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Jane Austen at Home
Jane Austen at Home | Lucy Worsley
207 posts | 64 read | 5 reading | 137 to read
'This is my kind of history: carefully researched but so vivid that you are convinced Lucy Worsley was actually there at the party - or the parsonage.' Antonia Fraser On the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen's death, historian Lucy Worsley leads us into the world in which our best-loved novelist lived. This new telling of the story of Jane's life shows us how and why she lived as she did, examining the rooms, spaces and possessions which mattered to her, and the way in which home is used in her novels to mean both a place of pleasure and a prison. It wasn't all country houses and ballrooms, in fact her life was often a painful struggle. Jane famously lived a 'life without incident', but with new research and insights Lucy Worsley reveals a passionate woman who fought for her freedom. A woman who far from being a lonely spinster in fact had at least five marriage prospects, but who in the end refused to settle for anything less than Mr Darcy.
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LadyCait84
Jane Austen at Home | Lucy Worsley
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Pickpick

My last read of #AustenianAugust & the perfect non-fiction follow-up to the novel Miss Austen. It provided historical context & clarification around Jane & Cassandra‘s lives, temperaments, & unbreakable bond.

Examining Jane‘s life specifically through the lens of her various residences & her want for a sense of “home,” this also had me itching to reread Austen‘s works to look for that longing reflected in her heroines. A project for next August.

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Mirazzles
Jane Austen at Home | Lucy Worsley
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Nice audiobook to drink coffee to before I must go to work.

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Lcsmcat
Jane Austen at Home | Lucy Worsley
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Lucy hits it out of the park, as always. She shows the true Jane we all know was there, despite the Victorian family-rewrite of her life. I learned so much and thought about all her books in different ways (and I have a 50-year history of reading Austen) and entertained me along the way. I highly recommend!

Lcsmcat (Picture is a sticker I saw in the wall at Shy Bear Brewers on my vacation.) 4mo
PurpleyPumpkin That sticker made me lol!😂🤣 4mo
Lcsmcat @PurpleyPumpkin Me too! Right in the brewery! 4mo
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Bookbuyingaddict
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The wonderfully restored library 📚 at lamport hall 😍

Deblovestoread Beauty! 14mo
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Bookbuyingaddict
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National open heritage day in Northamptonshire and 3 miles up the road from my home is the beautiful lamport hall and gardens it‘s inspired me after a sunny ☀️ day there with my friend to pick up the wonderful book 📖 by Lucy worsley again - by far my favourite ❤️ historian check out her tv shows and podcasts she‘s a national treasure 🙂

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Purpleness
Jane Austen at Home | Lucy Worsley
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Purpleness
Jane Austen at Home | Lucy Worsley
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“I will not say that your Mulberry trees are dead,” Jane warned Cassandra, “but I am afraid they are not alive.”

Ruthiella 😂😂😂 1y
Texreader That‘s about like all my outside plants in this 108 degree heat: not alive. This is hilarious!! 1y
BookBr I am called out😅😂💀 1y
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Purpleness
Jane Austen at Home | Lucy Worsley
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Purpleness
Jane Austen at Home | Lucy Worsley
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CBee I‘ve heard of this but didn‘t know the term! Thanks for sharing 😊 1y
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julesG
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Mystery #BookMail, I wonder who sent this 🤔

CarolynM That would be me 😊 Merry Christmas 🎄🎅 There‘s a card on the way. 2y
CarolynM Hope it didn‘t cause any customs issues for you. 2y
julesG @CarolynM Thank you! 😘 That was a very nice surprise. No customs issues. 2y
CarolynM 👍 2y
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Curvybookgirl
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Pickpick

Such an interesting read about an iconic British author. I learnt so much and found it such a fascinating read

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jenniferw88
Jane Austen at Home | Lucy Worsley
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Several!
Harry Potter series multiple times
Austen's 6 novels twice
Tagged twice
The Mysteries of Udolpho & The Italian by Ann Radcliffe twice

@sprainedbrain @CrowCAH @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks #littenswanttoknow

CrowCAH Thanks, I‘ll make a post! 2y
Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks 🙌🏻📚 2y
Sarah2 Jane Austen‘s novels - maybe one per year… 2y
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jenniferw88
Jane Austen at Home | Lucy Worsley
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No hesitation on choosing this one!

#letterj #alphabetgame @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

BarbaraBB I thought so 😉😘 2y
Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks Thank you for playing! 2y
Meshell1313 Nice!!!! 2y
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AllDebooks
Jane Austen at Home | Lucy Worsley
Pickpick

This is between a pick and so-so. It's a definite pick for me but you would have to be a fan of JA or that time period to enjoy it. I was fascinated by JA's world, family and life.

