Mary C. M. Phillips

Post written by Linda Pedro, contributing author,What Jane Austen Didn’t Tell Us!

It is common for characters in Jane Austen’s novels to “take tea.” But the Regency practice was a far cry from today’s elaborate afternoon ritual featuring 3-tiered stands filled with finger sandwiches, scones and sweets. Taking tea often meant nothing more than drinking the beverage, by itself, some hours after the evening meal or with visitors in the afternoon. Buttered bread might be served, or a piece of cake.

The exotic drink from China was a costly indulgence of the ultra wealthy when it first arrived in England around 1657. Widely available by the early 1700s, its popularity exploded among all classes, fueled by its fashionable cachet and occasional affordability. But during Austen’s lifetime it was a luxury item, carefully rationed, even by those who could afford it. The duty and excise tax on tea was as…

Jane Austen didn’t tell us the name of the Meryton inn where Elizabeth Bennet first observed a “proud, disagreeable gentleman” at the Assembly ball in Chapter 3 of Pride andPrejudice. I needed a name for that inn when writing Charlotte Lucas’ backstory since I imagined her father owning the establishment. I felt that Mr. Lucas, a social climber, would have named his inn for the highest possible social class, royalty, and so—consulting a list of the most popular names for 18^th century English inns—The Rose & Crown seemed an obvious choice.

Country inns in Jane Austen’s time had evolved from rough coaching inns meeting only
travelers’ needs into places that also could serve as a town’s club, place of assembly and general resort. Of course, the local English inn continued to serve travelers, evoking this favorable commentary from an Englishman: “Neat inns, well-dressed and clean people keeping them…

During my research for Georgiana Darcy’s story in WHAT JANE AUSTEN DIDN’T TELL US!, I learned some things about Jane Austen, the pianist, which I’d like to share:     

Jane Austen studied piano until the age of 21, which would imply a serious interest in music and it was her custom to play every morning before she wrote.

Austen was particularly fond of the composer, Ignza Pleyel (a student of Haydn) whose work was described as possessing a “charm of simplicity and feeling.”

Today, I found it interesting and compelling, when listening to Pleyel’s Sonatina in D Major in its sonata form (exposition, development, and recapitulation), to imagine Jane Austen, the musician.  Did she, I wonder, internalize the sonata three-part formula for her stories?  Her novels, as we know, are in three-part volumes.  There are some that speculate that, in fact, she did.

In Pride and…