Preparing for Febregency 2023
A Month of Reading Jane Austen's Contemporaries
On New Year’s Day, I let Cymbeline out for a morning romp in the winter sunshine, and when I looked up, behind the lattice of the silhouetted bare branches of the tall trees, I saw an enormous flock of bright white birds soaring through the blue, blue sky. All I have to offer is a word picture; alas, I didn’t have my camera on hand!
Back when the eighteenth century turned to the nineteenth century, creators didn’t have cameras to work with, only words and paintbrushes, but their works can take you right back to the moment they captured. Here’s a magical New Year’s Day word picture from one of Jane Austen’s favorite poets, William Cowper…
To the Nightingale
Which the Author Heard Sing on New-Year's Day, 1792
Whence is it, that amaz'd I hear
From yonder wither'd spray,
This foremost morn of all the year,
The melody of May?
And why, since thousands would be proud
Of such a favour shewn,
Am I selected from the crowd,
To witness it alone?
Sing'st thou, sweet Philomel, to me,
For that I also long
Have practis'd in the groves like thee,
Though not like thee in song?
Or sing'st thou rather under force
Of some divine command,
Commission'd to presage a course
Of happier days at hand?
Thrice welcome then! for many a long
And joyless year have I,
As thou to-day, put forth my song
Beneath a wintry sky.
But thee no wintry skies can harm,
Who only need'st to sing,
To make ev'n January charm,
And ev'ry season Spring.
In case you have not already received your invitation, I am happy to report that the Febregency readathon will return next month for its second year! I’ll be joined by wonderful co-hosts Christy Luis - Dostoevsky in Space, Jennifer Brooks, and Tristan and the Classics.
Febregency runs throughout the entire month of February, and the goal is simple: to explore the literature of Great Britain’s Regency period, from 1795 to 1837. Below are our challenges as well as my Febregency TBR!
1. Read a Regency era poem.
This might just be my favorite challenge, as evidenced by the fact that I’m already dipping into the antique volumes of William Cowper that I received as Christmas gifts! The Regency era left behind such a rich legacy of verse with the Romantic Movement poets like William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Lord Byron and Percy Shelley. Last year, the other hosts and I did a Regency Poetry Salon which was delightful. Besides Cowper, I’m also hoping to read Irish Melodies by Thomas Moore and “The Lady of the Lake” by Sir Walter Scott this year!
2. Read a Regency era play.
Many Regency era novels have important action taking place at the theatre - although, ironically, it usually has very little to do with the performance and everything to do with the social drama taking place in the audience, in the vestibule, in the boxes. But for this challenge, we’re turning our attention to the stage itself to discover what plays the characters might actually have been watching - or performing, in the case of home theatricals like the infamous rehearsals in Mansfield Park. I think this year I am finally going to sit down and read Lovers’ Vows by Elizabeth Inchbald, and I also hope to squeeze in The Rivals by Richard Sheridan.
3. Read a work of nonfiction either about the Regency era or written during the Regency era.
I really enjoyed the essays from The Idler by Samuel Johnson that I read during last year’s Febregency, so I think I will dip into a few more of those. I would also like to check out a collection of letters from the period; at the moment I’m leaning towards the European epistles of Lord Byron.
4. Read a Regency era work or author referenced by Jane Austen or who influenced Jane Austen.
This year we are doing a Febregency group read which will fulfill this fourth challenge! We’ll be reading Evelina by Frances Burney, with a Zoom book club discussion on Saturday, February 25. Burney was a popular novelist of the day to whom Jane Austen nods in Northanger Abbey during her defense of the novel…
…while the abilities of the nine-hundredth abridger of the History of England, or of the man who collects and publishes in a volume some dozen lines of Milton, Pope, and Prior, with a paper from the Spectator, and a chapter from Sterne, are eulogized by a thousand pens—there seems almost a general wish of decrying the capacity and undervaluing the labour of the novelist, and of slighting the performances which have only genius, wit, and taste to recommend them. “I am no novel-reader—I seldom look into novels—Do not imagine that I often read novels—It is really very well for a novel.” Such is the common cant. “And what are you reading, Miss—?” “Oh! It is only a novel!” replies the young lady, while she lays down her book with affected indifference, or momentary shame. “It is only Cecilia, or Camilla, or Belinda”; or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour, are conveyed to the world in the best-chosen language.
High praise, indeed! Frances Burney wrote both Cecilia and Camilla. Evelina is a bit more accessible in terms of length and should be a fun read because it is written as a series of letters between the main characters. Letter writing, as you will see from our bonus challenge, is the theme of this year’s Febregency. Belinda, in case you are curious, is by Maria Edgeworth, and I am hoping to squeeze her onto my reading list as well! I’m planning to listen to an audiobook of The Absentee.
BONUS CHALLENGE: Send a Regency-style, chatty, hand-written letter to a friend.
The people of the Regency era relied on handwritten notes to communicate and share news, and there’s something to be said for a physical letter, written in your own handwriting, sent through the post! Any letter sent on any time of stationery will do, but if you want to go the extra mile, you could read up on the anatomy of a Regency letter and Regency notepaper, as I’ve been doing. It’s so fascinating! I’m tempted to try “crossing” a letter…we’ll see if the recipient can manage to decipher it. 😂
Last year’s bonus challenge of making a Regency era recipe was a lot of fun. I know Christy is planning on doing some cooking this year as well, and I might make syllabub again! I had a very ambitious Febregency TBR in 2022 with plenty of Jane Austen inspiration, and I think it worked out well. If one book didn’t grab my attention, I had another ready to move onto. We’ll see how far I make it through this year’s TBR, and if I decide to throw in any extra authors. Tristan did a fantastic round-up of novelists of the era that has me wanting to branch out. For those interested, we’ll be kicking off Febregency with live reading sprints on Jennifer’s channel on Saturday, February 5!
In the meantime, I’ve been enjoying a Tookish or Tolkien-ish January with my reread of The Hobbit as well as Tolkien’s translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Let me know what you’ve been reading down in the comments! Hope your 2023 reading year is off to a great start. 😊