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TheAromaofBooks
Jane Austen at Home | Lucy Worsley
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I got behind on the chapter-a-day read with the #PemberLittens but did finish this one eventually!! I found this to be an informative and interesting overview of Austen's life, and I liked the way that Worsley tied it to the different places that Austen lived, which somehow kept the biography grounded. I did mark a few passages where it felt like Worsley went way overboard on her interpretations of what Austen said in her letters - for instance, ⬇

TheAromaofBooks (cont'd) Worsley quotes a letter from Jane to her sister where Jane is teasing a bit as she updates Cassandra on small things at home - 'Our dinner was very good yesterday, & the Chicken boiled perfectly tender, therefore I shall not be obliged to dismiss Nanny on that account,' is the quote Worsley gives us, which she immediately follows with her own interpretation: ⬇ 2y
TheAromaofBooks (cont'd) “The message is that this was trivial, that it wasn't her role; that she shouldn't have to be doing it. She would rather be writing.“

I'm just... not sure how you got that from sentence about chicken dinner?? Worsley falls into this multiple times, where it felt like she was really extrapolating to make sure we get the vision of Jane that she wants us to see, even while complaining about the way Jane's family “reimagined“ Jane after her⬇
2y
TheAromaofBooks (cont'd) death, making her more the way they thought she should be.

Still, this was a pick for me. I really did enjoy learning more about Austen and her life. This biography was very approachable and easy to read, so for someone like me, who only had a very sketchy idea of Jane's life, this was a great place to start.

Thanks for hosting @jenniferw88 !!
@sprainedbrain
2y
jenniferw88 I THINK Lucy's point about the chicken dinner is that Jane's always joking, there's probably some hidden meaning behind it and that everything she writes about shouldn't be taken at face value. 2y
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nanuska_153
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Bailedbailed

I have to be honest with myself and admit I'm not in the mood for this and don't have time to read a book I'm not enjoying.In general I'm more of a fiction person,and since I'm already spending so much time reading books about how to be a mom,with a life as quiet as Jane's this book is tolerable,but not enough to tempt me.I think I'd enjoy more reading the letters directly.I was surprised with the similarities between young Jane and Lydia Bennett

sprainedbrain I didn‘t finish either… I‘m also a fiction person. I‘m sure I‘ll come back to it someday, but couldn‘t do it. 🤷🏻‍♀️ 2y
nanuska_153 @sprainedbrain oh that makes me feel better, I thought I was the only one that gave up on it 😅 2y
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eeclayton
Jane Austen at Home | Lucy Worsley
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Pickpick

This was the first JA bio I read, and I learned a lot from it. In addition to all the valuable information, I appreciated the author's empathy and care towards her subject. It was a delightful read.
Thanks for hosting @jenniferw88
#pemberlittens

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DebinHawaii
Jane Austen at Home | Lucy Worsley
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Pickpick

#JoysofJuneReadathon #BigJuneReadathon

I utterly failed at reading this a #chapteraday with the #PemberLittens with a crazy work month, it was hard to find time to read it at night & stay awake as interesting as I found it. My solution ended up being using the audiobook to catch up & finish on my work commutes. The narration was excellent but I really valued having the print book as well to go back & see the illustrations. I enjoyed this deep ⬇️

DebinHawaii …dive into Jane‘s life. While I knew some of the details, this book filled in a lot of my knowledge & painted an interesting picture of what life was like. Lucy Worsley‘s research was stellar & she provided the details in an engaging manner that kept it from being dry. Thanks to for hosting the daily check-ins @jenniferw88 🤗 I‘m going to go back & read your posts that I missed! 2y
Andrew65 Fantastic 👏👏👏 2y
rubyslippersreads I‘m in the same boat—way behind. The audiobook sounds like a good solution. 😊 2y
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janeycanuck
Jane Austen at Home | Lucy Worsley
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Pickpick

What an interesting read. As much as I love Austen, I‘ve read so little about her - it was good to correct that. I want to dive into her letters now with the insights from Worsley‘s book - and maybe come back and reread this once I‘ve read the letters!

I read this mostly while #audiowalking, often walking past this little garden that just feels so English-y to me!
Thanks to @jenniferw88 for leading the #PemberLittens through our read of this.

Crinoline_Laphroaig 💜💜💜💜💜 2y
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Crinoline_Laphroaig
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Pickpick

Afternoon tea and the Epilogue. I've throughly enjoyed rereading this with @jenniferw88 and #PemberLittens.

