Over the semester, we’ll be reading several texts that were not published in Austen’s lifetime and that instead come to us from manuscripts (that is, handwritten documents) that survive among her papers. When reading for 1/29, take a moment to watch this short video that shows you some of those manuscripts. Many are currently housed in the UK (in the British Library and the Bodleian Library at Oxford), but the manuscript for “Plan of a Novel” is actually at the Morgan Library—just a few blocks away from us in Manhattan (click here to see it).
EDIT:
Here’s a sweet video of The Beautifull Cassandra (which you assembled in class!) with watercolor illustrations.
This is the course blog for The Dark Side of Jane Austen.
You’ll see that it’s function is primarily to act as a repository for our course materials. Tabs above will lead you to our syllabus (with readings hyperlinked when appropriate), handouts, assignments, and other resources. I’ll fill these in more in the early weeks of the course. There is no standing posting assignment, but we may use the blog to share thoughts, depending on our needs as the semester progresses.
I’ll also use the main home page (where this blog post appears) to share extras like videos, images, and public writing. If you come across a fun and/or informative Austen tidbit in your internet travels, please feel free to pass it along, and I’ll post it for everyone’s enjoyment.
As always, never hesitate to reach out to me with questions about the blog, the course, or anything else.
