Instagram story viewer> @austenconnection> Posts

The Austen Connection

@austenconnection

1.3K

followers

1042

following

I’m a public-radio producer who’s assigned myself the Jane Austen beat.
Real life is at @janetlewissaidi
📘Jane Austen, Original Romance Novelist ⬇️

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

Download All

You're invited, friend.
Join us for a very special reading retreat:
We’re reading Pride and Prejudice together, on the beautiful Buckinghamshire estate of Hartwell House, which will be our home throughout our stay, August 3-7, 2027.

We’ll read, wander, reflect, and find new inspirations and new friends.

The retreat theme is: ‘Pride and Prejudice: Navigating the Way to Love.” We’ll explore together this beautiful estate and this iconic love story by Jane Austen.

You'll find more info at waywardreaders.Substack.com.

#janeaustenfan #bookstagram #literarytravels #bookadventures @hartwellhouse @nina_mukerjee_furstenau by @austenconnection

16

1

9 hours ago

The @britboxtv series ‘The Other Bennet Sister’ is a rare thing: An unqualified hit with the Jane Austen fandom. And in a recent Austen Connection post, writer Claire Holden tackles All Things Mary Bennet, examining the book by @j_hadlow1950 and what makes the series, and this version of Mary, so very lovable. ✨💛
•
This post got the most Likes of any post ever in the Austen Connection Substack. Mary Bennet strikes a chord! ✨💛
•
Check out the discussion - and weigh in with your thoughts on Mary Bennet and on the series. Have you watched the series or read the book? ✨💛
•
And, Mary Bennet is not going away: This series returns with a Christmas special. Stay tuned - the discussions about Jane Austen, society, power, and love will continue, always. ✨💛
•
•
•
#theotherbennetsister #prideandprejudice #substacknewsletter #perioddrama @its_all_about_the_words A still from the BritBox series The Other Bennet Sister features actor Ella Bruccoleri reclining in a boat on a lake, wearing sunglasses and holding an umbrella by @austenconnection

24

0

11 days ago

13

0

12 days ago

From the dreams-come-true department: visiting Jane Austen’s House, having tea “backstage” with amazing House director @lizzie_dunford_writes, and walking to the neighboring estate of Chawton where Austen often visited her brother’s family, and where I was shocked to find - after gathering the courage to walk into this grand place wearing hiking boots - my own book for sale! (Yes, I signed copies!)
•
The care and thoughtful attention to history, material culture, women’s writing, and social justice that these curators and teams bring to these spaces is so very inspiring.
•
The last picture is of the writing desk where Austen sat near a busy window of Chawton cottage and wrote and revised the manuscripts of every single one of her published novels. Her nieces and nephew, initially unaware that their aunt was the author of the novel Pride and Prejudice, later remembered that they thought she was writing letters, and that she would occasionally laugh out loud to herself.
•
#janeaustenfan @janeaustenshouse @lizzie_dunford_writes #historichomes @austenconnection @adams_media The Austen Connection’s Janet Saidi walking in front of Chawton House by @austenconnection

109

14

a month ago

Walking, reading, inspiration, and new friends were all on the agenda at our beautiful Wayward Readers reading retreat, this week at @hartwellhouse 🪻💙
•
We engaged in meditative walks, engaging discussions, new friendships, and sumptuous meals - while reading Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park in an elegant and natural setting that Fanny Price would surely appreciate. 🪻💙
•
Follow our retreats and plans at waywardreaders.substack.com. 🪻💙
•
Join us! 🪻💙
•
#readingretreat #bookclub #travelingbookclub #waywardreaders @janetlewissaidi @nina_mukerjee_furstenau #janeausten by @austenconnection

35

1

2 months ago

We’ve arrived! Our Wayward Readers retreat has kicked off at the stunning estate and grounds of @hartwellhouse - where we’re reading Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park and reflecting on the theme of “Gardens, Growth, and Regeneration” while living like an actual heroine/hero of our own story. 📚💙
•
Pictured: Our inaugural reading retreaters and Wayward Readers in front of beautiful #hartwellhouse as we get a grounds tour from chief gardener Richard Jones, who has so many stories.
•
Also pictured: a giant Cedar of Lebanon tree on the grounds, and Wayward Readers co-founder @nina_mukerjee_furstenau serene in the Great Hall. 📚💙
•
And: Pastureland and cows against the Great House - Mansfield Park readers will be thrilled to know there is indeed a ha-ha. 📚💙
•
Follow our traveling book club - and get info on our next trip at WaywardReaders.Substack.com. 📚💙
•
#literarytravel #bookadventure #waywardreadersliterarytravels #janeaustenfan @janetlewissaidi A group from Wayward Readers Literary Travels stands together in front of Hartwell House by @austenconnection

