Category: Austen Biography

EP93: The Thing About Austen's Teenage Writings with Dr. Kathryn Sutherland

7/17/2024

Jane Austen's early works, contained within three surviving notebooks, are funny, sharp, and brimming over with personality. This episode we are joined by Dr. Kathryn Sutherland, one of the editors of the Oxford World’s Classics edition of Austen’s Teenage Writings, to discuss the nature of these writings, the way they were consumed by her family audience, and their relationship to her later novels. Thank you so much to Kathryn for joining us for this episode! You can learn more about her and her work at www.english.ox.ac.uk/people/professor-kathryn-sutherland.

EP22: The Thing About Regency Birthdays

1/20/2022

Happy birthday, Jane! It's Jane Austen's birthday, and we're marking the occasion with an episode on Regency birthday celebrations. If you have ever had countless fans celebrate your 246th birthday, this episode is especially for you.

Selected episode sources

Austen, Jane. Jane Austen’s Letters. Edited by Deirdre Le Faye. 4th ed. Oxford [England] ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.
Burns, Maggie. “Jane Austen and Birthdays.” Persuasions 28 (2006): 233–37.
Pinsker, Joe. “The Strange Origins of American Birthday Celebrations.” The Atlantic, November 2, 2021. https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2021/11/history-birthday-celebrations/620585/.
Stice, Joel. “The Real Reason We Put Candles On A Birthday Cake.” Mashed.com, August 19, 2019. https://www.mashed.com/162731/the-real-reason-we-put-candles-on-a-birthday-cake/.
Jane Austen Centre. “The Breeching Ceremony of a Young Boy and His Rite of Passage.” Accessed January 28, 2022. https://janeausten.co.uk/blogs/fashion-for-children/breeching-ceremony-young-boy-rite-passage.
Tieken-Boon Van Ostade, Ingrid. “Birthday Letters from Jane Austen.” OUP (blog), December 16, 2015. https://blog.oup.com/2015/12/birthday-letters-jane-austen/.

EP11: The Thing About Steventon Rectory

10/3/2021

Although it no longer exists, Steventon Rectory was the birthplace of Jane Austen and where she lived for the first 25 years of her life. This week we travel back to Steventon Rectory and learn more about this place that was so formative to Austen's development. And most importantly, we dig up some excellent Austen potato content. This biographical episode was the result of multiple listener requests — we love hearing from you!

Selected episode sources:

Austen, Jane. Jane Austen’s Letters. Edited by Deirdre Le Faye. 4th ed. Oxford [England] ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.
Austen-Leigh, James Edward. A Memoir of Jane Austen and Other Family Recollections. Edited by Kathryn Sutherland. Reiss. Oxford World’s Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
BBC News. “Unlocking Secrets from Jane Austen’s Steventon Home.” Accessed January 28, 2022. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-20678244.
Jane Austen Centre. “Jane Austen’s China and the Steventon Archaeological Dig.” Accessed January 28, 2022. https://janeausten.co.uk/blogs/jane-austen-life/jane-austens-china-and-the-steventon-archaeological-dig.
Le Faye, Deirdre. Jane Austen’s Country Life: Uncovering the Rural Backdrop to Her Life, Her Letters and Her Novels. London: Frances Lincoln Publisher, 2014.
Worsley, Lucy. Jane Austen at Home. First U.S. edition. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2017.

Episodes

EP93: The Thing About Austen's Teenage Writings with Dr. Kathryn Sutherland

EP22: The Thing About Regency Birthdays

EP11: The Thing About Steventon Rectory

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