Michaelmas and Jane Austen's Novels
Michaelmas Day is September 29, and it’s one of Britain’s four quarter days. Traditionally, quarter days were when servants were hired,...
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Excessively Diverted
- Jun 25
Austen's Works and the Educated Woman
I wrote an article for the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation about women’s education in Austen’s works. I was curious about what different...
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- Apr 9
Rectors, vicars, and curates in regency England
There are plenty of clergymen in Austen's novels, but what was a "living" and how did one get one? What's the difference between a rector...
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- Feb 19
Austen and folios, quartos, and octavos, oh my!
…and the only literary pursuit which engaged Harriet at present…was the collecting and transcribing all the riddles of every sort that...
692
- Jan 15
Cats during the Regency
My son keeps a cat and when he asked me if people in Jane Austen's time kept cats as pets, I had to think about it. I know that dogs were...
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- Jan 1
Fireworks in the time of Jane Austen
Surely the idea of an evening out watching a fireworks display, possibly one set to music, is a modern notion, right? There is to be a...
792
- Aug 21, 2022
Ratafia Cakes
After my young helper didn't care for the last regency thing we baked (Georgian Chocolate Tart) because it wasn't sweet enough, I thought...
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- Jul 17, 2022
Regency Income: 500 versus 10,000 per year
Jane Austen always informs us about the financial status of her characters. It wasn't a taboo topic like it often is today. James Morland...
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- Feb 27, 2022
Jane's "nidgetty" cap
Jane Austen's letters to her sister Cassandra are filled with irreverent humor. In December 1798, Cassandra was visiting family in...
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- Aug 29, 2021
What does precedence even mean?
Precedence might seem strange to us in the twenty-first century, especially for those of us living in places without hereditary titles....
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- Jul 11, 2021
Favorite Opening Lines
All the writing advice out there discuss the importance of that opening line—that hook—that gets your potential reader to sit down, pay...
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- Apr 18, 2021
Regency Mac and Cheese
In Nine Ladies, our regency time traveler to 2011 has to navigate a strange world with strange customs, and one of them is grocery...
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- Mar 21, 2021
Neatness Counts in Crossed Letters
It’s rare to get “real” mail, something handwritten that arrives in the mailbox. Not junk, not a bill, but words put to paper for my eyes...
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- Feb 13, 2021
So, I can't sew
I can reattach a button near enough to the right place so it gets into a buttonhole. I only got as far as cross-stitch bookmarks as a...
552
- Jan 24, 2021
Jane Austen gifts
How many of you have a "special interest"? A hobby, a collection, a sport, a "thing" that you're really in to? It's no surprise that Jane...
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- Jan 3, 2021
Regency Ice Skating
While Jane Austen’s brother Frank was eager to skate, it seems that the women in his
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- Dec 13, 2020
Like Pulling Teeth
My son is ten and his baby teeth were slow to come in… and they’re slow to fall out. He’s only had a few fall out on their own, even...
652
- Nov 14, 2020
Jane Austen: Isolated Spinster or In-Touch Citizen?
Some think that Jane Austen was a culturally and politically myopic person because her novels are seemingly oblivious to those larger...
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- Oct 10, 2020
Music and the Austen Couple
In the Georgian era, female accomplishments were indispensable assets on the marriage market. Like Miss Bingley describes, the ability to...
490
- Sep 18, 2020
Twining, Tea, and Jane Austen
Anyone who knows me well knows that I’m a tea drinker. Some might unfairly say tea snob, but I do like my tea, which is kept in...
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