SPECIAL INTEREST EVENT
THURSDAY 16 APRIL –
SUNDAY 19 APRIL 2015
Christ Church
OXFORD
Jane Austen’s
PLACES
INSPIRATION AND
IMAGINATION
xford Perspectiv
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With permission of the Jane Austen Memorial Trust
Rare Old Prints
© The British Library Board
www.ekduncan.com
Jane Austen’s
PLACES
INSPIRATION AND
IMAGINATION
xford Perspectiv
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An O
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Special Interest weekend looks at significant places in
the life and fiction of Jane Austen; from her beloved
Hampshire and the country houses where she danced,
flirted, wrote letters and – above all – observed, to the
cities of Bath, London and Oxford.
Tom Tower,
Christ Church, Oxford
With permission of the Jane
Austen Memorial Trust
Though Austen’s descriptions are spare, her novels
convey a strong sense of the places which are so
important to her characters. Many are set in the
Home Counties and based on places she visited, and
when she didn’t know a place she asked for details
from the Austens’ wide network of connections. This
Bill Nadel
‘T h
W
hy are Jane Austen’s novels still in print, still debated
and more popular than ever after 200 years? Sir
Walter Scott, the premier and bestselling novelist
of Austen’s time, recognised that she had ‘a talent for
describing the involvements and feelings and characters
of ordinary life, which is to me the most wonderful I
ever met with’. Scott acknowledged that she had a gift
he lacked: ‘exquisite touch, which renders ordinary
commonplace things and characters interesting, from
the truth of the description and the sentiment’. 180 years
later, Austen’s skill is universally acknowledged and her
novels celebrated across the world. Institutions such as
the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) and
Jane Austen Society of Australia (JASA) offer a lively
forum for discussion.
Jane Austen’s House,
Chawton, Hampshire
Rare Old Prints
The Royal Crescent, Bath
www.victoriaweb.org
A View of Chatsworth House, Pemberley
Brasenose College, Oxford
In the spring of 1783 Jane Austen, then seven years old,
came to Oxford with her sister Cassandra, and their
cousin Jane Cooper, to be taught by their relative Mrs
Cawley, wife of the late Master of Brasenose. The family
already had Oxford connections – Mrs Austen’s uncle,
Theophilus Leigh, was Master of Balliol from 1726-85,
and Jane Austen’s father, the Reverend George Austen,
went up to St John’s in 1747. Jane’s brothers, James and
Henry, followed in their father’s footsteps, matriculating
at the college in 1779 and 1788 respectively. While at
St John’s, James, then a Fellow, and Henry, a scholar,
started The Loiterer, an Oxford-based weekly periodical to
which their sister may have contributed an arch, tonguein-cheek letter, under the pseudonym, Sophia Sentiment.
Oxford continues to have many associations with Jane
Austen and her family history. It is the ideal place
in which to read and learn about the author and her
work. The Bodleian Library holds first editions of Jane
Austen’s published works and an unrivalled collection
of her manuscripts, a selection of which you will be able
to see during your stay at Christ Church. Oxford hosts
the Jane Austen Fiction Manuscripts Digital Edition
and The Clarendon Press of Oxford University Press
published the first scholarly edition of Austen’s works.
Members of the University’s academic community such
as Professors Fiona Stafford and Kathryn Sutherland
continue the scholarly work of establishing authoritative
editions, reception and book histories, and illuminating
criticism. They will join a number of experts in guiding
you through the network of Jane Austen’s connections,
people, places and fiction.
Thursday 16th April
Friday 17th April
Saturday 18th April
Sunday 19th April
2.00 - 4.00PM Registration
8.00AM Breakfast in Hall
8.00AM Breakfast in Hall
8.30AM Breakfast in Hall
4.15PM ‘How I wish I lived
in a Jane Austen novel!’
Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle
Programme Welcome
Pauline Linieres-Hartley,
Steward of Christ Church
9.15AM ‘Our Chawton Home how much we find Already in it
to our mind’. Letter to Frank Austen
The Austens’ Knight in Shining Armour
Richard Knight
9.00AM ‘What do we care about the way
Oxford men spend their time and money?’
