By Elizabeth Jewell
Sara Tavela welcomed us to the “Jane-uary” meeting. As we were a smaller group, we decided to remain a larger group to share the stories of how each member originally became interested in Jane Austen and her works.
Sara came to Jane Austen in elementary school through the illustrated classics for children; the first she read was Pride and Prejudice. Then she watched the 1995 Sense and Sensibility (she got the DVD through Blockbuster), and she realized she didn’t “get” why Marianne “had” to marry that old Colonel Brandon. As a high school senior, she did a paper on Pride and Prejudice but only read the first volume, not the second, so didn’t really get that story either! But within a year it all changed . . . her mother was ordained as a pastor and spent a year near Morrisville in a home without television; this was the same time Sara was preparing to go off to college.
With no television, she had a DVD player and went to the library for their collection of English classics, including the Jennifer Ehle-Colin Firth version of Pride and Prejudice, and then she was hooked. She read all the books; she did her honors thesis on Jane Austen, and eventually she gained a PhD in eighteenth-century literature (more Jane Austen!). She has a lot of Jane Austen T-shirts. She has a copy of Searching for Jane Austen by Emily Auerbach, one of the early studies of Austen that explored her life beyond the cloistered, small-town life of a spinster. She experienced a lot and traveled more widely than many originally supposed.
Another valued book is Austen, Actresses, and Accessories: Much Ado About Muffs by Laura Engel (Sara’s advisor and dissertation chair). Sara traveled with her and heard her talks on Austen. A friend, Suzanne, gave Sara a painting of Jane Austen’s home with tulips around it. She creates Austen gifts for Sara, assuming Sara already has things that are available for sale. She’s made ornaments for Sara’s Jane Austen Christmas tree, including little books that have pages and open!
Pat Maroney, when she was twelve, first heard of Jane Austen when she was sent a copy of Pride and Prejudice by an aunt. She was interested but didn’t know what “prejudiced” meant. Jane Austen was not a household name back then as she is now. In high school she wrote a paper on the “Structure of Emma.” In college, the English teacher knew Austen, and they did read Pride and Prejudice as freshmen. She had an interview for college with a woman who had been to England, which was Pat’s introduction to the idea of being able to visit Austen’s home. She has a “hideous” felt Christmas ornament. She loves Mansfield Park and feels that she identifies with Fanny.
Jane Saber said her mother was a children’s librarian. They did not share tastes in anything, but her mother recommended Pride and Prejudice and Jane was hooked. She’s read the books at different stages of her life and gotten different things from them at different ages. She used to live in the NY area and found that JASNA enriched her life so much. “I love her wit, her irony, her understanding of the human condition,” she said of Austen. She has the Oxford illustrated editions; she loves antique jewelry and wonders if each piece she comes across would have been appropriate in Jane’s time. She showed cameo earrings and then a cameo necklace in taupe. She also has watercolors of homes surrounded by flowers. Her favorite is Pride and Prejudice, although she enjoys all of them very much. Sense and Sensibility is less convincing to her, but she’s enjoyed some of the productions of it.
Vikki Silverman had a reading disability as a child. Her parents encouraged her to read and her grandmother offered to buy her books, so she got books from the Scholastic Books catalog that came out every month. In junior high she and some friends agreed to each pick a book and then share them among the group. She was twelve or thirteen when she was handed Pride and Prejudice; her friends urged her to read it. It became a favorite. She went to take care of her grandmother one summer after her grandfather’s death; Vikki read the Complete Novels of Jane Austen, given to her from her grandmother’s library. There’s no publication date in the book; online it says between 1944 and 1956.
In 2005, when her husband began to show signs of Alzheimer’s, she needed reading to cheer her up, and her niece introduced her to fan fiction. She joined JASNA in Tampa and started getting interested in the scholarly books. Pride and Prejudice is her favorite, with Persuasion close behind. Her favorite quote from Emma is something like, “There’s nothing so worthy as kindness of heart.” She loves Mansfield Park too, but is just not into Northanger Abbey. She’s not particularly into Gothic literature, which may affect her view of the book.
