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 The Episode

Show Notes

Welcome back to the second part of our discussion of Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice! I have my good friend Heather Usher back with us to finish talking about the signifcance of "countenance" in Jane's famous novel, what are entails, the life of a governess, using foils, and examining Austen's prayer life.

Pride and Prejudice is a book about love, societal expectations, growth in sound judgement and in self-knowledge. It is a canvas of human failings and how they sometimes triumph over them. The book looks into deep questions like - “Can an unworthy man have a worthy friend?” “How far can a person be deceived?” “How influential are one's parents?” “Should one marry for love or for security?” “How does one’s behavior affect one’s family and friends?” “Can good come from evil?” “What does one do with difficult truths?” “What does Christian charity look like?” “What can you learn from retrospection?” “How can we judge what others are feeling?” “What is it to act morally?” “Is strong physical attraction the same as love?” “What is a proper sense of pride?” “What is the value of a ‘marriage of true minds’?” It's a fascinating study on society and humanity. I hope you will conisder reading this masterpiece!

Favorite Resources:

Praying with Jane: 31 Days Through the Prayers of Jane Austen by Rachel Dodge
The Prayers of Jane Austen published by Harvest House Publishers
Eight Women of Faith by Michael A. G. Haykin
The Annotated Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen annotated and edited by David M. Shapard
Pride and Prejudice: An Annoated Edition edited by Patricia Meyer Spacks
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 Talbe: Recipes Inspired by the Works of Jane Austen by Robert Tuesley Anderson
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

Take a portion of the book, say Mr. Collins' proposal to Elizabeth, and practice some Rhetoric skills. Ask the SPAUTS questions: S=Speaker - Who is the author or protagonist? P=Purpose - What is the purpose of the text? A=Audience - Who is the text indended for? U=Universal Ideas - What are the major themes of the passage? T=Tone - What is the tone of the author or progagonist? S=Strategies - What are some stragegies the author uses to convey ideas? Have your students answer this in a journal or participate in a Socratic Circle. Try it again using Mr. Darcy's proposal to Elizabeth.
Jane Austen's novels are full of teatime, dinner parties, and balls. Practice some lifeskills by learning how to make the perfect pot of tea, set a table for a fancy dinner party, and learn how to square dance or swing dance. Do you know where the dessert fork goes or the water goblet? Be in the know!
Read "The Lord's Prayer" in Matthew 6:9-13, Psalm 19, 23, 27, 29, 145, and 150 in the Bible. Contemplate writing your own prayer to God. What would you say?