The Jane Austen Book Club

I finished reading "The Jane Austen Book Club" in two days. Reading at that rate would be about 180 books a year which would still put me well behind Elaine at Random Jottings and there is no way I could read at even that rate. For the first 75% or so of this book I was reminded that I don't like American fiction written say after 1970, I can't think of a single piece of American fiction written in the past 40 or so years that I have enjoyed. That may say more about me than about anything else.

This book is the story of five women and one man who form a Jane Austen book club in California to read and discuss Austen's six novels. I am sure I have led a sheltered life, but I find it had to accept the probabilities of finding any group of six people that are so dysfunctional in one way or another. All of us have some quirks, but the background of this group makes looks Ozzie and Harriet look like some kind of commune. From the woman who's mother pretended she had given her a birthday party and the daughter forgot, to the man who's father took him to what sounds like an orgy when they were supposed to be on a camping trip, these people have had some strange experiences. Perhaps they looked at the book club as a less expensive form of therapy.

However, I found the last part of the book more enjoyable and I got something out of it. One thing was the correction of my blanket statement that all of Austen's characters get what they deserve. Certainly it would be a stretch to say that of Charlotte Lucas in her marriage to Mr. Collins in "Pride and Prejudice." I don't know if it was intentional or not, but it seemed to me that the six members of the book club got what they deserved at the end plus one of the endings was a Deux Ex Machina almost worthy of Austen herself.

There is a long appendix like section at the end of the book called the Response. It consists of critics and other writers reaction to Austen's work beginning in her time through 2003. The comments range from very positive to very negative. One of the especially negative comments that comes early in the book is Ralph Waldo Emerson's statement that he is "at a loss to understand why people how Miss Austen's novels at so high a rate." He goes on to say that "All that interests in any character (is): has he (or she) the money to marry with? . . . Suicide is more respectable."

I think that is probably a fairly typical American reaction especially written within one years of the American Revolution - the who cares about caste ridden British society attitude. In thinking about this, however, I was reminded about something that I believe about Shakespeare - especially the history plays. These eight plays cover a period of English history over 500 years ago - what possible relevance could they have to the 21st century. I think the answer is found in Mary Ann Evans' (George Eliot) comment that art is not the subject, but the treatment of the subject.

For example, the history plays are relevant because of what they say about leadership - good leadership and bad leadership - something that will always be relevant. I think the same thing might be true of Jane Austen's work. Their enduring appeal is at least partially because the issues raised in the novels, especially about relationships, will always be issues so that the setting of the story does not block out the relevance of the story. That may at some level be obvious, but it helps me see more clearly the merits of Austen work. I also feel a little better knowing that she does not receive universal praise so that I am not out there by myself with some negative views.

I have may have finished the novels, but I am not finished with Austen - there is reading of criticism, re-reading of the novels plus more thinking and probably posting to come.

New Jersey Civil War 150 - Governor's Proclamation

In my post about the latest meeting of our committee working on New Jersey's observation of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, I noted that we were now going to seek the endorsement of State government. While I thought it would happen, I was pleasantly surprised when it arrived via e-mail this morning. Thanks to Marc Mappen of the New Jersey State Historical Commission for moving this along - it gives us a semi-official status and should facilitate our work was we move forward in 2009.

As part of working on this, I have been looking on the Internet to see what other states are doing. Virginia seems to be far ahead of everyone else, not surprising considering the economic engine that Civil War related tourism can be for the Old Dominion. Both North Carolina and South Carolina are also working at it as is Arkansas. Unfortunately other than what appear to be some beginning efforts there doesn't appear to be much going on in other northern states. That's unfortunate and needs to change.

I also saw that bills setting up a national commission on the 150th have been introduced in both the House and the Senate, but haven't moved out of committee. The presidential election, the economic crisis and the sense of having plenty of time may account for the delays, but I hope that something happens pretty quickly on this. The reality is that these things take time and advance planning so some action as early as possible in 2009 would be really important.

I am participating in this because of my interest in the Civil War, but I also look at this as part of my work as chairman of the board of the New Jersey Historical Society. For most of 2008 I have also been involved in the vintage base ball movement in New Jersey. It is really encouraging that while New Jersey only had two vintage teams in 2007, there are three in 2008 with the promise of two more in 2009 for a total of five. Critical mass is important here as traveling to other states to play matches can be an inhibiting factor - five teams will enable us to play a lot of games without leaving the state.

All of this is encouraging from a New Jersey history perspective, studying and recreating specific things like base ball and the Civil War can also bring alive other aspects of New Jersey history. I would assume the same is true of Canal societies and other groups. One of the things I have learned is that there is a lot of passion for New Jersey history in terms of specific topics and/or specific locations and sites. Perhaps one of the roles of the only state wide historical society is to encourage and facilitate efforts in those areas.

