Rare Jane Austen manuscript to go on sale

This really is a must read article from the Manchester Guardian's on-line site. It not only talks about the sale of a partial manuscript of Austen's work, The Watsons, but the road it traveled to get there.

An incredibly rare handwritten manuscript of an unfinished novel by Jane Austen – the only one that is still in private hands – is to appear at auction in London... The Watsons manuscript shows how Austen's other manuscripts must have looked. It also shines an interesting light on how she worked. Austen took a piece of paper, cut it in two and then folded over each half to make eight-page booklets. Then she would write, small neat handwriting leaving little room for corrections – of which there are many. "You can really see the mind at work with all the corrections and revisions," said Heaton.

The Watsons is a fragment, and it became even more fragmented upon leaving the author's hands. It is a glimpse into what can happen to even a highly-valued manuscript by those who know how to care for such things. I shall say no more. Very, very interesting.

Austen and Gaskell

There is a lot going on out there that I think may be of interest to my readers:

Austen Authors: Author and illustrator Jane Odiwe is the spotlight today. In addition to her excellent post, in which she speaks about Austen and her books, Jane has shared several illustrations with her readers. Also, in celebration of MARILYN BRANT'S second novel, Friday Mornings at Nine, her publisher, Kensington Books, is giving away a free ebook download of her Austenesque debut novel, According to Jane. Check Austen Authors for details.

Events leading up to the birth of Jane Austen (actually everyone's birth) - Part II

1510 – What a year for the Italians. Sandro Botticelli and Giorgione die. Raphael paints Triumph of Galatea, and Titian paints The Gypsy Madonna. Da Vinci designs the horizonal water wheel and introduces the principle of the water turbine.

Portuguese acquire Goa in India, and unintentionally provide Americans a place where they can live out their lives as 1960s hippies.

1610 – Henry IV of France is assassinated. He was a Protestant, but in order to become king, he had to convert to Catholicism, and famously said, “Paris is worth a Mass.”

Shakespeare writes A Winter’s Tale. Caravaggio (my favorite Renaissance painter) dies. El Greco paints The Opening of the Fifth Seal, while Rubens is finishing the Raising of the Cross.

The Stationer’s Company begins to send a copy of every book printed in England to Bodleian Library at Oxford. Excellent!

1710 – Future Louis XV, King of France, and grandfather of the doomed Louis XVI, is born. He becomes famous for his mistresses (Madame de Pompadour and Madame DuBarry, among a hundred others) and his furniture.

Christopher Wren designs Marlborough House, Westminster, London.

On a visit to London, Handel, completes in fourteen days the score of Rinaldo, and it is performed at the Queen’s Theatre.

Porcelain factory at Meissen, Saxony, is founded, and Tiffany’s in New York has a future supplier.

Next up: 1810. Jane lives!

Events that led up to the birth of Jane Austen

Did you ever wonder what happened 100 years, 200 years, 900 years ago in years that end in the number ten. No? Well, some people might. So for the benefit of those who do care, here is a brief glimpse of the past. P.S. Eventually, I will get to Jane Austen.

1110 – Earliest record of a miracle play. It was performed in Dunstable, England. Why Dunstable? Paraphrasing Wikipedia, “Until the 11th century, this area of Bedfordshire, was an uncultivated tract covered by woodlands. In 1109 Henry I responded to dangers to travelers by clearing the land and encouraging settlement with offers of royal favor.” (No Robin Hood?)

This blurb would seem to argue against Dunstable being the first in doing anything in the one year of its existence since being abandoned by the Romans a half of a millennium earlier. Sounds like a promising subject for a doctoral thesis, and you get to live in England while you are doing the research; that is, if you don't already live in England, and then it's not a big deal.

1210 – Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor, is excommunicated by Pope Innocent III. But as Edward Gibbons wrote in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, the empire was neither “holy, Roman, nor an empire.”

Gottfriend von Strassburg wrote Tristan und Isolde, which is regarded as one of the great narrative masterpieces of the German Middle Ages (and a subject for future chick flicks). Through no fault of his own, Strassburg's work became a source of inspiration for Richard Wagner's operas.

1310 – Edward II is forced to appoint Lords Ordainers. The whole of Edward’s reign was a tragic, murderous, and grisly time in England’s history, and because this blog is often read by the fire during family gatherings, you must learn of his gruesome death on your own.

1410 – Jean Froissart, French poet and chronicler dies at the age of 73. Pretty darn good for the time. He was probably a beneficiary of the nutritional French paradox (clue: wine and cheese).