Jane Austen Quote of the Day

Announcing... Jane Austen's England 2009 Calendar

2008-11-30T23:20:50-05:00

Dear readers -- hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I'm beginning to feel well enough to enter the world of blogging again (though it has required a strict fish-and-vegetables diet... more on that soon). I'm thrilled to announce...

Jane Austen's England 2009 Calendar

Featuring pictures of the places Jane lived, loved and wrote about, including Steventon, Chawton, Box Hill, Bath, Lyme, Winchester -- and more!

Also includes dates from Jane's life -- the writing and publishing of each of the books, dancing with Tom Lefroy, the moves to Bath and Chawton ... and much more!

More info here.

A couple other non-quote things...

2008-09-18T15:49:36-04:00

The book just came out in the UK -- how cool is that! They've changed the subtitle to "A Modern Woman's Search for Happiness, Fulfilment, and Her Very Own Mr. Darcy"

Also, I'll be speaking Monday, Sept. 22 at the George Mason Fall for the Book Festival. This is a wonderful week-long literary event. If you're in the DC area, check it out! I'm on at 2pm in Dewberry Hall South on the GMU campus.

Ah - news!

2008-09-18T15:37:52-04:00

Dear readers,

I can't believe I'm here writing this! I've wanted to post so many times. Thank you all for your kind words and prayers. Can't tell you how much they mean to me.

It's been an incredibly difficult summer. Lyme disease is tough to explain. You would think you take a dose of antibiotics and get better, but it's not that simple. Once you've had it for a while (it was 5 and 1/2 years before I was diagnosed), it works its way through your body and gets entrenched, so to speak. The only way to get rid of it at that point is to take lots of antibiotics for a *long* time. And the antibiotics make everything worse for a while, as they kill off the Lyme and flood your body with dead bacteria. (Ugh...)

I can't remember how much I've told you in the past, but after being diagnosed I was on antibiotics (strong, 2 or 3 at a time) for 18 months. At that point, we were seeing some progress, and my doctor wanted to give my body a break because the antibiotics themselves can be so hard on the body. So I went off for 6 months and took herbal antimicrobials to try to hold everything at bay. But that wasn't enough.

So, at the beginning of the summer, I started the process all over, with a new round of antibiotics. It seems that there are co-infections as well (deer ticks, which spread Lyme, are like little sewers, and can also infect you with babesia, bartonella, ehrlichiosis...). Because the antibiotics are rough, I had to start with small doses and work my way up (you take a small amount, get knocked out for a few days, up the dose, get knocked out for a few days... on and on). Just last week I reached the full dosage.

So I spent a lot of time flat on my back this summer -- and a good bit of time praying desperately that the anti-nausea meds would kick in. I'm so thankful for the friends and family who help take care of me, especially my parents. I couldn't do this without them.

Just in the last week or two I've started to notice a difference. I can do a little more, my brain is a little clearer, I don't have to go back to bed until noon every day and rest for hours every afternoon and evening. I'm so thankful. I'm hopeful that the new meds are working and will continue to work, that I'll continue to see improvements. I'm guessing I probably have another year left in treatment at least, but I pray that I'll continue to be able to do a little more and remember what it's like to be able to live life rather than laying on the couch and watching it go by.

And I hope to be able to resume these daily quotes!

I covet your good thoughts and prayers. Thank you!!

best,

Lori

For more info about Lyme, check out the wonderful documentary Under Our Skin. Also, read about Amy Tan's experiences.

Upon the Sopha

2008-06-19T14:10:12-04:00

I'm afraid this has become the daily-when-I'm-healthy-enough-to-post quote. I hope it will be back to daily soon. Tuesday I used all my available energy to see the D.C. premiere of the new Lyme documentary Under Our Skin. It's fabulous. I was exhausted and too emotionally wrung out when I got home to be much good. Yesterday was a couch day, due to nausea from a new med. I've bravely ventured out to a coffee shop today, hoping said nausea will stay at bay.

A little from Jane in one of her last letters:

"I am gaining strength very fast. I am now out of bed from 9 in the morning to 10 at night--Upon the Sopha t'is true--but I eat my meals with Aunt Cass: in a rational way, & can employ myself, & walk from one room to another."

letter to her nephew James Edward
May 27, 1817 [160]

A Vile World

2008-06-16T14:01:50-04:00

Lovely lunch with JASNA - DC this weekend -- thanks to all who came. It was an honor to be asked to speak. Nothing Vile about it!

"We have used Anna as ill as we could, by not letting him [Jane's nephew James-Edward, Anna's half brother] leave us before tomorrow morning, but it is a Vile World, we are all for Self & I expected no better from any of us."

Letter to her niece Caroline [all three were her brother James's children -- Anna from his first marriage, James-Edward and Caroline from his second]
January 23, 1817 [149]

May as well be single

2008-06-13T13:42:18-04:00

Argh -- yesterday was a rough Lyme day. I'm afraid against my best intentions this has become the occasionally-daily Austen quote. Happy Friday the 13th!

