Regency/Edwardian Fashion Throwdown

Gentle readers: As you might have noticed, I have had Downton Abbey on my mind. If you haven't watched the series, do tune in tonight on PBS and watch the second installment. If you have fallen behind, you can watch the first episode online at this link. The sets and fashions of this mini-series are simply and outrageously gorgeous.

Your decision this week is rather simple: to decide which period fashions you like best. Edwardian, such as shown in Dowton Abbey, or Regency, as in the recently aired Emma, or both. You decide.

Downtown Abbey Costumes

Emma 2009 costumes

Regency-Edwardian Fashion Throwdown
	Edwardian, as in Downton Abbey
	Regency, as in Emma
	Both. I love costume dramas, period.
pollcode.com free polls

Downton Abbey, Episode Two: Twitter Party and Blog Round-Up

The second episode of Downton Abbey will be aired by PBS Masterpiece Classic at 9 PM on Sunday. PBS will be hosting a second Twitter party in honor of the event, and yours truly will be there once again as an unofficial host! @janeaustenworld.

Start of the hunt, Downton Abey

The event will begin from 9 PM EST through 10:30 PM PT. Including Vic, the other bloggers who will be hosting are:

• @pbs; @masterpiecepbs; 
• Evangeline Holland of Edwardian Promenade (@edwardian_era); 
• Laurel Ann Nattress of Austenprose (@Austenprose); 
• Cheryl LeBrun of Enchanted Serenity of Period films (@charleybrown77); 
• Vic Sanborno of Jane Austen’s World (@janeaustenworld) 

If you plan on joining, make sure to tag.your posts with the hashtag #DowntonPBS or use PBS's TweetGrid, which will automatically add the hashtag.

If you want to read our tweets go to Twitter and type: #DowntonPBS

Links to articles about the series:

Jane Austen's World: 

• Everything You Wanted to Know About the Entail in Downton Abbey and More
• Watch Downton Abbey Online
• Entertaining visitors in an English country house, such as Downton Abbey
• Downton Abbey's Recycled Costumes
• Downstairs in Downton Abbey: The Servants
• Upstairs in Downton Abbey: The Three Crawley Sisters
• The Jane Austen Connection to Downton Abbey and Egypt

Edwardian Promenade:

• Addressing Titled Persons
• Downton Abbey, Episode One

Enchanted Serenity of Period Films:

• Downton Abbey: A Milliner's Dream?
• Familiar Faces of Period Drama: Downton Abbey

Austenprose:

• Downton Abbey, Review and Recap of Episode One
• Preview of Downton Abbey

Friday Follow: The Graphics Fairy

Dancing the minuet

Find romantic banners, backgrounds, buttons and images by Karen on The Graphics Fairy, such as children dancing the minuet, a fashion plate of Regency dresses and couple on a bench that were drawn much later than the era depicted, and decorative Victorian scissors. You can even request a graphic of your own Thursday Request Day.

Fashion plate with Regency dresses

Couple on Bench

Decorative Victorian scissor

Daria and Jane: Write Where it Hurts

Gentle Readers: This clip comes from Season 2, Episode 13 "Write Where It Hurts" of MTV's Daria.



Some fun lines from the clip:

First: Quinn and Daria talk
Daria: Mr. Lane's temperament, outlook, indeed his very manners are such as to arouse bemusement rather than endearment in the object of his attention.
Quinn: Huh?
Daria: He's flaky.

Second: The talk continues
Daria: Dear sister, I would hope that whoever does become Lady Lane does so out of regard for Mr. Lane, and not for his estate.
Quinn: What about his car?
Daria: Hmm.

Daria and Quinn

Third: Men approach on horseback

Quinn: And pray, upon this dewy morning, what errand is it that finds you guys abroad?

Quinn's Admirer 1: Miss Quinn, may I get you a bracing spot of tea?
Quinn's Admirer 2: Do you need a powder, to cure the vapors?
Quinn's Admirer 3: I'll tune your pianoforte!

Daria: Oh, Quinn, your suitors are so numerous because you are so fair and good!
Quinn: Oh, sister! Your wit and judgment ensure that you will not only marry well but wisely.

Contributed by Raquel Salleberry, Jane Austen em Português

Jane Austen's Tiny Writing Desk in Miniature

Do you think that the table where Jane used to write, in Chawton Cottage, was too small? Then you must see this lovely set made by Grace White.

Jane Austen's writing table in miniature. Image @Grace White

When I asked for permission to publish this image she told me that she custom made the table. (She works primarily in 1:12 scale (1 inch = 1 foot), and occasionally other miniature scales.) Grace,who is from Greensboro, N.C., talks about her miniatures on her blog, Nid D'abeille.

I was commissioned to make replicas of the Chawton Cottage table and chair where Jane Austen did much of her writing. It was a very enjoyable endeavor! I hope the owner will be pleased when she receives them. I think I can say they're some of the finest things I've made.