Virginia Claire Nist notes that her college professor pitched Northanger Abbey as a coming-of-age book. She has more than 400 copies of Pride and Prejudice; she admits she’s an addict! She used to call it “Pride and Precious.” She started a Jane Austen book club in high school. She was an English literature and history major; studied in Bath and worked at the Jane Austen center; says that’s the happiest she’s ever been. She has the peacock edition of Pride and Prejudice, and has another sort of art deco copy that’s pretty. She has the books in more than forty different languages. One goal is to get a first edition. Her license plate is “Janeite.” She started her book collection in high school, using eBay. She has a JASNA summer program signed by Colin Firth. Her husband, a paratrooper, would take a Jane Austen book on his jumps.
Sara says she’s got one copy of Austen in French that she got in Paris. Susan Demorsky says that Books a Million had copies of Pride and Prejudice and Emma with journals. Her mother was a great reader, and she watched Masterpiece Theatre with Alaistair Cooke. She read US literature in high school. The TV series and the movies started coming out—she recorded Sense and Sensibility (the one with Kate Winslet and Emma Thompson). She’s a total fan of Alan Rickman. She thinks her appreciation of the book comes from that movie. Favorite book is Pride and Prejudice; she likes Emma but Emma makes her mad—she’s selfish. She has a collection of china and British teacups, and found a store on Etsy called Jane Austen Treasures—she has a turquoise ring and a special T-shirt for the 250-year anniversary.
Sara and Julia have Jane Austen ring replicas as well. Julia Adams-Scheurich says her mother didn’t read her fairy tales; she was a nun for many years and taught, then left the convent and married. She took Julia to a used bookstore when she was in junior high and she got a copy of Pride and Prejudice. Julia loved it; she notes that at different times in her life, it means different things to her. The last Christmas before her mother passed away, she gave her a beautiful copy of Sense and Sensibility with the DVD as well. Her husband is an enabler; he has given her a red-leather set of the books as well as multiple copies of Pride and Prejudice. She has a collection of cameos; her husband gave her one that’s framed and has seed pearls and breakaway topaz pieces.
She plays the harp (started during COVID) and has a book of music for the Netherfield Ball arranged for the Celtic harp. Many of the songs are from Austen’s family collection (arranged for the harp). And she has a dress collection; she has a favorite dress. She does cosplay. For the Jane Austen ball at her first AGM, she had a blue silk dress created. She has a dressmaker named Maddie who makes her Jane Austen clothes for her. She also makes the things she wears in her hair. She shared pictures of her gown (beautiful!). She showed her two harps, one from Chicago and one from Italy. Sara suggested that we have harp music at the December meeting/party.
Elizabeth (me) showed one book of my collection of the Oxford classics editions, which a friend found on a porch giveaway and picked up for me. I read Jane in college; I love the miniseries and some of the movies. My favorite book is Persuasion; I identify with Anne so much, being older and maybe having made some mistakes in my youth. I have some teapots, though I don’t know if they are particularly Austen-esque. I’ll be shopping for an Austen mug immediately!
Sara says Persuasion is also her favorite and moves to Karin, who Sara thinks also has Persuasion as her favorite. Karin Wiberg says that yes, Persuasion is her favorite. Lately, she’s read some Pride and Prejudice fan fiction and realizes she doesn’t like it as much after that. “I’m actually finding Elizabeth kind of annoying,” she says, then notes that you go through stages with all of the books, and she’s starting to appreciate some of the other novels more. Persuasion is sweet and there’s a kind of melancholy to it. She says she’s starting to enjoy Mansfield Park more—when she read it, she felt like, “Oh, I can see what she’s doing here.” Pride and Prejudice was her first novel, in college, and she didn’t really get it, but then they were shown the movie version with Laurence Olivier, and she was able to see the humor. The next summer she checked out all the novels and read them in a row, and probably thought they all kind of sounded the same—the romance trope. Obviously, she says, she’s learned a little bit since then!
