Hi, I'm Beatrice (formerly Lady Disdain Reads). I write on literature, culture, and religion. This channel is my passion project, where I share my thoughts on the books I love, especially Jane Austen's works.
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I'm rewatching the 6 hour 1983 BBC production of Mansfield Park. It's thought there isn't a good adaption of MP, but I've watched this at least three times. I like it better and better each time. It has one great virtue - it's true to the book, there's no other agenda. On the nonfiction front, I'm re-reading Lionel Trilling's essays on Austen, and his reflections on her in Sincerity & Authenticity. I've also got hold of a Q.D. Leavis essay collection & Austen is well represented. Emma for a re-read. Edmund Burke's - On the Sublime and Beautiful. It's on the bookshelf, tried once, try again. Metropolitan, I like that one. A book about Austen's period....have to think about that.
Sense and Sensibility 2008 mini series is very good, beautifully photographed and the cottage is set in Cornwall instead of Surrey. Very atmospheric and worth watching. Lost in Austen is good too. Thank you Beatrice for your Austen Challenge and recommendations.
I love that you and your husband read aloud to each other! Byron as a vampire sounds right up my alley! I will have to check it out. Happy Jane Austen July. :)
Ideas re: Austen content for a future video-perhaps a survey of how Austen was perceived in different periods. I know she had admirers early on, but some just dismissed her as a chronicler of the gentry's romances. I know Sir Walter Scott was a great admirer. But many others in the 19th c. lost track of her. In the 20th c. she had a great revival, some placing her in company with Shakespeare. It would be interesting to trace the patterns of Austen appreciation in different eras.
I've not done the Austen challenge- I'd like to take a shot at it this year. In the nonfiction category, I'm currently reading something that might make the grade. I may be stretching it. It's a selection of essays of an American woman of the late 19th and first third of the 20th century. The book is American Austen: The Forgotten Writings of Agnes Repplier, edited by John Lukacs. Agnes Repplier was recognized as a premier American essayist in her time, but forgotten in ours. She was a devout Roman Catholic, a feminist and a very erudite and witty writer. John Lukacs was one of our finest historians, Hungarian born, he made his home in the Philadelphia area, and through interest in the social history of Philadelphia he discovered and championed Agnes Repplier. I'll take any opportunity to re-watch Metropolitan, I adore that film. And through your earlier mention I've watched and loved Austenland. I still haven't got a copy of the Collins' bio, but I've read hers on Austen and the clergy. The Norton Critical editions are a great entryway to authors, lots of gems, annotations and criticism. Persuasion is a good call, I haven't reread it in so long. Happy reading!!!
I was happy to see Beatrice mention Norton critical editions. I'm a fan of those as well. There have been some updated editions recently that have taken out valuable critical pieces in favor of more trendy criticism. Sometimes it's worth looking into earlier editions to compare the different content. But I don't think it's across the board, I'm thinking of a recent Melville Norton crit edition that I found wanting, compared to an earlier.
Volume too low Beatrice. Please please adjust it UP. I have to turn it to 11 and move up close. Everyone else on YT I can hear without cranking it up. Please!
Urghh so annoying, I recorded it at a higher volume and I can hear it fine, but clearly it's not fine on your end, sorry! I will try to use different equipment next time!
What do you think about other translations of Dante's Divine Comedy like Hollander or Mandelbaum or Longfellow? I wonder about these 3 because they're all free online so it would be a good way to read Dante if we can't afford to buy it. Also my local library has Ciardi and a Penguin edition I think it's Kirkpatrick so I suppose these are two other options. Thanks in advance for any thoughts you might have! 😊
I think this is one of those insights that really helps me see Jane Austen in a clearer light, on a much deeper level than I had before. Thank you so much!!
Fantastic. Thank you for this video!!! My request is to make more videos on aesthetics! I'd like more of an introduction to Greek beauty before you dive more into Christian aesthetics. This has been a topic of interest to me as well. I never imagined that Christianity would present a different kind of beauty, though. This is a really interesting topic. I would like to add also that I've been thinking of beauty as the manifestation of Goodness. Therefore, if there is a new form of goodness, we would have new forms of beauty. I love your channel when you just share whatever you're thinking about, like this. You have a living mind! It's so refreshing! Thank you! Keep making videos about whatever you want!
We did a play on this book when I was in 9th grade. One the most beautiful books ever written, to get life, love, and heaven you first need to go through hell.
You've inspired me to download the Companion to the Altar and bring it into my own devotional life. I'll miss Jane Austen content!! I love your channel.
You have no idea how grateful I am for your channel. The intro to this video is such a treat. The rest of the video was lovely. You're awesome. Also, behind you on top of the dresser, is that a Roman breviary with the red pagination?
