Circulating libraries in the 18th and 19th century were associated with leisure, and were found in cities and towns with a population of 2,000 and upward. They were as much of an attraction in wealthy resorts, where people came to relax and look after their health, as in cities and small towns, like Basingstoke, where Jane [...]
Archive for August, 2010
PBS Masterpiece Mystery: A Review of Counter Culture Blues, an Inspector Lewis Mystery
Posted in Movie review, Popular culture, tagged Counter Culture Blues, Inspector Lewis, Inspector Lewis Review, Kevin Whately, Laurence Fox, PBS Masterpiece Mystery Review, PBS Masterpiece Mystery! on August 29, 2010 | 14 Comments »
PBS Masterpiece Mystery shows the first Inspector Lewis Season III episode, Counter Culture Blues, on August 29.
In My Book Review Queue: Pride and Prejudice: An Annotated Edition
Posted in Book review, jane austen, Jane Austen Novels, tagged Patricia Meyer Spacks, Pride and Prejudice An Annotated Edition on August 28, 2010 | 7 Comments »
The new annotated edition of Pride and Prejudice by Patricia Meyer Spacks, a professor of English, Emerita, at the University of Virginia, is so beautiful a book, so lush to the touch and rich with beautiful color images and scholarly insights, that I cannot wait to spend the weekend reading it. Pride and Prejudice: An Annotated [...]
Going to Bath with Jane Austen
Posted in Architecture, Bath, jane austen, Jane Austen's World, Regency Life, Regency Period, Regency society, Regency Travel, Regency World, tagged Bath Abbey, Jane Austen and Bath, London Calling, Pump Room, Regency Bath, Tony Grant on August 25, 2010 | 17 Comments »
Inquiring Readers, Tony Grant, who lives in London, teaches, and acts as occasional tour guide, has been contributing articles to Jane Austen Today for several months. Recently, Tony and his family traveled to Bath and the West Country. This is one of many posts he has written about his journey. Tony also has his own [...]
A Glimpse of Jane Austen: Anna Lefroy’s Recollections
Posted in jane austen, Jane Austen illustrators, Jane Austen's image, Jane Austen's World, Regency Life, Regency style, Regency World, tagged Anna Lefroy, Portraits of Jane Austen on August 22, 2010 | 9 Comments »
Even rarer than a first edition of a Jane Austen novel are images taken of her during her short lifetime. A small watercolor by her sister Cassandra has been reworked over the centuries to make Jane look more attractive. Another watercolor image taken of Jane’s backside as she sits in the grass, a dark silhouette, [...]
Louis Bazalgette: The Prince Regent’s Tailor
Posted in Fashions, jane austen, Jane Austen's World, Regency Life, Regency style, Regency World, tagged Louis Bazalgette, Prince Regent, Prince Regent's tailor, Prinny on August 19, 2010 | 15 Comments »
Most of the known accounts published about George, Prince of Wales, and his profligate spending on clothes and luxury items say that his main tailor was John Weston. It is also said that under the influence of young Beau Brummel he patronized other London tailors such as Meyer, and Schweitzer and Davidson. Steven Parissien, in [...]
The Servant’s Entrance to Regency Townhouses
Posted in Architecture, Bath, jane austen, Jane Austen's World, Regency Life, Regency London, Regency Period, Regency society, Regency style, Regency World, tagged Coal Hole, Coal Vault, London Calling, Regency town house, Servant's entrance, Tony Grant on August 17, 2010 | 14 Comments »
Tony Grant, who writes posts for Jane Austen Today and London Calling, stands above the “area”, the servants entrance that sits below ground and in front of town houses built during the Georgian and Regency eras. A wrough-iron fence separated the upper level from the lower basement level, which was sunk partly below the street. [...]
Happy Birthday, Georgette Heyer
Posted in Book review, Georgette Heyer, jane austen, Jane Austen's World, Popular culture, Regency style, tagged A Proposal to Cecily, Friday's Child, Lady of Quality on August 16, 2010 | 6 Comments »
Inquiring readers: Austenprose has been featuring Georgette Heyer all this month. Today is her 108th birthday! Laurel Ann has graciously interviewed me about one of my favorite authors. My interview on her blog begins with this question: Some critics write Georgette Heyer off as merely a romance novelist. Others praise her for her historical accuracy, [...]