Charles E. Thomas

In my last post, I wrote that my Civil War and 19th Century base ball interests had intersected when Bob MacAvoy (compiler of New Jersey Civil War graves) had kindly pointed me towards what promised to be the death date for Charles E. Thomas of the Eureka base ball club of Newark. Thomas was a founding member of the Eureka who played with the club from 1860 through 1868. He was profiled in one of a series of "Frank Leslie's Weekly Illustrated Newspaper" as one of the prominent shortstops of the day.

An important part of the Pioneer Project research is biographical information about the famous players especially their careers after base ball. The first complication in such research is that 19th century newspaper accounts tend only to give last names, a real problem with relatively common names like Thomas. Fortunately I did find Thomas' first name which led to the next step looking through the censuses on http://www.ancestry.com/. I found Thomas on every census through 1920, but not on the 1930 census - a clear indication that he was dead by then. Since he was born in 1841 that didn't come as real surprise.

As noted in my last post, Bob MacAvoy was able to use sources to find the death date of what appeared to be my Charles Thomas. The next step on Saturday was to go to Alexander Library at Rutgers in New Brunswick to look at the Newark Evening News on microfilm. That can be hit or miss especially the further back one goes - obituaries appear to be pretty much a 20th century innovation. As a result only those deaths that were noteworthy tend to make the paper. By 1926, however, this had changed, but was still not a sure thing.

When I began scrolling through the relevant film, I was disappointed not to find any kind of article about Charles' death. I did find a public service type notice that listed his spouse's name which, if necessary, could have been a key means to connect Thomas through other sources. One thing I have learned, however, is to go a few days on either side of the date you are looking for. I pressed on and, sure enough, found an article about Charles' funeral that confirmed his career with the Eureka plus his long banking career.

Thomas apparently began working for a Newark bank in 1859 before moving to a New York institution in 1865. Among others he worked for a bank incredibly or implausibly named the Ninth National Bank. Fortunately for every one's sanity that bank was apparently taken over by Chemical National Bank - a bank that lasted past the end of my own banking career in 1983. When Thomas retired in 1915, he had worked for 50 years for New York banks reportedly all that time as a teller.

This article as well as the contemporary article mentioned earlier suggest a higher status for the teller's position than it has today or had during my time in banking. I would like know more about the position in those days, if it was indeed more prestigious, it would be further evidence of the prominent off the field careers led by the members of the Eureka. If I do expand this pioneer project section into a book about New Jersey base ball in the amateur era further research of that nature would be the kind of thing I would want to do. For the moment though thanks to Bob MacAvoy for making a difficult problem immeasurably easier and to Rutgers Library for its collections of newspaper on microfilm.

Northhanger Abbey

I finished "Northanger Abbey" last night, completing my reading of the Austen canon. When I read the works of one author, I like to read them in the order that they were written. That's especially true when there is some continuity between works because I don't want one book to spoil my reading of another. But even in the case of authors like Austen and/or Dickens where there is no continuity, I still like to read them in the order they were written.

At some level that's just due to a desire for order or routine, but it can also help to see how an author's work develops. That has been true with Jane Austen especially as I moved from the shorter "Sense and Sensibility" and "Pride and Prejudice" to the much longer "Mansfield Park" and "Emma." Of course, as any "Janeite" knows, I made a mistake with "Northhanger Abbey." The fact is that while it was the last of Austen's works to be published it was apparently the first to be written.

The introduction to the Penguin edition that I read indicates that the novel was written in the early 1790's and the editor believes that Austen made few changes to it later years. So what I was, in effect, doing was reading her first work after her reading her more fully developed novels. Perhaps that made me more conscious of the fact that I was reading something written in their early 20's. From that perspective, I think "Northanger Abbey" is quite an accomplishment, it is funny - to me funnier than Austen's other novels and creative in the way it uses books/reading and their affect on readers as sort of a structure for the book.

Some of my previously described doubts about Austen also exist in this novel. Once again at the end every one gets what they deserve especially in terms of "journeys end in lovers meeting." I am not sure why that bothers me so much. I think it especially relates to the fact that if marriage is the "happy ending" and Austen herself never had that ending why does she include it in all her novels. The marriage is only part of it, however, it is really the idea that everyone gets what they deserve - both good and bad. Life certainly doesn't always work out that way so I guess I believe that an author's art should reflect life in that way at least to some degree.

