JA Fans In London

We have received a very exciting email today from Ali at Faber and Faber Publishing House in London. On Saturday 27th there is a 'How to Read: Jane Austen' course.

I am going to paste the information she provided below:

Saturday 27 June 2009:

Faber and Faber, Bloomsbury House, 74-77 Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DA

In the first of an exciting series of How to Read courses from the Faber Academy, John Mullan will lead you through the intriguing minutiae of Austen’s fiction, believing that the closer you look, the more you see.

Virginia Woolf said that ‘of all great writers she [Austen] is the most difficult to catch in the act of greatness’, but catching this act is our purpose. We will examine the content of her novels – her interest in courtship, or money, or impoliteness – but also at how she writes. The classes are designed to help readers recognise the audacity of some of Austen's narrative techniques and see that this genteel and conservative woman was a great innovator in the art of fiction. Quite simply, this is a day for those who love Jane Austen’s novels.

The day will take place at the beautiful Georgian offices of independent publisher, Faber and Faber, and there are no hard and fast criteria for attendance, save the following:
To have read Jane Austen’s novels
To come with a lively, open mind
To ask interesting questions and be prepared to have your opinions challenged

Course cost: £100 (inclusive of VAT)

Coming soon: Jeanette Winterson on Virginia Woolf; John Carey on William Golding; Claire Keegan on Anton Chekhov; Maxim Jakubowski on Raymond Chandler.
Call Patrick on +44 (0) 20 7927 3822 for more details

Course outline
10-10.30 A cunning Jane Austen Literary Quiz
10.30-11.30 Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice: topics - illness and letters
11.30-11.45 Coffee
11.45-12.45 Mansfield Park: topics - acting and dialogue
12.45-1.45 Lunch
1.45-2.45 Guest speaker on Austen's life
2.45-3.45 Emma: topics - blunders and free indirect style
3.45-4 Tea
4-5 Persuasion and Northanger Abbey: topics - feelings and Bath

About the tutors

John Mullan is Professor of English at University College London. He is the author of How Novels Work (OUP) and Sentiment and Sociability: The Language of Feeling in the Eightenth Century (OUP). He has published widely on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literature. A broadcaster and journalist as well as an academic, he writes a weekly column on contemporary fiction for The Guardian.

About Faber

Faber and Faber is the last of the great independent publishing houses in London. We were established in 1929 by Geoffrey Faber and our first editor was T. S. Eliot. Among our list of authors we are proud to publish five Booker Prize winners and eleven Nobel Laureates. We are particularly well-known for our unrivalled list of modern poets and playwrights, as well as for publishing writers of prize-winning fiction and general non-fiction. More (link to www.faber.co.uk)


To make a booking:

Contact Patrick on either patrickk@faber.co.uk or +44 (0) 20 7927 3822Alternatively, write to Patrick Keogh, Faber and Faber, 74-77 Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DA

If any of you do decide to take up this wonderful offer then please do ensure that you let all of us know your comments and thoughts on your experience.

Thanks again Ali for providing us with the information. For any of you that cant make this course (like me! Sob sob!), I did ask Ali whether any other similar courses may be repeated later in the year. She said that if they have the interest and many people sign up for this one then that may well be the case. I will keep you posted......

Pic 1: Emma+Knightley

Pic 2: Anne Hathaway as Jane