The Daily Mail has an interesting article about the Rice Portrait and Henry Rice himself. Mr. Rice is quite forthcoming in the piece.

For the painting has long been one of the most controversial in literary portraiture. The National Portrait Gallery in London, which would be its natural home if it proved to be Jane, says it has spent more time on the work in the past 15 years than on any other in a private collection.

WOW. That’s not something we had heard before. (more…)

Oxford University’s Romantic Realignments, described as “An Interdisciplinary Graduate Seminar in Literature and Cultural History 1780-1830,” will have several sessions dedicated to Jane Austen during the current term. Unfortunately one has already passed, but there is time to catch the others, and the seminars are open to the public.

We heard from Arnie Perlstein, who will be giving one of the seminars and has set up a blog with information about his presentation, “So you think you know all the right answers to all the right questions about Jane Austen’s Emma?” on Thursday, June 14. The questions for which he will be providing alternative answers are listed on the blog. If any of our Gentle Readers is in the neighborhood, we would love a report from this event.

The Editrix has had several encounters with Mr. Perlstein on various mailing lists but had no luck in convincing him that before looking for “secret subtext” one should perhaps seek mastery over the words that Jane Austen actually wrote. Just saying.

An article about landscape, the picturesque, and art starts off with a snippet from Pride and Prejudice:

They entered the woods and, bidding adieu to the river for a while, ascended some of the higher grounds: whence, in spots where the opening of the trees gave the eye power to wander, were many charming views of the valley . . .

ELIZABETH BENNETT AND Mr Darcy, the protagonists of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, are enjoying a walk in the Derbyshire countryside. The passage reads as a metaphor for the couple’s inner contentment and happiness. The distant hills, lovely light and warm sunshine, the framing trees and inviting stream, seem to be viewed and experienced by the couple as if a painting or picture. Hence the application by Austen’s contemporaries of the aesthetic term “picturesque” to describe pleasing and picture-like scenery.

Lovely; though Darcy wasn’t actually WITH Elizabeth during that particular scene; she was with the Gardiners. And she was not really contented, either:

At length, however, the remarks of her companions on her absence of mind roused her, and she felt the necessity of appearing more like herself.

Once again, we have an incident of quoting Jane Austen not wisely, but too well. It’s still a nice article, though.