Exhibits will include Jane's unfinished novel, Sanditon, plus a first edition of Sense and Sensibility, J M W Turner's paintbox, and landscapes by Turner.
I went to see the new adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma with some trepidation, as I was very disappointed by the recent TV series 'Sanditon' (and I know that many other Austen fans were, too).
Well fear not, ladies (and gentlemen), you can visit your local cinema and watch Emma, safe in the knowledge that the movie is true to the spirit of Austen's novel.
This is not to say that it gives a completely faithful recreation of the novel - it doesn't - but I hope to whet your appetite without too many spoilers.
As you would expect, the movie opens with the marriage of Emma's governess Miss Taylor, and Emma's 'gentle sorrow' at losing her friend.
Then we have Mr Knightley's first appearance! I was initially worried by Mr Knightley's 'artistically necessary' scene - I thought, please no, not another Sanditon - but once our leading man dons his breeches, the movie soon hits its stride.
Johnny Flynn gives Mr Knightley a less stately air than in the novel - more the Romantic hero - but none the worse for that! He still acts as Emma's moral guide as she arrogantly rearranges everyone's love-lives.
Emma Woodhouse is played by Anya Taylor-Joy, who does a good job of conveying Emma's snobbiness and the high-handedness of her dealings with Harriet Smith. Bill Nighy plays a surprisingly sprightly Mr Woodhouse, but there are some good gags re his fussiness which I won't spoil for you.
Before seeing the movie, I'd had qualms when I heard that Miranda Hart was playing Miss Bates. (I feared a reprise of Alison Steadman's immensely irritating Mrs Bennet in Pride and Prejudice). But her performance is very nicely judged, and we feel her genuine shock when Emma is rude to her at Box Hill.
Mr and Mrs Elton are cringe-worthy, as they should be - Mr Elton does seem to be channeling Mr Collins at times.
The 'detective story' bits of Emma are rather underplayed. Frank Churchill is primarily the focus of Mr Knightley's jealousy, of course, but I felt we do not see enough of Jane Fairfax.
There are some nicely stroppy female characters. Isabella Knightley is quite pushy, and by the end of the movie, Harriet Smith upbraids Emma very spiritedly for pushing her into refusing Robert Martin.
John Knightley does not feature quite as much as I would have liked, but perhaps this was to keep the main focus on George Knightley and Emma.
The costumes are gorgeous - and as far as I can tell very accurate - for the ladies' and men's fashions and hairstyles. Emma's frocks and bonnets in particular look as if they were copied straight from a fashion print from any of the contemporary magazines.
The sets and locations are beautifully shot and presented. A couple of caveats - why was the Bates' supposedly humble home hung with Flemish-style tapestries? And - perhaps because of the cinema's sound system? - sometimes the 'background' farmyard noises were so loud, one wonders if Regency sheep carried megaphones!
The movie has lots of very funny comic visual touches - although in my view one was rather out of place during Knightley's proposal to Emma (!) - but overall, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Anyway, do go and see it, and judge for yourself. I feel this is the best Austen adaptation I've seen for some time.
on marriage and divorce in Austen's day, plus an exclusive look behind the scenes of the new TV adaptation of Sanditon, Jane Austen's last unfinished novel.
Andrew Davies, the screenwriter behind the famous 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice starring Colin Firth as Mr Darcy, is to create a new version of Jane Austen's last, unfinished novel Sanditon for ITV and PBS Masterpiece.
This will be very interesting to watch as Davies will be able to make up his own ending! Filming is expected to begin some time next year.
Even though Jane was writing Sanditon when she was extremely poorly, there are some wonderful touches of humour in her novel set in the seaside. We can only imagine what the final novel would have looked like - what an immense loss. You can see facsimiles of Jane Austen's original manuscript of Sanditon here. Illustration courtesy the Library of Congress.
Jane Austen grew up during the great age of the ‘improvers’ like Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown and Humphry Repton. Austen loved William Cowper's poetry. In his poem The Task, Cowper deplores the rage for 'improvement' which swept away the past:
Capability Brown
Improvement too, the idol of the age,
Is fed with many a victim. Lo! he comes—
The omnipotent magician, Brown, appears.
Down falls the venerable pile, the abode
Of our forefathers, a grave whiskered race,
But tasteless…
He speaks. The lake in front becomes a lawn,
Woods vanish, hills subside, and valleys rise,
And streams, as if created for his use,
Pursue the track of his directed wand
Sinuous or straight, now rapid and now slow,
Now murmuring soft, now roaring in cascades,
Even as he bids. The enraptured owner smiles.
’Tis finished.
This tension between the old and new is explored by Jane Austen in her last, unfinished novel, Sanditon. The enthusiastic Mr Parker has built a new home at the seaside: ‘Trafalgar House, on the most elevated spot on the down’. It is a 'light, elegant building, standing in a small lawn with a very young plantation round it’
He pours scorn on his wife's fondness for their old home, in a ‘little contracted nook, without air or view’.
Mrs Parker, more practical, reminds him 'It was always a very comfortable house'. Parker ripostes that ‘We have all the grandeur of the storm’ at Trafalgar House. His wife still longs for their old garden, however: ‘a nice place for the children to run about in. So shady in summer!'
Images from the author's collection:
Wooburn (Woburn) in Surrey, the seat of Philip Southcote. He designed it as a ‘ferme ornee’ (ornamental farm garden). The Universal Magazine c.1770.
Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, Monthly Chronicle of North Country Lore & Legend, Walter Scott, 1889
