Category: Sense And Sensibility (novel)

Ep74: The Thing About Marianne's Washing

9/7/2023

Miss Steele has questions about Marianne's washing, and we are here to answer them. This episode we air some dirty laundry and get into the sudsy specifics of how Jane Austen and her contemporaries went about obtaining clean clothes in an era before washers and dryers.

Selected Sources

Austen, Jane. “Autograph Memorandum of Personal Accounts, [1807 Dec.],” December 1807. The Morgan Library and Museum. https://www.themorgan.org/literary-historical/81561.
Blank, Antje. “Dress.” In Jane Austen in Context, edited by Janet Todd, 234–51. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316036525.020.
Collier, Mary. “From The Woman’s Labor. An Epistle to Mr Stephen Duck.” Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/52290/the-womans-labor-an-epistle-to-mr-stephen-duck.
Davidson, Hilary. Dress in the Age of Jane Austen: Regency Fashion. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2019.
Dyer, Jenny. “Georgian Washerwomen: Tales of the Tub from the Long Eighteenth Century.” Continuity and Change 36, no. 1 (May 2021): 89–110. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0268416021000072.
Styles, John. The Dress of the People: Everyday Fashion in Eighteenth-Century England. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007.

Ep73: The Thing About Willoughby's Pointers with guest Dr. Stephanie Howard-Smith

8/19/2023

Pointers were considered an elite dog in Austen's time, so it makes sense that someone like Willoughby would own them (also, having cute dogs is possibly the only nice thing we can say about Willoughby). This episode we welcome back Dr. Stephanie Howard-Smith for more 18th-century dog talk. We cover everything from the care and feeding of pointers to trends in 18th-century game hunting. Sir John heartily approves. If you have ever been quite literally swept off your feet by a man with two pointers playing round him, this episode is for you. Thank you so much to Stephanie for joining us for this episode! You can find her on Twitter @SAHowardSmith.

Ep62: The Thing About Lucy's Filigree

2/28/2023

Lucy and Elinor are about to have a tense, coded conversation, and a bit of filigree work is the perfect accompaniment. This episode we're talking about the art of filigree, and the role that it plays in Lucy and Elinor's companionable confrontation.

Selected Sources:

Battisson, Clair. “‘Natural Born Quillers’ - Conservation of Paper Quills on the Sarah Siddons Plaque Frames.” Victoria and Albert Museum’s Conservation Journal, April 1998. http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/journals/conservation-journal/issue-27/natural-born-quillers-conservation-of-paper-quills-on-the-sarah-siddons-plaque-frames/.
Bethe, Monika. “Submerged Symbols in Jane Austen.” Kobe College Studies 24, no. 2 (December 1977): 1–13. https://doi.org/10.18878/00000682.
Heydt-Stevenson, Jillian. “Bejeweling the Clandestine Body/Bawdy: The Miniature Spaces of Sense and Sensibility.” In Austen’s Unbecoming Conjunctions: Subversive Laughter, Embodied History, 29–67. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Austen_s_Unbecoming_Conjunctions/F_8YDAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0.
The New Lady’s Magazine: Or, Polite and Entertaining Companion for the Fair Sex: Entirely Devoted to Their Use and Amusement. Vol. 1. London: Alex Hogg, 1786. https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_New_Lady_s_Magazine/RHlPAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=filigree&pg=PA529&printsec=frontcover.

Ep58: The Thing About Sir John's Club

1/18/2023

Boodle's and Brooks's and White's, oh my! Gentlemen's clubs were a large part of the elite social landscape in Austen's time, and we're here to give you a look inside these exclusive gatherings.
If you have ever wanted to be in the room where it happens, this episode is for you.

