Simply Austen: A Concise and Comprehensive Guide to Jane

My introduction to Jane Austen came in the form of a year-long honors course taught at Temple University by Prof. Toby Olshin. We read all of Jane's novels, letters, juvenilia, and the books that influenced her. Since 1978 I have reread Austen numerous times and read many books about her, three in the last year alone.

In the last few years both my book clubs read Austen: Persuasion and Northanger Abbey. I think they were chosen because they are Jane's shorter novels. I discovered that the general reader today rarely 'gets' Jane. They lack an understanding of Regency society and history. They don't understand Jane's social commentary and satire.

Joan Klingel Ray's Simply Austen provides a solid base for Austen newbies to learn about Jane, her life, and works and the Regency world. Ray is the author of Jane Austen for Dummies and was the only three-term president of the Jane Austen Society of North America. The book is a useful introduction to readers new to Jane but also a "crisp refresher" for those of us who have read her.

Simply Austen will help readers understand the times behind the stories.
Understanding the social milieu is an important part of understanding Jane's novels. In the course I took we learned about the social history and the material culture: what color were puce gloves and which carriages were workhorses and which were the sexy fast ones and what was special about the waters at Bath and how much money was 'enough.' Ray addresses each novel with a summary and background information.

Although Austen's works have timeless themes, going into them with 21st c expectations results in women losing patience with Anne Elliot for being 'persuaded,' as happened in my book club, We are used to liberated, strong-willed females in today's literature. We miss the satire of the Gothic novel in Northanger Abbey and don't understand that scenes were a parody of a popular Gothic novel. (Ray has taught me is pronounced North-Hanger; it refers to the hanger, or wooded hillside, on the estate.)

Ray brought out some things I had not before considered. Such as how Anne Elliot was the only heroine who "has nothing to learn in terms of character growth." Instead, it is Captain Wentworth who has to overcome his well-nurtured hurt pride after Anne turned down his proposal eight years earlier.

The book is dense with information but is written in an accessible style that makes for easy reading.

The ebook is just over 200 pages with illustrations, Forward, Preface, Sources, and Suggested Reading. There are links provided to articles, including a link to the original manuscript of Jane's unfinished novel Sanditon.

Chapters include:

• Jane Austen and her Culture-the Context for her Novels
• Jane Austen and Her Family of Readers
• Jane Austen's Family Enjoys Her Early Writing
• Responding to Trends in Sensibility and Gothicism
• Two Revisions Become Classics
• Austen's Three Chawton Novels
• A Wry Send-up of Health Spas by a dying Novelist
• Janes Austen's Popularity and Legacy

Read an interview with Ray, "Becoming Jane", at https://simplycharly.com/interviews/joan-klingel-ray-on-jane-austen/

Simply Austen is part of the Simply Charly's "Great Lives" series which offers short introductions to important people in history.

I received a free ebook from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

The Simply Austen epub ebook can be purchased for $7.99 at
https://simplycharly.com/books/?store=%2Fitem%2Fsimply-austen

Austen Family Album quilt by Nancy A. Bekofske
pattern based on Barbara Brackman's Austen Family Album

Pride and Prejudice Story Book Quilt
by Nancy A. Bekofske

Florence Gordon by Brian Morton

I read Florence Gordon by Brian Morton for book club this month.

Florence is strong and sure and unmovable, so imperious in the surety of her superior understanding that she is hard to be around. She is also single-minded, unable to small talk or socialize, wasting time on trivialities.

At 75 years old, she is trying to write one last book before the inevitable. Her granddaughter Emily helps her grandmother by doing research. Emily ends up learning about her grandmother's life and achievements, her iconic books and essays. And in the process is able to find her own path.

The son/daughter-in-law thread was not necessary; their story was inconclusive and did not seem related to Florence. Unless the daughter-in-law was supposed to be a foil for Florence, showing her opposite, so granddaughter Emily has two role models to choose from. Her mother worships Florence but she is not much like her; she is a good enough mom, although not so good a wife.

I hated the short episodic chapters, they did not draw me to keep reading, each a self-contained scene.

You expect to love your children; it brings a different kind of joy to realize you admire them.

Florence is an interesting character whom one admires more than likes. I especially appreciated Emily's struggle to understand her grandmother and the Feminist movement and how it helped her make a choice about a former boyfriend. The book was written in 2014. In the book, Emily has taken a year off from college.

