Discussion of Jane Austen's "Catharine, or The Bower"

"Her behaviour indeed is scandalous, and therefore I beg
you will send your Son away immediately, or everything will be at sixes and sevens.”

Join us on Monday, April 6th for a discussion of Jane Austen's transitional fragment "Catharine, or The Bower" (which is also known as "Kitty, or The Bower," its original title).

Written in 1792 and 1793, when the author was about 17, "Catharine" seems to represent Jane Austen's earliest attempt the genre she went on to define: a female-driven coming-of-age tale, with character-driven humor set against a fairly realistic social world -- in contrast to the broad farce and burlesque of her earlier juvenilia! This text is can be accessed for free here.

Meet Your Facilitator
Sarah Rose Kearns is a playwright, performer, and lifelong Austen enthusiast. Her stage adaptation of Persuasion has appeared off-Broadway and at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company in Baltimore. Her one-act play Manydown, which imagines one important night in the lives of Jane Austen and her sister Cassandra, has been performed more than a dozen times in six US states, as well as in the UK and New Zealand — and was recently adapted as a short film by Prerna Ramachandra. Rose's third and latest play The Austens, a full-length dramatic comedy about the beloved novelist and her family, has had staged readings in New York City, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and at Jane Austen’s brother’s house in Chawton, the English village where the play is set. In addition to her creative work, Rose is passionate about the work of building strong communities through art. Since its inception in 2020, she has served as a member of the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) committee for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion; and, since 2023, as co-Regional Coordinator for the JASNA New York Metropolitan Region. She is also the founding artistic director of The Holy Theatre, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit arts organization in New York City, with a mission to make plays and other gatherings that leave people feeling nourished, connected, and more able to be brave.