"Miss Blachford is married, but I have never seen it in the Papers. And one may as well be single if the Wedding is not to be in print."

letter to her niece Anna Lefroy
March 1815 [118]

For the love of Pewter

2008-06-11T12:58:36-04:00

"People are more ready to borrow & praise, than to buy--which I cannot wonder at;--but tho' I like praise as well as anybody, I like what Edward calls Pewter too."

to her niece Fanny Knight, on whether or not there will be a second edition of Mansfield Park
November 30, 1814 [114]

Ideas in common (or lack thereof)

2008-06-10T13:31:54-04:00

"Only one comes back with me tomorrow, probably Miss Eliza, & I rather dread it. We shall not have two Ideas in common. She is young, pretty, chattering & thinking chiefly (I presume) of Dress, Company, & Admiration."

Of a journey back home with one of the Miss Moores
letter to her niece, Fanny Knight
November 30, 1814 [114]

Uphill work

2008-06-09T13:16:57-04:00

" . . . tho' I like Miss H. M. as much as one can at my time of Life after a day's acquaintance, it is uphill work to be talking to those whom one knows so little."

letter to her niece, Fanny Knight
November 30, 1814 [114]

A sister's advice

2008-06-06T14:45:24-04:00

"I have never yet found that the advice of a sister could prevent a young man's being in love if he chose it."

Lady Susan to Mrs. Johnson (as she tries to draw in Mrs. Vernon's brother -- it's all very complicated!)
Lady Susan, letter 10

Resolving on marriage

2008-06-05T16:25:53-04:00

"I cannot easily resolve on anything so serious as marriage, especially as I am not at present in want of money."

Lady Susan to Mrs. Johnson
Lady Susan, letter 10

An agreable flirt

2008-06-04T17:05:12-04:00

"There is something about him that rather interests me, a sort of sauciness . . . he may be an agreable [sic] flirt. There is exquisite pleasure in subduing an insolent spirit, in making a person pre-determined to dislike, acknowledge one's superiority."

Lady Susan of Mrs. Vernon's brother
Lady Susan, letter 7

Throwing time away

2008-06-03T13:09:38-04:00

"Not that I am an advocate for the prevailing fashion of acquiring a perfect knowledge in all the languages arts and sciences; it is throwing time away; to be mistress of French, Italian, German, music, singing, drawing etc., will gain a woman some applause, buy will not add one lover to her list."

Lady Susan remarking on the education she would like for her much-unloved daughter Frederica
Lady Susan, letter 7

A disposition to dislike

2008-06-02T16:14:44-04:00

"Where there is a disposition to dislike, a motive will never be wanting."

Lady Susan, letter 5, Lady Susan to Mrs. Johnson

Ahhh... back from vacation and appropriately tan. Happy to report there were no dispositions to dislike in our group. I get together with my dearest friends from college every year, and this time all the kids and husbands came, too -- lots of healing noise and laughter. Hope you are all well.

A hundred ways

2008-05-23T08:00:00-04:00

"I suppose there may be a hundred different ways of being in love."

Emma, on thinking Mr. Elton far too gallant
Emma, volume 1, chapter 6

I'm taking the next week off to linger and gaze at the sea, glory in the ocean, and sit dangerously outdoors! Happy Memorial Day to all my U.S. readers. Enjoy the wonderful long weekend! The blog will be back on June 2.

Oh, danger...

2008-05-22T10:12:21-04:00

"It is never safe to sit out of doors, my dear."

Mr. Woodhouse, to Emma regarding her portrait of Harriet who is so dangerously sitting outdoors!
Emma, volume 1, chapter 6

A reputation for accomplishment

2008-05-21T11:01:59-04:00

I'm stuck in Emma these days:

"She had always wanted to do everything, and had made more progress, both in drawing and music, than many might have done with so little labour as she would ever submit to. She played and sang -- and drew in almost every style; but steadiness had always been wanting; and in nothing had she approached the degree of excellence which she would have been glad to command and ought not to have failed of. She was not much deceived as to her own skill either as an artist or a musician, but she was not unwilling to have others deceived, or sorry to know her reputation for accomplishment often higher than it deserved."

Of Emma, as she begins Harriet's portrait
Emma, volume 1, chapter 6

Some doubt of a return

2008-05-20T13:58:29-04:00

"I have no idea that she has yet ever seen a man she cared for. It would not be a bad thing for her to be very much in love with a proper object. I should like to see Emma in love, and in some doubt of a return; it would do her good."

Mr. Knightley
Emma, volume 1, chapter 5

Top Ten Spiritual Jane Austen Places

2008-05-19T16:05:21-04:00

I'm thrilled to post this! (Thanks, BajaJaneite for sending in the link -- I've been wanting to share it with you all.)

I did a gallery for BeliefNet with pictures from my trip and thoughts on the spiritual Austen places I visited -- spiritual being rather loosely defined, as in perhaps relating to (ahem...) the cult of Colin Firth. ;-)

Check it out! The pics are some of my absolute favorites. They're also running an excerpt from my book.

No lasting blunder

2008-05-19T15:57:16-04:00

Forgive my unexpected absence last week. Too many doctor's appointments and not enough energy. A dear friend of mine was married on Saturday. Such a good day -- and the Funky Chicken always helps one feel better, no?

Happy Monday, dear readers.

"Where shall we see a better daughter or a kinder sister or a truer friend? . . . She will make no lasting blunder; where Emma errs once, she is in the right a hundred times."

Such words of praise for Emma from Mrs. Weston
Emma, volume 1, chapter 5

I only hope that none of my blunders will be lasting.