A look back...

On June 3, 1793 Jane pens the poem "Ode to Pity" for her Juvenilia. (janeausten.org)

Ode to Pity

1

Ever musing I delight to tread
The Paths of honour and the Myrtle Grove
Whilst the pale Moon her beams doth shed
On disappointed Love.
While Philomel on airy hawthorn Bush
Sings sweet and Melancholy, And the thrush
Converses with the Dove.

2

Gently brawling down the turnpike road,
Sweetly noisy falls the Silent Stream--
The Moon emerges from behind a Cloud
And darts upon the Myrtle Grove her beam.
Ah! then what Lovely Scenes appear,
The hut, the Cot, the Grot, and Chapel queer,
And eke the Abbey too a mouldering heap,
Cnceal'd by aged pines her head doth rear
And quite invisible doth take a peep.

 

-Jane Austen

Summer Reading Lists Arrive

I know how much you all love to read, so I've been keeping a list of all the Summer Reading Lists that have come across my desk this past week.

Source: notetosarah.tumblr.com via Britt on Pinterest

USA Today - Summer Books Preview
Wall Street Journal - Rewriting the Rules of Summer Fiction
NY Times Books - New Under the Sun: Books for Basking
Good Housekeeping - 11 Summer Beach Reads
Library Journal - Summertime, and the Reading is Easy
NPR - Summer Book Lists

Some Regency Fashion

Source: pemberley.com via gen on Pinterest

I love the color and the detail at the bottom of this dress. I thought the color was a burnt orange but the label says its red.

Source: thepragmaticcostumer.wordpress.com via Susie on Pinterest

I've been a bit shoe crazy lately, and these shoes just called out to me, "Amelia! You would so wear us!" And I answered back, "I would shoes, I would!"

Book Recomendation

Our member Barbara M. attended a book talk by Adriana Trigiani, author of The Shoemaker's Wife, which I recommend reading. Barbara also passes along a book recommendation by Adriana: 

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

Amazon.com Review

Seventeen-year-old Cassandra Mortmain wants to become a writer. Trouble is, she's the daughter of a once-famous author with a severe case of writer's block. Her family--beautiful sister Rose, brooding father James, ethereal stepmother Topaz--is barely scraping by in a crumbling English castle they leased when times were good. Now there's very little furniture, hardly any food, and just a few pages of notebook paper left to write on. Bravely making the best of things, Cassandra gets hold of a journal and begins her literary apprenticeship by refusing to face the facts. She writes, "I have just remarked to Rose that our situation is really rather romantic, two girls in this strange and lonely house. She replied that she saw nothing romantic about being shut up in a crumbling ruin surrounded by a sea of mud."


Rose longs for suitors and new tea dresses while Cassandra scorns romance: "I know all about the facts of life. And I don't think much of them." But romantic isolation comes to an end both for the family and for Cassandra's heart when the wealthy, adventurous Cotton family takes over the nearby estate. Cassandra is a witty, pensive, observant heroine, just the right voice for chronicling the perilous cusp of adulthood. Some people have compared I Capture the Castle to the novels of Jane Austen, and it's just as well-plotted and witty. But the Mortmains are more bohemian--as much like the Addams Family as like any of Austen's characters. Dodie Smith, author of 101 Dalmations, wrote this novel in 1948. And though the story is set in the 1930s, it still feels fresh, and well deserves its reputation as a modern classic. --Maria Dolan

Friday Videos! - Pride and Prejudice in 3D!

This is a cute little video series called 37 Seconds of Your Life You Can't Have Back.