Beau Brummel’s Tailors
Posted in Fashions, jane austen, Jane Austen's World, Regency Life, Regency style, Regency World, tagged Beau Brummel, Beau Brummell, George Bryan Brummel, Male Regency fashion, Regency Dandies, Regency Fashion on August 13, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Brummel’s morning dress was similar to that of every other gentleman. Hessians and pantaloons, or top boots and buckskins, with a blue coat and a light or buff coloured waistcoat, of course, fitting to admiration on the best figure in England. His dress of an evening was a blue coat and white waistcoat, black pantaloons, [...]
The Regency Dandy’s Corset
Posted in jane austen, Popular culture, Regency Customs, Regency Life, Regency London, Regency Period, Regency society, Regency style, Regency World, tagged Men's Regency corsets, Prince Regent, Prince Regent corset, Prince Regent toilet, Regency Dandy, Regency mens wear on August 10, 2010 | 3 Comments »
Even as women freed themselves for a short time from the confinement of corsets, the Regency dandy, following the Prince Regent’s fashion, began to constrict himself into a wasp-waisted and broad shouldered look. For men of a certain challenged physique, firm waists and tight stomachs were achieved through laced corsets. The sculpting of wide shoulders, [...]
Georgette Heyer Month
Posted in Austenesque novels, Book review, Georgette Heyer, Georgian Life, Jane Austen's World, Regency Life, Regency Period, Regency style, Regency World, tagged Georgette Heyer, Georgette Heyer's Regency World, Jennifer Kloester, Regency Books, The Convenient Marriage, These Old Shades on August 9, 2010 | 3 Comments »
Along with Austenprose, this blog is celebrating Georgette Heyer’s 108th birthday on August 16th. Look for Laurel Ann’s interview with me on her blog that day! Her questions were quite challenging. The recent reviews featured on Laurel Ann’s blog echo some of the reviews that have been published in recent years on this blog. For [...]
The Dress Maker and the Seamstress in Regency England
Posted in Fashions, jane austen, Jane Austen's World, Regency Life, Regency style, Regency World, tagged 19th Century Seamstress, Needlework and sewing, Regency Fashion, Seamstress, Sewing in the Regency era on August 8, 2010 | 11 Comments »
Over a century ago, Douglas Jerrold asked: Is there a more helpless, a more forlorn and unprotected, creature than, in nine cases out of ten, the Dress Maker’s Girl – the Daily Sempstress; pushed prematurely from the parental hearth, or rather no hearth, to win her miserable crust by aching fingers? Imagine that it is [...]
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Hello, my name is Vic and I live in Richmond, VA. I work in program and professional development at Virginia Commonwealth University, and I have adored Jane Austen almost all of my life. I am a proud member of the Jane Austen Society of America. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. I do not accept any form of cash advertising, sponsorship, or paid topic insertions. However, I do accept and keep books, DVDs and CDs to review.
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Regency Fashion: Ladies Outerwear and Shawls
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The Distinctions of Regency Dress: Undress, Half Dress, Full Dress and Their Meaning
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Petticoats in the Regency Era
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Irresistible Attraction
My Regency Tea Cup Review Ratings
- Five Regency tea cups: The book is not perfect (few books are), but it was well worth its purchase and possesses many outstanding qualities that makes it stand head and shoulders above its counterparts.
- Four Regency tea cups: This book offered many hours of pleasant reading, and I found I could not put it down.
- Three Regency tea cups: Damned with faint praise. I put the book down often, but was intrigued enough to finish it. In this instance, the movie might be better.
- Two Regency tea cups: This book required major changes that the author and editor should have fixed before publishing deadline.
- One Regency tea cup: Oh dear. I do so feel for the trees that sacrificed their lives for this verbal garbage.
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