Hold on to your bonnets ladies, Austenland is almost here. The film, which stars Keri Russell as an uber Jane Austen fan who travels to England for the vacation of a lifetime — a chance to live the Regency experience — won high marks at the Sundance Festival and enjoyed a strong limited release this weekend. While the rest of us wait with bated breath for the film to come to our local movie house I thought I’d take a closer look at what life was really like in Jane’s day. I was inspired by the August 15 HuffingtonPost.com article by Roy and Lesley Adkins which list 13 Reason You Wouldn’t Want to Live In Jane Austen’s England.
- Forced Marriage
- Infant Mortality
- Fetching Water
- Dangers of Fire
- Child Labor
- Chimney Sweeps
- Dubious Medicines
- Dodgy Dentistry
- Shocking Surgery
- Press Gangs
- The Bloody Code (Criminal Courts)
- Punishment After Death
- Injustice After Death
I’d like to humbly add my own warnings to coveting a life in an Empire dress.
An 1833 engraving of a scene from Chapter 59 of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Mr. Bennet is on the left, Elizabeth on the right. This, along with File:Pickering – Greatbatch – Jane Austen – Pride_and_Prejudice – This is not to be borne, Miss Bennet.jpg, are the first published illustrations of Pride and Prejudice. Janet M. Todd (2005), Jane Austen in Context, Cambridge University Press p. 127 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
First… forget about Darcy. If you are like me (solidly in the middle class) you’ve got about as much chance as marrying the Master of Pemberley (or Donwell or Delaford or Mansfield) as you do of winning PowerBall. As Austen makes perfectly clear MONEY likes MONEY, and if you don’t have it you’re not likely to attract it. Maybe, if you are very, very pretty you might temp an unwary man (assuming there’s not an eagle-eyed sister, mother or aunt looking out for just your sort). However, with out the aid of modern dentistry and plastic surgery I hope that your beauty is God-given.
Be prepared to get sick. The food is going to totally suck. With out the benefit of an Amana French Door stainless steel refrigerator — the Regency cook’s best method for preserving food is salt. Yum. The water is unfiltered and filled with lovely microbes and the milk is unpasteurized.
Ladies hush your mouth. If children were meant to be seen and not heard, members of the fairer sex weren’t expected to say much more. Certainly they weren’t expected to say anything that contradicted with the men around them. That may make Elizabeth Bennet all the more extraordinary, but don’t you go trying it.
Lady Catherine confronts Elizabeth about Darcy, on the title page of the first illustrated edition. This is the other of the first two illustrations of the novel. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Granted, it’s fun to don a Regency dress, long gloves and hat every once in a while, but I can’t imagine doing it every day. Summers must have been brutal (and aromatic) with all that fabric and no air conditioning.
Then again…I guess fantasy is part of the appeal of Austen’s novels. And every time I pick up one of Jane’s six novels (or one of the many Austen inspired books on my shelf) I’m a very willing participant in that fantasy…. As I will be when I go to see Austenland… if it ever makes it to a screen near me.
Jane Austen (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
ritaLOVEStoWRITE 
August 19th, 2013 at 2:40 pm
Hmm…doesn’t exactly sound like a walk in the park. For all of its drawbacks, give me the Edwardian Era any day 😉 I finished Pride and Prejudice this month and really enjoyed it. Hoping to get around to reading the rest of Austen’s works. Which would you recommend I read next?
August 19th, 2013 at 4:50 pm
I’d say Emma. Let me know what you think. I’ve always related strongly to Miss Bates.
August 22nd, 2013 at 1:45 pm
Thanks, Rita! I’ll do a review on Goodreads.