Category: Education

Ep103: The Thing About Elegant Extracts

3/31/2025

Harriet has been talking a lot about this nice guy she met, which means that Emma has questions. In addition to Robert Martin's blood type, school transcripts, and tax returns, she would obviously like to know about his reading tastes and preferences.

This episode, we're flipping through the pages of Elegant Extracts.

Selected Sources

Altick, Richard D. The English Common Reader: A Social History of the Mass Reading Public, 1800-1900. 2nd ed. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1998.
Ford, Susan Allen. “Reading Elegant Extracts in Emma: Very Entertaining!” Persuasions On-Line 28, no. 1 (2007). https://jasna.org/persuasions/on-line/vol28no1/ford.htm.
———. What Jane Austen’s Characters Read (and Why). 1st ed. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2024.
Grundy, Isobel. “Jane Austen and Literary Traditions.” In The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen, edited by Edward Copeland and Juliet McMaster, 2nd ed., 192–214. Cambridge University Press, 2010. https://doi.org/10.1017/CCO9780521763080.013.
Knox, Vicesimus. “On Novel Reading.” In Essays moral and literary, 1:68–71, 1783. http://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_essays-moral-and-literar_knox-vicesimus_1783_1.
More, Hannah. Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education, with a View of the Principles and Conduct Prevalent among Women of Rank and Fortune. London Printed for T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1811. http://archive.org/details/stricturesonmode01moreuoft.
Price, Leah. The Anthology and the Rise of the Novel: From Richardson to George Eliot. Cambridge University Press, 2003.

EP89: The Thing About Henry Crawford Reading Shakespeare

5/7/2024

If you thought that Mary Crawford with her harp was the only siren in the Crawford family, think again. Henry Crawford is here with a volume of Shakespeare, and WOW. Prepare yourselves. This episode we unpack this scene's particular Shakespearean allusion, examine the status of reading aloud during Austen's time, and discuss Fanny's reaction to Henry's reading.

Selected Sources:

DeWispelare, Daniel John. “Spectacular Speech: Performing Language in the Late Eighteenth Century.” The Journal of British Studies 51, no. 4 (October 2012): 858–82. https://doi.org/10.1086/666958.
Graham, Peter W. “Falling for the Crawfords: Character, Contingency, and Narrative.” ELH 77, no. 4 (December 2010): 867–91. https://doi.org/10.1353/elh.2010.a406155.
Harrington, Dana. “Remembering the Body: Eighteenth-Century Elocution and the Oral Tradition.” Rhetorica 28, no. 1 (January 2010): 67–95. https://doi.org/10.1353/rht.2010.0025.
Honan, Park. Jane Austen: Her Life. New York: Fawcett Columbine, 1989.
Jajdelska, Elspeth. “‘The Very Defective and Erroneous Method’: Reading Instruction and Social Identity in Elite Eighteenth‐Century Learners.” Oxford Review of Education 36, no. 2 (April 1, 2010): 141–56. https://doi.org/10.1080/03054981003696648.
Kelly, Gary. “Reading Aloud in Mansfield Park.” Nineteenth-Century Fiction 37, no. 1 (1982): 29–49. https://doi.org/10.2307/3044668.
Mullini, Roberta. “Reading Aloud in Britain in the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century: Theories and Beyond.” Journal of Early Modern Studies, March 11, 2018, 157-176 Pages. https://doi.org/10.13128/JEMS-2279-7149-22842.
Newark, Elizabeth. “Words Not Spoken: Courtship and Seduction in Jane Austen’s Novels.” In The Talk in Jane Austen, edited by Bruce Stovel and Lynn Weinlos Gregg, 207–24. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2002.
Pinch, Adela. “Hearing Voices in Austen: The Representation of Speech and Voice in the Novels.” In The Routledge Companion to Jane Austen, by Edited By Cheryl A. Wilson and Maria H. Frawley, 277–95, 1st ed. New York: Routledge, 2021. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429398155-21-25.
Pollack-Pelzner, Daniel. “Jane Austen, the Prose Shakespeare.” SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 53, no. 4 (September 2013): 763–92. https://doi.org/10.1353/sel.2013.0039.
Tomalin, Claire. Jane Austen: A Life. New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1999.
Yahav, Amit. “Austen’s Literary Time.” In The Routledge Companion to Jane Austen, by Edited By Cheryl A. Wilson and Maria H. Frawley, 306–17, 1st ed. New York: Routledge, 2021. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429398155-23-27.

Ep69: The Thing About Lizzy's Needlework with guest Dr. Jennie Batchelor

6/16/2023

Needlework in Jane Austen's novels is commonly referred to as simply "work." But what exactly does this work entail, and why is it important to characters like Elizabeth Bennet? Guest Dr. Jennie Batchelor is here to answer these questions and more. We discuss the difference between plain and fancy needlework, the significance of needlework in the pantheon of ladylike accomplishments, and the ways in which needlework functioned as a Regency woman's CV.

Thank you so much to Jennie for joining us for this episode! You can learn more about her and her work at www.jenniebatchelor.net. Jennie's digital catalogue of embroidery patterns from the Lady's Magazine can be found at ladysmagazine.omeka.net. You can find Jennie on Twitter @JennieBatchelor and on Instagram @BatchelorJennie.

Ep64: The Thing About the Bertram Sisters' Puzzle

3/26/2023

How do you solve a puzzle like Fanny? This episode we survey the Bertram sisters' map puzzle and discuss the social cartography of Mansfield Park.

Selected Sources

Cammack, Zan. “Fanny Price’s Social Cartography in Mansfield Park.” Nineteenth Century Studies 29, no. 1 (January 1, 2016): 37–52. https://doi.org/10.5325/ninecentstud.29.2015-16.0037.
Norcia, Megan A. “Puzzling Empire: Early Puzzles and Dissected Maps as Imperial Heuristics.” Children’s Literature 37, no. 1 (2009): 1–32. https://doi.org/10.1353/chl.0.0807.
Shefrin, Jill. “‘Make It a Pleasure and Not a Task’: Educational Games for Children in Georgian England.” The Princeton University Library Chronicle 60, no. 2 (1999): 251. https://doi.org/10.25290/prinunivlibrchro.60.2.0251.
Wenner, Barbara Britton. Prospect and Refuge in the Landscape of Jane Austen. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006.

EP03: The Thing About Regency Scrabble

10/3/2021

We could have just as easily called this episode The Thing About Frank's Blunder, as that is the moment in question. On this episode we provide some context for what we are calling Regency Scrabble before unpacking Frank's blunder with the help of Detective Knightley. Grab your deerstalker hat and join us as we attempt to solve the mystery of why Frank thinks any of this is a good idea.

Selected episode sources:

Jill Shefrin. “‘Make It a Pleasure and Not a Task’: Educational Games for Children in Georgian England.” The Princeton University Library Chronicle 60, no. 2 (1999): 251. https://doi.org/10.25290/prinunivlibrchro.60.2.0251.
R.R. Invited Alphabet, or, Address of A to B : Containing His Friendly Proposal for the Amusement and Instruction of Good Children, 1809. https://dpul.princeton.edu/cotsen/catalog/37720h064.

Episodes

Ep103: The Thing About Elegant Extracts

EP89: The Thing About Henry Crawford Reading Shakespeare

Ep69: The Thing About Lizzy's Needlework with guest Dr. Jennie Batchelor

Ep64: The Thing About the Bertram Sisters' Puzzle

EP03: The Thing About Regency Scrabble

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