Update on CSECS 2010, St. John's

Good stuff.

Strawberry Hill Online!

The Strawberry Hill Trust recently launched The Strawberry Hill House Online! to celebrate the reopening of Horace Walpole's newly-restored gothic castle! Features extensive history and updated images that showcase the interior architecture and glasswork. And the bizarro Medieval details. Walpole: what a weirdo! haha! But really though, super beautiful. Thanks SH Trust!

"It was built to please my own taste, and in some degree to realise my own visions" (Horace Walpole)

Those damn'd Romantics

In my grad seminar, "The Gothic Century," we are learning that Romantic scholars want to extend the beginning of their era from 1798 to 1750, eschewing all differences in between those dates that characterize those dates. As I take it from Susan J. Wolfson in "50-50? Phone a Friend? Ask the Audience? Speculating on a Romantic Century, 1750-1850," part of the force behind extending the Romantic era is a discipline-related issue: fewer universities hire straight-up Romantics, but instead hire specialists in the long-eighteenth century. Thus, if Romantics can force themselves into the long-eighteenth century somehow, their era (and their job) is preserved. How political. My real concern here is with statements like, "eighteenth-century scholars have as a rule been uninterested in fiction written after Fielding and Richardson" (Claudia L. Johnson, "The Novel and the Romantic Century, 1750-1850" italics mine). As a rule? That seems both exaggerated and incorrect. As an Austen scholar, Johnson's views seem oriented by Austen's position in the eighteenth-century, and while she celebrates that Austen was "(gladly) ceded back to eighteenth-century studies" (thankfully, I agree), later-century writers only wrote about "girlie things, like manners" (15). She says that Sam Johnson got the boot, and is "no longer used as a way of organizing ... the period" (15). She ends by returning to what Wolfson opened with: reformation of the era is for hiring opportunity. But, the extension of the Romantic era asks the question, does Romanticism even exist?

For me, I find it bizarre to call Austen "pre-Victorian" as much as I find it bizarre to call Thomas Warton, Oliver Goldsmith, or even Horace Walpole "pre-Romantic." If the "Romantic Century" begins in 1750, what do we make of Gray, Sterne, Boswell, Equiano, Burke, Barbauld? These writers are distinct from the project of Wordsworth and Coleridge, which has thus far been the place mark of Romanticism. I'm just not buying this whole thing. Certain preoccupations were brought to the writing table that are uniquely mid-century oriented. Yes, Gray is an early voice of the fascination with the morose, solitary, and (unknowingly) psychological, but to say he is a pre-Romantic takes him out of his context and hands him over to an era affected by Revolution, regency, industrial/scientific developments, and urbanite-occupations. Not the nostalgic, neo-classical, anxious, naive, and authorial culture to which he belongs. IF ANYTHING, we should call the Romantics post-Sensibility. If Burke's Sublime is the treatise of the era, especially in the Gothic mode, then perhaps the Romantics were looking back to mid-century to position themselves with a particular aesthetic and sociocultural agenda; Burke was not looking ahead to plain language, ghosts, and the women's right to write. Give me a break.

Sources:

Johnson, Claudia L. "The Novel and the Romantic Century, 1750-1850" European Romantic Review 1 (2000) 12-20.

Wolfson, Susan J. "50-50? Phone a Friend? Ask the Audience? Speculating on a Romantic Century, 1750-1850" European Romantic Review 1 (2000) 1-11.

Printer of the Century

Today in 1764, Robert Dodsley - famed printer, miscellaneous writer - died in Durham. His well-known editions include Johnson's Rasselas, Gray's Elegy, and The Annual Register with Edmund Burke. He oversaw some of the publication of Tristram Shandy; he retired the same year (1759) and handed over his Tully's Head, Pall Mall shop to his brother James.

Portrait above: attributed to Edward Alcock, 1760 (NPG London).

Seen below is the frontispiece to Volume I of Tristram Shandy, complete with woodcut by Hogarth showing Trim reading the sermon, "The Abuses of Conscience Considered," to Uncle Toby and Walter. Trim's body follows Hogarth's "line of beauty" - the serpentine. This particular edition is a reprint from 1782, but clearly printed for "J.Dodsley" in London.



