mobi ☆ Jane Austen and Food ✓ Maggie Lane
What was the significance of the pyramid of fruit which confronted Elizabeth Bennet at Pemberley? Or of the cold beef eaten by Willoughby on his journey of repentance to see Marianne? Why is it so appropriate that the scene of Emma's disgrace should be a picnic and how do the different styles of housekeeping in Mansfield Park engage with the social issues of the day?While Jane Austen does not luxuriate in cataloguing meals in the way of Victorian novelists food in fact plays a vital part in her novels Her plots being Exactly what it sounds like a lively exploration of food in Jane Austen's life and fiction Except there really is a lot to it than that It's true Maggie Lane explains things I always wondered about like why General Tilney was upset about the butter being oiled whatever that meant or how Miss Bates baked her apples twice wouldn't you just bake them until they were done?Lane also gives detailed information about things I didn't know enough to wonder about The meaning of the word morning in Austen's time for instance Silly flippin' me I figured it meant then what it means now the span of time from waking until noon Nope Morning didn't begin until after breakfast was eaten and it extended until dinner It was basically another word for day as Austen makes clear in a letter to her sister We breakfasted before 9 do not dine till ½ past 6 on the occasion so I hope we three shall have a long Morning enoughSo women didn't pay their morning visits until what we would call early afternoon because ladies often wouldn't breakfast until nine or ten o'clock and would spend the next hour or two sewing reading horrid novels or engaging in light household chores such as consulting with the housekeeper And if morning extended until dinner afternoon was the few hours between dinner and tea An afternoon walk such as the significant one in Emma actually took place in the early evening; and tea was not an afternoon snack but an evening ritualLane explains all of this deftly and engagingly She also gives ample details as to what sort of food one might be offered at any given time of the day in a genteel household and what those offerings symbolize Mrs Bennet's invitations to supper speak of her lower class origins; the French bread and morning chocolate at Northanger Abbey's breakfast table scream of General Tilney's selfish snobberyJust don't expect recipes Lane writes about Regency food; if you want to learn how to actually prepare such food you'll need a copy of Hannah Glasse's 1747 The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy or Mrs Rundell's A New System of Domestic Cookery I got a copy of Persephone Book's 1816 edition of this latter book It's gorgeous but I did have to order it from England Glasse's book is available from and will tell you everything you need to know about how to make a vegetarian Hedgehog for dessert But I digress Jane Austen and Food is essential reading for anyone researching the Regency It's also a lot of fun
Maggie Lane ✓ Jane Austen and Food kindle
Jane Austen and FoodDomestic are deeply imbued with the rituals of giving and sharing meals The attitudes of her characters to eating to housekeeping and to hospitality are important indicators of their moral worth In a practice both economical and poetic Jane Austen sometimes uses specific foodstuffs to symbolise certain ualities at heightened moments in the text This culminates in the artistic triumph of Emma in which repeated references to food not only contribute to the solidity of her imagined world but provide an extended metapho A fascinating book that describes the important role of food in the life and novels of Jane Austen Lots of interesting information such as the great change that occurred in Jane Austen’s life when she went from living at Stevenson where the Austen’s were virtually self sufficient producing almost all their own food to Bath where everything was bought There are chapters on the various ways food is used in the novels and how the characters view it This is a great book for anyone interested in Jane Austen or food in the Regency era or both