Similar to Vikki, she was living at home when the A&E miniseries aired; that and the Sense and Sensibility movie got her back into Austen. Then she moved to Raleigh and discovered JASNA in 2009. Then, learning about the context made her appreciate it more; every year her appreciation grows. She doesn’t collect a lot, other than multiple copies of the books. She’s trying to get all the David M. Shapard annotated versions, which help her understand things that Austen readers at the time wouldn’t have needed to have explained but that we don’t have the same context to understand. She also has a collection of Austen mugs, including one that changes color when hot liquid is added. Her favorite may be one that is not specifically Austen, but that has flowers all over it; she got it at the first AGM in Minneapolis, given to her by a friend.
Sara also has a mug collection. She and Karin agree that you need to pick the one you are in the mood for or the one that goes with the book you are reading. Karin remembers that her mother has some cameos (from Italy, possibly brought back by her grandfather after WWII).
Betty Parker Ellis was always aware of Jane Austen; she doesn’t remember reading British literature in high school, but she remembers liking historical fiction. She thought she needed to get into the classics but associated Austen with Shakespeare’s language. She always loved movies; when she went to Blockbuster there would be British period dramas, so that’s how she first really encountered Austen. In late 2008 or 2009, she worked long hours but her work schedule then changed, so she had more time. That’s about when the Masterpiece Theatre season featured Jane Austen. Google led her to the Pemberly group, which led her to book discussions. That also led her to the adaptations on Netflix and other streaming services—but she had yet to read the books.
Around 2010, her family members (specifically, her parents) began to become ill, and she was part of the caregiving group. She’d spend the weekend and have time to read, and so she finally read the books then. She was in northwest South Carolina, so joined JASNA, which was meeting in Charleston, which was quite a long drive for her. In 2013, her husband decided to buy a boat and move to Charleston, so she was able to attend the meetings in person. During the early years of COVID, she was already attending JASNA-NC on Zoom, and couldn’t get enough and started scheduling Zoom events almost daily throughout the world. She particularly enjoyed a meeting of a Scottish group! She now attends meetings of the NC, SC, and Georgia groups, both in person and on Zoom. She went on the Jane Austen summer tour two years ago. Honestly, she had to wipe tears at some points because of walking in Austen’s footsteps there. She collects tea towels and Christmas ornaments. She has a Jane Austen duck and the ten-pound Jane Austen note.
Rose Carter says she also has a COVID connection. She never asked for the Jane Austen blanket or other gifts people have given her related to Austen. She turned to Jane because she couldn’t handle the anxiety of COVID. She initially felt not smart enough for JASNA, but after COVID decided we’re her people! She became a lifetime member. For those of us who love Persuasion, how many of us were left on the shelf? She married at age 39 (happily). She can’t handle how Anne Elliott is so self-controlled. When she went to England, she had to go to Bath, but they didn’t have the swag then they do now.
Mary Wilson Molen read a lot and was given a boxed set of classics that included Pride and Prejudice. She took literature classes in college, including one that featured Austen, Eliot, and Wolfe. She was a casual Austen fan who liked the books and liked the movies until COVID. And in 2021, she worked in a bookstore and a former professor came in and mentioned that he was in a weekly Austen book club. That sounded fun, so she asked for the link. It was to the Alabama JASNA. She’s now a member of a fledgling historical dance group, which featured a Bridgerton event. She’s made some costumes to wear for dancing. There are YouTube tutorials on how to make ribbon flowers and similar adornments. The first dance she taught was Lord Byron’s Beckon. She has the Pride and Prejudice collection from the Pemberly Players.
