Speaker 1: You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
Speaker 1: and iHeartRadio. Guess what, Mango? What's that? Well?
Speaker 2: All right, let's say I invite you over for ice
Speaker 2: cream and give you a dessert spoon to eat it with.
Speaker 2: I also offer you coffee from a coffee urned. So
Speaker 2: who would we be celebrating here?
Speaker 1: Mango? Can I have another clue?
Speaker 2: Sure, if you don't want a coffee, I'll serve you
Speaker 2: tea with a tea ladle, which.
Speaker 1: Sounds nice, but I still have no idea what you're
Speaker 1: talking about.
Speaker 2: You get one more clue, Mega, You know I never
Speaker 2: get more than three clues. So I'm throwing this party
Speaker 2: for someone who's two hundred and fiftieth birthday just so
Speaker 2: happens to be on December sixteenth.
Speaker 1: Jane Austen nailed at mango, You're so smart.
Speaker 2: According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Austin was the first
Speaker 2: person to use these terms in writing. She didn't necessarily
Speaker 2: coin them, but she definitely helped codify them. For example,
Speaker 2: the dessert spoon first appeared in a letter she wrote
Speaker 2: back in eighteen oh eight. Apparently no one had ever
Speaker 2: bothered writing about dessert spoons before. In fact, the OED
Speaker 2: credits her with around two hundred different words, and they
Speaker 2: run the gamut from the verb to chaperone. The noun
Speaker 2: existed before that, but she verbed it. Have you ever
Speaker 2: verbed something?
Speaker 1: I have?
Speaker 2: Pretty impressively. So to the phrase if I've told you once,
Speaker 2: I've told you one hundred times, which I think is
Speaker 2: like the eternal mom phrase. Right, that's pretty amazing that
Speaker 2: what Austin actually wrote was if I have spoken once
Speaker 2: to Rebecca about that carpet. I am sure I have
Speaker 2: spoken at least a dozen times, but you know it's
Speaker 2: the gist.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that carpet. Second, well, thank you to Jane Austen
Speaker 1: for all of those terms. But uh, you know, I
Speaker 1: definitely used the if I've told you once a bit,
Speaker 1: quite a bit, but I don't really talk about coffee
Speaker 1: earns something.
Speaker 2: No, not me either, but it's just nice to know
Speaker 2: they're out there. But today we have eight more facts
Speaker 2: about the Great Jane Austin in honor of her two
Speaker 2: hundred and fiftieth birthday, So let's dive in. Hey, their
Speaker 2: podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson,
Speaker 2: and as always i'm here with my good friend Mangesh
Speaker 2: hot Ticketter and over there in the booth just brooding
Speaker 2: on a more as our friend and producer Dylan Fagan,
Speaker 2: just brooding.
Speaker 1: It is remarkable how you fit that more backdrop into
Speaker 1: that booth, and also just how brooding he looks. He
Speaker 1: really does it well, so will. Today is a very
Speaker 1: special birthday celebration of Jane Austen. And I'm cure, are
Speaker 1: you a fan? Like, were you familiar with her work
Speaker 1: before we started working on this episode?
Speaker 2: Don't you feel like there was sort of mandatory two
Speaker 2: three Jane Austen titles in AP English.
Speaker 1: I don't know that I could recite much.
Speaker 2: From them at this point, but I know we read
Speaker 2: a decent amount, how about you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I have definitely skimmed Jane Austen. I
Speaker 1: don't know if I've read Jane Austen, but my mom
Speaker 1: was a huge fan, so she and my sister had
Speaker 1: not only read everything, but like also watched every single
Speaker 1: PBS and BBC adaptation and there's so many of them,
Speaker 1: and then all the movies of course, and then the
Speaker 1: variations like A Clueless and whatever.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I do feel like she's one of those
Speaker 2: authors that you read too young in life.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, let's make a commitment.
Speaker 2: Let's return to Jane Austin after this episode in our sixties,
Speaker 2: right exactly.
Speaker 1: But I actually remember this one time. I was in Washington,
Speaker 1: DC and I was riding the Metro and I saw
Speaker 1: this guy who had clearly just worked out and was
Speaker 1: coming from the gym. And he looked roided up to me,
Speaker 1: and he was like wearing a tank top, and he
Speaker 1: looked really gruff, and he was like tatted up, and
Speaker 1: he seemed so intimidating. But I could tell he was
Speaker 1: reading a book. And you know, I'm a curious cat.
