The season in Regency England was not just balls and Almacks. The theatre in Regency times was an important place for those who spent the season in London, and those who ventured to the theatre did not attend to simply watch a play. They dressed to the nines and sat in long carriage lines to …
Did you know that in as late as Victorian times water was considered dangerous? In fact, one of the main causes of death in children was tainted water. Adults avoided a similar fate by mixing wine with their water—nothing like a little alcohol to kill the germs! So, if you eliminate plain water, what was …
Christmas Dinner at Longbourn with the officers and the Gardiners proves interesting. December 25, 1811 Later that night, Elizabeth paced the very clean drawing room, waiting for their guests to arrive. Fresh evergreen and holly filled the room with the season’s fragrances, tied with cheery red bows. It should have been a very …
The parlour at Netherfield was bursting with cheer as my family enjoyed Jane and her Mr. Bingley’s first Christmas Eve celebration. The newly wed couple sat side-by-side on a sofa across from where I stood near the window and whispered to one another as they observed those around them. Jane’s countenance was blissful as was …
On the eleventh day of Christmas, Jane Austen gave to me… an excerpt from A Jane Austen Christmas to whet your appetite. Each year, Regency era British theaters prepared Christmas pantomimes (pantos) that would begin on Boxing Day and run as long as the audiences demanded them. These were not silent productions, but …
A Christmas Vignette: Darcy and Elizabeth are traveling to Vienna for Christmas not long after their first anniversary, but things don’t go quite as expected… Elizabeth looked up from the pile of invitations stacked next to her plate and sighed quietly. After making a rambling wedding tour from the Côte d’Azur to Paris after their …
It was Beatrice Nearey, an Edmontonian Janeite, who gave me an auspicious kick start as a Jane Austen Playwright. I had written Austenesque stories for years, but it never occurred to me to try my hand at plays, until Beatrice and her friend Dolores Kohler cleverly adapted a story of mine, “The Courtship of Mrs. …
The Cajun Cheesehead Christmas Chronicles [Originally posted 03/26/2011] Hello, folks. Jack Caldwell here. As I have said ad nauseum, I am a Cajun, born and raised in Thibodaux, Louisiana. You may have heard of it: Jerry Reed’s Amos Moses (http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/j/jerry_reed/amos_moses.html) I digress. (You should be used to that by now.) Anyhow, Louisiana being what it …
On the sixth day of our special Christmas celebration, we commemorate the gift of Jane Austen herself, since December 16th is her birthday! I’m sure we all started by falling in love with Jane’s novels and characters. That’s how I began. But somewhere along the way, I became equally intrigued with the lady who created …
On the fifth day of Christmas, Jane Austen gave to me… a new Christmas short story! November 27, 1811 What a difference a pair of fine eyes and a clever wit could make in an otherwise dreadful social obligation. Darcy laced his hands behind his head and stared up at the bed …
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