This year is the 185th anniversary of when six Dorset farm labourers were sent to an Australian penal colony, but their ‘crimes’ helped change the face of employment rights for generations to come – and it all began in the small village of Tolpuddle. Tolpuddle is a village near Dorchester in Dorset. During the years…
This year is the 185th anniversary of when six Dorset farm labourers were sent to an Australian penal colony, but their ‘crimes’ helped change the face of employment rights for generations to come – and it all began in the small village of Tolpuddle. Tolpuddle is a village near Dorchester in Dorset. During the years…
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Recently, I was attempting to explain this concept to my grandchildren, who were anticipating no school for President’s Day. However, they did you know that George Washington was actually born on February 11, 1731, and NOT on February 22, 1732, as we in the United States celebrate. How is that possible? First, let us look…
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This past September, my husband, aka the Marine, and I went to England for a day to see Stonehenge, then we traveled the next day to Romania. I shared of my visit to the lovely England countryside, and the busy Romanian Old Port in the first post. Here I continue my adventure. Our first two…
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After three years of effort, my current work in progress, Such I Was, is nearly complete! I have shared one or two excerpts from it before, but I would like to share a passage below. And at the end, there will be a giveaway! In this variation of Pride and Prejudice, after Jane follows Bingley…
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If you were to ask a gathering of Jane Austen fans and Pride and Prejudice lovers who their favourite side character is, I suspect Colonel Fitzwilliam would receive quite a large share of the votes. He has very little page-time, and Austen uses him as little more than a plot device, both to act as…
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Why did Colonel Brandon and Willoughby fire one shot and then walk away? This post explores the ins and outs of Regency duels.
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Many Facebook posts are cyclical. Topics rise and fall as interest does, appearing fresh and current about every three or four years. Social media has been alive and kicking for slightly more than two decades, so themes that were broached in 2005 will appear again in 2010, 2015, and so on. One recent moldy oldie…
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Valentine’s Day, associated with love since the late Middle Ages, became popular during the Regency era as a time for expressing romantic interest within societal norms. Common practices included exchanging handwritten Valentine cards with poems, small tokens, and light-hearted customs. It provided a unique opportunity for flirtation amidst strict social codes, despite some skepticism from…
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One of the things that adaptations struggle with when it comes to Jane Austen is the fact that many of her antagonists are supposed to be extremely attractive, while not all her main characters share that trait. Jane Austen has a major theme in her works about people who appear attractive might secretly be bad…
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The Regency era (1811–1820) is often celebrated for its glittering assemblies, sharp wit, and romance—at least in fiction. In reality, beneath the polished manners and candlelit ballrooms, there existed a far more dangerous truth for those whose affections strayed from the heterosexual norm. Homosexuality, particularly between men, was not simply frowned upon; it was illegal,…
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She is an established literary figure in English literature. Austen’s skillful use of mixing together the narrator’s telling the story with a character’s thoughts and emotions and dialogue was just catching on in the late 1700s and early 1800s, but it is a mainstay in modern fiction. She created literary realism.
People speak of the greatness of Shakespeare, but falter when asked to read or explain his works. Not so, with Jane Austen. Because her works have been so easily consumed for more than 200 years, some forget how groundbreaking the six novels of the daughter of a simple rector in rural Hampshire, England, can be. We on this blog have not forgotten.
