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The Thing About Austen

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Ep86: The Thing About Brandon and Willoughby's Appointment

3/28/2024

 
Colonel Brandon and Willoughby are about to meet by appointment, and their seconds are ready with all the necessary administrative details. Which leads us to ask the question, could this meeting have been an email? Join us this episode as we break down the details of the duel in Sense and Sensibility.

Selected Sources
  • A Late Captain in the Army. General Rules and Instructions for All Seconds in Duels. Whitehaven: John Ware, 1793.
  • Banks, Stephen. “Killing with Courtesy: The English Duelist, 1785-1845.” Journal of British Studies 47, no. 3 (2008): 528–58.
  • Barrington, Jonah, and George A. Birmingham. Recollections of Jonah Barrington. Dublin: Talbot Press, 1918. http://archive.org/details/recollectionsofj00barriala.
  • Barrington, Sir Jonah. Personal Sketches of His Own Times. H. Colburn, 1827.
  • Brewton, Vince. “‘He to Defend: I to Punish’: Silence and the Duel In Sense and Sensibility.” Persuasions, no. 23 (2001): 78–89.
  • Erickson, Carolly. Our Tempestuous Day: A History of Regency England. First Harper Paperback. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2011.
  • Fullerton, Susannah. “The Many Duels of Sense and Sensibility.” Persuasions 44 (2022): 146–57.
  • Holland, Barbara. Gentlemen’s Blood: A History of Dueling from Swords at Dawn to Pistols at Dusk. New York: Bloomsbury, 2003.
  • McCalman, Iain, Jon Mee, Gillian Russell, Clara Tuite, Kate Fullagar, and Patsy Hardy, eds. “Duelling.” In An Oxford Companion to the Romantic Age. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780199245437.001.0001/acref-9780199245437-e-197.
  • McMaster, Juliet. “Good Punishes Bad? The Duels in Sense and Sensibility.” Persuasions On-Line 32, no. 1 (2011). https://www.jasna.org/persuasions/on-line/vol32no1/mcmaster.html.
  • Mortimer, Ian. The Time Traveler’s Guide to Regency Britain: A Handbook for Visitors to 1789-1830. New York ; London: Pegasus Books, 2023.
  • Murray, Venetia. An Elegant Madness: High Society in Regency England. New York: Penguin, 2000.

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.

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.

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