I would love to hear more about your understanding of feminism, what it means exactly, how you understand it, whether you understand yourself as a feminist, different kinds of feminism, etc.
Sure, I can do this! It's such a loaded topic, so it definitely deserves a full video. What I'll say here is that the word has definitely been hijacked to the point that it's difficult to use. Even so, I think early feminists (so early that they wouldn't even have used the term!) and women's rights advocates in the 19th century had a much more coherent understanding of how to help women in their uniqueness. A lot of contemporary feminists (though not all!) don't value or cherish women as a whole, in their femaleness and their reproductive potential. But there are also lots of thinkers who embrace a sex-realist, maternal, care-based feminism, and I think that's beautiful.
That’s quite a credo Beatrice!Well argued and explained! Good Easter book. Are you going to read Sayer’s religious play too? Looking forward to Brideshead! Happy Mothering!
Disappointed that I never received a notification from YT for this episode. Till We Have Faces is a splendid work. I wonder if you'd consider a Waugh video or series contrasting the early "satirical Waugh" vs. the later "Catholic Waugh". I think it's a false dichotomy, serving an agenda to promote a supposed, lost secular Waugh, but I'd love to learn your views. Along these lines, I wonder if you've ever seen the film adaption done of "A Handful of Dust" (1988). It was made by the same director as the excellent 80s ITV Brideshead adaption. The cast alone highly recommends it. It wasn't initially received as well as the BR adaption, but I think it's quite a good film and true to the novel. A Handful of Dust is considered his bleakest novel, but it's sometimes ridiculously thought of as nihilistic or despairing, when it's actually questioning and despairing about mankind setting up shop in a self directed world without God. A trip down the via negativa. Looking forward to your next upload.
Excellent. I've noticed how consistently Austen contrasts "accomplishment" in women with other "more substantial", virtuous qualities. I think this video is exceptional in putting into words something so consistently hinted at in Austen's novels, which I have, until now, seen but not been able to vocalize and describe. Thank you.
Congratulations on your baby!! I really appreciate your scripted essay-style videos on serious topics, I also think that this topic, since it is a review of something less serious, is fittingly unscripted and more spontaneous and I think it really fits well! You're doing great! Thank you for your videos!!
Beatrice, I was recently studying theology for a master's in Toronto. Are you still living there or are you back in England now? Are you familiar with the Oratory of St Philip Neri there in Toronto?
I am very familiar with the Oratory in Toronto, yes! As you can tell from my videos from around 2 years ago, I had my first baby in Toronto! Sadly we've now moved back to England, but I would love to visit Canada again as it's very special to me!
I love it. But I am genuinely amazed that someone could seriously argue that Jane Austen's works are not deeply religiously minded. Thank you for your videos!!
Thank you for this video!!! I didn't know any of this and found it all very interesting. I didn't know she wrote any prayers and now I want to incorporate them into my own life. I really want to read the biography too.
Excellent video! I haven't read Lewis' article yet, because I didn't know it existed, but now I definitely will! I already agree with your position that repentance is the best way to describe the change of character in those heroines you described. This is exactly the content I like most from you. You bring out insights and make connections I never saw before, but now that I do see it, it's so obvious that it becomes an essential part of my experience in reading the novels and I can't ever forget it. Thank you!!
I love Sense and Sensibility, I would appreciate more videos on it to help me appreciate it further! Thank you for this one!! I never considered Elinor as really growing throughout the novel, I saw her as more of a perfect model of "exertion" throughout. You've given me something to consider. Thank you! Also (nit-picking again), Aristotle, in his Ethical works, views the specific virtue of temperance and its opposite vices as limited to matters of food and sex. So, while I see the general point you're making, the particular Aristotelian sense of the word temperance is not applicable to the idea of insensibility in the way you use it with regard to Elinor and Marianne. On the other hand, we can speak of all Aristotelian virtues as operating in the mode either of temperance or courage, in which case, what you said makes more sense. You can say that Elinor exercised too much restraint (temperance, not in its proper sense, but in a broad sense of the word) of expression of herself. But a more formal way to speak would involve looking into Aristotle's ideas of virtue with regard to speech and finding the virtue that specifically applies to excess and defect with regard to that. Really really nit-picking now: you expressed yourself rather imprecisely when speaking of excess and defect. There is no such thing as an "excess of temperance", since temperance is the name of the virtue--i.e., choosing the mean. There is excess of food/sex and this is called gluttony/lust and a defect of food/sex and this is called insensibility and the mean is called temperance. In this latter part, I'm only correcting your use of words, whereas I think you actually do understand the concept quite correctly; I'm just pointing out that the words you're using are not precise.
I've seen several times you make the distinction between the narrator and Austen herself. Do you have a video on this topic of Austen's use of the narrator and commentary on this? I always saw the narrator as the author's voice, why is that not so? I trust you in making the distinction, I'm just wanting to learn your thoughts on it.
