New Display at the Jane Austen House Museum

The dining room wall at the Jane Austen House museum at Chawton Cottage is exhibiting a new explanatory display of Sense and Sensibility. The novel celebrated its 200 year anniversary in 2011.The designs were based on the coloured illustrations by the brothers, Charles Edmund ( C. E.) and Henry Matthew (H. M.) Brock of Cambridge. These were included in the 1908 edition of the novel published by Dent and Company.

Click on image to read the text. Then click on link to see other images.

Information about the display sits on the new The Jane Austen's House Museum blog, written by Julie Wakefield, author of Austenonly.

Jane Austen's House Slide Show

PBS Masterpiece Classic's site keeps offering up gems for Jane Austen lovers. Click on this link to see a slide show of Jane Austen's house, including a peek into her kitchen and the bedroom she shared with her sister Cassandra.

Follow Rebecca Smith – Writer in Residence at Jane Austen's House Museum

Rebecca Smith is the first official Writer in Residence at Jane Austen's House Museum in Chawton – that is if you do not count Jane herself who revised or wrote all of her six major novels under that roof from 1809-1817. Follow Rebecca on her blog as she journals about her experiences presenting writing workshops, organizing school essay competitions, heading up writing and reading groups and writing her own novel – or if you are lucky enough to be in the neighborhood visit her in person on Mondays and Wednesdays. Here's and interesting tidbit about her from Jane Austen's House Museum website.

During the residency she will be finishing a novel that follows five generations of a family from Hampshire to India and back again. It was partly inspired by Chawton - Rebecca is Jane Austen’s great great great great great niece!

Even with blood ties, Rebecca has big shoes to fill, if that could evah be possible. She does however, in my estimation, have the ultimate dream job.

Cheers, Laurel Ann, Austenprose

Dispatches from Jane Austen’s House with Bee

If you are one of the fortunate Janeites to have recently visited the Jane Austen House Museum at Chawton, in Hampshire, England, you will know that her last residence and gardens have been newly restored and are not only both beautifully maintained, but an enchanting glimpse into her home and the early 19th-century country life. Imagine being a steward of that lovely and magical home. Meet Bee of From the Desk of Bee Drunken Blog who has that exact pleasure as a volunteer of Chawton Cottgae.

One of the delights and privileges of being a "steward" to the house is opening it up before the guests arrive. Sometimes, for a few precious minutes, I am entirely alone in the house. Although Jane lived here 200 years ago, she must have risen in the morning to open the same sash windows that I do. As she looked out of her bedroom window, she must have gazed with pleasure at the greenness of her garden. As she folded back the shutters of the dining parlour windows, she must have watched, with keen interest, as the little village of Chawton came to life.

Enjoy her reminiscences and reflections on Jane Austen's house, one of the most special places in the hearts of many Jane Austen fans at her lovely blog. We applaud your spirit of volunteerism Bee, and hope that we will be privileged to many more dispatches from Chawton Cottage.

Cheers, Laurel Ann, Austenprose

The Jane Austen House Museum Gets a Grand Make-over

The Jane Austen House Museum at Chawton in Hampshire has under gone a big renovation in honor of the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen's move to the village. A grand re-opening was celebrated by the community on July 5th. Visitors will now see a newly renovated interior, restoration of the Austen kitchen and a new learning center which features an audio-visual presentation of the life of Jane Austen, her family and her works.

Austen lived at Chawton Cottage from 1809-1817, and all of her six major novels were either revised or written there. You can read further about how this special home inspired her to continue writing after a ten year lapse, and its significance to Janeites at The Jane Austen House Museum Celebrates 200th Anniversary of the Author's Arrival at Chawton at Austenprose.

Cheers, Laurel Ann, Austenprose