Speaker 1: There are also like so many people on the train
Speaker 1: that I was like kind of like poking around trying
Speaker 1: to figure out what he was reading. And I finally
Speaker 1: caught a glimpse of the cover and it was Emma.
Speaker 1: But it's perfect. You're totally profiling this guy a picture.
Speaker 2: You actually like climbing up over his muscles to see
Speaker 2: the book.
Speaker 1: I remember thinking I like this guy more now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, anyway, let's get back to the fact. So
Speaker 1: one thing I did not realize is that Jane Austen
Speaker 1: only completed six novels in her lifetime, oh way, and
Speaker 1: four of these were actually published anonymously, but she finished
Speaker 1: all her books in the same location, a place called
Speaker 1: Chotten Cottage. Chotten Cottage is located, unsurprisingly in Chotten, Hampshire,
Speaker 1: which is a small village. It's around fifty miles or
Speaker 1: so sod of London, and Jane lived there with her mom,
Speaker 1: her sister and her friend for eight years. This was
Speaker 1: from eighteen oh nine until she died at the age
Speaker 1: of forty one in eighteen seventeen.
Speaker 2: Now I noticed you said finished her novels there. Does
Speaker 2: that mean she started them somewhere else?
Speaker 1: She did. She wrote the first drafts of three of
Speaker 1: her novels, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility in north
Speaker 1: Anger Abbey at Steventon House, the country home where she
Speaker 1: was born, but she finished those and also Mansfield Park,
Speaker 1: Persuasion and Emma all at Chotten and Shotten is actually
Speaker 1: a must visit spot for Austin fence. It is maintained
Speaker 1: as her house museum and much of it has been
Speaker 1: restored to look like it would have been in the
Speaker 1: early eighteen hundreds. The museum also holds many of Jane
Speaker 1: Austin's possessions like her jewelry, the first editions of her books,
Speaker 1: and one of my favorite things is the twelve sided
Speaker 1: wooden table where she worked at.
Speaker 2: Gotta Love a Good Dodeca Gone Right, And besides writing
Speaker 2: these novels and letters at that she probably also used
Speaker 2: it to copy down some of her favorite piano scores.
Speaker 2: You know, the Austin family and especially Jane, they were
Speaker 2: super into music. In twenty fifteen, scholars at the University
Speaker 2: of Southampton digitized most of the Austin family music books
Speaker 2: collection and made them available to the public. So they're
Speaker 2: around twenty volumes of music, and seven of them belonged
Speaker 2: specifically to Jane, including titles like Songs and Duets and
Speaker 2: Juvenile Songs and lessons for young beginners who don't know
Speaker 2: enough to practice. That sort of reminds me of Derek
Speaker 2: Zulander's Well was School for kids who don't read good
Speaker 2: sort of thing. This one's probably a little better than that.
Speaker 2: But she actually copied out by hand.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. So this means she actually played piano.
Speaker 2: She did, and this was a pretty common thing at
Speaker 2: the time, like the piano was considered an instrument that
Speaker 2: a woman of certain statures should know how to play,
Speaker 2: you know, to entertain a husband or potential guest. Jane, however,
Speaker 2: did not play for company, but she did like to
Speaker 2: practice in the morning before anybody else woke up.
Speaker 1: So what sort of stuff was she jamming on before
Speaker 1: anyone could wake up to hear it? Well?
Speaker 2: The family collection includes a lot of popular composers at
Speaker 2: the time, like friends Joseph Hayden, as well as you
Speaker 2: know folk songs like the Groves of Sweet Myrtle with
Speaker 2: lyrics by Scottish poet Robert Burns. There's also some naval songs,
Speaker 2: which makes sense. Jane had two brothers who served in
Speaker 2: the British Navy, and a song called Crazy Jane that
Speaker 2: scholars believe may have been actually a family joke. Now,
Speaker 2: Jane may have played nursery rhymes for her nieces and
Speaker 2: nephews and sang for them too. According to her family,
Speaker 2: she had a really nice singing voice, so even if
Speaker 2: she didn't perform them in public, music was a big
Speaker 2: part of her life. Some experts actually say it influenced
Speaker 2: her writing too, like the rhythm of her language. You
Speaker 2: can imagine that being the case.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I believe that it's so funny though, like that
Speaker 1: she has a nice singing voice, like I've never thought
Speaker 1: about Jane Austen's voice. Yeah yeah, And she could have
Speaker 1: like a terrible singing voice or ara, like, it wouldn't
Speaker 1: have been something I thought about. Worn out. But you know,
Speaker 1: I'm going to dedicate this next fact to Dylan, who's
Speaker 1: still over there rooting bad. It's terrible, But it turns
Speaker 1: out that mister Darcy, the love interest of Elizabeth Bennett
Speaker 1: and Pride and Prejudice, may have been inspired by a
Speaker 1: real life nobleman that Jane knew. So as a side note,
Speaker 1: I know mister Darcy is a beloved figure, So let
Speaker 1: me just issue the big caveat that all of this
Speaker 1: is conjecture and it's really on the part of Jane
Speaker 1: Austen scholars. So I should also say there have been
Speaker 1: many possible contenders for this honor through the years, including
Speaker 1: a young, good looking and absolutely broke Irish law student.
