Spending February in the Regency Era
Reading Jane Austen's favorites and more for Febregency 2023
Much as I adore reading classics and books written in the past, I rarely spend an extended length of time reading only books from one particular time period. Both this February and last February, however, I have been doing exactly that for Febregency, and I have found it to be so rewarding!
From Mary Shelley to Sir Walter Scott, spending the month solely with writers from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries has been like looking in on the same scenery from a series of different windows. That wealth of perspective and variety of viewpoint has made my recent Regency reading that much more immersive!
Of course, books have not been my only avenue into the era! It was so much fun to put together a “starter pack” with fashion discoveries, peaceful pastimes and Regency recipes to help add some Jane Austen vibes and inspiration to everyday life. Speaking of cookery, I still need to pick out something to make from Martha Lloyd’s Household Book.
While I have not yet been busy in the kitchen, I have made admirable progress through my Febregency TBR! Before we begin with the recap and reviews, I must beg leave to apologize for the length of this post. Hopefully you can break up your perusal into multiple sittings or enjoy with interludes for tea or coffee and snacks! Without further ado…
Evelina by Frances Burney
Evelina is full of elegant, lavish language as well as witty, pithy lines: “Don't be angry with the gentleman for thinking, whatever be the cause, for I assure you he makes no common practice of offending in that way.” That made me think of the verse from the Gaston song: “LeFou, I’m afraid I’ve been thinking…” “A dangerous pasttime.” “I know!” 😂
Here’s another great observation: “There is nothing which requires more immediate notice than impertinence, for it ever encroaches when it is tolerated.” Dueling was still a relatively common practice in this time period (there’s a bloodless duel which takes place behind the scenes in Sense and Sensibility), and there are several almost-duels in Evelina.
There were so many fascinating anecdotes about customs and fads of the period; the details helped you picture what everyday life would have been like, as if you were going along for a late eighteenth century journey to Bath or Bristol. I really enjoyed Evelina - the last third or so of the book in particular was just delightful - I couldn’t put it down! I can’t wait for our Evelina book club discussion this Saturday, February 25; I’ll be emailing out the web call link on Friday.
The Absentee by Maria Edgeworth
I read two of Jane Austen’s favorite fiction authors this month, and they were both a treat! I think Maria Edgeworth would just edge past Frances Burney as my favorite of the two. I gave a fairly lengthy review of The Absentee in my recent bookish vlog; the novel was such a wonderful mix of relatable human interest alongside insight into the complicated state of affairs in Ireland at that time.
The Irish commentary was of particular interest to me as I have Irish heritage of my own (if you’re looking for a St. Patrick’s Day read for next month, this would be a great pick!); but I also adored the characters in the London scenes.
“Miss Brodhurst had received all the advantages of education which money could procure, and had profited by them in a manner uncommon among those for whom they are purchased in such abundance: she not only had had many masters, and read many books, but had thought of what she read, and had supplied, by the strength and energy of her own mind, what cannot be acquired by the assistance of masters.”
Miss Brodhurst and Grace Nugent could have been heroines straight out of a Jane Austen novel, and I wish we had a sequel to The Absentee to spend more time with them!
“No: this young lady was quite above all double dealing; she had no mental reservations - no metaphysical subtleties - but, with plan, unsophisticated morality, in good faith and simple truth, acted as she professed, thought what she said, and was that which she seemed to be.”
While I love Maria Edgeworth’s descriptions, it does make me reflect on the difference between Jane Austen and many of her contemporaries. Austen manages to convey the temperments of her characters not by telling but by showing, which I think takes greater skill, the work of that fine brush and light touch which add so much depth to her “little piece of ivory.” Sir Walter Scott mentions this in his journal from 1826:
“The big bow-wow strain I can do myself like any now going; but the exquisite touch, which renders ordinary commonplace things and characters interesting, from the truth of the description and the sentiment, is denied to me.”
The Lady of the Lake by Sir Walter Scott
Speaking of Sir Walter Scott and his “bow-wow strain,” I thoroughly enjoyed this great LibraVox audiobook version of The Lady of the Lake this month! I literally gasped out loud on three separate occasions at the twists the plot took, and hearing his epic descriptions of the Scottish landscape was like listening to a painting.
From underneath an aged oak
That slanted from the islet rock,
A damsel guider of its way,
A little skiff shot to the bay,
That round the promontory steep
Led its deep line in graceful sweep,
Eddying, in almost viewless wave,
The weeping willow twig to lave,
And kiss, with whispering sound and slow,
The beach of pebbles bright as snow.
The boat had touched this silver strand
Just as the Hunter left his stand,
And stood concealed amid the brake,
To view this Lady of the Lake.
Apparently, this publication broke poetry sales records when it came out in 1820. I would highly recommend it!
Irish Melodies by Thomas Moore
My Febregency TBR has taken me all around the British Isles, from England to Scotland to Ireland! Maria Edgeworth was not my only Irish guide; I also picked up the works of Thomas Moore. His poems are filled with melancholy at Irish woes as well as at the passage of time and fleeting visions of happiness. I did love the beautiful imagery:
This life is all checkered with pleasures and woes,
That chase one another like waves of the deep,--
Each brightly or darkly, as onward it flows,
Reflecting our eyes, as they sparkle or weep.So closely our whims on our miseries tread,
That the laugh is awaked ere the tear can be dried;
And, as fast as the rain-drop of Pity is shed.
