Silent Monday: Jane Austen and Anna Chancellor

Cassandra's portrait of Jane Austen

Today's Silent Monday is not so silent:

Anna Chancellor, the actress who portrayed Caroline Bingley in 1995's Pride and Prejudice is related to Jane Austen. (Jane is 8 times her great aunt through Jane's brother, Edward.)  I was particularly struck by the family resemblance when these icons appeared side by side below a previous post. Both women are described as being tall and slender and having high cheekbones and striking eyes. Viewing Frances Austen's portrait below (he is Jane's brother), one sees the similarity of eyes, mouth, and chin.

The Anna Chancellor/Jane Austen Connection

One of the biggest surprises I ran across this year, but no big secret, was when I learned that Anna Chancellor, Caroline Bingley in Pride and Prejudice, 1995 (at left in image), and "Duckface" in Four Weddings and a Funeral, was a descendant of Jane Austen.

I heard Anna speak of the connection in BBC's The Real Jane Austen (2002), which she hosted. IMBd mentions: "Her eight-times great aunt is author Jane Austen...Fanny Rice was herself the granddaughter maternally of one Edward Knight, of Chawton, Hants, and Godmersham, Kent, whose younger sister just happened to be one Jane Austen, novelist."

Fanny's mother was Elizabeth Rice (1800-1884), sister to Fanny Knight, Jane Austen's favorite niece, and here lies the connection between Anna Chancellor and Jane Austen. When I learned of the association, I realized that Anna has the same striking eyes as those that stare out of 19th century Austen portraits. I was thinking particularly of Cassandra's watercolour of Jane, and the painting of Jane's brother, Francis.

Anna's career has been steady and successful since her break out role in Four Weddings and a Funeral. Continuing the Six Degrees of Austen Adaptation Separation associations, Anna and Hugh Laurie starred in this 2003 film (see image at right). Hugh portrayed an unforgettable Mr. Palmer in 1996's Sense and Sensibility.

Learn more about Anna in these links:

• Anna Chancellor: Caroline Bingley

• The Big Interview: Anna Chancellor, March 2008
  

• 2002 Interview in the Telegraph.co.UK

• For more Photos of Hugh Laurie and Anna Chancellor in Fortysomething, click here
  

Posted by Ms. Place