Speaker 1: His name was Thomas Lefroy, whom Jane met in the
Speaker 1: late seventeen hundreds. It is unclear if they ever dated
Speaker 1: in the current sense of the term, like they made
Speaker 1: have gone on walks with things like that, but they
Speaker 1: definitely exchanged flirtatious letters, and whatever their situationship was. It
Speaker 1: ended when Lefroy married a rich heiress instead.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, Well, I'm not sure he deserved her anyway.
Speaker 1: I know I don't think you did. More recently, doctor
Speaker 1: Susan Law, a writer and Austin aficionado, came to believe
Speaker 1: that Darcy may have been based on a guy named
Speaker 1: John Parker, more commonly known as Lord Boringdon. Now Jane
Speaker 1: knew Lord Boringdon through his second wife, Francis, who was
Speaker 1: a close friend of hers, but the word, at least
Speaker 1: in Southern England was that everyone kind of knew Lord
Speaker 1: Boringdon because of his very scandalous first marriage.
Speaker 2: Okay, so you're saying Lord Boringdon was actually pretty interesting.
Speaker 1: He definitely had a reputation as a ladies man. Before
Speaker 1: he got married, he had a long and open affair
Speaker 1: with a married woman named Lady Elizabeth Monk, but she
Speaker 1: wouldn't leave her husband for him. So Boringdon, who was
Speaker 1: in his thirties at this point, went ahead and married
Speaker 1: an eighteen year old named Augusta Faine. But after a
Speaker 1: couple of years he started cheating on Augusta with a
Speaker 1: ballerina he'd met, and meanwhile, Lady Elizabeth was also back
Speaker 1: in the picture because she was still unwilling to fully
Speaker 1: cut things off with Lord Boringdon.
Speaker 2: Man, that's pretty juicy, And.
Speaker 1: It actually gets juicier because young Lady Augusta, she's aware
Speaker 1: her husband is, you know, Tom catting about, so she
Speaker 1: starts having an affair with a guy named Sir Arthur Paget.
Speaker 1: And in a weird twist, Paget's brother is married to
Speaker 1: one of Lady Elizabeth's daughters. But even more scandalous than
Speaker 1: that is that Paget is a college buddy of Lord Boringdon's.
Speaker 2: Now I'm trying to keep up with this and to say, like,
Speaker 2: how weird that twist is, But I gotta be honest,
Speaker 2: I'm getting a little bit lost here. So how about
Speaker 2: you just tell me if there's a happy ending to this?
Speaker 2: There is?
Speaker 1: Okay, good, Well, after finding out about Augusta's affair, Lord
Speaker 1: Boringdon divorced her, which was fined by her. She actually
Speaker 1: got married to Sir Paget three days later, and a
Speaker 1: couple of months after that, Boringdon marries Jane's friend Francis,
Speaker 1: and to everyone surprised both of these marriages actually last.
Speaker 2: All right, so you were talking about how Lord Boringdon
Speaker 2: could actually be the inspiration for mister Darcy. Right, but
Speaker 2: if you remember, like, they don't sound anything alike. So
Speaker 2: how is that?
Speaker 1: Yeah, so the academics admit they don't have any actual
Speaker 1: proof of this, Like this Darcy comparison is based mostly
Speaker 1: on his appearance, even though the physical description of mister
Speaker 1: Darcy in the books is pretty minimal if you remember so.