See: Solomon, Harry S. The Rise of Robert Dodsley (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University, 1996). Online.

What a weirdo.

Coming soon: the online launch of Horace Walpole's gothic castle renovations! from the Friends of Strawberry Hill. "I am going to build a little Gothic castle at Strawberry Hill" (Walpole).



More on Strawberry Hill from the Twickenham Museum.

Albert Moore

A Quartet, A Painter's Tribute ... AD 1868

Albert Joseph Moore was born in York in 1841, and died in London in 1893. A Quartet represents, as Elizabeth Prettejohn writes, the classical spirit of his art and the linear grid underplaying the scene: "the figures and objects alike take their places in obedience to the abstract pattern of the grid" (120). The golden hair of the woman on the right is balanced by the golden flower and golden sash on the left, for instance. The angles of the bows and the placement of the instruments also functions within Moore's linearity. To see a higher quality version of this image, please visit Peter Nahum @ The Leister Galleries.

Reference.

For Sale!

Looking to downsize? This modest home outside of Paris has 27 rooms to suit your needs. With just under 9,000 sqaure feet of living space, this cozy property offers an easy transition for recent empty-nesters or "do-it your-selfers". Settle in with your very own maid and groundskeeper. Built in 1783, this French Revolution-era home is anything but rebellious. The grand salon, pigeonier, wooded park, and bibliotheque will make waking up in this south-facing cottage a delight. Take an afternoon dip in one of the swimming pools, or relax on one of the many patios. In-laws coming for a visit? The enfilad, an attached 3 bedroom maison, is perfect for those family get-togethers. Plenty of storage in the vaulted cave.

Don't miss this chance to enjoy rustic living in an intimate setting.

Asking Price: $4 million EUR.

Portraiture

In The Art of Thomas Gainsborough (1999), Michael Rosenthal writes that the interest of the very popular portraits of Sir Joshua Reynolds "lay in the person represented" (12), including the 1760 portrait of Laurence Sterne. It was then re-engraved in 1761 by Edward Fisher for commercial sale, "meant to capitalize on Sterne's [also] amazing popularity" (12). Collecting images of those "in fashion" was common during this period.

18th Century Society

I'm presenting an essay at the Canadian Society for Eighteenth Century Studies Annual Conference at Memorial University in Newfoundland this October. The essay is titled, "Sterne's Darling Maid: Charting the Influence of Laurence Sterne on Jane Austen". I went to the CSECS/NEASECS Conference in Ottawa last year, which was great, and I am very excited to attend this year's conference because Pat Rogers is scheduled to be a plenary speaker, who I met at BSECS 2008. He's worked on Sterne in the past. WATCH OUT NEWFOUNDLAND! Anyway, now I am revising, revising, revising the essay, which is good. I think people only listen in conferences about 60% of the time anyway; it's a lot to retain in a short time, plus some people are naturally boring.

Life is too short to be long about the forms of it.

Just a little update regarding this website managed by Ken Roberts. He has been collecting queries and evidence regarding Sterne and Austen, and I noticed that his website lacked a few helpful articles and references. Thus, I sent an email to him, and received a reply soon after, and shortly after that, I appeared on his website! It is an offshoot of the Republic of Pemberley, dedicated to Austania, and features links of independent scholars with various areas of interest in Austen. This is the only dedicated page to these two literary figures and I contributed to it! Anyway, I also sent the reference to Sterne in Northanger Abbey, but am featured regarding article by Park Honan. There was another helpful article by Celia A. Easton but I don't think the proprietor of the website could get that article. I had a hard time finding it myself. So, I am excited about this little inclusion on a website directly related to my interests now.

Too Hot to Handel

A website I have spent a lot of time on and really love is the Metropolitan Museum of Art, specifically the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History with its pimpin' thematic essays and time lines. This fine online gallery offers today's gem of eighteenth-century musical instruments. I encourage clicking to learn more.

