Jane Austen in 41 objects

Janities will rejoice in finding 41 new ways to connect with their favorite author! Starting with an overview of Jane Austen's life and times and her family history, Sutherland reveals how these objects provide insight into Jane's financial and social status as an unmarried woman, dependent on others for her care and comfort. Readers are encouraged to think deeply about the items cited in Austen's novels: do they help define the characters and their situations, or are they more meaningful to the author herself? Each carefully selected object and accompanying commentary illuminates some aspect of Austen's experiences or its appearance in her writing. The line-up includes Jane Austen's pelisse (a fitted coat-dress), her music book and writing table, letters, a family quilt, a wallpaper fragment, a theater bill, an account of the juicy scandal surrounding her aunt Mrs. Leigh Perrot's trial for shoplifting, a hand-decorated Jane Austen plate made by Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant in the early 1930s, and a shirt, based on an original garment, made for the 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. The variety of objects and their lively, informative stories greatly extend our understanding of Austen, her world, and her work.