Speaker 1: Austin actually writes quote that he drew the attention of
Speaker 1: the room by his fine, tall person, handsome features and
Speaker 1: noble maine. Apparently Lord Boringdon had all of those qualities,
Speaker 1: and because Jane was good friends with his second wife,
Speaker 1: she probably spent time with him and could have used
Speaker 1: this experience to inform her depiction of mister Darcy's a lore.
Speaker 1: But here's a bonus Darcy fact for all of you
Speaker 1: Darcy lovers out there. Colin Firth made a huge splash
Speaker 1: literally when he played the role in the nineteen nineties
Speaker 1: BBC mini series. There is a famous scene where he
Speaker 1: goes swimming in the lake, and just last year, that
Speaker 1: same costume he wore in that scene sole at auction
Speaker 1: for twenty thousand pounds.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's a lot of money for some like wet
Speaker 2: used clothes, but just goes to show people are passionate
Speaker 2: about these characters. All Right, we have to take a
Speaker 2: quick break, but when we come back, we'll talk about
Speaker 2: Jane Austen's famous fans, the last piece she wrote, and
Speaker 2: so much more.
Speaker 1: So stay tuned, Welcome back to Part Time Genius, where
Speaker 1: we're celebrating Jane Austen's two hundred and fiftieth birthday. Yes,
Speaker 1: and before we get back into Jane Austin facts, I
Speaker 1: want to share one of the greatest facts a listener
Speaker 1: just sent us. Remember you can get an official Part
Speaker 1: Time Genius membership card for free if you send us
Speaker 1: your name, your address, and a fun fact. So Christine
Speaker 1: and Washington wrote in to tell us that according to
Speaker 1: microbiologist Peter Gurgis, the number of microbes in the world
Speaker 1: is ten to the twenty seventh power, and if you
Speaker 1: laid them all end to end, they'd be one hundred
Speaker 1: and five light years.
Speaker 2: Wow, Christine, that's so impressive that you laid them all
Speaker 2: in to end.
Speaker 1: That's it. Those numbers are so big they.
Speaker 2: Actually kind of make my brain hurt, but I actually
Speaker 2: love it when people send us facts and cite their sources,
Speaker 2: So so good on you, Christine.
Speaker 1: I think the ven diagram of people who've listened to
Speaker 1: the show and people who appreciate footnotes is definitely a
Speaker 1: total circle. So anyway, Christine, your membership card is on
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Speaker 1: voicemail at three O two four oh five five nine
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Speaker 1: only the membership cards but also the atomic fire we
Speaker 1: sent them, oh and they said it was too spicy
Speaker 1: for the kids, but.
Speaker 2: Made it all the way in Malaysia. That's fantastic. Good job,
Speaker 2: and I love fireballs.
Speaker 1: I've ever mentioned that before, I don't think so.
Speaker 2: All right, So back to Jane Austin. You know, one
Speaker 2: of the things that really struck me when I was
Speaker 2: doing the research for this episode was that despite her
Speaker 2: novel's popularity, she didn't make that much money from book
Speaker 2: sales while she was alive. In fact, one scholar estimated
Speaker 2: that Austin made around six hundred and thirty one pounds
Speaker 2: before tax or five hundred and seventy five pounds after tax,
Speaker 2: which would work out to about fifty six thousand dollars
Speaker 2: in today's money. Now. Obviously, since then the books have
Speaker 2: sold a lot more, but it's safe to say that
Speaker 2: writing did not make Jane rich in her lifetime. Part
Speaker 2: of the reason for this is that she died quite young. Now,
Speaker 2: I remember, she was only forty one, and her debut novel,
Speaker 2: Since Insensibility, wasn't published until eighteen eleven, just six years
Speaker 2: before she died, and her last two novels were published posthumously,
Speaker 2: which means she was only alive to see four books
Speaker 2: published over the course of six years.
Speaker 1: You know, I get all that, but I'm still kind
Speaker 1: of surprised that there was such little money involved.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, like many writers, she had a couple of
Speaker 2: less than favorable deals, particularly for her most popular book,
Speaker 2: Pride and Prejudice, which was first published in eighteen thirteen,
Speaker 2: and for whatever reason, she agreed to a one time
Speaker 2: payment of only one hundred and ten pounds. The publisher,
Speaker 2: of course, made a lot more money than that, but
Speaker 2: by the time she died, her publisher had made more
Speaker 2: than four times what they'd paid for that book. Luckily,
Speaker 2: she made better deals with her other novels. Instead of
Speaker 2: a flat fee, she was able to get a percentage
Speaker 2: of her profits. But there was one other snag to this.
