Turn the Pages of Jane Austen’s History of England
Alert Janeite Maureen wrote to remind us about the “Turning the Pages” site at the British Library, which includes a virtual copy of Jane Austen’s hilarious parody, A History of England, “by a partial, prejudiced and ignorant Historian.” The site allows visitors to “turn the page” of the book as if they were reading the original copy. Cassandra Austen did the illustrations, incidentally.
September 23rd, 2005 at 5:37 pm
I love the British Library’s exhibit of it’s Treasures, and I think it’s so great that they’re digitizing more of them in this way! The Austen has been up for a while now, but they also just put Lewis Carroll’s original manuscript of “Alice’s Adventures Underground” also. I’ve been waiting for that since seeing it in person last summer. The thrill of seeing the author’s handwriting and whimsical drawings, Austen or Carroll, is just wonderful! And the images are so clear, it’s almost like holding the real thing!
P.S. Sue Casson was the narrator of Austen’s “History of England”– I emailed the BL to ask, since I enjoyed it so!