Jane Austen would have felt quite at home in early October 2007 at the JASNA (Jane Austen Society of North America) conference held in Vancouver. As a first-timer, a JASNA virgin as it were, I was both fascinated and terrified—completely unsure what the experience would be like.
I needn’t have worried. I arrived on Thursday evening at the Hotel Vancouver and discovered 550 or so Janeites from all over the world, all happy to see each other and delighted to welcome newcomers. The first evening, after an interesting lecture by Jean Barman on what Jane Austen would have seen had she travelled to British Columbia in her lifetime, we settled in for a two-hour session where everyone was invited to share their favourite quotation from the novel Emma. The conference was titled "Discovering Emma in Vancouver" and every event for the four days revolved around that single Austen novel.
I knew I was going to enjoy myself when the passages started flying. More than a few quoted from memory. There is such joy in sharing a favourite novel or a favourite author, as we romance novelists know only too well. And as much as you know and love a book, it’s illuminating to see it through someone else’s eyes. I think one of the reasons that Jane Austen is as popular now—if not more so—as she was during her lifetime two centuries ago is that her books offer something new with every reading. Of all the quotations shared that night, no two were the same. Every person found their own treasure.
The workshops were as varied as the presenters. Janet Todd, from the University of Aberdeen, addressed "The Anxiety of Emma," and discussed not only the anxieties within the novel, but also the nervousness the reader feels. For instance, near the end of the novel, Emma answers Mr. Knightley’s proposal. “She spoke then, on being so entreated. – What did she say? – Just what she ought, of course. A lady always does.” Dr. Todd suggested that one of the anxieties of the novel is the reader’s—that perhaps she doesn’t know exactly what a lady might say on such an occasion. In fact, the fear is there, deep down, that one might not act instinctively as Emma at her most ladylike, but as ghastly Mrs. Elton!
There were lectures on Emma as a perfect detective novel, on clothing of the time, spas of the time, on portraits of the Prince Regent within the novel, to name just a few.
And who were these Janeites? I was curious. Would they be strange and crusty eccentrics obsessed with a long-dead woman who only wrote six novels? In fact, the majority of people I met were teachers past and present. I also met skiers and lawyers. Business people of all sorts. Mothers and daughters. Young people and old. At dinner I sat next to a past president of the University of Alberta, one of the many men who were there because their wives introduced them to Austen and the relationship flourished.
The Saturday night regency ball was one of the highlights for me. Nearly everyone dressed up. Thanks to the generosity of fellow author Shelley Bates and her love of authentic period costume, I, too, was correctly costumed. With a live band and a dance mistress who taught Scottish Country Dancing ahead of time, we were primed to do our best imitations of Emma and Mr. Knightley. Sadly, the Emmas far outnumbered the Knightleys, and Colin Firth was nowhere to be seen, but Fine Dancing, I believe, like virtue, must be its own reward.
For photos of the JASNA event, visit Nancy at www.nancywarren.net.
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