45

3

2 months ago

Material culture is so very much alive and well, and so are the places we gather to find it. 📚📰🎙️❤️
•
So interesting to think about what this means for journalism, media friends. 📚📰🎙️❤️
•
•
#printlife #mediastudies #booksbooksbooks #austenconnection @austenconnection @piccadillywaterstones by @austenconnection

35

6

2 months ago

A heroine resists: 📚
•
We’re all reading Mansfield Park, together, on the Great Jane Austen Readalong. You’re invited. 📚
•
Highlights of this week: A Cinderella transformation involving a shiny white dress, a Regency-era girl-boss critique, an “as if” from a heroine that conjures “Clueless,” and one of the most violent sentences in all of Austen delivered by a charming, Shakespeare-reading gentleman. 📚
•
Find out more and join our lively discussions and book community, at austenconnection.substack.com 📚❤️
•
Photo: Babba Nuu on Unsplash via Substack
•
#readclassics #readalong
#janeaustenbookstagram #austenconnection #mansfieldpark A young woman stands amidst trees, gazing thoughtfully and determinedly into the distance, a hand on her hip by @austenconnection

10

0

2 months ago

Current view, among the manuscripts of Beowulf, the Magna Carta, and Shakespeare’s First Folio. Meanwhile I sit with a poke bowl reading Dostoevsky on my phone - because great books stand the tests of time, and all the manic versions of technology. 📚💙
•
@britishlibrary #literarylondon #libraries #librarylove #austenconnection A tall vertical picture featuring ceiling-high book stacks of old and rare books in one of the oldest collections of books in the world at The British Library by @austenconnection

30

3

2 months ago

We’re exploring the joy of ‘The Other Bennet Sister’ and how this BritBox/BBC series remakes Mary Bennet into the best sort of Jane Austen heroine. 📚💙
•
Or, you might say, remakes Mary into one of Austen’s too-good-for-this-world heroines: For instance, Austen portrays a patient Elinor Dashwood, a nonconforming Fanny Price, and an endlessly heroic Anne Elliot as young people who are strong, resilient, and spectacularly let down by their families and by an unjust world. 📚💙
•
In this recent series, as in the book, our remade Mary Bennet is all of these things - but she also loves wine, poetry, and having a (very occasional) laugh. 📚💙
•
Did you enjoy this series? Or the book? Let us know all your thoughts on all the varieties of Mary Bennet: the only sensible girl and one Complex Regency Sister. 📚💙
•
Photo: Ella Bruccoleri is Mary Bennet in the @britboxtv production of “The Other Bennet Sister,” based on the novel by @j_hadlow1950 📚💙
•
#theotherbennetsister #prideandprejudice #britbox #janicehadlow #janeaustenfan The picture shows actor Ella Bruccoleri as Pride and Prejudice’s Mary Bennet, standing in the middle of a Regency-era street, in a still from the BritBox production by @austenconnection

37

5

3 months ago

Heat-wave strategies: So far these involve reading (and working) in Kensington’s Work Cafe, movies at historic Notting Hill Gate cinema (double feature when it’s really hot), the “1996” exhibit and generally taking refuge at The Barbican (which was my refuge so many days, ironically, in the Actual 90s) - and when everything closes, a pub with nice people and something to read. 🌻☀️
•
Hope you are all staying well and staying cool wherever you are. 🌻☀️
•
Not pictured: lots of ice water, shockingly cold showers, reading Dostoevsky on my phone (bc the actual book is too heavy in the heat), and too much popping in to shops. 🌻☀️
•
•
•
#heatwave🔥 #londonheatwave @barbicancentre @gatecinema #nottinghilllondon A cafe table with an iced latte, the novel Perfrction, and a sun hat by @austenconnection

16

1

4 months ago

Happy Father’s Day, readers. Jane Austen fans know there are not a lot of good fathers in Jane Austen’s stories. But Donald Sutherland’s emotional performance as Elizabeth Bennet’s father Mr. Bennet goes a long way toward earning our sympathy, and it provides a nice ultimate, or penultimate, scene in Joe Wright’s 2005 film adaptation. 📚💙
•
Mostly though - fathers in Jane Austen are terrible! Do you have a favorite baddie? Or can you think of an exception to the rule of terrible fathers? 📚💙
•
Hope your day is filled with all the joy, connection, inspiration, and fun of an Austen novel - with or without the father. 📚🙏
•
•
•
#prideandprejudice2005 #mrbennet #janeaustenbooks #austenconnection #classicreads by @austenconnection

21

1

4 months ago