We present you the great project 'Reading with Austen'
What novels inspired the author of landmarks of english and world literature What Pride and Prejudice ? What did the architect of Sense and Sensibility ? Here's the answer:
Reading with Austen , this is how this ode to literature has been baptized, the virtual bookstore of the British writer Jane Austen , inspired by that of the residence of Godmersham Park ( England ) -about 13 kilometers southwest of Canterbury -, owned by her brother, Edward Austen Knight, and in which the author spent seasons.
This was the library where the novelist spent the hours
Reading with Austen is the product of the work of a team of researchers, volunteers, librarians and archivists , who collected, classified and cut thousands of photos of book spines, covers and pages.
And how have they managed to recreate it shelf by shelf? Thanks to a handwritten catalog which lists all the books in your collection , citing the exact location on each of the shelves in the room, which housed books collected for over 200 years by the Brodnax family , owners of this luxurious property from 1590.
Discover the specimens by moving the mouse
When Edward Austen Knight moved in 1798 to Godmersham, he inherited a collection of about 1,200 books (many of them in several volumes), to which he and his descendants continued to add copies.
In it they could find classic works of English, French, Greek and Roman literature , as well as works in Italian, Spanish and German or novels by the contemporaries of ** Jane Austen **.
It also had biographical, historical, geographical, theological, travel writings, dictionaries, atlases, and periodicals , as well as with books on architecture and painting, science and medicine, agriculture, horse riding, farming, gardening, leisure and treatises on song and chess.
The mansion is currently preserved, but the library disappeared , turning into offices. Still, through Reading with Austen , exploring the relics that the novelist read is now possible: just by sliding the cursor, you can access photographs and bibliographic information of the same editions that she handled.
Godmersham Park House Entrance
Jane Austen visited Godmersham Park six times from 1798 to 1813 , staying there for a total of about ten months, so this corner had great relevance in the life and work of the novelist.
Although in 1808 she wrote her first impressions of Godmersham Park (and its library) in letters to her sister Cassandra , it was her in her final stay –between September and November 1813- when she told him: "We live in the library, except during meals."
On other occasions, she conveyed the joy that this stay caused her: "alone in the library, mistress of all i see" . She even described her dimensions, a useful tidbit for the creation of Reading with Austen: "five tables, eight and twenty chairs and two fires for myself".
The creators of Reading with Austen have managed to imagine what the library was like based on descriptions, plans and photographs of other rooms in Godmersham Park , as well as carrying out an exhaustive investigation on how they were country house libraries of the time and about the history of the Knight family.
“After collecting a series of descriptions and reference images and calculating the size of the shelves, we turn to an artist and web developer to create the aesthetic and technical elements of the project ”, they comment on their website.
Portrait of Jane Austen
Although many of the books were auctioned, more than a third of the works that appear in the catalog, about 500 titles in total, are preserved in the current Knight Collection , assigned to Chawton House Library by its owner Richard Knight, the great-great-grandson of Jane Austen's brother.
The first volume of the catalog is not a perfect record: the main compiler , whose identity is unknown, **she misspelled some titles (especially non-English ones)** and names of authors, as well as she made mistakes converting Roman numerals into Arabic ones.
The place of publication and the size of each work are other descriptive data of the pieces in the collection.
On the other hand, in the second volume, they also list authors in alphabetical order, along with their corresponding works and their location on the shelves. And although the compiler was different, it also made the same mistakes.
However, the wonderful cultural initiative Reading with Austen has located many titles missing from the current Knight Collection in auction records, booksellers lists, libraries and museums.
Technical sheet and photographs of one of the books of the virtual library
For example, the Jane Austen House Museum It contains the copies of the six novels published by Jane Austen, which were housed in Godmersham Park.
Others are distributed by different libraries around the world: ** Canada ** (McGill University), England (British Library), Australia (University of Melbourne) and at least nine libraries in the United States.
Visit 'Reading with Austen'!
On the other hand, some pieces have been sold in recent years by bookstores and auction houses or even are currently on sale: the best value is a two-volume edition of poems by William Cowper, one of Austen's favorite poets.
Several of the virtual books in the Jane Austen Library include links to digital editions available from open access websites like **Google Books, Archive.org, and HathiTrust** or subscription services like **Early English Books Online.**