I don't have a video on that but maybe I should! I'll be honest, that's mostly an English Studies tic I have. They train you to always separate the narrative voice from the author, which is sometimes necessary, granted. But in Austen's case, I believe her and the narrator to be one and the same!
Four points: First of all, congratulations on your baby! Beautiful! I'm amazed you're able to be clearly thinking and producing at this wonderful time of exhaustion and constant care of your new baby!! Second point: I think I agree with you substantially on almost everything about Austen, and it makes it very enjoyable to watch your videos. But it also means that I am all the more bothered when I see something incongruous in your thought. So I'd like to offer a correction of your description of the, "Comedy". In your video specifically about this topic, I thought you did a competent job of describing it as a movement from disorder to final order. Unfortunately, in this video, you said that it depicts the world, "as it SHOULD be". But I find this inexcusable--or at best, inaccurate--as a description from a believing intellegent Christian, such as yourself. The world we live in, ordered as it is by divine providence, doesn't fall short of a perfection which we mere creatures can imagine. Comedy doesn't show the world as it SHOULD be, but it shows it as it IS, in miniature. The world we live in DOES end in a grand and final glorious order, in which we will all rejoice. But since we don't see this order in our daily lives, because we don't yet live in the final end of all things, we use smaller works, like plays and novels, to give us a sense of what that final satisfaction will be like. I hope I'm not belaboring this nit-picky point, but I think it is important. What I'm saying is that the comedy is the most realistic form because it depicts more of reality as it is in itself even though it doesn't depict reality as we experience it in our daily lives. We don't yet experience the final satisfaction of the eschaton, but we labor under the disorder of a comedy not yet finished. The narrative of the Gospel gives us a sense of what that final happiness will be like because Christ dies in chaos but his rising gives us a satisfaction of final triumph in order and joy. But what I'm trying to emphasize here is that we are living, right now, in a comedy and we expect that all the loose ends and disorder of our crazy and painful lives will be one day seen in light of a final order which will satisfy us beyond all our pains. So comedies don't depict the world as it SHOULD be, but they are a mere image of what the world already is, and a foretaste of the satisfaction with which it will end. Third point: The second point was certainly nit-picky, but I agree with you on so much it only inclines me more to voice my disagreement with you on finer points. Fourth point: I love your Austen content, please keep it up!
Re Comedy: I think we ultimately agree. However, I'll add that I think the idea I'm trying to get across is twofold: on the one hand, like you say, we can't see the world as a comedy very easily precisely because our vision is limited. But the Christian worldview is also one that emphasizes our fallen nature. So yes, we have been offered salvation through Christ's death, but while here, on earth, there is yet suffering and evil. In that sense, comedies show us what it will be like to have a perfect resolution and heavenly peace, while struggling with the imperfect way humans work in the world. I hope that makes sense!
Yes, it does make sense. And I agree that we agree. Lol I'm just trying to emphasize that while we don't see the grand scheme of things right now, nevertheless, our daily lives right now, in their ugliness, are already part of a grand cosmic order which is working according the Author's mind. Just as an Austen novel has tensions and limited evils throughout, we call the whole thing beautiful because of their proportion to the end; so too we can call our cotidian lives and struggles beautiful because of their proportion to a hoped-for and foreseen end. At the risk of saying too much, I'll add: The final end I'm talking about is not Heaven, though, I'm talking about the order of all things in all of creation which itself will be a magnificent image of God. Just as the novel in its fullness is beautiful to us, not just one of its parts, not just the ending alone.
I never dreamed of hearing my own views on Jane Austen and comedy talked at me in a far more eloquent way, with far greater perfection in expression and research than I could ever do. Thank you!!! One thing I can add is that her novels not only train us in self-knowledge by showing our faults in ridiculous form and helping us to laugh at them, but the form of comedy also trains us to see our own lives, and all life, as a grand comedy. Coming away from her novels, we are able to see the maddening mess of our own lives and have a true hope in the order that will take place and be visible to us, on the last day. This helps us to live a life of faith and hope so much more vividly than any mere propositional exhortation could do.
Beatrice, in a previous comment on another video, I said I never leave comments on RU-vid, but now I'm making lots on your videos! Your channel is great. Thank you for sharing your reading and insight! Hearing Jasmine speak was really inspiring. I'm deeply edified by her. I hope to listen to her podcasts. Please have her on again another time to speak more! (Also, you probably already noticed, but, saying, "Mhm" during the video really interrupted the audio quality. Maybe you could improve this before the next interview?)
I never leave comments on RU-vid, but I need to this time, to say that your insight is exactly what I've been looking for to complement my reading of Austen's works! Thank you so much for your videos! This is the first one I've seen but I already know I'll be watching a lot more!