"In the 1940s, the cottage in Chawton began its extraordinary second life as a shrine to Jane Austen, and Chawton House its life as a library dedicated to women‘s literature. Both of them are well worth visiting today, and I urge you to go." - Lucy Worsley #lastwords

Ruthiella Lovely photo! 😍 2y
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KristiAhlers
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This was such an interesting and insightful read! I learned so many new things about Jane and what inspired her writing. A book all Jane Austen fans need to read! #pemberlittens #littens

Dragon Sound interesting- stacking 👍💚🐉 2y
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peanutnine
Jane Austen at Home | Lucy Worsley
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This was the first biography I've read about Jane Austen so I learned a lot about her life and family that I didn't know. It was interesting connecting the homes where she lived to themes and places in her novels. I listened to this on audio and the chapter-a-day pace was perfect for digesting the information
#pemberlittens @jenniferw88
#roaringwolf beach @Roary47 @Littlewolf1

Roary47 Yay! I‘m glad you were able to get the most out of it. 😊 2y
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jenniferw88
Jane Austen at Home | Lucy Worsley
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Pickpick
Crinoline_Laphroaig I'm saving Epilogue for tomorrow. Thanks for hosting! 2y
Deblovestoread I finished Friday night and loved this book. Thanks for hosting, it helped keep me on track. 2y
MoonWitch94 I really really enjoyed this! Thanks so much for hosting. It kept me on task. 🙂 2y
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jenniferw88
Jane Austen at Home | Lucy Worsley
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Ruthiella 41 is way too young! What I would give to have more novels from her! 💔 2y
Dragon So young 💔 2y
BarkingMadRead So sad! Way too young! 2y
MoonWitch94 So, so young! 😢 2y
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Crinoline_Laphroaig
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This Chapter. ?

"Jane‘s memorial stone in the Cathedral, as is well known, made no mention of her novels. It praised instead ‘the benevolence of her heart, the sweetness of her temper‘, then – and only then –‘the extraordinary endowments of her mind‘. The cover-up of how extraordinary Aunt Jane really was had already begun."

? Winchester Cathedral Sep 2017

#Pemberlittens @jenniferw88

LeahBergen I stood right there, too. ❤️ (edited) 2y
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Crinoline_Laphroaig
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"Cassandra recorded Jane‘s opinion of the Cathedral: it was ‘a Building she admired so much‘."

So do many others - My husband snapped this September 2017 outside Winchester Cathedral.

#Pemberlittens @jenniferw88

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Clare-Dragonfly
Jane Austen at Home | Lucy Worsley
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Pickpick

I decided to just go ahead and finish this. I enjoyed it a lot! I didn‘t know all that much about Jane Austen‘s life and Lucy Worsley goes into a very satisfying amount of detail. It was fascinating to learn about how and where Jane lived, and so much about her family and friends. The bit near the end about immortality gave me chills. ❤️ #PemberLittens

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jenniferw88
Jane Austen at Home | Lucy Worsley
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Crinoline_Laphroaig
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"Persuasion is the novel to which many of Jane‘s readers ‘graduate‘. Once they have enjoyed the sparkling romance of Pride and Prejudice, and weathered the trauma of Mansfield Park and the trials of Emma, they mature to this story of regret and redemption. The circumstances of its writing, once known, make Persuasion all the more poignant."

This was certainly true of me! ⬇️

Crinoline_Laphroaig Younger me didn't get it. It wasn't until I reread because of this https://modernmrsdarcy.com/books/persuasion-3/ that I fell in love with it. #PemberLittens @jenniferw88 2y
Crinoline_Laphroaig And then the part about Sanditon. 😭 2y
Liatrek My favorite Austen ❤️❤️ 2y
Ruthiella Totally agree. I didn‘t get this novel until I read it a second time about 10 years later. That letter! 🥰 2y
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jenniferw88
Jane Austen at Home | Lucy Worsley
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AllDebooks I've really enjoyed this read, learned so much about Jane. Thank you for all your excellent summaries @jenniferw88 2y
jenniferw88 @AllDebooks glad you enjoyed! I feel I haven't been as good a host as I could have been though - but it's hard to do in-depth details when it's non-fiction! 2y
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jenniferw88
Jane Austen at Home | Lucy Worsley
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Ruthiella I‘m never so thankful for modern medicine as when I read about how it used to be before germ theory, antibiotics, etc! 😅 (edited) 2y
MoonWitch94 @Ruthiella RIGHT?!?!? Oooffff! 2y
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Crinoline_Laphroaig
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Today's Chapter 'Disasters' is about Events in 1816. Which is where in Jane Austen Timeline that Jane and the Year Without A Summer is set. It's Book 14 of Stephanie Barron's Jane Austen Mysteries.
#Pemberlittens
@sprainedbrain
@jenniferw88