‘Sophia Sentiment’ (alias Jane Austen)
Austen and her Oxford Men
Professor Fiona Stafford
9.30AM ‘I cannot speak well enough
to be unintelligible.’ Northanger Abbey
Jane Austen’s Language
Dr Sandie Byrne
4.30PM ‘Many were the tears shed by
them in their last adieus to a place so
much beloved. “Dear, dear Norland!”
said Marianne...’ Sense and Sensibility
Place and Displacement in Jane
Austen’s Life and Literature
Dr Sandie Byrne
10.15AM Morning Coffee in Blue Boar
Exhibition Space
10.15AM – 1.00PM Visits to Brasenose and
10.45AM ‘The rooms were lofty and
1.00PM Lunch in Hall
Evensong at the Cathedral
handsome, and their furniture suitable
to the fortune of their proprietor.’
Pride and Prejudice
From Neo-Classical Mansions to
Gothic Abbeys: Austen’s Characters
and their Country Houses
Stephen Lawrence
7.00PM Welcome Drinks Reception
12.15PM Lunch in Hall
6.00PM A chance to attend
in the Upper Library
Buttery Bar open after Dinner
2.00PM ‘So very agreeable a place.’
Northanger Abbey Austen’s love-hate
relationship with Bath
Maggie Lane
Andrew Ingamells
3.30PM High Tea on the Friend Room
Terrace
4.30PM “I begin already to find my
Morals corrupted” Jane Austen to
Cassandra Austen, 23 August 1796
Pleasure and Vice in Austen’s London
Dr Freya Johnston
6.00PM Evensong in the Cathedral
6.30PM Buttery Bar Open before
and after Dinner
Radcliffe Camera, Oxford
7.00PM Dinner in Hall
2.15PM – 4.15PM Jane Austen’s Work:
what the manuscripts tell us
Professor Kathryn Sutherland
Bodleian Library
4.30 – 5.30PM Tea and Coffee available in Hall
11.15AM Lizzie Bennet and
Marianne Dashwood in Geneva:
Austen’s Endings and Afterlives
Dr Gillian Dow
12.45PM Lunch in Hall
2.00PM Depart
6.00PM Evensong in the Cathedral
or Film about Jane Austen
Blue Boar Lecture Theatre
7.00PM Drinks Reception in Tom Quad
(if fine) or Ante Hall
The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York
7.30PM Dinner in Hall
St John’s Colleges with Refreshments
10.45AM Refreshments in Blue Boar
Exhibition Space
7.30PM Regency Dinner in Hall
Buttery Bar open after Dinner
Please note the Christ Church Picture
Gallery is open to delegates at no charge
between 10.30am – 1.00pm and 2.00pm
– 4.30pm from Thursday to Saturday and
between 2.00pm – 4.30pm on Sunday.
Delegates may also like to visit the Upper
Library and Exhibition on Thursday and
Friday between 9.00am – 5.30pm, and on
Sunday between 9.00am – 2.30pm.
Isabel Bishop, A scene from Pride and Prejudice
Speakers
Dr Gillian Dow is Senior Lecturer at the
University of Southampton and Director
of Research, Chawton House Library.
She is particularly interested in early
translations of the work of Jane Austen and
in Austen’s own reading. She is the author
of many works on eighteenth-century
literature, and Austen’s French and English
contemporaries. These include (with Clare
Hanson), Uses of Austen: Jane’s Afterlives
http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/203795/, and
entries on http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/338131/
‘Translations’ in The Cambridge Companion
to Pride and Prejudice (2013) and The
Cambridge Companion to Emma (2015).
Dr Freya Johnston is University Lecturer
and Tutorial Fellow in English at St Anne’s
College, Oxford. She is the author and
editor of a number of books and articles,
including Samuel Johnson and the Art of
Sinking, 1709-1791 (2005), Samuel Johnson:
The Arc of the Pendulum (2012), ‘Jane
Austen’s Past Lives’ (2010) and ‘Johnson
and Austen’, in Samuel Johnson After 300
Years (2012). At the moment she is editing
Thomas Love Peacock’s novel, Crotchet
Castle (first published in 1831).
Regis, Jane Austen’s England, Jane Austen’s
Family and Jane Austen and Food. Since 2013
Maggie has been Editor of the journal of the
Jane Austen Society.
Stephen Lawrence is the Chief Executive
of Chawton House Library which is
situated in the Hampshire manor house
owned by Edward Austen Knight. Chawton
House Library is a centre for the study of
women’s writing from 1600-1830. It houses
an exceptional collection of rare and unique
first and early editions of women’s writing,
including, of course, that of Jane Austen.