Viola da gamba (England, 1700)



Clavicord, Christian Kintzing (Germany, 1763)

Click here to see the London Symphony Orchestra do Handel's "Ev'ry valley shall be exalted," conducted by
Sir Colin Davis, with Mark Padmore (tenor), performed in Barbican Hall, London, 10 December 2006.

18th Century Halifax

Some of the oldest buildings in Canada are here in Nova Scotia, bested only by Quebec, with homes and chapels dating to the 1600s (Maison des Jésuites-de-Sillery, for instance, from 1637). Few of them still stand, however. But, here in Nova Scotia, we have St. Paul's Church. Built in 1750, it was the first Anglican church in North America, and the oldest standing structure in Halifax.

Founded by the proclamation of George II, the church was designed in palladian style by James Gibbs, based on the design of St. Peter's Church in London (circa 1728). Some of the interior features include original pine and oak support beams brought in from Maine, a crypt containing the remains of 20 congregants, and two fonts, one presented by the Bishop of Newfoundland in the 17th century, and one from the 18th. The external timber was cut and shipped from Boston. It remains an attractive tourist site, located in Parade Square, and has an active congregation and service schedule. It survived the Halifax Explosion (1917). The founding of St. Paul's followed the founding of Halifax in 1749.

Tapestry

French designer Frédérique Morrel brings vintage tapestries and needlework back to life. Très chic.

Man: a Bubble to Himself

I just remembered a resource I found a few years ago relating to the South Sea Bubble. The website is managed by the Baker Library at Harvard Business School, part of the Kress Collection, titled, Sunk in Lucre's Sordid Charms. Oh, it was sordid alright. The website is pretty cool. There is limited access, however, to documents and images, provided you are not a Harvard University student, but what is available is pretty neat.




The website offers a brief history of the South Sea Company and the causes of the stock-job pop. There is also a very useful and bright essay by Christopher Reed ("The Damn'd South Sea") available on the website that is illuminated by contemporary documents and images, published in Harvard Magazine (June 1999). The website also marshals many German and Dutch woodcuts and renditions. The pop of the South Sea Bubble reverberated loudly in English history, preceded in kind only by the Mississippi Bubble of John Law.

Thou art in debt!

Just working away at the connections between Laurence Sterne and Jane Austen. I had consulted the MLA Bibliography to see if this topic has ever been explored, and I found a chapter from Laurence Sterne: Riddles and Mysteries (1984) relating exactly to this topic, thus I wait. I'm waiting for the chapter to be delivered so I can read it. I wonder what the argument is (by Park Honan) regarding "Sterne and the Formation of Jane Austen's Talent." Aside from this, however, there is little connecting the two authors in scholarship (other than Honan, Celia A. Easton has done a little bit on this). Actually, there is little tangible history connecting these authors, as well. I searched for hours for any printed connection between Austen & Sterne (subscription lists, Rev. Austen's library books, book sales in Chawton, &c.) with little success.

UPDATE: The chapter by Honan was helpful, and drew some of the same conclusions as I had already drawn, but focused more on aligning Austen's earlier work (1790s writings) with Sterne's narrative tone. And, Honan made distinctions between Sterne's Whiggishness and Austen's Toryism. Helpful.

And curse Sir Walter Raleigh

Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618)

Aristocrat, soldier, poet, courtier, importer of tobacco.

Total babe.

Literary Party

Having just studied a little work of Thomas Warton and Oliver Goldsmith, I thought it fitting to include this print (above), titled, A Literary Party at Sir Joshua Reynolds's, by Owen Bailey (1851). I love this print because of David Garrick's expression (and the recognizable likeness). Seated from left to right: biographer James Boswell (1740-1795), Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), portraitist and painter Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), theatre manager and actor David Garrick (1717-1779), philosopher and statesman Edmund Burke (1729-1797), Corsican patriot Pasquale Paoli (1725-1807), hoarder and music historian Charles Burney (1726-1814), Thomas Warton (1728-1790), and finally, novelist and poet Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774).

I think that Garrick's likeness was reproduced from the 1770 portrait by Thomas Gainsborough. By no means is this painting a masterpiece, but it is definitely one of the coolest renditions of "The Age of Johnson," and is emblematic of his intimate literary culture.

