Jane Austen Meetup NYC- For Janeites and Newbies Alike!

“I fancy Miss Price has been more used to deserve praise than to hear it…”

The story begins when our young Miss Fanny Price is removed from her family to live with her mother's sister and her family of Mansfield Park. Considered the "poor relation" and not treated well by them, her only solace is in her cousin Edmund, with whom Fanny irrevocably falls in love. Mansfield Park differs from Austen's other works because it still has her traditional comedic characters and is satirical in nature, yet it is underlined with more seriousness than her other novels. With Fanny as our ever moral compass, Austen introduces an even more pronounced layer of propriety, morality, and even thoughts on Abolition. With the foils of the fashionable Mary and Henry Crawford sweeping in from London and the fickle nature of Edmund, Fanny's staunch moral conduct drives the novel and helps her to evade all the faux pas of inevitable and sometimes irreversible misconduct to which the other characters in the novel have fallen. Fanny is one of the most underrated of Austen's heroines because through a modern eye, she can sometimes appear so unforgiving of human nature yet with a high opinion of herself because of her "inner guide" while also being passive, submissive, and fastidious. Yet, she still preservers in her own happiness because she is so steadfast in her beliefs.

Run mad as often as you choose, but do not forget update your RSVPs by April 10th, as we would like to make sure that we are aware of the correct number of attendees.

We will also announce our next book at this meeting.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

** Please keep in mind, now that the world is opening up again and we are having meetings in person, when we are indoors, and not via zoom or outside, your RSVP is very important. If you cannot make an event, please kindly remember to adjust your status so that people on our waiting list can be notified that there is a spot for them. **

**You all were so great last year, so I thank you for continuing to update your RSVPs. I will still be still taking attendance this year. So just as a reminder, repeated no-shows will be bumped to the waitlist so as not to take up one of our limited spaces. But maybe moved day of, if the meeting is not full.**

As a continued part of celebrating Austen's 250th year, let us read about and discuss the real men that influenced our most esteemed author. As well as the men she created using society, satire, and sagacity.

No matter which Austen hero is your favourite, they all have touched our hearts in some way or another and have been the basis for comparisons for generations. We usually tend to focus on one novel at a time. But here is our chance to finally compare and contrast all the men with spoilers amok!

Description from StoryGraph:

The society in which Jane Austen lived and set her novels was a patriarchal one. Men ran the country nationally and locally, and had professional or business careers. Women were relegated to the subservient roles of wife, mother and housekeeper.

What was it like to be a man in late Georgian and Regency England? How did Jane Austen, who lived in a predominantly male household, portray her male characters? How much inspiration did she draw from real men?

{Those of us who know her story at the end of her life must suppose the author means before her life in Chawton, where her household consisted almost solely of women}

This book explores the lives of the men in Jane's life, her relationship with them, how typical they were of men of their time and the impact they had on her life and writing. It also considers how accurately the novels portray the lives of men and what they reveal of their author's views on the relationship between the sexes and the male domination of society.

Please have your RSVP updated by Wednesday, July 9th, as we would like to make sure that we tell the restaurant the correct number of attendees.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

** Please keep in mind, when we are having meetings in person and are indoors, and not via zoom or outside, your RSVP is very important. If you cannot make an event, please kindly remember to adjust your status so that people on our waiting list can be notified that there is a spot for them. **

**You all were so great last year, so I thank you for continuing to update your RSVPs. I will still be still taking attendance this year. So just as a reminder, repeated no-shows will be bumped to the waitlist so as not to take up one of our limited spaces. But maybe moved day of, if the meeting is not full.**

“It's such a happiness when good people get together.”
--Jane Austen, Emma

The first line of the novel is: “ Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her. ” The novel opens after the marriage of her governess where Emma boldly declares that she is the one that set them up. This sets the stage for Emma to fancy herself a matchmaker within her town of Highbury. Because we do not leave the principal town, as we have done in other Austen novels, Austen is allowing us a glimpse into how intimate families of a community act with one another when living in a small country town. Emma is steadfast in what she thinks she wants from life, but as the novel progresses, we see Emma's change of heart and mind and we see her grow up a little, too.

When referring to Emma, Austen said, "I am going to make a heroine whom no one but myself will much like." Time has shown that has not been the case. It is a novel filled with lightheartedness, misunderstandings, and mischief making, which leads to comical scenes but also stresses why it is never good to make assumptions.

Please do not distress poor Mr. Woodhouse and have your RSVP updated by Wednesday August 13th!

We will also announce our next book at this meeting.

Looking forward to seeing you there!