City of Bath (2)

Having spoken a bit about having walked on pavements lining a great bath, where ancient Romans would have walked once: the differences being in the reasons for walking, and the attire worn and equipment carried, I will now proceed to describing the Jane Austen Centre, which was our next stop.

To make things clear straight up, I must confess I have never read Jane Austen, having just started Pride and Prejudice, which is not one of her 'Bath novels', but one which, as can be gathered from its first ten pages, is based in Hertfordshire, one of Cambridgeshire's neighbours and so, closer to home. That being an aside, how would I describe my time at Jane Austen's centre?

There were old people there, and old ladies, talking in hushed voices, talking in learned voices - they are well-versed in Jane Austen. And when this lady, another old one at that, was giving a lecture introducing the author's works and acting and speaking as some of her characters in the Bath novels (Northanger Abbey and Persuasion), the learned ladies in the audience would nod their heads, looking serious, understanding; while I, looking totally blank, but interested, just made it a point to read these books at some point. There was some description of the author's family circumstances and how it would have affected the text of these novels of hers, but I do not see fit to make any comments on that, as the best I can do at the moment is to read these books and be able to appreciate what was told by the lady there.

The end of the lecture was followed by a visit to the exhibition; which included a special display of costumes used in the movie Persuasion, which again, I have not seen. The costumes looked rather rich and soft and most importantly, pointed to the extremely sleek physique of the ladies who would have worn this and, assuming that the movie makers had been faithful to the original novel, could be a reflection of how the author would have described her characters. And yes, I must not forget to mention that the above point is not mine, but was being made in serious earnest by one of the learned ladies visiting the exhibition - not just learned, but with strong powers of observation that, given all my known strengths, have always eluded me.

Yet another exhibit that is worth describing here is a large-scale reproduction of one of the author's letters to her sister. The edge of the paper was bent and it was mentioned in the label that this had been done to demonstrate that it was OK to write on both sides of a paper in those days - I dont know, but what is the big deal? I generally write on both sides of a paper, particularly if the paper is of a good quality and too expensive to be wasted for etiquettes I am unaware of - not that I would change, even if it is not considered right to write on both sides of paper

And finally, the most important thing that I noticed about the whole exhibition was something from this letter - however much I tried, I could not follow a single word of her writing - such handwriting! Obviously, some publisher would have managed to read it and publish her works, but well, if he were alive today, he could be an Indian pharmacist, capable of deciphering the mangled whatever that doctors write, in the name of prescription!








A view of the exhibits at Jane Austen Centre


















Costumes at the exhibition















A letter from Jane Austen to her sister












(To be continued).