Joining Persuasion, Donald J. Gray, editor of the Norton Critical Edition of Pride and Prejudice, gives the novel the Page 99 Test: “Open the book to page ninety-nine and read, and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you.”

Interestingly, Professor Gray writes about both his own edition of the book AND the 1813 second edition of the novel.

Either passage will prepare a reader for a novel about the tactics of courtship – the schemes and hopes of mother and sisters, the apparatus of social events (calls and balls) in which young people meet one another, or (in the Norton edition) fail to meet, the play of forwardness (in the 1813 edition) and socially enforced passivity (in the Norton passage) in the game of courtship. Things look more promising in 1813 – there will be a ball, at which the couple in the courtship will meet. In the passage of the Norton edition the dark and risky aspects of the game come forward: Jane (and Elizabeth) can do nothing but wait, the sister of one family schemes against the courtship while the sister of the other family is at this moment at least distant and helpless, and can offer only affection to solace the “painful thought” of disappointment. A novel, then, about romance and courtship, played out within the complications and comforts of family, and the provisions of social custom. In 1813 the reader wonders: what is going to happen at the ball? After reading the passage in the Norton edition, the reader thinks: This is a hard way to conduct romance; is it all going to be ok?

We like the way he compares and contrasts the two editions–and love that he consulted an almost-first edition!

Goucher College will break ground today for a new multi-use facility to be called The Athenaeum, which will house, among other things, the library’s special collections, including the Jane Austen Collection. The plans for the new building are pretty impressive! The Athenaeum will open in autumn 2009.

Since AustenBlog has many new visitors, we take this opportunity to direct our Gentle Readers to Alberta Burke’s notebooks, which Goucher College has scanned and placed online for the enjoyment of all Janeites. The notebooks are sort of the analog predecessor of AustenBlog. Don’t miss all the little tidbits about the 1930s Helen Jerome Broadway production of P&P and the filming of P&P 1940 (girlfriend tried to score a shooting script)! Be warned, a Janeite can spend hours and hours just clicking away here. The notebooks are a small part of Mrs. Burke’s lifetime collection of Austeniana, which includes first editions, letters, and other items, all of which were donated to Goucher, her alma mater, upon her death in 1975. Mrs. Burke’s husband, Henry Burke, was one of the founders of JASNA.

Bath Tourism is offering a free mp3 audio walking tour and map of Jane Austen’s Bath on their Web site. According to the press release:

The main highlights of the tour include the Pump Room - the social heart of the city during Austen’s time where people registered on arrival in the city and took the water; the Assembly Rooms - where people would gather to play cards, dance and take tea; the Royal Crescent - the most impressive address, where people enjoyed promenading and generally being seen; Queen Square - where Austen stayed for a period; Gravel Walk - the location of a touching love scene in the novel ‘Persuasion’; and the Jane Austen Centre - the ‘must see’ exhibition celebrating the life and works of the great novelist.

You will have to fill out a page of information to enable the download. The audio tour can be played on any mp3 player; download it before you leave home and you’re all set to experience Jane Austen’s Bath.

(Go ahead, say it. You know you want to. “Party on, Garth!”)

The Dolphin Hotel in Southampton is for sale. The article says that Jane Austen celebrated her 18th birthday there; we are not sure that is true, but according to Irene Collins’ excellent book Jane Austen: The Parson’s Daughter, Jane spent the end of 1793, when she would have turned 18, in Southampton and danced at a ball at the Dolphin.