A preview of the Editrix’s travelogue
…sort of! Raphael Kadushin writes about traveling through the beautiful Hampshire countryside, including Chawton, in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune:
“And this is where she wrote,” the docent said.
“She” was Jane Austen, and what I was staring at was a tiny wooden table, its round top about the size of a Frisbee, tucked discreetly beside a window, looking like something praying not to be noticed.
The table was the kind you would serve cashews and olives on, though there might not be room for the cashews, and it was hard to picture Austen composing “Pride and Prejudice” on this undersized insult of a writing desk. Seeing it was like learning that Julia Child produced all those airy French soufflés in an Easy Bake oven, though Child didn’t have to worry about hiding her work every time someone entered the kitchen.
It is a rather tiny table, and pretty beat up, but we agree with all of the author’s comments about Hampshire–it is really beautiful country. It is easy to understand why Jane Austen so loved it.
October 30th, 2005 at 9:07 pm
It was a similar sort of situation at Orchard House. Louisa May Alcott had tiny little uncomfortable slab of wood for a desk, fashioned by her father. It just goes to show you, we have no excuse not to write, sitting at our comfortable desks or laying across our beds, laptap buzzing away!
October 31st, 2005 at 2:36 pm
I was at Chawton in September too, and the size of Jane’s table really struck me as well. It seemed amazing that she could create so much simply sitting at this tiny table, while we muddle through with our computers, desks, and file cabinets. It was also special to sit out in the gardens there, and to walk along the path she might have walked to get to her brother’s house.
October 31st, 2005 at 3:41 pm
Is the writing table really only the size of a Frisbee? My recollection of the table is that it’s small, but I don’t think I would compare it to a Frisbee. Or have I only come into contact with minute-sized Frisbees in the course of my life?
Ah, to be at Chawton again and drink tea at Cassandra’s Cup.