 pm at the home of Alexandra Guerra, in Tigard. 

Please let Alex know directly if you are able to attend, and if you will be bringing something for her table. Contact info and directions were emailed to all JASNA members this past week. If you did not receive this email, please contact Kim, our Regional Coordinator (see our Contacts page).

See you all there!

Just a reminder that it is time for our third annual New Member Meeting! This meeting is intended for all members who have joined within the past year or two, as well as anyone who would like to attend to get to know the new members better. We usually have no more than a dozen people attending, so it is the ideal setting in which to become better acquainted.

When?  Sunday, April 6th at 1:00 pm
Where?  At the home of Deborah Eley, NE Portland

At the meeting, we will discuss Mansfield Park, the subject of this year's AGM in Montreal. Please come with questions and comments. No advanced preparation is required. I hope to see you there!

~ Kim Higgins, Regional Coordinator

For our January reading group meeting on the 12th, we enjoyed an excellent discussion of Jo Baker's Longbourn, a servants' view of the events and characters in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. 

If you have more photos from this or other events -- or to add to or correct a photo's caption -- please contact Web Manager Jennifer Snoek-Brown directly.

Our next reading group gathering will take place on Sunday, September 8 (note the change of date) at 1pm at the home of Kim Higgins (note change of venue). The subject of this discussion is this year's AGM theme, Pride and Prejudice. 

Our discussion will focus on "first impressions" in the novel. How did they affect the relationships between characters? Deborah Eley & Margaret Christmann will lead the discussion, and ask that you please comment on the topic, which was posted earlier this month on our site. The direct link to comment is here at http://www.jasna-orswwa.org/1/post/2013/08/pp-first-impressions-discussion-comments-encouraged.html (this will take you directly to the article).

Also, this blog post has been extensively updated with more info from discussion co-leader Margaret Christmann, so there's an additional reason to stop by! :)