̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Jane Austen

Jane Austen treasure is on display today to mark the bicentenary of the novelist’s death

amb206 — Mon, 17 Jul 2017 09:20:56 +0000

When Jane Austen died on 18 July 1817 she had been working on a new novel. With four published novels (all published anonymously), she had accrued an enthusiastic following. ̽��ֱ��title she chose for this latest book was ̽��ֱ��Brothers. After her death, it was released as Sanditon, the name of the seaside town that features in the story.

̽��ֱ��three notebooks in which Austen wrote Sanditon are among the greatest treasures held by King’s College Archive. ̽��ֱ��College will today (18 July 2017) display two of these notebooks in an exhibition in its Old Library. ̽��ֱ��remaining notebook is on loan to the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

Sanditon is the star attraction of a Jane Austen Open Day organised to display around 40 items. ̽��ֱ��objects, arranged in three cases, comprise books and letters – and together represent King’s College’s biggest-ever display of Austen-related material.

̽��ֱ��autograph manuscript of Sanditon can only be described as priceless. ̽��ֱ��manuscript is rarely displayed as both the ink and paper used are vulnerable to light. It was last shown to the public for one day in 2013. Due to the significance of this year's anniversary, it will be displayed again later this year at Open Cambridge.

“A .digital version of Sanditon is available but we want people to have the chance to see the manuscript itself,” said Dr James Clements, King’s College Librarian.

“We know that Jane began writing Sanditon in January 1817 and that her last entry is dated 18th March 1817, by which time she’d completed 12 chapters. ̽��ֱ��novel begins with a carriage accident and charts familiar Austen territory with its wry and witty exploration of society politics.”

̽��ֱ��Sanditon manuscript was given to King’s College in 1930 by Austen’s great-great niece, Mary Isabella Lefroy, whose brother-in-law (Augustus Austen-Leigh) had been Provost of the College. ̽��ֱ��letter in which she talks about giving the notebooks to the College is on display. In it, she presents Sanditon in memory of “the most popular Provost, and Provostess ‘Kings’ has ever had”.

Also on display are first editions of the Austen novels published in her lifetime: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, and Emma, all published anonymously. Only after Austen’s death, when her novels Northanger Abbey and Persuasion were first published in December 1817 (also in the exhibition), was she identified as the author.

̽��ֱ��Georgian town of Bath figures in several Austen novels. A copy of ̽��ֱ��New Bath Guide for 1807, on display alongside the first edition of Persuasion, sets the scene with stunning engravings of life at the fashionable spa.

Other items of interest in the exhibition include a letter from Austen to her publisher, in which she takes a reviewer to task, and examples of early editions of Austen’s novels, including the first edition of Emma to appear in the USA, and a Railway Library edition of Pride and Prejudice “in fancy boards” priced one shilling.

̽��ֱ��Jane Austen Open Day at King’s College takes place today (18 July 2017) from 10am to 4pm. For details and directions, go to https://kcctreasures.com/ There will be another chance to see the display as part Open Cambridge on 8 and 9 September 2017.

̽��ֱ��exhibition has been made possible through a cataloguing and outreach project supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Jane Austen fans will have a rare chance today (18 July 2017) to see the manuscript of the novelist’s final (unfinished) novel at King’s College. ̽��ֱ��one-day exhibition in the College's Old Library marks Austen’s death 200 years ago and is open to the public.

A digital version of Sanditon is available but we want people to have the chance to see the manuscript itself.

James Clements, King's College Librarian

̽��ֱ��New Bath Guide for 1807

̽��ֱ��Royal Crescent in Bath

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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Three Jane Austen letters are shown together for the first time

sjr81 — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 09:59:18 +0000

On 5 May 1801 the novelist Jane Austen sat down in an upper room of a terraced house in Bath to write to her sister Cassandra. She had that day arrived in the popular spa town, following her father’s decision to leave the family home at Steventon in Hampshire.This decision had been distressing to Austen, who was 25 years old when she wrote this letter.

Austen’s letter is rich in detail about Bath, some damp accommodation, “the exorbitant price of fish”, and current fashion (“Black gauze Cloaks are worn as much as anything”). She would go on to set parts of Northanger Abbey and Persuasion in the town which she described to her sister as being “all vapour, shadow, smoke & confusion”.

