A True Good Beautiful Life

This Month's Special Guest is . . .

Heather Usher

“The best moments in reading are when you come across something – a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things – which you had thought special and particular to you. Now here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours.” -Alan Bennett

I love to read... that wasn't always the case. My parents were desperate to get me to read as a child, going so far as to buy Archie and Garfield comic books as a form of inducement at one point. It wasn't until my freshman year of high-school that I truly fell in love with reading. I had just purchased The Heather Hills of Stonewycke by Michael Phillips and Judith Pella, to take with me on our move to Brazil, where I was going to live for the next two years.

While the movers were busy packing up our belongings, I decided to crack open my newly purchased book. I started reading and got lost in the story so completely that the next thing I knew I was on page 185! I have loved reading ever since. I even majored in Literature in college, which is where I was first introduced to Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice was the first novel of hers that I read, followed by Emma, Mansfield Park, Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion.

Austen was a great observer of human nature and I believe that is why her works ring as true today as they did back when she wrote them. Our world may have changed in many ways since Jane Austen was alive, but human nature and human emotions have not. We have all known a Wickham, a Mr Woodhouse, an Elinor Dashwood. That is why over 212 years later, she is still considered one of most beloved British authors of all time.

Favorite Authors:

Lucy Maud Montgomery, Louisa May Alcot, J.R.R. tolkein, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Jane Austen

Favorite fictional characters:

Anne Shirley, Elizabeth Bennet, Jo March, Bilbo Baggins, Sherlock Holmes

On This Episode

Show Notes

Happy New Year to you all! Welcome to "A True Good Beautiful Life" podcast where we talk about life-long flourishing through the lens of Charlotte Mason and Classical educational philosophies. Perhaps my favorite thing to talk about is Literature and History and today I hope you will be as excited as I am about our topic of discussion.

When I thought about doing an episode on Jane Austen, I was both giddy and terrified. There is so much that could be said, from her biography to her novels, from the Regency era to her juvenilia. And so I decided to take my favorite of her novels, which probably includes most everyone else's in the world, Pride and Prejudice, and use it as guide to travel through Jane Austen’s world and help us readers understand a little deeper what is going on in her novels in general and what is passing through the minds of her characters. For as any good reader of literature should do, we ought to approach a book with open arms to see and understand what the author is trying to tell us and enter their world wearing their shoes.

C. S. Lewis reminded us in his book An Experiment in Criticism, that - “in reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with a myriad eyes, but it is still I who see. Here, as in worship, in love, in moral action, and in knowing, I transcend myself; and am never more myself than when I do.”

Jane wrote, as many authors do, with the assumption that her readers understood her world and did not need significant descriptions and annotations regarding the social culture surrounding the plotline. But for us modern readers, much of what we read about in her Regency English world (and even in her language) is foreign to us and can leave us wondering what is going on. So thank goodness there are folks out there who have written and podcasted about Regency England so that we can obtain a better understanding of the world and society that permeates Austen’s novels.

Today I have with me a dear old college friend who shares an affinity of all things Austen and Literature in general, fellow George Mason graduate, Heather Usher.

Favorite Resources:

The Annotated Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen annotated and edited by David M. Shapard
Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin
Jane Austen's Country Life by Deirdre Le Faye
Miniatures and Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austen by Peter J. Leithart
BBC's 1995 mini series "Pride and Prejudice"
Joe Wright's 2005 movie "Pride and Prejudice"
Ellie Dashwood's YouTube Channel on Classic Literature and History
Tea with Jane Austen by Kim Wilson
Tea with Jane Austen by Pen Volger
Cooking with Jane Austen & Friends by Laura Boyle
Jane Austen's Table: Recipes Inspired by the Works of Jane Austen by Robert Tuesley Anderson
Praying with Jane: 31 Days Through the Prayers of Jane Austen by Rachel Dodge
A Jane Austen Christmas: Regency Christmas Traditions by Maria Grace
The Jane Austen Handbook: Proper Life Skills from Regency England by Margaret C. Sullivan
A Jane Austen Devotional by Steffany Woolsey
An Assembly Such as This: A Novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman by Pamela Aidan (fiction)
Duty and Desire: A Novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman by Pamela Aidan (fiction)
These Three Remain: A Novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman by Pamela Aidan (fiction)
The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen by Syrie James (fiction)
So Jane: Crafts and Recipes for an Austen-Inspired Life by Hollie Keith
The Making of Pride and Prejudice by Sue Birtwistle and Susie Conklin
101 Things You Didn't Know About Jane Austen: The Truth About the World's Most Intriguing Literary Heroine by Patrice Hannon
What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist-the Facts of Daily Life in Nineteenth-Century England By Daniel Pool
All Roads Lead To Austen by Amy Elizabeth Smith

Commonplace Quotes

" . . . give a child a single valuable idea, and you have done more for his education than if you had laid upon his mind the burden of bushels of information . . . " - Charlotte Mason, Volume 1: Home Education, p. 174

Application

Spend the month of January reading The Annotated Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and annotated and edited by David M. Shapard. Not only will you enjoy one the world's most beloved and famous novels, you will also learn about Regency England. If you really want to delve into her novels, start a Book Club with a few friends and spend 2 months reading each of her books and Zoom together after each book to discuss. At this rate, you will finish all 6 of her major novels in one year.
Engage in one of the handicrafts young accomplished ladies would learn during the Regency Era: embroidery, sewing, watercolor, pastels, etc. Today, even boys can learn and benefit from these crafts.
Even though it is winter, carve out some time to "take a turn" outside and enjoy the crisp fresh winter air. Learn how to identify your local birds by setting out birdfeeders and distinguish the different types of evergreens outside.