An image of the original print can be viewed here.

Paris, 1800

And here, the best book I own: a gem from Paris, 1800, printed by the Didot famille. It is in excellent condition with gilted pages, (fittingly) marble pastedowns, and raised bands. I really love this edition of A Sentimental Journey, especially how the French punctuation is a bit different. Rather than Sterne's em-dashes (--), the text makes use of the equals sign (=). Does it alter the meaning? A modernists wet-dream...

9 March 1796

Napoléon Bonaparte and Joséphine de Beauharnais were married today in Paris.

Portrait of the empress,
by François Pascal Simon Gérard (1808)

December 1795

I awake full of you. Your image and the memory of last night’s intoxicating pleasures has left no rest to my senses.

Sweet, incomparable Josephine, what a strange effect you have on my heart. Are you angry? Do I see you sad? Are you worried? My soul breaks with grief, and there is no rest for your lover; but how much the more when I yield to this passion that rules me and drink a burning flame from your lips and your heart? Oh! This night has shown me that your portrait is not you!

Meanwhile, my sweet love, a thousand kisses; but do not give me any, for they set my blood on fire.

Bonaparte.

The Starling and The Mouse

In 1773, Anna Laetitia Barbauld wrote, "The Mouse's Petition," and addressed it to Dr. Joseph Priestley, the renowned English chemist who had used mice for his scientific experimentations. It is a poem that, as Mary Ellen Bellanca suggests, embodies tensions "between the desire for knowledge and misgivings about its ethical costs" (Eighteenth Century Studies 37.1.2003). The figure of the mouse, part metaphorical and part literal, reflects two features of later eighteenth-century fiction: the attenuation of sentimental sensibilities, and the use of anthropomorphic language to represent human oppression on a political scale. Barbaud's poem (I am surpised it has not yet been claimed by PETA &c.) centres on the sufferings of a little mouse in a trap, but quickly unravels as a call against oppression in any form, "Let nature's commoner's enjoy / The common gifts of heaven," in a way that allows its meaning to be easily transfered to popular feelings at this time about, oh, I don't know, slavery, for instance.

The ideas of natural freedom that Barbauld presents in her versed rhyme through the figure of the little trapped mouse, whose "guiltless blood" stains the "hospitable earth," was earlier presented by Laurence Sterne in A Sentimental Journey (1768). In the chapter, "The Hotel at Paris - The Passport," Yorick hears a little voice, which he took to be a child, crying:

... and looking up, I saw it was a starling hung in a little cage,
--'I can't get out--I can't get out'-- said the starling. I stood
looking at the bird: and to every person who came through
the passage it ran fluttering ... --'I can't get out,' said the starling.
--God, help thee! said I--but I'll let out, cost what it will.

The bird flew to the place where I was attempting his deliverance,
and thrusting his head through the trellis, pressed his breast
against it, as if impatient -- I fear, poor creature! said I,
I cannot set thee at liberty--'No,' said the starling,
--'I can't get out--I can't get out,' said the starling.

Disguise thyself as thou wilt, Slavery! said I--still thou art a bitter drought.

This episode of the starling, a bird coincedentally found on the Sterne coat of arms (above), needs little explanation, except I will point to the fact that Yorick was unable to open the cage. In 2007, Shandy Hall held an exhibit on Sterne's starling to commemorate the 200th year since the beginning of the end of slavery in the British Empire. The passage in ASJ got praise from "the extraordinary negro" Ignatius Sancho (who you can read more about here, written by specialist Brycchan Carey, who is very nice), and is alluded to in Volume I, Chapter X of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park (elaborated upon here). While there are plenty of arguments around the starling, and what it means in a Shandean context, I find that it is both an emblem of oppression and a catalyst for Yorick's sensibility, which takes the reader into a tormented and painful representation of feeling, Sterne, and his reader, almost bursting into tears of anguish, even though I still think Sterne is ribbing us, to some extent... but anyway, don't forget Barbauld's poor little mouse.