Free Preview of Vignettes!

Jane Austen

You can enjoy a free preview of my new Amazon Kindle e-book Vignettes here!  Click on the link to read a free sample and discover the wonderful literary world of Jane Austen.

Vignettes is based on the many articles I’ve written over the years for Jane Austen’s Regency World, mostly mini-biographies of famous writers who either influenced Austen, or were contemporaries of hers. The authors chosen just happen to be my own personal favourites.

Vignettes begins with a brief introduction to Austen’s life and work.

The next chapter looks at women’s education at that date, with reference to how Austen’s contemporaries discussed it. Mary Wollstonecraft’s thoughts on daughters’ schooling, Priscilla Wakefield, Mrs Barbauld and others are included. I also discuss women’s magazines and how they helped to influence and educate young women at that time. The chapter concludes by looking at some contemporary critiques of the supposed pernicious effect of novel-reading.

The following chapter looks at the lives of Hogarth, Rudolph Ackermann, Johnson and Boswell. 
The chapter after that discusses Jane’s contemporary rivals like Ann Radcliffe, Mary Brunton, Fanny Burney and Mme de Stael.

After a chapter on social ‘influencers’ like Parson Malthus, Thomas Bernard and Robert Owen, we move on to discussing the lives of Cowper and Thomson, William and Dorothy Wordsworth, John Keats, Percy and Mary Shelley, Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott, etc. Wherever possible, I have set each author in the context of Jane’s life and works by including quotes from her letters and novels. 

Scotland’s Pride

Heavy snow is forecast later today; I hope it will somehow miss us. Spring seems like a long way away… the last few winters, spring bulbs have been peeking above ground before Christmas, but I haven’t spotted any yet this year.
My latest feature on Sir Walter Scott is in Discover My Past Scotland now. Scott would have been thrilled Scotland has its own Parliament nowadays (currently debating its budget), but I wonder if the Parliament Building would be to his taste? I suspect he would prefer a more traditional design, perhaps something along the style of his house at Abbotsford.

Images: Abbotsford, Sir Walter Scott’s home. History of England, Charles Knight, (London, c.1868.)

The Scottish Regalia. Scott was instrumental in recovering the long-lost Scottish regalia. He got permission from the Prince Regent (later George IV) to search in Edinburgh Castle for the lost treasure in 1818. Black’s Picturesque Tourist of Scotland (24th edition), (A& C Black, 1882.)

Making history come alive

As usual, I watched this week's episode of Neil Oliver's History of Scotland with huge interest, especially as this programme's subject was spookily prescient of a topic I will be covering in a future issue of Discover My Past Scotland - Sir Walter Scott and his influence on our perception of Scotland's culture and people. His novels made Scotland's history come alive for readers all over the world. It was great to see Scott's Conundrum Castle, his affectionate name for his home in the Scottish Borders. A large section of the programme was dedicated to the tragedy of the Highland clearances and the rapacity of the Scottish lairds.
Scott was staunchly Conservative in his politics and view of Scottish history. He regarded Radical politics with horror. Sir Walter visited the silk towns of Cheshire during the trade depression of 1826. He wrote in his diary that unemployment and hunger had rendered the lower classes 'desperately outrageous.'
Image: Sir Walter Scott, 1822. Engraving by William Darton. Author's collection.

Credit crunch

The financial news is so dire at the moment, one’s frightened to turn on the TV or radio in case there’s been another catastrophe. Banking crises are sadly nothing new. During my research for Regency Cheshire, I’ve been learning about the great bank crash of 1825. Many country banks went bust, and their banknotes were withdrawn. The Royal Mint coined 150,000 sovereigns per day to meet the unprecedented demand for hard currency. The country’s credit was only saved by the accidental discovery of hundreds of thousands of one pound notes lying forgotten somewhere in the Bank of England (presumably in someone’s underwear drawer.) (Knight’s History of England, 1868.) The financial crisis continued into the following year; thousands of firms went bankrupt. Industrial firms, who employed many workers in Lancashire and Cheshire, were especially hard hit.
One high profile literary victim of the financial crash was author Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832.) A disastrous partnership with his publishers meant he became liable for vast debts when the firm collapsed; his remaining years were spent battling ill-health and heroically trying to repay his creditors.
Image: Sir Walter Scott, Great Authors of English Literature, 1899.