Select Sources

Capdeville, Valérie. “The Ambivalent Identity of Eighteenth-Century London Clubs as a Prelude to Victorian Clublife.” Cahiers Victoriens et Édouardiens, no. 81 Printemps (September 6, 2015). https://doi.org/10.4000/cve.1976.
Heath, Sidney. Exeter. London: Blackie and Son Limited, 1912. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/24635/24635-h/24635-h.htm.
Marsh, Charles. The Clubs of London; With Anecdotes of Their Members, Sketches of Character, and Conversations. Vol. 1. London: Henry Colburn, 1828.
Milne-Smith, Amy. “Coffeehouses to Clubhouses: Understanding the Gentlemen’s Clubs of London.” In London Clubland, by Amy Milne-Smith, 17–34. New York: Palgrave Macmillan US, 2011. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137002082_2 .
Morrison, Robert. The Regency Years: During Which Jane Austen Writes, Napoleon Fights, Bryon Makes Love, and Britain Becomes Modern. New York: Norton, 2019.
Murray, Venetia. An Elegant Madness: High Society in Regency England. New York: Viking, 1999.
Rendell, Jane. The Pursuit of Pleasure: Gender, Space & Architecture in Regency London. London: Athlone Press, 2002.
Tomalin, Claire. Jane Austen: A Life. London: Viking, 1997.

Ep56: The Thing About Robert Ferrars' Toothpick-case

12/10/2022

We're out running errands with Elinor Dashwood, which means we are headed to Gray’s in Sackville Street. There's a gentleman there inspecting all the toothpick-cases, and Elinor is not impressed. This episode we are taking a closer look at Robert Ferrars, Elinor's future brother-in-law and a man with exacting taste in dental hygiene accessories.

Selected Sources:

Adkins, Roy, and Lesley Adkins. Jane Austen’s England. New York: Viking, 2013.
Comyn, Sarah. “‘Bringing Her Business Forward’: Jane Austen and Political Economy.” In The Routledge Companion to Jane Austen, by Edited by Cheryl A. Wilson and Maria H. Frawley, 193–204, 1st ed. New York: Routledge, 2021. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429398155-15-18.
Dadlez, E. M. “Form Affects Content: Reading Jane Austen.” Philosophy and Literature 32, no. 2 (2008): 315–29. https://doi.org/10.1353/phl.0.0024.
Graber, Maura J. What Have We Here?: The Etiquette and Essentials of Lives Onced Lived, from the Georgian Era through the Gilded Age and Beyond…, 2021.
Miller, D. A. Jane Austen, or, The Secret of Style. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 2003.
White, Laura M. “From Jewelled Toothpick-Cases to Blue Nankin Boots: Austen, Consumerist Culture, and Narrative.” In The Routledge Companion to Jane Austen, edited by Cheryl A. Wilson and Maria H. Frawley, 180–92. New York, NY: Routledge, 2021.

Ep46: The Thing About Queen Mab

8/11/2022

They say you should never look a gift horse in the mouth, but we're here to do just that. This episode we're investigating Willoughby's attempted equine offering, including a discussion of finances and the implied social significance of such a gift, as well as breaking down the meaning behind the name Queen Mab.

Selected Sources

Adkins, Roy, and Lesley Adkins. Jane Austen’s England: Daily Life in the Georgian and Regency Periods. New York: Penguin Books, 2014.
Doody, Margaret Anne. “Introduction.” In Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen, vii–xl. edited by James Kinsley, New ed. Oxford World’s Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Jones, Christine A. “On Fairy Tales, Their Sensitive Characters, and the Sensible Readers They Create.” Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature 25, no. 1 (2006): 13–30.
Ottman, Jill. “‘A Woman Never Looks Better than on Horseback.’” Persuasions On-Line 36, no. 1 (2015). https://jasna.org/publications-2/persuasions-online/vol36no1/ottman/.
Pool, Daniel. What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist; the Facts of Daily Life in Nineteenth-Century England. New York: Touchstone, 2007.
Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. Edited by Barbara Mowat, Paul Westine, Michael Poston, and Rebecca Niles. The Folger Shakespeare. Washington, DC: Folger Shakespeare Library. Accessed August 6, 2022. https://shakespeare.folger.edu/shakespeares-works/romeo-and-juliet/.
Vickery, Amanda. The Gentleman’s Daughter: Women’s Lives in Georgian England. New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univ. Press, 2003.
Wilwerding, Lauren. “Amatory Gifts in Sense and Sensibility.” Persuasions 37 (2015): 208–17.