Professor Fiona Stafford is Professor
of English Language and Literature and
Tutorial Fellow at Somerville College,
Oxford. She is a specialist in eighteenth and nineteenth-century prose and poetry.
Her publications include Brief Lives: Jane
Austen and Jane Austen’s Emma: A Casebook
of Criticism. She is the editor of a number of
editions of Austen’s novels, including Pride
and Prejudice and Emma.
Maggie Lane’s most recent books
are Understanding Austen: Key Concepts in the
Six Novels (2012) and Growing Older with
Jane Austen (2014). Her book A Charming
Place: Bath in the Life and Novels of Jane
Austen remains the definitive account of
the influence of the city on the novelist.
Other titles include Jane Austen and Lyme
Dr Sandie Byrne is University Lecturer
in English and Fellow of Kellogg
College, Oxford. Her specialisms are
in eighteenth to nineteenth-century
fiction and twentieth-century poetry and
her publications include Jane Austen’s
Mansfield Park and Jane Austen’s Possessions
and Dispossessions: The Significance of Objects.
Christ Church, established by Henry VIII in 1546 is a unique foundation of
college and cathedral. It is home to some 650 undergraduate and postgraduate
students and over a hundred Senior Members. Christ Church occupies a 150acre site in the heart of the city, including the Meadow, a tranquil area of
pasture, preserved for centuries and bounded by the Rivers Isis and Cherwell.
Accommodation is in buildings of architectural and historical interest which
reflect the different centuries since the college’s foundation. Rooms are single
or twin occupancy and are located on the ground, first, second and third floors.
Many rooms are en suite, and all have tea and coffee making facilities, telephone,
free wi-fi internet and a refrigerator. A free laundry room is also provided.
Meals are prepared under the direction of the college’s Executive Head Chef
Chris Simms and are served in the magnificent Tudor Hall. A limited number
of dietary requirements may be catered for provided they are requested at
the time of booking. A full list of these diets is shown on our website. We
apologise that we are unable to cater for any other dietary preferences but
trust that one of the options available will be suitable. The Buttery Bar,
adjacent to Hall, will be open before meals and after dinner. House wines,
included in the price, are served at dinner.
Christ Church, Oxford
© The British Library Board
Richard Knight is the owner of Chawton
House, the ‘Great House’ which features
in Jane Austen’s letters and which was
inherited by her brother Edward from
the Knight family. Part of that inheritance
was the cottage which Edward Austen
Knight provided for his mother and sisters,
in which Jane Austen wrote her mature
works. Mr Knight is a direct descendant
of Edward Austen Knight.
Professor Kathryn Sutherland is Professor
of Bibliography and Textual Criticism at
Oxford and Professorial Fellow in English
at St Anne’s College. She is the author of
numerous works, including Jane Austen’s
Textual Lives: From Aeschylus to Bollywood, and
the editor of Mansfield Park and A Memoir
of Jane Austen and Other Family Recollections.
She is also editor of the Jane Austen Fiction
Manuscripts Digital Edition, a free-access
online edition which launched in 2010
www.janeausten.ac.uk. She is currently
writing a book on literary manuscripts.
The Christ Church Experience
How to book
The programme fee is £565 per person and the en suite supplement is £45 per room.
This includes the full lecture programme, three night’s accommodation in Christ
Church, all meals, wines and refreshments as programmed and a staff service charge.
Gratuities are not expected.
Bookings may be made online or by phone for those without internet access. Full
payment must be made at the time of booking. Online booking is available on the
‘Conferences & Events’ section of our website: www.chch.ox.ac.uk
A 50% refund will be offered in the event of cancellations made up to and including
30 November 2014. No refunds will be offered in the event of cancellations on or
after 1 December 2014. All monies are held by Christ Church.
Special requirements
Facilities at Christ Church are conveniently located together. Some ground floor
bedrooms are available and the college has some residential facilities for wheelchair
users, as well as a lift to the Hall. The Blue Boar Lecture Theatre also has a sound
amplification system with an induction loop for hearing aid users.
Force majeure
The College reserves the right to make alterations and substitutions to the
programme. It will not be liable for any non-performance under this contract arising
out of circumstances beyond its control.
Please direct all enquiries to:
Special Interest Weekend, The Steward’s Office
Christ Church, Oxford, OX1 1DP
Tel: +44 (0)1865 286848 and 276174 Fax: +44 (0)1865 286328
Email: [email protected] Web: chch.ox.ac.uk
The Bridgeman Art Library
The Pump Rooms, Bath