As someone who married later in life (by 1970's standards!), who never believed he would marry, I try to be sensitive to the idea that those who don't marry have somehow failed and can't have a happy ending. I guess it makes me feel as if Austen is somehow engaging in escapism in her fiction. That may be unfair, I don't claim to be an expert on Austen, and I also want to be sensitive to potential gender issues/differences. I need to do more thinking about Jane Austen's fiction, read more criticism, perhaps even take some kind of course in an effort to better understand her popularity. I will start "The Jane Austen Book club" tonight as a small, not very intensive way to do that. Certainly I don't in any way regret reading my way through her work and while I may not be a Janeite, like them, I wish she had survived to write even more.

New Jersey History - A Busy Week

As noted in the title of this post, it has been a busy week for some of my special interests in New Jersey history. Early in the week I finished the last of the draft histories of early 19th century New Jersey base ball (two words at the time) clubs - the Champion club of Jersey City. This history along with those of the Eureka club of Newark, the Newark club, the Olympic club of Paterson and the Irvington club will be part of the Pioneer Project, a book being compiled of the most noteworth teams of the amateur era, roughly 1855 to 1870. There is still plenty of work to do, some additional research plus much editing on the above plus writing an introduction and conclusion.

My involvement in this began almost by accident. As posted earlier I became involved in April in the formation of the Eureka vintage team - a team choice that I had nothing to do with. Then I was on Peter Morris' web site about base ball history, learned about the Pioneer Project and volunteered to write a history of the Eureka. My research as well as Peter's wish list developed names that were also candidates for the project. I though for sure that others would volunteer for none of those names, but no one did, so now I am basically writing the New Jersey section.

That's rewarding on at least two levels - first ,if I wasn't doing this, the New Jersey clubs wouldn't have been included. In addition it has been an opportunity to do some original research in areas where it seems very few people are working. At the end of the week, it was announced that McFarland & Co. has been chosen as the publisher. That wasn't a real surprise to me, but it was nice to hear since McFarland has published my first two books and I have always found them easy to work with. The book is scheduled to be published in 2010 which means that my sections are due May 1, 2009. Fortunately that deadline should not be a problem and I am going to try to submit well in advance - say February 1st.

The other activity was with regard to New Jersey Civil War 150. We had our third meeting this past Wednesday at the Peddie School in Hightstown. This was an expanded meeting, we had a good turnout plus some others who couldn't be there. There seems to be a good cross section of re-enactors, round tables and historians. Interestingly we had a Lincoln re-enactor sitting next to a Governor Olden re-enactor which sort of gave the meeting a 1860's type atmosphere. We still don't have much, if any, representation from south Jersey and no racial diversity. Both areas need work especially the latter.

Most of the discussion thus far has been about organizational issues, but ideas are starting to surface. One that came up on Wednesday was a state wide project to replace all of the government issue veteran's grave markers. There was a massive effort in this area at the Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn - some 3000 as I recall. Of course, they had the advantage of being located in one place, but this sounds to me like an important idea. The grave markers are provided at no cost by the Veterans Administration so it is more of a logistical issue than a financial one - for once, thank God!

We formed a sub-committee to work on the content of our web-site which is called www.NewJerseyCivilWar150.org/com. The name of the group will be the same - The New Jersey Civil War 150th Anniversary Committee and we will operate under the good offices of the New Jersey Civil War Heritage Association. Our next step is to seek state endorsement (not funding) so that we have some kind of semi-official status. Vision, mission and project brainstorming should begin during January. As far as I can tell from the Internet, we (New Jersey) are ahead of most other northern states in this work.

Both projects came together in a nice and helpful way this week. Peter Morris has a list of famous 19th century players that he is seeking information on. One of them is Charles E. Thomas who played shortstop for the Eureka. Peter is looking for his obituary (as am I) for information about his post base ball career. Without a death date that is looking for the veritable needle in a hay stack. The Civil War grave marker suggestion was made by Bob MacVoy who is the co-compiler of "Our Brothers Gone Before" - a two volume compilation of the graves of all New Jersey Civil War veterans. I asked Bob if he had any suggestions on Thomas - in less than an hour, he sent me an e-mail with what is almost certainly Thomas' death date. I am off to the Rutgers library in a little while to look in the Newark papers.

Oh, to finish the week off, I exchanged e-mails with the Lifelong Learning Program at Caldwell College and I am going to teach a course about the 33rd New Jersey next spring. Retirement is great, but I am working far too hard!!

History - The So What Factor

One of the things I struggle with as chairman of the board of the New Jersey Historical Society is
how to explain to existing and potential donors and the public at large why it is so important for
all of us to know our history. Frequently I meet people through NJHS who say,
"Oh I love history." I think what they mean by that is they love it sort of as a hobby, for example, reading David McCullough's biography of John Adams or watching the HBO adaptation. That's fine, but the problem is that it is a personal interest, it doesn't speak to why history is important to all of us.