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jenniferw88
Jane Austen at Home | Lucy Worsley
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jenniferw88 A book abput Jane and money 2y
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jenniferw88
Jane Austen at Home | Lucy Worsley
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jenniferw88
Jane Austen at Home | Lucy Worsley
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jenniferw88
Jane Austen at Home | Lucy Worsley
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AllDebooks Loved this chapter seeing Jane asserting and enjoying her independence more. 2y
KristiAhlers This chapter really made my heart happy. Perfect example of a strong woman. Especially back in a time that wasn‘t celebrated. 2y
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ravenlee
Jane Austen at Home | Lucy Worsley
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I‘ve been drowning in buddy reads and need to start the dreaded Don Quixote so I forged ahead with this to clear some mental space. Overall a good and informative read, with some (mostly necessary) speculation to fill in the many blanks in Jane‘s life. This is a biography through place, tracing where home was but also WHAT home was at various times in JA‘s history. #PemberLittens #CatsofLitsy #DannyBoy says meh.

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Crinoline_Laphroaig
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‘I went up to the G House between 3 & 4, & dawdled away an hour very comfortably‘,

I to went up to the great house as well on a September afternoon circa 2017.

Cathythoughts What a photo 💫 2y
Crinoline_Laphroaig @Cathythoughts it was a dream come true 2y
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jenniferw88
Jane Austen at Home | Lucy Worsley
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Cathythoughts Lovely picture ♥️ 2y
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jenniferw88
Jane Austen at Home | Lucy Worsley
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KristiAhlers This read is proving to be so much more than I thought it would. Really enjoying it. 2y
Clare-Dragonfly As a writer myself, I found this chapter particularly exciting! 2y
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jenniferw88
Jane Austen at Home | Lucy Worsley
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Crinoline_Laphroaig
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As a Gardener this a favorite quote of mine. 😆 #Pemberlittens @jenniferw88

KristiAhlers I love this 😂 2y
alisiakae 😂😍 2y
batsy 😆 2y
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jenniferw88
Jane Austen at Home | Lucy Worsley
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AllDebooks
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Continuing May's reading (highlighted) into June for #bookspinbingo.

Finishing up the tagged book for #pemberlittens and The purpose of power for #shesaid this month too.

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jenniferw88
Jane Austen at Home | Lucy Worsley
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batsy
Jane Austen at Home | Lucy Worsley
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Pickpick

I'm a bad buddy reader & finished this ahead of schedule. I enjoyed this; Worsley's writing style is similar to how she presents on TV. Brisk, fast-paced reading that also immerses the reader in Jane's life. The drawback is that it sometimes reads like a BBC script. You kind of feel like you're there, but this is also because Worsley takes small liberties with her imagination, for instance in assuming how she imagines Jane must have felt as true.

batsy Despite my little quibbles, this was hugely engaging, & I feel like I still learned more about Jane even though pop-culture feels so Jane-saturated. I appreciated the bits about the economics of publishing, the relationship Jane had with other women & her rather distant one with her mother. The condition of women boils down to being able to have a home of one's own. I was surprised by how teary I got at the ending thinking about Cassandra's loss. 2y
batsy Thanks for the group read @jenniferw88 and #pemberlittens 😁 2y
mabell Great review! 2y
See All 7 Comments
batsy @mabell Thank you 🙂 2y
Ruthiella I finished it already too. 🙊 I agree Worsley occasionally went too far in her suggestions about what Jane “might have” thought. I did like, however, how she liberated her from the Victorian image of a shy, retiring violet who never left home. 2y
batsy @Ruthiella Yes, it was well done in terms of portraying Jane in different shades. Although this bio for some reason is not highly rated on GR, I love it a lot and have read it a few times—it kind of blew my mind when I first read it many years ago because it was not the Jane I expected 2y
Ruthiella @batsy Thanks for the tip! I read Tomalin‘s bio on Dickens some years ago and liked it a lot. 2y
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BarkingMadRead
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After a couple hours of canoeing in the hot sun, your girl needs a bath and a book! #pemberlittens

EvieBee Treat yo‘ self! 2y
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Crinoline_Laphroaig
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"And in fact this whole summer would be full of echoes of the story of Mansfield Park."

As a gardener I found this interesting.
#Pemberlittens @jenniferw88

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jenniferw88
Jane Austen at Home | Lucy Worsley
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Chrissyreadit Sending you email in 2 minutes 2y
jenniferw88 @Chrissyreadit just replied! 😂 2y
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Crinoline_Laphroaig
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I found this fascinating:
"In the first flurry of correspondence after her father‘s death, Jane used red sealing wax on her letters as usual, but after a week she had managed to acquire black. This was the convention following a death, so that people receiving letters would get preparatory notice before they opened them that the news was bad."

@jenniferw88 #PemberLittens

Crinoline_Laphroaig If you would like to seal your letters in black wax -
https://backtozero.co/products/ampersand-wax-seal-stamp
2y
Chrissyreadit That is interesting. 2y
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