“Anna Letitia Barbauld, Jane Austen’s Unseen Interlocutor” has appeared as Chapter 11 in “Anna Letitia Barbauld: New Perspectives,” edited by William McCarthy and Olivia Murphy, published by Bucknell University Press, and co-published with Rowman & Littlefield. Check out the gorgeous cover, with a hot air ballon rising over London. As a leading public intellectual, a rare thing for a woman in her time, Mrs. Barbauld is well worth getting to know. I also strongly recommend Bill’s prize-winning biography of her. It combines extensive research with (oh marvellous!) genuine readability.
Jacqui Grainger’s symposium in Sydney on the four major novels of 1814, Mansfield Park, Patronage, The Wanderer, and Waverley was quite splendid, as was her exhibition of works by the authors or significant to them. Jacqui added her own informative story-boards.
Then to Philadelphia to talk to the local JASNA chapter about “The Watsons” in the elegant surroundings of the Union League Club. Fun and prizes galore, and the opportunity to hear Janine Barchas’s lively take on “Sanditon.” Thank you Paul Savidge, Jennifer Winsky, Alison Woo, and Elizabeth Steele! I shall never forget your cat-panthers, Elizabeth.
On my way home, I gave the the Minneapolis chapter a sneak peek into my new book: “Sanditon, the Duke of Clarence, and Sara Baartman, the ‘Hottentot Venus.'” Gail Parker and her kind friends spoilt me rotten. Thank you, everyone!
In both great cities I marvelled at the astonishing collections of art in the various museums, including the very same portrait of Lady Anne Wentworth (born Strafford) that Jane Austen would have gazed upon when she visited the Reynolds retrospective of 1813. I reckon it deserves a plaque. Janine tells you more about it on her website, “What Jane Saw.”
New Zealand now has a chapter of the Jane Austen Society of Australia! I’ll speak at its second meeting in September (Wellington) before travelling onwards to the Jane Austen and Burney meetings in Montreal, where my topics are “Jane Austen and the Subscription List to ‘Camilla'” and “Fanny Burney Meets Fanny Price.” What a treat it will be to see old friends and new at the end of that very long journey.
Link: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781611485509
Was Jane Austen Anna Letitia Barbauld’s Unseen Interlocutor?