Jeanette Watts teaches period dance and has a lot of material. The whole point of dancing is to spend time with other people and have a good time. Jeanette feels in the middle of the stories others have told; she has some mugs, some Christmas ornaments, and some costumes. She didn’t intend to write Jane Austen books, but had the idea for Jane Austen Lied to Me and has now written a version of Persuasion (called the Woman’s Persuasion, translated to modern times with as few changes as possible) as well as My Dear Miss Fairfax (a version of Emma). She recommends the Jane Austen Reddit group and says it’s a lot of fun; there are some great rabbit holes to fall down. She believes Emma is misunderstood and so is Frank Churchill. She showed a picture of one of her Austen costumes with a bonnet and spencer she made. Her YouTube channel is History Is My Playground, and she has advice on how to make a costume from a budget sari.
Nancy Martin-Young started reading Pride and Prejudice in third or fourth grade because she got the book from Scholastic. By the time she was a teenager, she’d read the other books. Pride and Prejudice was the first novel she taught as a professor, and she still has the note cards from that. She identifies with different characters as she ages, and currently feels sorry for Lydia. Her copy of the Pride and Prejudice video pauses on Colin Firth coming out of the pond! She has increased her appreciation for different books because of the reasons given by various JASNA members, including Sue’s appreciation for Emma. Her favorite Jane Austen item is the Pride and Prejudice fingerless gloves that allow her hands to be warm enough to type even though the room is cold.
Linda Fineman went to high school in Louisville, KY, in the 1970s, and Jane Austen was nowhere on the curriculum, even though she was taking AP (Advance Placement) classes. It wasn’t until she was a freshman at Emory University in Atlanta that one of my dorm mates gave her a copy of P&P. It was love-at-first-read, and she wasn’t the only one. That book made its way through our entire floor and created a strong bond that relieved the homesickness that they otherwise would have felt. They quickly acquired her other novels and circulated them in the group.
When Linda came to the Triangle to attend grad school at Duke, she learned of JASNA-NC, and the rest is history. Like Elizabeth, she has that beautiful Oxford Illustrated Jane Austen set, along with countless paperback editions. Due to vision problems, though, I read everything on the Kindle now. However, I’d like to recommend my favorite Jane Austen book collectible. It makes a great gift for any Janeite. This webpage shows some of the materials it contains, along with a glowing review.
Kirk from Boston’s Jane Austen story comes from his childhood friend George and George’s spouse Beth. They had just moved to Falmouth, MA. Beth knew of Kirk’s anglophile fandom (Moody Blues etc). Somehow Kirk had missed Jane Austen in his English classes. Sense & Sensibility ’95 had just come out, and Beth suggested he go with them. It was love at first sight for Marianne and Kirk!
Jane Axelrod found Austen through her older sister who was a great reader and introduced Jane to many authors as a teenager. Jane’s first Austen novel,(like so many of us) was Pride and Prejudice, which, because she was only 13 at the time, she only saw as a romance and many of the the deeper ideas and nuances went over my head. As Georgette Heyer was one of Jane and her sister’s favorite authors, they, of course, looked for other authors that wrote about that period and came across the rest of Austen’s novels in the library, which had the editions with the wonderful Brock illustrations. They became thoroughly hooked on both Austen and the Regency period.
In Jane’s thirties, a friend and she discovered the JASNA group in New York City, and the rest is history. They attended all the meetings and went to almost every AGM since 1996. They joined the first ever Jane Austen tour to England sponsored by JASNA, and on their second tour were delighted and honored to be invited to attend the annual meeting of the Jane Austen Society while were were there. Jane has several bookshelves of Jane Austen and Regency England-related books and has read many, many more through the inter-library loan services of her public library. She has one costume she adapted from a regency nightgown she bought at a shop called Pastimes in England (alas, the shop no longer exist) and other items she bought at the AGM’s Regency Emporiums and the same gown-changing mug that Karin showed.
Up Next
Sara mentioned the 250th anniversary year, which we’re in now, and there are special events being planned. Our February 16 meeting is going to be our Austen contemporary writer, Phillis Wheatley, and Sara will be suggesting some poems to focus on. In March (date not yet confirmed), Mary Jane Curry will be giving a talk about her recently released book, Jane Austen on Nature. Rose Carter mentioned the JASNA book club slow read of Pride and Prejudice (each Sunday for nine weeks), which a number of members are participating in.