I have come to think of this as the "so what" question. All this historical knowledge is fine, but so what - why or how is it important. The stock answer, of course, is that knowing our history will help to us do better in the future, at the very least to avoid the mistakes of the past. The classic quote in support of this argument is from the philosopher George Santayana, "Those who remain ignorant of the past are condemned to repeat it," or something like that.

I used to believe that, but my experience as a member of the Vietnam generation makes me somewhat less confident. I remember watching a television show after that war was over (and after I had returned home from my army service there) that said that those who made the decisions to get heavy involved there were doing so based on the idea of "no more Munichs." This refers, of course, to the failed policy of appeasement followed by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and other British politicians. But as this television show noted after Vietnam, the motto was "no more Vietnams." The point being that simply knowing what happened before World War II and then applying it as a blanket policy may not have been the best approach. If so how important is it not to be "ignorant of the past."

Earlier this week, I was looking at the web sites of some different historical societies as part of thinking about the future of NJHS. On the web site of the New York Historical Society, I found the following quote from David McCullough, "History is who we are and why we are the way we are." The second part, history is "why we are the way we are" makes a huge amount of sense to me as the reason why history is so important.

One aspect of American life where this is clearly true is the area of race. Having read and thought so much recently about 19th century American it is obvious that the racist view point was the majority viewpoint well into the last quarter of the 20th century. Some may believe that it still is, I don't think so, but more importantly for this post, is how obvious it should be to all of us that racial issues are still serious issues because of that history. It is "why we are the way we are." On a more local basis there is a connection to the "What's Going on Exhibit?" at the New Jersey Historical Society - an exhibit about the civil disorders, riots, etc. that took place in Newark in the summer of 1967. Having lived in Essex County since within a decade of those events, I think it is more than fair to say that those events have a lot to do with "why we are the way we are."

I think this explanation of why history is so important makes sense because it can help to answer the "so what" question. The key, to me, is that we need to know the past to understand why we are the way we are in order to decide how best to move forward. Understanding how the past has shaped the present should increase the probability (not certainty) of creating a better world in the future. Perhaps this is part of what Abraham Lincoln meant when he said, "My fellow citizens, we cannot escape history.

Northbridge Rectory

After spending several weeks with the residents of Deerbrook in the 1830's, I made a quick visit over the past few days to the village of Northbridge around 1940-41. Northbridge is an imaginary village in the imaginary county of Bartsetshire, the fertile area of the imagination first cultivated by Anthony Trollope in the 19th century and then by Angela Thirkell in the 20th.

I have read two-three of Thirkell's novels prior to this, but was attracted to this one, once again by Elaine over at Random Jottings. In fact, the book was so attractive that I violated one of my cardinal principles of books in a series - read them in order. Elaine, who has just recently discovered Thirkell, has apparently found it interesting to read them out of order so I thought it was worth a shot. I believe it is correct to say that there is not much at risk in reading Thirkel's chronicles of Barsetshire out of order and while I am glad I did it in this case, I am planning to resume reading them in sequence.

One of the intriguing aspects of Thirkell's 20th century protrayal of Barsetshire is how she works in the locations and characters of Trollopes six novels. Very early in "Northbridge Rectory" we encounter a minor character with the last name Bunce. It sounded very familiar and sure enough a Bunce is one of the primary supporting characters in Trollope's first Barsetshire novel, "The Warden." As a side note, anyone considering reading something by Trollope, "The Warden" is an good place to start, it is a fairly easy read at a very manageable length. By that time the reader will know whether or not he or she is hooked on Trollope, if so then the greater length of the later novels will be a plus, if not, there is no harm done.

I found "Northbridge Rectory" different than the other Thirkell novels I have read. The other ones seemed to focus on the major characters and the major issue or issues fairly quickly. Instead this novel seemed to present a series of vignettes about life in Northbridge early in World War II without any clear focus. This surprised me rather than bothered me and once the focus became clearer, I enjoyed this novel as much, if not more than the others I have read.

Not unlike Jane Austen and/or Trollope, Thirkell sets up a two/one female-male situation at the heart of the book. It is very different, however, in that the characters are not young people in or out of love, but older people with much accumulated history and issues. What appealed to me about this situation was that the ultimate focus was on each of the three people considering and working through what it is they really wanted - especially in the case of the male. These decisions, once made, led to the resolution of the two/one dynamic in a way that was honest and believable or at least it was to me.

As in any Thirkell novel, the book is full of interesting characters all with their quirks. These include Mrs. Spender, one of the most loquacious characters in English fiction, who, in spite of all her talking, really understands what is going on among the other characters in Northbridge. The servants and working class are also highly visible which adds more color and depth to the novel. Two extremely minor characters are the Talbott sisters, two English gentlewomen living with their aged father. Thirkell writes that they live "hard working and blameless lives." Not a bad way to be described.