So says Lady Russell in Jane Austen’s Persuasion. And indeed it has come to pass.
Joining Ann for the four day JASNA AGM (Jane Austen
Society of North America Annual General Meeting) was the motivating factor in
traveling to Kansas City, a city as I have previously said was worth visiting
on its own (CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL WRITE UP).
This was her third AGM and since the focus was to
celebrate the 200th Anniversary of the publication of Persuasion, Ann’s favorite of the six Novels Jane Austen wrote in
her short life, I could hardly refuse.
Rather than my rereading the novel, we watched the two
film versions, particularly focusing on the one with Amanda Root as Anne
Elliot. That version is very faithful to
the book. I also boned up on the novel
reading the long entry in the Jane Austen
Encyclopedia that I published towards the end of my publishing career and
then reading the very extensive piece of literary criticism on Persuasion by Robert Rodi in his informative
and outrageously funny, Bitch In a
Bonnet: Reclaiming Jane Austen From the Stiffs, the Snobs, the Simps and the
Saps. This is very highly recommended
if you are familiar with Austen’s works.
But shame on me, I didn’t reread the work beforehand, but
felt I knew it well, as well as Austen’s other five novels.
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| Jane and Ann |
This event attracted Austen devotees from Canada, England
and from all over the US, totaling almost a thousand participants. There were four outstanding Plenary speakers,
eleven Special Interest Sessions and twenty eight Breakout Sessions from which
participants could choose only two each for Friday and Saturday. Tough decisions since they all sounded superb
and in fact delivered fascinating talks. There were many tours offered to visit
Museums (which we had already availed ourselves during our independent
preliminary visit), a Pump Room Tea and Fashion Show and many workshops to
learn English Country Dances, or how to make Turbans and Bandeaux or other
workshops to sew Jane Austen keepsakes.
Of particular interest to me as an old salt myself was
the setting of the novel during the
times of the on again off again Napoleonic Wars, the role of the Navy, where
one could rise to wealth other than being blessed by inheritance and the effect
that had on society. The readers of Persuasion at the time were well aware
of the impact of the deleterious transition from wartime finance, although the
characters in Persuasion were not.
All in all it’s a perfect novel bridging the classic and
romantic periods and I’ve always wondered why; when I went to college in the
early 1960s, Jane Austen was not considered among the most important English
writers of her time. Well, time and
Janeites have rectified that. Who else
could have written, as she did in Persuasion,
“..…none but those who invite from the heart could think capable of
accommodating so many.”
My own favorite contemporary writer, John Updike who died
a few years ago is similarly not given his due, but perhaps it will take a
dedicated group of “Updikeians” in the future to discover his unique gift for
social commentary as Jane Austen clearly has.
Ann and I also feel a very personal connection with the novel as it is partly set in Bath where during one of my publishing
trips to Oxford we detoured to Bath and booked a room at the Royal Crescent where
you can see Anne (Sally Hawkins in another adaptation) running along in the
film. It is a magnificent example of Georgian
architecture, just sweeping and breathtaking.
I don’t know why, but when we arrived we were booked into the Duke of York
Suite, the largest “hotel” room we’ve ever occupied, replete with its own guest
book signed by dignitaries, now including us, and two enormous bouquets of fresh
flowers arranged in great urns. Guess
they thought, crazy Americans!
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| Amanda Root |
There were in additional two extraordinary JASNA events,
one being an Assembly Room Concert one evening given by the very talented
Ensemble Musica Humana which presented a concert based on programs actually
performed at the Bath Assembly Rooms. The highly gifted musicians consisted of
a soprano, a harpsichordist, flautist, and three violinists. An enchanting musical presentation, with an
impressive performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto in C major played on the
harpsichord.
For Ann and even myself, I would have to rank seeing the
acclaimed actress and star of the 1995 movie, Persuasion; Amanda Root, as the highlight of the conference. Although beginning a movie part in England
would initially have interfered with her coming, she negotiated with the
director and slipped away to join us for two days. She is the face of the novel’s heroine, Anne
Elliot. Here I am in the audience eagerly
awaiting her appearance with two Janeites behind me:
We were treated to a lengthy film interview of Amanda
discussing many aspects of her role and playing opposite Ciaran Hinds including
many of her impressions of doing justice to such a part.
Afterwards, she stepped onto the stage in person (swoon,
swoon!) and read from her own diary that she kept during the filming as well as
“performing” many of the iconic speeches delivered in the film. She was delightful to see, so warm and
friendly, totally open to answering all the questions asked of her. She was seen round and about during the
conference, clearly a Janeite herself, and just a bright, energetic,
down-to-earth human being (who I might add doesn’t look like she’s changed a
bit since playing Anne in 1995!
The last night consisted of a Regency Banquet, a Promenade
with a Scottish Piper, dinner where we sat with three of Ann’s Janeites from
her own local chapter
and then highly anticipated Regency Ball.
Elegantly dressed ladies and gents in clothing from the period were the norm. Mia culpa, although Ann had a period dress from last year's ball, I had urged her to pack light for the week, so she, as well as myself, were not in 19th century dress. Again, I shoulder the blame (as well as having to lift all suitcases!).
We concluded with a breakfast the next morning
with another fascinating presentation by one of our Plenary speakers and then
previews of the next two year AGM’s. All
in all, a wonderful week in KC and certainly Jane Austen had people such as the
Janeites in mind, 200 years into the future, when she wrote “my idea of good
company…is the company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal
of conversation.”