The front legs of the chair and the turned pedestal of the table were adapted from existing miniature turned pieces, but everything else I made from scratch.

Grace's miniatures are for sale in her Etsy shop, The Honeybee.

A gift for a friend: Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet. Image @Grace White

Posted by Raquel Sallaberry, Jane Austen em Português

Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth 16 Years Later

Geoffrey Rush, Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth in The King's Speech

Have you ever wondered how Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth would look after fifteen years of marriage? Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle (Pride and Prejudice 1995) shared only a few moments together on screen in The King's Speech (she played Myrtle Logue, Geoffrey Rush's wife), but my heart rejoiced. My question was finally answered: How well would this couple fare in the looks department several decades on? Very well, as you can see.

Downton Abbey Poll: First Episode of this PBS Masterpiece Classic

The Earl (Hugh Bonneville) and Countess (Elizabeth McGovern) of Grantham

Downton Abbey Poll: 1st Episode
	I loved it
	I liked it
	It was ok
	I didn't like it
	Hated it
	Didn't see it
pollcode.com free polls

Join the Downton Abbey PBS Masterpiece Classic Twitter Party on Sundays in January

The first episode of Downton Abbey will be aired by PBS Masterpiece Classic at 9 PM tonight. At the same time, PBS will be hosting a Twitter party, and yours truly intends to be there as an unofficial host! @janeaustenworld.

Maggie Smith as the Dowager Countess in Downton Abbey

The event will begin from 9 PM EST through 10:30 PM PT. Including Vic, the other bloggers who will be hosting are:

• @pbs; @masterpiecepbs; 
• Evangeline Holland of Edwardian Promenade (@edwardian_era); 
• Laurel Ann Nattress of Austenprose (@Austenprose); 
• Cheryl LeBrun of Enchanted Serenity of Period films (@charleybrown77); 
• Vic Sanborno of Jane Austen’s World (@janeaustenworld) 

If you plan on joining, make sure to tag.your posts with the hashtag #DowntonPBS and then visit the TweetGrid.

Remember to use the hashtag: #DowntonPBS

Links to articles about the series:

Jane Austen's World: 

• Entertaining visitors in an English country house, such as Downton Abbey
• Downton Abbey's Recycled Costumes
• Downstairs in Downton Abbey: The Servants
• Upstairs in Downton Abbey: The Three Crawley Sisters
• The Jane Austen Connection to Downton Abbey and Egypt

Edwardian Promenade: Introduction to Downton Abbey

Enchanted Serenity of Period Films: Familiar Faces of Period Drama: Downton Abbey

Austenprose: Preview of Downton Abbey

Jane Austen Twitter Project

Would you like to be part of a new Jane Austen story? Do you have a twitter account? Click on this link to find out how you can participate in this innovative project! In part, the introduction says:

We plan to run a storytelling session one day every week for about three months next year. Each week’s chapter will be posted online and on www.AustenAuthors.com on Sunday. You don’t have to be a published writer to join in — you just have to love your Jane!

So what happens next? Throughout January, we’ll be inviting you to come up with the basic set-up for a new Austen story. We’d like you to use characters from the original books (so we all know who they are), though you can mix and match them from different novels as much as you like. You can also include up to two new characters of your own, as long as you tell us a bit about them.

We’ve included our own sample story ... Just email your outline to austenproject@gmail.com before January 20 to take part, and we’ll then run a poll in which we’ll be inviting people to vote for the story idea they like best. If your story idea wins you’ll get to kick it off when we go live!

Friday Follow: A Lord Byron Blog

Raving About the Regency and Lord Byron is a new blog devoted to the Life, Times and "Scribblings" of the Poet Lord George Gordon Byron...."

Lady Byron's wedding pelisse 1815. Image @Tracy Bylo Hitchings

Tracy, the blog's creator says: I am finally on with my Regency inspired and Lord Byron blog!! I have also posted a slideshow of the actual Wedding Dress and Pelisse worn by Lady Byron in 1815...

This new blog is worth a follow!

Austen Inspired Reading & Viewing Challenges for 2011

Happy New Year fellow Janeites and book bloggers! With the New Year comes resolutions, and for book bloggers that means claiming and declaring your reading challenges for the year.

2011 is a celebratory year for Jane Austen and her legion of fans as it marks the bicentenary of the publication of Sense and Sensibility in 1811. To honor my favorite author and inspire readership, Austenprose is hosting two reading challenges and promoting another sponsored by the ladies at Historical Tapestry blog. They all dovetail nicely into each other, so we can all be multitasking readers this year. You can find the details to each challenge at these links. It is really quite simple, and as easy as reading or viewing 1 to 4 books or movies.

