"finding food for a rambling fancy:" gastronomic gentility and symbolism in jane...
TRANSCRIPT
“Finding Food for a rambling
Fancy:”
Katherine Hysmith
MLA Candidate, Gastronomy Program
Boston University
Gastronomic Gentility
and Symbolism in Jane
Austen’s Texts
Cassandra Austen’s portrait of Jane, 1804
Mapping Jane Austen’s
Foodscape
David Bennett, Jane Austen Map, 2012
Steventon (1775 – 1800)
Figure from Jane Austen: Her Life and Letters, A Family Record, William Austen-Leigh
Bath (1800 – 1809)
Map of 18th c. Bath, www.janeaustensworld.wordpress.com
The “Comforts of Bath”
by Thomas Rowlandson (1798)
Chawton (1809 – 1817)
Chawton Cottage, Katherine Hysmith, 2008
Kitchen Garden
Chawton Cottage, Katherine Hysmith, 2008
Godmersham Park (modern day Chawton House Library)
Godmersham Park, Katherine Hysmith, 2010
Jane Austen’s Literary
Foodscape
Separating “gentry” from
“non-gentry”:• Food
• Drink (particularly alcoholic
beverages)
• Food-related actions
Pineapples &
the pinery
Gold Pineapple, Etsy.com; Pinery plans, Loudon’s An Encyclopedia of Gardening; pineapple botany, http://cms.cnr.edu.bt
Blue Milk“a mixture of motes floating in thin blue”
18th c. Milkmaid, www.janeaustensworld.wordpress.com
Alcoholic Allusions
A Midnight Modern Conversation by William Hogarth, 18th century
London Pub, Allen West, 1796; Elder Wine Stand in Holborne in Winter, by George
Scharff, 1842
Rum,
the “plebian drink”
Pusser’s Navy Rum, www.examiner.com;
sailors drinking, www.telegraph.co.uk; British
Grog, The British Library, n.d.
Food-Related
Actions
Pastry making,
www.photos1.blogger.com
Charitable GivingStill from film version of Emma, 2010
“present of game”
Mrs. Elton,
strawberry snobStill from film version of Emma, 2010
“Hautboy” CultivarStrawberry botany, http://delta-intkey.com/angio/
Regency Husbandry
Workhouse, www.austenonly.wordpress.com
Pemberley“no place for which nature had done
more”
Pemberley, www.austenauthors.net
The “ha-ha”an uninterrupted view
Ha-ha drawing, www.pemberley.com
How to be a gentleman farmer:
• falsified aesthetic
• natural seeming
• aggressive landscaping
• appear as if not in control
Thomas Coke Inspecting Sheep, Thomas Weaver, n.d.
Mr. Darcy’s fruit selection
“variety of all
the finest fruits
in season”
• grapes
• nectarines
• peaches
The Regency dessert course, www.janeausten.co.uk
closer literary and
gastronomic analysis
Photo by Katherine Hysmith, 2012
Thank you.
Katherine Hysmith
www.youngaustinian.com
@youngaustinian
MLA Candidate, Gastronomy Program
Boston University