Speaker 2: The profits for her fourth novel, Emma, were tied to
Speaker 2: a reprint of her third novel, Mansfield Park, and although
Speaker 2: Mansfield Park's first edition sold well, the second edition did not.
Speaker 2: Because of that, she wound up only making about thirty
Speaker 2: eight pounds on Emma, and she died before she could
Speaker 2: see any additional money from that.
Speaker 1: That is insane. You know, it's funny. They seem like
Speaker 1: such unglamorous and contemporary problems like negotiating contracts and tracking
Speaker 1: book sales. But you know, lucky for us, that did
Speaker 1: not stop Austin from writing, especially because it's fun to
Speaker 1: see how her fan base has grown, Like did you
Speaker 1: know that Dwayne Wade, the NBA star is a huge
Speaker 1: fan Musician BB King and Kelly Clarkson, they are just massive.
Speaker 1: Jane Austin fans. I did not know that. No. Kelly
Speaker 1: Clarkson is such a big fan that she bought one
Speaker 1: of Austin's rings at auction in twenty twelve, but the
Speaker 1: Brits weren't happy about it, leaving the country. In fact,
Speaker 1: so much so that after Clarkson won this auction, the
Speaker 1: UK government put a temporary ban on the rings export,
Speaker 1: which gave enough time for other fans, presumably British ones,
Speaker 1: to raise enough money to buy the ring from Clarkson
Speaker 1: and give it to Jane Austen's House museum, where it
Speaker 1: still is today. You know, it's also impossible to overstate
Speaker 1: the impact Jane Austin had on English culture. Her books
Speaker 1: were actually given to British soldiers in World War One
Speaker 1: to help recover from PTSD. Oh interesting, yeah, and along
Speaker 1: similar lines. After Rodyard Kipling's son was killed in the
Speaker 1: First World War, he actually read Austin's novels to his
Speaker 1: wife and daughter as a bit of levity and solace
Speaker 1: during their grief. And in nineteen twenty four Kipling wrote
Speaker 1: a short story called The Jay Knights. It's about a
Speaker 1: soldier serving in France during World War One. He finds
Speaker 1: out about this secret club, the Society of the Jay Knights,
Speaker 1: which he can join, but he's only allowed entry after
Speaker 1: he reads every single one of Austin's novels. So he
Speaker 1: starts reading them, and he really isn't into it at first.
Speaker 1: He has this great line where he says her books quote,
Speaker 1: weren't adventurous, nor smutty, nor what you'd even call interest in.
Speaker 1: But he gets through them all. He passes the Society's
Speaker 1: tests and he is officially accepted. But the companionship he
Speaker 1: finds in the society, plus all their conversations about Jane Austin,
Speaker 1: actually helped him get through the dilace. And then when
Speaker 1: their bases attack, the guy gets wounded and he's struggling
Speaker 1: to board this crowded hospital train and he meets a
Speaker 1: nurse and quotes Jane Austen to her and she recognizes
Speaker 1: it and then takes pity on him and gets him
Speaker 1: on the train. And so Jane Austen in this book
Speaker 1: saves his life. Wow. Yeah. Towards the end of the story,
Speaker 1: he says, quote, I read all her six books now
Speaker 1: for pleasure. You take it for me, brethren. There's no
Speaker 1: one to touch Jane when you're in a tight place.
Speaker 2: That's actually pretty sweet, even though it's a funny quote.
Speaker 1: I mean.
Speaker 2: One of the things that soldiers might have been drawn
Speaker 2: to was Austin's distinctive style of writing, especially her use
Speaker 2: of something literary scholars call free indirect discourse. You know,
Speaker 2: it's one of those styles that you may be familiar
Speaker 2: with now you may see it pretty frequently. She didn't
Speaker 2: invent this style, but actually she was one of the
Speaker 2: first writers to use it, so, you know, consistently and effectively,
Speaker 2: and that's when you know it really pulls you into
Speaker 2: the inner lives of her characters. Actually read one paper
Speaker 2: that described it as kind of like a kind of
Speaker 2: ventriloquism by the narrator. So it allows Austin, as the
Speaker 2: third person, omniscient narrator, to dip in and out of
Speaker 2: the character's inner dialogue and thoughts, which makes you feel
Speaker 2: like you understand them and know them a little bit better.