This letter is the earliest of the correspondence displayed in an exhibition at Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Library to mark the 200th anniversary of Austen’s death on 18 July 1817. ‘Jane Austen: Letters and Readers’ exhibits three manuscript letters held in Cambridge collections: the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Library and King’s College. Only about 160 letters written by Austen survive worldwide.

‘Jane Austen: Letters and Readers’, which runs from 28 March to 8 April 2017, is a rare chance to view these precious letters along with other significant items relating to Austen in the ̽��ֱ�� Library’s collection. It is the first time that the letters have been shown side by side.

̽��ֱ��other two letters on display relate to the publication of Emma, Austen’s much-loved novel of 1816. An exchange of letters between Austen and Frances Parker, Countess of Morley, to whom Austen sent a copy of Emma, provides an insight into Austen’s contemporary readership.

Although Austen remained widely unknown during her lifetime and her novels were published anonymously, her reputation was growing, notably among aristocratic circles. In her letter to Austen, Frances Parker speaks of her intimacy with Austen’s characters, the “Bennetts [sic], Bertrams, Norriss & all their admirable predecessors”.

Frances Parker’s private responses give scholars valuable information as to how Austen’s work was being received. Elsewhere, the Countess testified to not liking Emma as much as Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park, because of its lack of story. Intriguingly, Parker herself was suspected by some to be the author of Austen’s fiction.

̽��ֱ��last of the letters in the exhibition, dated 1 April 1816, is a short message from Austen to her publisher, the influential John Murray. In it, Austen discusses the novelist Walter Scott’s review of Emma, which was the first extended appreciation in print of Austen’s writing.

Scott recognised Austen’s innovative talent in “keeping close to common incidents, and to such characters as occupy the ordinary walks of life”. Austen also refers in this letter to another admirer, the Prince Regent, to whom the novel is (probably unwillingly) dedicated.

Alongside these letters, printed works are exhibited, including first editions of Austen’s fiction and items from the collection of Geoffrey Keynes, Austen’s bibliographer. A highlight from the Keynes collection is Oliver Goldsmith’s An History of the earth, and animated nature (1774), one of the few books known to have been owned by Jane Austen. Her signature inside the front cover, dated 1799, is on display.

̽��ֱ��exhibition coincides with a conference at Trinity College (29-31 March 2017) to celebrate, in particular, the bicentenary of Sanditon, Jane Austen’s last, unfinished novel. ̽��ֱ��manuscript of Sanditon, which Austen was writing in the final year of her life, is held at King’s College. ̽��ֱ��last page is dated ‘March 18’. Austen died exactly four months later on 18 July 1817.

Participants in the conference will have the chance to see at King’s the manuscript of Sanditon, with other items from the College’s rich Jane Austen collection, including the manuscript continuation of the novel (in private ownership), written by Anna Lefroy, Austen’s niece. Lefroy was close to her aunt and received Austen’s literary advice. ̽��ֱ��two manuscripts are exhibited together for the first time.

Austen’s great-nephew Augustus Austen-Leigh was Provost of King’s between 1889 and 1905. He married Florence Emma Lefroy, another Austen descendent (her great-great niece). Florence’s sister, Mary Isabella Lefroy, gave the manuscript of Sanditon to King’s in memory of “the most popular Provost, and Provostess “Kings” has ever had”.

‘Jane Austen: Letters and Readers’ runs from 28 March to 8 April 2017, 9am-6.30pm weekdays, 9am-5pm Saturdays, closed Sundays, in the entrance hall of Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Library. No charge.

For full details of the Trinity conference, events and registrations see: https://sanditon200years.wordpress.com.

An exhibition offering a rare chance to see some of Jane Austen's letters has opened at Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Library. ̽��ֱ��correspondence on display is held by three different Cambridge collections. This is the first time that the letters have been shown together.

Austen’s letter is rich in detail about Bath, some damp accommodation, “the exorbitant price of fish”, and current fashion (“Black gauze Cloaks are worn as much as anything”).

Jane Austen's letter to her sister Cssandra dated 5 May 1801

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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