Our Jane Austen Book Club series is back with three more fantastic books! Hosted by Renata Dennis of the Jane Austen Society of North America, these books clubs will reignite your love of English literature and the wit of Jane Austen.
This time, we're adding tea time into the mix. With your ticket you will receive a beautiful copy of each book, as well as a set tea menu (details to come) at our new space at The Dale!
NORTHANGER ABBEY - April 25th 3-5 PM
“There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.”
Northanger Abbey was the first of two novels published posthumously in December 1817, six months after Jane’s death. The story follows Catherine Morland, the seventeen-year-old daughter of a country clergyman, who is now ‘in training for a heroine’. Leaving her village home to enjoy a season in Bath, Catherine embarks on a series of adventures, encountering romance, friendship, fashion and social ambition. Catherine is an ardent reader of gothic novels, and at times lets her imagination get the better of her, but as the story progresses she learns to distinguish truth from fiction. The novel tackles themes of marriage, social ambition, reading, taste and the picturesque, and throughout it explores and satirises the gothic novels of terror that were so popular in the 1790s.
EMMA - May 23rd 3-5 PM
"There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart."
Emma was Jane Austen’s fourth published novel, and the last to be published during her lifetime. Set in the fictional village of Highbury, the story focuses on its ‘handsome, clever and rich’ heroine Emma Woodhouse, who entertains herself by matchmaking and meddling in the lives of her friends and neighbours. Emma is the only one of Austen’s heroines who does not need to marry for money; however the themes of female dependence, marriage and class, and the lack of other possibilities available to women, are still prominent. The novel also looks at broader themes such as health, masculinity and good parenting, and it touches upon the “Irish question” which related to the status of Ireland as part of the United Kingdom, following the 1801 Act of Union.
PERSUASION - June 27th 3-5 PM
“All the privilege I claim for my own sex (it is not a very enviable one: you need not covet it), is that of loving longest, when existence or when hope is gone!”
Persuasion was published posthumously in December 1817, in a set with Northanger Abbey. The story follows Anne Elliot, Austen’s most mature heroine at 27 years old. She is unmarried, having seven years earlier been persuaded to break off her engagement to Frederick Wentworth, a promising young naval officer. When the Elliots rent out their family estate to try to reduce their debts and expenditure, Anne is thrown back into the company of Captain Wentworth, who is home on leave. The novel deals with themes of love and loss, regret, second chances, pride and ambition. It is imbued with a deep love of the sea and the navy, and makes a passionate plea for the strength of unrequited love in women.
ABOUT RENATA DENNIS
Renata Lynn Dennis is a newly retired nurse, “peony-obsessed” gardener, frequent patron of art museums around the world, Star Trek enthusiast, and ardent Janeite. With a career-Army father, Renata grew up moving around the East Coast and American South. She graduated from an American high school in Germany and speaks the German language fluently.
One thing Renata has carried with her through all her years and travels, however, is her love of Jane Austen. Renata is a JASNA Regional Coordinator and member of the Board of Directors. She has attended several AGMs and planned regional events in Georgia for the last couple of years. Renata loves the stimulating conversations that abound in their local JASNA region, facilitated by self-made and professional Austen scholars alike.