Speaker 2: Here's actually an example from Emma, which is about a
Speaker 2: young woman who has, you know, shall we say, an
Speaker 2: unwarranted confidence in her ability to read a romantic situation.
Speaker 2: And so early on there's this scene where Emma and
Speaker 2: a guy named Frank are alone together We the readers
Speaker 2: already know that Emma thinks Frank is in love with her,
Speaker 2: but we also understand Emma may not be seeing everything
Speaker 2: so clearly. So Austin, you know, kind of plays with this.
Speaker 2: So here's what she says. He stopped again, rose again
Speaker 2: and seemed quite embarrassed. He was more in love with
Speaker 2: her than Emma had supposed. And who can say how
Speaker 2: it might have ended if his father had not made
Speaker 2: his appearance.
Speaker 1: So it's kind of subtle, and that bit more in
Speaker 1: love with her than Emma had supposed. Like that's Emma's voice,
Speaker 1: not the narrators.
Speaker 2: That's exactly right, and like all of our own inner voices,
Speaker 2: it doesn't always assess the situation accurately, because later in
Speaker 2: the novel, Emma will learn that no, Frank is not
Speaker 2: in love with her. And even if we the readers
Speaker 2: already know this, we get to be part of the
Speaker 2: drama as she starts to kind of figure this out.
Speaker 2: Free and direct discourse lets us empathize with a character
Speaker 2: but laugh at them a little bit at the same time.
Speaker 1: Well, on a sado topic, we should talk about how
Speaker 1: Jane Austen died. And the thing is even today, no
Speaker 1: one knows the cause. Her sister destroyed most of Jane's letters,
Speaker 1: anything that talked about medical stuff, So all we have
Speaker 1: to go on are some known symptoms, and one of
Speaker 1: them was discoloration of her skin, plus some of the
Speaker 1: contextual clues. Over the years, many scholars have aligned with
Speaker 1: the belief that she died from Addison's disease, which is
Speaker 1: an autoimmune disease that affects your adrenal glands, but other
Speaker 1: speculations have ranged from tuberculosis to various cancers including hotgkin
Speaker 1: lymphoma or lupus, or even complications from drinking raw milk.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's not the laugh at it, but that's
Speaker 2: a really wide assortment of potentially fatal conditions here. So
Speaker 2: I don't know that we really know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we didn't really narrow it down, and these are
Speaker 1: obviously all theories. But one possibility that stuck out to
Speaker 1: me was arsenic poisoning.
Speaker 2: Oh really, all right, like an Agatha Christie novel. So
Speaker 2: where does that theory come from?
Speaker 1: Yeah, So, about a decade or so ago, the British
Speaker 1: Library was given three pairs of Jane Austen's eyeglasses, or
Speaker 1: at least the family says they were hers, right, and
Speaker 1: they were found in her desk. The library was surprised
Speaker 1: to learn that each pair had a different prescription and
Speaker 1: quite a bit stronger than the last, meaning if these
Speaker 1: are the glasses of one person, it suggests that Austin's
Speaker 1: vision deteriorated really rapidly in the last couple of years
Speaker 1: of her life. The library spoke to an optometrist who
Speaker 1: also took a look and said, well, one reason that
Speaker 1: her vision got so bad so quickly could be cataracts,
Speaker 1: and that's odd for someone who's so young. And something
Speaker 1: that can cause that is arsenic poisoning.
Speaker 2: I mean, I get that, but that also feels like
Speaker 2: a lot of hypothesizing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, the library was quick to add that
Speaker 1: they weren't suggesting she'd been murdered, but also, arsenic was
Speaker 1: found in water and medication, even wallpaper back then, so
Speaker 1: arsenic poisoning actually wasn't that uncommon for the time, and
Speaker 1: it also comes with unusual facial pigmentation. So it's a theory.
Speaker 1: It's not a sure thing. That said, I'm sure it
Speaker 1: could inspire like a really great bestseller if someone took
Speaker 1: it up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's true, all right, we got one fact left.
Speaker 2: So to close this out, I want to tell you
Speaker 2: about the very last thing she wrote. Wasn't a story
Speaker 2: or even a letter. It was actually a poem.
Speaker 1: So what was the poem about? All right? Well?