Emily wasn't particularly political, and she had no idea if she was a feminist. She knew she was a beneficiary of the women's movement--she'd read enough novels, she'd seen enough episodes of Mad Men to know what life before the women's movement was like--but at the same time, the word "feminism" didn't have great associations for her. The feminist girls she knew at Oberlin, her roommate among them, were the kind of people who made you feel bad for liking what you liked. 

Emily wondered whether your identity has less to do with anything inside you than with the time in which you happen to be alive. 

The novel has high praise from critics and readers and was a finalist for the Kirkus Prize.  But the book club members did not give high ratings to the book. Some admired Florence. We did fill an entire hour talking about the book. But the open ending was not appreciated.

I have read several books recently about older women who came to age in the 1960s. I am sensing a trend here of people who want to explore a politically active generation of women. These women end up being failures as wives and mothers.

I am getting irritated by that generalization, and hope that in the future writers will explore how women can be political, interacting for the common good, while still being loving parents. Perhaps the 'latch-key' generation wishes they had June Cleaver moms.

The Turned-Intos by Elizabeth Gordon: The Garden Folk

The Turned-Intos by Elizabeth Gordon and illustrated by Janet Laura Scott was first published in 1920 in Great Britain. I have a 1935 edition published by Wies-Parslow Company, New York.

The book was written to teach children about the fauna of the garden. In each chapter, Jane Elizabeth meets something new: a Swallow Tail butterfly and Humming-bird moths, frogs and toads, bumble-bees and honeybees, even hornets and spiders.

The chapter begins with a poem about the creature which is followed with a story in which Jane Elizabeth encounters it. Prince Tiger Swallow Tail butterfly introduces himself and his sister as Turned-Intos-- "when you start out in life one sort of thing and after a while, you turn into something very different and scarcely to be believed."

"Although Jane Elizabeth had a new book and very much wished to read it, having brought it into the garden with her, she had not been able to read much. The young robins had been so very funny, half flying and half flopping about, and Mother Robin had been so very anxious for them to do every little movement of the wings just right, and had made so much noise telling them how to fly, that it was much more interesting than a book, no matter how new it was."

Jane learns that all these creatures have a life cycle involving a physical change.

The lesson guide for the chapter on the Humming-Bird Moth begins, "Did you know that the government at Washington is helping farmers all over the country to fight insect pests? Some moths, such as the peach moth and the gypsy moth do great damage to trees. It may be that you have heard of the boll weevil and the Japanese beetle. Both of these insects caused a great deal of trouble for the farmers by destroying their crops. Uncle Sam had to fight these insect enemies for a good many years before he got them under control. Our government needs men and women to help in this insect war. Would you like to be one of the helpers? Choose one of the four pests you have just read about and write a fifty word composition on it."

The lesson plan calls Ladybugs the 'police force of the plant world' because it eats insect pests. "Immigrants coming to our shores must be carefully inspected. try to find out about some of our laws which require the inspection of fruits and vegetable and plants imported from other countries, or shipped from one state to another."

I love these illustrations!

A Walk in the Woods

We went for a walk in the woods today. This summer was brutally hot, and my husband had knee replacement therapy, so we are just now getting to enjoy walking again.

We went to Stage Nature Center in Troy, Michigan, just a few miles away. I had never been there before but had seen photographs my brother shared from his walks there.

The nature center has 100 acres and includes an educational center.

The nature trails are nearly two miles long and go through deep, dark wooded areas filled with deer and birds, a marshy area, a pond, and meadows.

The woods are left quite natural, with fallen trees left in place. Michigan wildflowers are protected from the deer with cages over them.

There are sugar maples which are tapped to make maple syrup every year, which is sold in the visitor's center.

The Rouge River flows through the nature center. This is the same river that goes through Detroit. The Rouge watershed draws from the densely populated and urbanized area of Southeast Michigan.

We were told there are thirteen deer in the park. We saw at least four sets of doe and fawn. They are alert but used to people and don't run off.

The trails vary from mulched paths to dirt paths riddled with tree roots to wood walkways over the marsh. The most difficult part of the trail was the Fox Trail which had an uphill climb with steps to reach the top of the ravine...and of course then one must come down again!

I noted several quilts in the nature center. This tree quilt with an owl is a fundraiser silent auction.

 This owl quilt is a temporary loan.

The visitor's center has a library, display cases, and several interactive areas for children. Educational activities for all ages are offered.

I look forward to returning to see the woods in other seasons.