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 Post subject: In search of Jane Austen
PostPosted: Sat Aug 13, 2011 12:01 am 
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Hawleytastic!
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Location: Stoke-on-Trent
For a potted biography of her life, go here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Austen

Being an English teacher, I'm allowed a bit of literary fanaticism.....

I've always been intrigued by the elements of her life that are frustratingly out of view - her early life - many of her early letters were destroyed by her sister after her death and the rectory in Steventon in Hampshire where she grew up and wrote her earliest drafts was knocked down and has never really been archaeologically studied - until these last few months. If you believe the popular media, a bloke called Tom Lefroy was her only love - romanticised beyond all historical evidence in the film "Becoming Jane" - this ignores the fact that she met up with a man - a doctor, or some sort of medical man - whilst on holiday in Devon around 1801, who was believed to be the one that she had a serious attachment to - but who, it is believed, died. His identity is a mystery. All letters from this time were burnt by her sister Cassandra and the only reason we know that she had a relationship was because of chance remarks made by Cassandra to Jane's niece, Fanny, later in life.

(All pics by me except the Rice portrait and the James Stanier Clarke sketch)

The key sites to visit for an Austen fan are the church of Steventon in Hampshire - St Nicholas -
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The site of the rectory in Steventon -
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Jane's house in Chawton, where she spent the later years of her short life -
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The house - Number 8, College Street Winchester, where she died -
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Her grave in Winchester Cathedral -
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I visited these sites again in the last week - plus some others, including Godmersham in Kent, which was a new one to me. My full collection of Jane Austen related photos taken over the years are here -

http://www.flickr.com/photos/efsb/colle ... 287705091/

I'm also fascinated by the ongoing debate and intrigue about her appearance -

A lock of Jane Austen's hair -
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The controversial Rice portrait -
http://www.janeaustenriceportrait.co.uk/

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The controversial James Stanier Clarke sketch -

http://austenonly.com/2011/06/16/the-co ... ne-austen/

Image

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PostPosted: Sun Aug 21, 2011 9:55 pm 
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There is a good biography of JA by Claire Tomalin, which refers to the Lefroy affair, but also mentions that she was offered marriage by the brother of some friends at a later date on a visit to their house, which she had to cut short due to the improprietory of her staying once having refused him; Tomalin speculates that she did not want to settle for a marriage of convenience, although it would have been to her advantage and given her security and the possibility of family life. Given that a female in that era and of that class (although the children of members of the clergy like JA were poised somewhat in mid air, of good birth and family but without the advantages of a monied or priveledged backgroud) was expected to follow the accepted line, run the household, bear children etc. is it too much to suspect that she thought that marriage might be the end of her writing and, weighing that up against the advantages, chose to stay a spinster? Again, the lack of her letters to back up the myths that surround the JA story and the romanticiscm by TV and Hollywood are frustrating.


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PostPosted: Sun May 06, 2012 12:45 am 
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Thanks for all this info. I'll check that flickr link slowly and calmly, and read a bit more about that controversy you talk of. I love English literature, specially that of the 18th and 19th centuries. I read 'Persuasion' one month ago, and the only one of Jane Austen's six long novels I haven't read yet, 'Emma', is in the stack of books that I've recently bought but that I haven't read (I'm kind of a compulsive buyer of books, and lately I haven't had as much time to read as I used to have). If the trend set by the other five doesn't change, it'll be great.

Have you traced the places related to any other author?

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PostPosted: Mon May 07, 2012 10:25 pm 
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I have visited a few Gavin Maxwell related places. :) I should try to find Camusfearna, we were so close last time we looked.

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PostPosted: Tue May 08, 2012 7:15 am 
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I'd never heard of Gavin Maxwell before. I've been reading about him in the Wikipedia, and when they mentioned that Camusfeàrna was Sandaig, I clicked on the word 'Sandaig' and it redirected me to 'Glenelg'. It must be an elusive place! :*:. I saw the reference at the bottom of the page, though. I see it's a small group of islets. Isn't it known which one Maxwell chose, or is it just that you couldn't make it there?

Having been in the UK just twice (and the second time in a work trip without much free time), I've only visited one of Dicken's houses in London (one that's turned into a museum), and Tintern Abbey in Wales (I had just read Wordsworth's poem a few months before).

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PostPosted: Wed May 09, 2012 12:27 am 
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Location: Near Wales.
Colombo wrote:
I'd never heard of Gavin Maxwell before. I've been reading about him in the Wikipedia, and when they mentioned that Camusfeàrna was Sandaig, I clicked on the word 'Sandaig' and it redirected me to 'Glenelg'. It must be an elusive place! :*:. I saw the reference at the bottom of the page, though. I see it's a small group of islets. Isn't it known which one Maxwell chose, or is it just that you couldn't make it there?

Having been in the UK just twice (and the second time in a work trip without much free time), I've only visited one of Dicken's houses in London (one that's turned into a museum), and Tintern Abbey in Wales (I had just read Wordsworth's poem a few months before).


If you get the chance you should read Ring of Bright Water, Gavin Maxwell's book about his life with an otter. The film based on the book doesn't really do it justice, but is a good film anyway. I have read most of his books mostly set in Scotland, but he was a journalist and wrote about other places too. I learned a lot about the Marsh Arabs in Iraq before their way of life was ruined by Saddam Hussein when he drained the marshes. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Reed-Shaken-Win ... 0907871933

When we set off to look for Sandaig we were not sure exactly where we needed to park to find the path for the long walk to 'Camusfeàrna'. It was a single track road with not many landmarks. We stopped by a house and had a look around but it was raining hard and we didn't stop. When we bought a book about Gavin Maxwell there was a photo which showed we had in fact stopped at the right place. We are going up to Scotland in June, I don't know whether to have another look, it really is remote there, but wild and beautiful.

We stayed in Port William in Dumfries and saw the house where he grew up and visited a wildlife park near Monreith House, his family's ancestral home. He lived on an island that is now part of the Skye road bridge. We have been to Skye a few times but have not been to the island. http://www.eileanban.org/ We will definitely have a trip to Skye (fuel prices permitting). :?

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