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We are very pleased to host Lesley Peterson, this year's traveling lecturer for JASNA and current editor of the Journal of Juvenilia Studies. She will talk at 1:30 pm at Hope College HASP, Anderson-Werkman Center, 100 East 8th St., Suite 150, in Holland MI. “Enter a Clergyman and his Clerk”: What Kind of Plays Did Young Jane Austen Write, and Why Did She Quit?"
From 1787 to 1793, between the ages of 11 and 17, Jane Austen wrote three short plays, typically irreverent and witty: “The Mystery,” “The Visit,” and “The First Act of a Comedy”—as well as the first act of a planned five based on her favorite novel, Sir Charles Grandison by Samuel Richardson. During these years she was reading Shakespeare, whose history plays she drew on for her hilarious 1791 “History of England,” and she was both performing in and attending rehearsals of amateur family theatricals organized by her oldest brother, James.
James shared the Austen taste for wit and satire, but when he became an ordained priest the family theatricals ceased. Did he disapprove of putting priests of any kind on stage? Is this why it took her eight years to finish her last play?
By the time Jane Austen completed “Grandison” in 1800, she had already started working on Pride and Prejudice. Both works contain highly dramatic moments, and both include highly unlikeable priests: one, a nameless, unsavory character adapted from Richardson’s novel; another, the painfully conscientious Mr. Collins. Of all Austen’s clergymen it is Collins whom readers most love to loathe and laugh at. Can these two priests have anything in common?
What did Jane Austen learn from Shakespeare about how to write plays? What did she learn from James—and how did she unlearn it? Are her plays any good? This lively and interactive presentation will answer these questions and provide great fun!
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Anderson Werkman, 100 E 8th St, Holland, MI 49423-3533, United States,Holland, Michigan