Speaker 2: Jane died on July eighteenth, eighteen seventeen, in Winchester, which
Speaker 2: is a town near Chawton. She and her sister had
Speaker 2: rented a room there to be closer to medical care.
Speaker 2: July fifteenth, just a few days before she died, happened
Speaker 2: to be a big day for Winchester. It was not
Speaker 2: only the feast day of Saint swithin the patron saying
Speaker 2: of winch Chester Cathedral. It was also the Winchester Races,
Speaker 2: which sound pretty fun and fancy, and you know, these
Speaker 2: folks would come dressed up in their nicest clothes and
Speaker 2: parade around town. Besides the horse races, there were fairs,
Speaker 2: There were balls, public breakfasts, lots of musical performances, just
Speaker 2: this big celebration. But there was also this religious element
Speaker 2: to it, and Jane wrote about that juxtaposition in her poem.
Speaker 2: She wrote about Winchester's crappy summer weather because there's a
Speaker 2: superstition that if it rains on Saint Swithin's day, it'll
Speaker 2: rain for forty more days, which sounds very Groundhog Day like,
Speaker 2: exactly right, except worse and way more British, I guess. So. Anyway,
Speaker 2: in the poem, Saint Swiften shows up in Winchester and
Speaker 2: is annoyed that everyone's more focused on the festivities than
Speaker 2: on him, so he curses the city with bad weather,
Speaker 2: effectively raining on their parade. So I'll read you a
Speaker 2: few lines which he writes from Saint Swithin's perspective. All right,
Speaker 2: here it is these races and revels and dissolute measures
Speaker 2: with which you're debasing a name. Bring Plaine, let them stand.
Speaker 2: You'll meet with.
Speaker 1: Your curse and your pleasures set all for your course.
Speaker 2: I'll pursue with my reign.
Speaker 1: You know, I'd have thought Jane Austen would be more
Speaker 1: interested in all the like flirting and fun at the
Speaker 1: social festivities than the religious aspect of this thing. Although
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess her dad was a clergyman.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, her dad and her grandfather actually they were
Speaker 2: both Church of England clergy so you're right, there's not
Speaker 2: much explicitly religious content in her novels, but it was
Speaker 2: a big part of her life. Her family went to
Speaker 2: church and prayed together. Jane read the Bible and other
Speaker 2: common religious texts of the day, and some of the
Speaker 2: values she upholds in her novels fit right in with
Speaker 2: the Enlightenment era church, things like honesty, charity, duty, and
Speaker 2: good character. So if you ever visit Winchester, do Jane
Speaker 2: Austin a favor. Don't get so caught up in the
Speaker 2: fun that you forget Saint Swiften.
Speaker 1: Oh I'll never forget so that either ever. Again. We
Speaker 1: are taking a break next week for Christmas, so we'll
Speaker 1: be sharing a fun holiday themed episode from the vault,
Speaker 1: but be sure to tune in on December thirtieth for
Speaker 1: the forty fourth annual Part Time Genius Awards. Forty four. Yeah.
Speaker 1: It is one of our favorite traditions and has been
Speaker 1: for a very long time apparently, and a great way
Speaker 1: to close out the year, so please don't miss it.
Speaker 1: This episode was written by the wonderful of Marissa Brown.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Marissa, and from Will Dylan, Gabe,
Speaker 1: Mary and myself. Thank you so much for listener. Part
Speaker 1: Time Genius is a production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. It
Speaker 1: is hosted by my good pal will Pearson, who I've
Speaker 1: known for almost three decades now. That is insane to me.
Speaker 1: I'm the Utaco host, Mangeshatikular aka Mango. Our producer is
Speaker 1: Mary Phillips Sandy. She's actually a super producer. I'm going
Speaker 1: to fix in post. Our writer is Gabe Lucier, who
Speaker 1: I've also known for like a decade at this point,
Speaker 1: maybe more. Dylan Fagan is in the booth. He is
Speaker 1: always dressed up, always cheering us on, and always ready
Speaker 1: to hit record and then mix the show after he
Speaker 1: does a great job. I also want to shout out
Speaker 1: the executive producers from iHeart my good pals Katrina and
Speaker 1: Norvel and Ali Perry. We have social media support from
Speaker 1: Calypso Rallis. If you like our videos. That is all
Speaker 1: Calypso's handiwork for more podcasts from Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. Visit
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or tune in wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows. That's it from us here
Speaker 1: at Part Time Genius. Thank you so much for listening.