Tag Archives: amusements
The House Party: An Expensive Affair
The Pinnacle of Country Entertaining
Invited to Pemberley? Here’s what you might expect. Summer vacation season is rapidly descending upon us. As we are trying to plan a bit of a vacation later in the summer, I naturally began thinking about the sort of summer vacations that might have been planned during the Regency era—because of course that is what everyone things about while contemplating summer travel, right? Yes, that is my husband shaking his head in the background. … Continue reading →
The Pianoforte of Jane Austen’s day
What was the pianoforte and how did it feature in Austen’s works? The pianoforte so often featured in Jane Austen’s works was essentially the same instrument we know today as the piano. The instrument first came into being about 1700, by Bartolomeo Cristofori of Padua who cared for the harpsichords of the Florentine court. He developed an instrument similar to a harpsichord that allowed the instrument to be played both soft and loud (the meaning … Continue reading →
Circulating Libraries and the Regency era Novel
What made circulating libraries so important to not just Jane Austen, but Georgian era women in general and what was the role of the humble Regency era novel in the whole affair? James Fordyce, in his Sermons to Young Women, counsels strongly against novels, the very sort of books offered by local and easily accessible circulating libraries. (Despite the face he had not read them, of course. But I digress…) He declared: What shall we … Continue reading →