The goose-plumage of Folly can turn it aside.But pledge me the cup--if existence would cloy,
With hearts ever happy, and heads ever wise,
Be ours the light Sorrow, half-sister to Joy,
And the light, brilliant Folly that flashes and dies.When Hylas was sent with his urn to the fount,
Thro' fields full of light, and with heart full of play,
Light rambled the boy, over meadow and mount,
And neglected his task for the flowers on the way.Thus many, like me, who in youth should have tasted
The fountain that runs by Philosophy's shrine,
Their time with the flowers on the margin have wasted,
And left their light urns all as empty as mine.But pledge me the goblet;--while Idleness weaves
These flowerets together, should Wisdom but see
One bright drop or two that has fallen on the leaves
From her fountain divine, 'tis sufficient for me.
Poems by William Cowper
I had to revisit Jane Autsen’s favorite poet again this Febregency! Fun fact: Cowper worked on the Olney Hymns, the most famous of which is Amazing Grace, penned by his friend John Newton. There is such a beautiful rhythm to Cowper’s poems:
The lapse of time and rivers is the same,
Both speed their journey with a restless stream;
The silent pace, with which they steal away,
No wealth can bribe, no prayers persuade to stay;
Alike irrevocable both when past,
And a wide ocean swallows both at last.
Though each resemble each in every part,
A difference strikes at length the musing heart;
Streams never flow in vain; where streams abound,
How laughs the land with various plenty crown’d!
But time, that should enrich the nobler mind,
Neglected, leaves a dreary waste behind.
Similar to Thomas Moore, there can be a sense of melancholy to William Cowper; but where Moore’s poetry might end on a bleak and barren note, Cowper always turns back to his faith, adding richness to his verse.
And is this all? Can reason do no more
Than bid me shun the deep and dread the shore?
Sweet moralist! afloat on life's rough sea
The Christian has an art unknown to thee;
He holds no parley with unmanly fears,
Where duty bids he confidently steers,
Faces a thousand dangers at her call,
And trusting in his God, surmounts them all.
History of a Six Weeks’ Tour through a Part of France, Switzerland, Germany and Holland by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
I spent the first week of Febregency on the referenced-by-Jane-Austen prompt and the second week on the poetry prompt, which left the third week to the nonfiction and theatrical Febregency prompts. For the nonfiction challenge, I’ve been traveling with Mary Shelley and her husband Percy through Europe. This work includes journal entries from an 1814 sojourn as well as letters from the fateful 1816 visit to Geneva, during which Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein as her contribution to a ghost story competition. From the letters, you can see how much the wild weather inspired the tempestuous tale:
“The thunder storms that visit us are grander and more terrific than I have ever seen before. We atch them as they approach from the opposite side of the lake, observing the lightning play among the clouds in various parts of the heaves, and dart in jagged figures upon the piny heights of Jura dark with the shadow of the overhanging cloud.”
Some of the inspiring sights which Mary Shelley describes reminded me of our Switzerland trip a few years ago, but luckily we did not have to endure the incredible inconveniences of Regency travel. From the different modes of transportation to the nightly lodgings, their journeys are very unpleasant and at times quite dangerous. Mary describes an idyllic trip down the Rhine (she even mentions what books they were reading, and I have to remind myself that they would have had to be physically carrying all those books with them, no option for an ereader!), but then she also casually mentions that another boat traveling the same route at around the same time was swept away and all its passengers lost!
Lovers’ Vows by Elizabeth Inchbald
So highly do I rate the judgement of Jane Austen’s heroines, that I was a bit hesitant to pick up Lovers’ Vows because of Fanny Price’s disapproval of it. 😆 But as Jane Austen herself must have read it herself at some point in order to reference it in Mansfield Park, I felt it couldn’t be so very objectionable. There are some interesting and significant parallels beyond what you can pick up by only reading the novel - like the way Baron Wildenhaim wants his daughter to marry for love…but also would prefer her to fall in love with a man of position and fortune, exactly like Sir Thomas! Most of my enjoyment of this play has come from tracing its relationship to Mansfield Park, but there is some entertaining dialogue…
AMELIA.
Your muse, Mr. Butler, is in a very inventive humour this morning.MR. ANHALT.
And your tale too improbable, even for fiction.BUTLER.
Improbable! It’s a real fact.AMELIA.
What, a robber in our grounds, at noon-day? Very likely indeed!BUTLER.
I don’t say it was likely—I only say it is true.
I meant to do a mid-Febregency check-in earlier this month, but I didn’t have time to get to it until now as I’ve been hard at work on the second installment in my kitten series, The Book of Cymbeline II: A Kitten’s Tale from Fall to Winter. This new illustrated storybook about my charismatic cat will be out on Friday, February 24, available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback.
Whether you’ve spent February in the past or the present or a mix of the two, I hope you’ve been having a wonderful month!