Read A Walk with Jane Austen Online
Authors: Lori Smith
A Walk with Jane Austen (31 page)
5.
Austen,
Northanger Abbey
,202.
6.
Le Faye,
Letters
,486.
7.
Le Faye,
Family Record
,145.
8.
Le Faye,
Letters
,96.
9.
Le Faye,
Letters
,96.
10.
Le Faye,
Letters
,97.
11.
Le Faye,
Letters
,xviii.
12.
LeFaye,
Family Record
,65 andTomalin, 29, 61.
13.
Austen,
Mansfield Park
,74.
14.
Austen,
Catharine and Other Writings
,249-50.
15.
William Shakespeare, “Much Ado About Nothing: Act 2, Scene 3,” The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, operated by
The Tech
,
http://shakespeare.mit.edu
/much_ado/much_ado.2.3.html (accessed June 5, 2007).
The epigraph is drawn from Austen,
Mansfield Park
,3.
1.
Austen,
Pride and Prejudice
,208.
2.
Le Faye,
Letters
,280.
3.
Genesis 3:16.
4.
Le Faye,
Family Record
,4-5, 18, 29-36 andTomalin, 16-22.
5.
Le Faye,
World of Her NoveL
,31.
6.
Austen,
Pride and Prejudice, 204.
7.
Austen,
Pride and Prejudice
,205.
The epigraph is drawn from Austen,
Pride and Prejudice
,99.
1.
Le Faye,
Family Record
,157.
2.
Stephen Daniels, “Repton, Humphry (1752-1818),”
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
,Oxford University Press, 2004.
www.oxforddnb.com
/view/article/23387, accessed 25 June 2007
The epigraph is drawn from Austen, Evening Prayer 1,
Catharine and Other Writing
,247.
1.
Paraphrase of Psalm 27.
The epigraph is drawn from Cowper, “Verses Supposed to be Written by Alexander Selkirk, During his Solitary Abode in the Island of Juan Fernandez (1782),” 40.
1.
Le Faye,
Letters
,277.
2.
Austen-Leigh, 113.
A Walk with Jane Austen
Lori Smith
Lori would never call herself obsessed with Jane Austen, and yet how fine do you see the line between affinity and obsession (and where is that line for you)? For whom or what would you cross an ocean to better know and understand—and why?
What discoveries about Jane Austen are you relishing most that you found by going via Lori's travels to the places Jane loved and lived?
Lori and Jane have so much in common and are alike in so many ways. How are they different?
How might Lori and Jane be different were they born in the others era or lifetime (and country)? Perhaps, dear reader, this seems obvious, but isn't it delicious to discuss?
What do you make of Loris list for the perfect man (see chapter 3)? How like or unlike is this to Jane's list, written between the lines in her novels?
What “small meannesses” did Jane write into her novels? Where do you find those in Lori's story? Are “small meannesses” different today than in Jane's day two hundred years ago? How or how not?
In chapter 14, what do you make of Loris understanding of
heaven and her take on what e, like Jane, leave behind us when we die?Jane Austen created so many characters in her novels (not the least of which are the Dashwoods in
Sense and Sensibility)
who struggled with the tug between selfishness and self-expression. How does this show up in Lori's story? How is this a common theme in most Austen literature? When are Jane's characters virtuous in self-expression without selfishness? Where do you find this in Loris journey as well?Had it been you, trekking to Oxford, slogging book-filled luggage across the English countryside, wandering the courtyards of abbeys, and sitting through Evensong in Christ Church Cathedral, would you have explored Jane's life differently? Where would you wish to start and end?
Looking back on Loris journey, how do you think she found (or not) what she went looking for in the footsteps of Jane?
L
ORI
S
MITH
is a freelance writer and a member of the Jane Austen Society of North America. Her writing has appeared in
Washington Post Book World, Publishers Weekly, Washingtonian
magazine,
BreakPoint Online, Discipleship Journal
,and
Todays Christian Woman.
Her first book,
The Single Truth
,approached singleness thoughtfully from a Christian perspective. She lives in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., where she takes ballet, drinks tea, and runs the Jane Austen Quote of the Day blog at
www.austenquotes.com
. You'll also find her at her blog for this book (or “blook”) at
www.followingausten.com
. Her next big life goal is to adopt a dog and to return to England.
A W
ALK WITH
J
ANE
A
USTEN
P
UBLISHED BY
W
ATER
B
ROOK
P
RESS
12265 Oracle Boulevard, Suite 200
Colorado Springs, Colorado 80921
A division of Random House Inc.
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked
(KJV)
are taken from the King James Version.
Details in some anecdotes and stories have been changed to protect the identities of the persons involved.
eISBN: 9780307457356
Copyright © 2007 by Lori Smith
Illustrated map by Devin Boyle copyright © 2007
Published in association with the literary agency of Alive Communications Inc., 7680 Goddard Street, Suite 200, Colorado Springs, CO 80920,
www.alivecommunications.com
.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Smith, Lori, 1971
A walk with Jane Austen: a journey into adventure, love, and faith / Lori Smith.— 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Austen, Jane, 1775-1817—Homes and haunts. 2. Austen, Jane, 1775-1817—Influence. 3. Novelists, English—19th century—Biography. 4. Literary landmarks—England. 5. Women authors. 6. England—Description and travel. I. Title.
PR4036.S63 2007
823'.7—dc22
[B]
2007025455
2008
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