• The Sense and Sensibility Bicentenary Reading Challenge 2011

• Being a Jane Austen Mystery Reading Challenge 2011

• The Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

As a professional bookseller and Janeite, I am quite excited about the bicentenary. There is sure to be a spotlight on Jane Austen this year in the media because of the anniversary of Sense and Sensibility. I hope that the reading challenges will inspire and connect the online Jane Austen and book blogging communities, promote reading, and honor a great author.

A New Year's Gift: Matthew MacFadyen Reads a Passage from Pride and Prejudice

Matthew Macfadyen reads "that most extraordinary part" of Pride and Prejudice, which includes subtitles. (from Carte Noir). (Just in case you get lost in your dreams ...  "In vain I have struggled!"  )

Happy New Year, gentle readers of Jane Austen Today!

Posted by Raquel Sallaberry, Jane Austen em Portugues

Winner of the Book Giveaway: Dangerous To Know

And the winner of Tasha Alexander's Dangerous to Know is ... Ruth, from Book Talk and More. Please email your mailing address to me at janeaustensworld -at- gee-mail*.*com. Some of my favorite answers to the question tell us which mystery about Jane Austen's life you'd like to solve are: 

• I would love to know what Jane's plans were for "The Watsons"

• I would like to know more about Jane's relationship with her elder sister, Cassandra

• I'd like to know Jane in her later years, particularly during the decline of her health. How did she keep going?

• I would love to know more about her quiet life in general. I still secretly hope that one day someone in England will find some missing letter or whatever written by Jane.

• To know what Jane Austen had in mind for both The Watsons and Sanditon would really be interesting to me.

• I would like to know where she got her tenacity and boldness for such free thought and to become a writer. I guess what her family life was like to form the person of Jane Austen.

Mostly, readers wanted to know about her "true love" and more about her true relationship with Tom Lefroy.

Thank you all for participating!

Jane Austen meets Taio Cruz

Gentle readers, Katie Smith made this video for her sister. She passed it on for you to enjoy as well! Thanks, Katie. Nicely done.

Jane Austen Question Throwdown

Dear Readers: Downton Abbey will be shown on PBS Masterpiece Classic for 6 hours instead of the 8 hours shown on ITV. Here are some of the reasons for the downsizing, as written in the Daily Mail: Downton Downsized

Lady Sybil, Lady Mary, and Lady Edith

'Unsurprisingly, the lavish period drama has now been snapped up by an American network - although it seems the beautifully nuanced portrait of pre-First World War upper-class life could prove just a little too complex for the trans­atlantic audience.

For in the land of the notoriously short attention span, TV executives have taken a knife to the artfully crafted series, slashing its running time and simplifying the plotline for fear viewers will be left baffled.'

HUH!!!!? Show us the full 8 hours, I say. We who view PBS not only have the stamina to view long shows, but the background and historical knowledge to understand the nuances of British primogeniture and inheritance laws.

Rebecca Eaton, an executive producer for the PBS network - which will be airing it from next week - admits that American audiences demand a 'different speed' to their shows.

As a result, Downton, which ran for eight hours on ITV, has been slashed to six for the States, while the story­line about the inheritance of the Abbey has been downplayed.

Read more about this topic at the Daily Mail

Are we in the U.S. truly such short attention-spanned viewers? Please vote if you are interested in seeing the longer version of Downton Abbey (or not). We need to let PBS know our position.

UPDATE: Gentle readers, reader CharleyBrown left the following comment, which disputes the Daily Mail's article:

Vic, unfortunately the Daily Mail reporter chose to ignore, when it was explained to him by an American tv reviewer, that the running time in Britain is ALSO 6 hours once you take away the commercials. I have the British episodes and can attest to that.


Speaking to someone who has seen the new edited version, she told me that some NEW scenes have been added and the scenes that had been cut were only of repetitious dialogue, etc. and she indicated that she liked the changes.

And with regards to Ms. Eaton mentioning the appearance of Matthew Crawley in the first episode, that would happen with the new format. In UK, the first episode was 65 minutes, so with the 90 minute episode for PBS we would see the arrival of Downton's heir sooner.


It's a pity that the Daily Mail chose to greatly exaggerate the edits.

I am interested in seeing the
	8 hour version of Downton Abbey
	6 hour version on PBS as planned
	program any way I can
pollcode.com free polls

Jane Austen's Advice

Dear Readers, Happy New Year, everyone! 2011 promises to be a good on in Jane Austen Land.Thank you for visiting this blog and inspiring us to provide daily information about Jane.

A good friend, Lady Anne, sent me words of advice from Jane Austen's Little Advice Book. Our dear Jane is always good for a chuckle!

On Taking Autobiographies with a Grain of Salt:

"Those who tell their own story...must be listened to with caution." - Sanditon

On prediction the popularity of plastic surgery:

"But people themselves alter so much, that there is something new to observed in them forever" - (P&P)

Jane Austen's Little Advice Book by Cathryn Michon and Pamela Norris  MJF Books, New York, 1996