Saturday, January 23, 2010

Travelogue: Finding Austen in New York City



I had a business trip this week that started on Monday with a flight to Tampa and ended on Friday with a free day in New York City. Doing what any sane Janeite would do, I visited the Morgan Library and treated myself to an hour and a half at the exhibit entitled "A Woman's Wit: Jane Austen's Life and Legacy."

The exhibition is primarily displays of documents that Austen wrote and that J.P. Morgan and his heirs acquired in the early years of the 20th century. Because Jane's sister Cassandra destroyed most of Austen's handwritten documents, the Morgan Library bulked up the exhibit by displaying first editions of Austen's works, examples of various illustrations of the novels over the two centuries since they were first published, and related documentation, for example the letter from James Stanier Clarke to Austen letting her know that she would not be turned down should she dedicate her next work to his boss, the Prince of Wales, the man who would become King George IV.



I enjoyed the exhibit immensely. As others have done, I marveled over Austen's neat, straight lines of tiny handwriting; was impressed upon seeing the copperplate manuscript of Lady Susan; enjoyed the illustrations, especially those of Isabel Bishop, with my two favorites shown here.

I wandered around, looked at everything, watched the movie, and kept on waiting for the WOW moment. I was starting to think that I was just too jaded, had seen too many facsimiles to be truly touched by the genuine article, and then at the center of the room I took my turn to view a front/back display of a page from Austen's unfinished work The Watsons. This document made me catch my breath because it, more than anything else there, caught Austen in the creative act. The Lady Susan document is a copied version and so has a sterile, frozen aspect to it. The letters are chatty glimpses into her life. The illustrations are other artists renderings of the images her words created. But The Watsons is forever a work in progress. It shows Austen's thought process. It shows her hand, unpolished and real. Some words she scratched out, and others are inserted. It has a vibrancy that touched me, perhaps because I know that she never finished it but might have had she lived even a few more years. I wonder why Cassandra didn't burn this document. Why save this one and not any of the other drafts? Maybe Austen herself destroyed her drafts when she finally got the story to the place where she wanted it to be. Maybe Cassandra thought there was something good albeit rough in The Watsons and couldn't bring herself to end its life.

In writing up this post, John Keats' Ode to a Grecian Urn sprang to mind and I thought about how he had written about everlasting fleetingness of the maidens and the men frolicking across the vase, "...For ever piping songs for ever new." Seeing the rough manuscript of The Watsons made me realize that it, like the maidens and men, is forever new. Wow!

13 comments:

  1. I was wowed by the exhibit. It was small but it packed a punch. Thank you for your review.

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  2. I wish I could visit the exhibit. It would be amazing!

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  3. I was eagerly waiting for your comments on this visit. Excellent as usual, Jane!
    BTW, a special award for you and your blog
    http://flyhigh-by-learnonline.blogspot.com/2010/01/saturday-sunday-posting-what-makes-you.html

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  4. How disappointing it would have been to walk away without that "a-ha" moment! I'm so glad you had it. It sounds like the document has the feel of movement--that, like in the movies, an invisible hand will take up a pen and suddenly the writing will continue on the page.

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  5. I keep telling myself that I am going but I have yet to buy my plane ticket. A quick 40 minute flight and I'll be there. I need to get on that! Thanks for sharing!

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  6. When I visited, I only made it about an hour before closing and wasted my first half hour crying over this incredible exhibit. Only then did I realize there was a Blake exhibit going on at the same time, now closed, which I am kicking myself for missing. I have to go back before it leaves and spend the time it deserves. I had never visited the Morgan before - it's a remarkable place! I could get lost for days.

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  7. I'm glad you enjoyed the exhibit. And I agree that seeing The Watsons was pretty amazing!

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  8. Thank you for the lovely travelogue Jane! It allows me to live vicariously through you! I wish I could visit the exhibit, but I know I won't be able to. I would have loved to seen the Watsons manuscript too!

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  9. Whereas I was WOWing all over the place. "OHMIGOD IT'S THE BACKWARDS LETTER! OHMIGOD IT'S THE LACE DRAWING! OHMIGOD IT'S CASSANDRA'S LETTER TO FANNY!" Contrary to popular reports, I'm really very easy to please. ;-)

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  10. Okay, Mags--truth told, I did WOW over the backwards letter. She was v ill when she wrote that to her little niece, and it was perfect, fun, and v Austenesque. Made me proud to be a fangirl.

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  11. Oh, how I envy you the pleasure Jane. Thanks for sharing your ah ha moments with The Watsons. I wonder what would strike me as the defining moment?

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  12. I live in the city and have been meaning to go to this exhibit - I will definitely go after reading your review!

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  13. Booksync - I can't encourage you enough to go and enjoy yourself...it's only there through mid-March, and then back in the vault those documents go. Thanks for stopping by!

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