Ep39: The Thing About Mrs. Dashwood's Linens

5/22/2022

John and Fanny Dashwood are sadly waving goodbye to some valuable household objects, and we're here to explain why they really need to get over themselves. This episode we're looking at the linens in Sense and Sensibility, and the role of such objects in Austen's time.

Selected Sources:

Boase, Tessa. The Housekeeper’s Tale: The Women Who Really Ran the English Country House. London: Aurum Press, 2015.
Brodie, Antonia. “Marking and Memory: An Embroidered Sheet in the Collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.” TEXTILE 14, no. 2: Emotional Textiles (May 3, 2016): 160–75. https://doi.org/10.1080/14759756.2016.1139381.
Buchan, William. Domestic Medicine: Or a Treatise on the Prevention and Cure of Diseases by Regimen and Simple Medicines. 14th ed. London, 1794.
Dolan, Alice. “The Fabric of Life: Time and Textiles in an Eighteenth-Century Plebeian Home.” Home Cultures 11, no. 3 (November 2014): 353–74. https://doi.org/10.2752/175174214X14035295691238.
———. “Touching Linen: Textiles, Emotion and Bodily Intimacy in England C. 1708-1818.” Cultural and Social History 16, no. 2 (March 15, 2019): 145–64. https://doi.org/10.1080/14780038.2019.1586810.
Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn. North and South. Edited by Angus Easson. Oxford World’s Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
Postrel, Virginia. The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles Made the World. New York: Basic Books, 2020.
St Clair, Kassia. The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History. London: John Murray, 2018.
Victoria and Albert Museum. “Linen – The Original Sustainable Material,” April 2018. https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/linen-the-original-sustainable-material.

Ep34: The Thing About Edward's Hair Ring with guest Dr. Sally Holloway

4/7/2022

Mistaken identity! Mystery hair! Edward is sporting a new ring, and now everyone is feeling uncomfortable and confused. Fortunately, Dr. Sally Holloway is here to help us examine this hairy intrigue. If you have ever regretted your choice of accessories, this episode is for you.

Thank you so much to Sally for joining us for this episode! You can find her on Twitter @sally_holloway. You can also check out her book, The Game of Love in Georgian England: Courtship, Emotions, and Material Culture from Oxford University Press (2019).

Ep31: The Thing About Marianne's Smelling Salts with guest Dr. Emily C. Friedman

3/10/2022

Pull up your fainting couch because have we got a revivifying episode for you! Dr. Emily C. Friedman is here to take us through the olfactory delights of smelling bottles, as well as breaking down what their various scents and applications tell us about characters like Marianne Dashwood and Lady Bertram.

Thank you so much to Emily for joining us for this episode! You can find her on Twitter @friede, on Instagram @ManuscriptFiction, on YouTube @CriticalProf, and at www.ecfriedman.com where you can find information about all of her work.

Also, check out Emily's monograph Reading Smell in Eighteenth-Century Fiction, coming out in paperback soon.

EP20: The Thing About Brandon's Flannel Waistcoat

12/15/2021

Is Brandon into grunge? Going through a lumberjack phase? Embracing Santa chic? We're here to uncover just exactly what Colonel Brandon has on under his coat. If you have ever advocated for dressing in layers, this episode is for you.

Selected episode sources

Davidson, Hilary. Dress in the Age of Jane Austen: Regency Fashion. New Haven ; London: Yale University Press, 2019.
Ray, Joan Klingel. “‘The Amiable Prejudices of a Young [Writer’s] Mind’: The Problems of Sense and Sensibility.” Persuasions On-Line 26, no. 1 (2005). https://jasna.org/persuasions/on-line/vol26no1/ray.htm.
Styles, John. The Dress of the People: Everyday Fashion in Eighteenth-Century England. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007.
Sutherland, Eileen. “That Infamous Flannel Waistcoat.” Persuasions 19 (1995): 58.
“Waistcoat.” In OED Online. Oxford Univeristy Press. Accessed November 18, 2021. www.oed.com/view/Entry/225127.

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