NYT: Pride and Popularity

By SOPHIE GEE
Published: April 16, 2010
Jane Austen’s best-known phrase describing her own writing appears in a letter to her nephew, James Edward Austen-Leigh, an aspiring novelist and student at Winchester College. When she heard he’d lost some draft chapters, she jokingly announced that she couldn’t be accused of purloining his pages: “What should I do with your strong, manly, spirited Sketches, full of Variety & Glow? — How could I possibly join them on to the little bit (two Inches wide) of Ivory on which I work with so fine a Brush, as produces little effect after much labour?” The “little bit of Ivory,” frequently quoted to describe Austen’s virtuosic miniaturism, started out as a self-deprecating remark to a much younger, less talented relative who would later become her biographer.

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Jane Austen a model of manners

A recent New York Times article references Jane Austen as a model of a time in which manners were important. The article is about the loss of manners...Enjoy!

Op-Ed Contributor
It’s My Party, and You Have to Answer
By RAND RICHARDS COOPER
Published: March 14, 2010
Hartford

HERE’S an etiquette experiment for you: E-mail an invitation for a party, one month out, to 45 friends. Request an R.S.V.P. Provide a follow-up e-mail message, two weeks later, politely reminding them to get back to you.

How many will?

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More Jane Austen at the Morgan!

Here is a link for an interesting slideshow of the Morgan exhibit: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/11/06/arts/20091107-austen-ss_index.html Courtesy of the New York Times

Jane Austen Exhibit at the Morgan

New York Times reports in the ARTS / ART & DESIGN in the November 07, 2009 edition on the Jane Austen exhibit at the Morgan Library. Follow this link: Exhibition Review 'A Woman: At the Morgan, the Jane Austen Her Family Knew for the article by EDWARD ROTHSTEIN "A Woman's Wit: Jane Austen's Life and Legacy," a new exhibition at the Morgan Library & Museum, includes many personal letters and early manuscripts by the author.