"Finding food for a rambling fancy:" Jane Austen and Gastronomic Gentility
•
2 likes•208 views
This document summarizes Katherine Hysmith's thesis project on "Finding Food for a rambling Fancy:" Gastronomic Gentility and Symbolism in Jane Austen's Texts, supervised by Prof. Janine Barchas and Prof. Marc Bizer. The thesis examines how food and descriptions of food in Austen's texts provide an index of gentility and social class, exploring what Austen's characters ate, what Austen knew about food, and societal attitudes toward food to understand symbols of gentility. Images included depict a recipe for apple pie, Edward Austen Knight's estate where Jane Austen lived, Jane Austen's house, a description of Pemberley from Pride and Prejudice,
More Related Content
What's hot
What's hot (17)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
"Finding food for a rambling fancy:" Jane Austen and Gastronomic Gentility
- 1. KATHERINE HYSMITH SUPERVISED BY PROF. JANINE BARCHAS AND PROF. MARC BIZER “Finding Food for a rambling Fancy:” Gastronomic Gentility and Symbolism in Jane Austen’s Texts
- 2. Apple Pie Maria Rundell A New System of Domestic Cookery, 1806 12oz/350g shortcrust pastry 2lb/1 kg Bramley apples 3oz/ ½ cup caster sugar ½ cinnamon stick Grated rind of ½ lemon 2 cloves Egg wash for glazing 2-3 teaspoons softened butter
- 3. Edward Austen Knight’s Estate, Chawton
- 4. Jane Austen’s House, Chawton
- 5. “situated on the opposite side of a valley, into which the road with some abruptness wound. It was a large, handsome, stone building, standing well on rising ground, and backed by a ridge of high woody hills;---and in front, a stream of some natural importance was swelled into greater, but without any artificial appearance. Its banks were neither formal, nor falsely adorned…She had never seen a place for which nature had done more, or where natural beauty had been so little counteracted by an awkward taste” (P&P, 3.1). Pemberley
- 6. Mr. Darcy, Whole Foods Shopper
- 7. What Austen Ate + What Austen Knew + What Society Said= gastronomic index of gentility Categories: Those who grow… Those who consume… Those who drink… Those who contemplate… Gastronomic Methodology
Editor's Notes
- My name is Katherine Hysmith and before I get started I would just like to thank my thesis advisor Janine Barchas and my second reader Marc Bizer. So before we get into the meat of my thesis I would like us to address the baked good before us. So go ahead and take a bite, if you haven’t already snuck one. So Jane Austen often mentioned food throughout her letters, admitting that she loved “good apples pies” and warm beer. Today I’ve provided you with one of those things, however since were all Texans I figured you wouldn’t enjoy warm beer as much. So I would like you to work for your pie, and think about what we associate with this baked good—the metaphors, seasons, occasions what you’d like. Shout it out. ***As American as apple pie*** Next I’d like you to think about what goes into these pies, the ingredients themselves. Right, so where do we get these ingredients? Exactly, the grocery store, and no matter which grocer you frequent, generally the ingredients are always available. Many of us already have these stocked in our pantry. Nowadays, an entire aisle is dedicated to baking materials, apples are available all the year round all over the country whether you choose to eat seasonably or not. Sadly, you can even buy a pre-made crust and a can of apple pie filling and voila.
- This is a recipe from one of the major cookbook authors from Austen’s time and lists a common recipe for making apple pie during the Regency era. As you can see the ingredients are similar to the ones we mentioned earlier and much like recipes used today. But what I want us to consider next, is where someone, like Jane Austen might obtain these ingredients in 1800s. Well she would have had to buy flour from a local mill or mill the wheat herself, sugar couldn’t grow in the British isles and had to be imported from the colonies, spices and salt were similarly imported, lemons or citrus could grow in greenhouses but was often imported from the Mediterranean countries. However, apples were quite English. Dozens of varieties were cultivated throughout England and various botanical experts published books dedicated solely to the subject of growing apples on the estates of newly landed gentry. Growing apple, or more generally, any fruit trees was an agricultural activity usually reserved only for the wealthy. One of those wealthy estates was located in the tiny village of Chawton and was owned by Austen’s big brother Edward Austen Knight.
- Before Edward became owner of the Chawton estate, manuscripts from the Hampshire Records Office show that the estate had historically grown multiple fruit trees and shrubs in vast orchards around the land. By the time Edward acquired the estate, those orchards would have had time to develop and multiple their yield. Although Edwards pursestrings were tightened after the death of his wife, his sisters, Jane and Cassandra, stepped to help out with the children and the estate.
- Luckily for Edward, his sisters and mother lived right around the corner, a mere five minute walk down the lane, in this small stone cottage. This close proximity of the family suggests that they most likely shared produce from the estate or bread Jane would’ve baked behind her house where her small bakehouse was located. Her other letters actually provide evidence to her brother’s generosity and the various ways that he provided for his sisters. So the process we just went through uses the same methods I applied to each edible mention throughout Austen’s letters and her fiction. We first took an item and thought about its metaphorical, symbolic and social connotations. And then we looked on the other side and investigated the ingredients or components of that item. Using these historical and cultural contexts we can then sketch the food’s meaning within Austen’s life which she ultimately employs throughout her fiction. So since we can approach food historical contextualization from one way, looking in Austen’s letters, it makes sense that we can work from the opposite angle. Which brings us to Mr. Darcy.
- So Mr. Darcy, whom we all know and love, is the hero of Austen’s most famous novel Pride and Prejudice. Several scholars have argued that Darcy is the richest of all the Austen characters, another scholar has even done financial and economic research to prove with actual figures the exact income of Mr. Darcy. Either way, he was member of the landed gentry and own a vast estate known as Pemberley. When Elizabeth, his suitor, comments on the naturalness of Pemberley, in the quote above, as readers we immediately would to think that Mr. Darcy is not only handsome, gentlemanly and rich, he is also eco-responsible allowing the land to exists in the most natural state possible. However, While we like to think of Mr. Darcy as the greatest hero in Austen’s literature, however just like the rest of her characters he was bound to a social order that he had to balance with his responsibilities as a landowner and husbandman. An ever fashionable member of society, Mr. Darcy went to great lengths to ensure that his estate followed the newest landscaping fads in England, which included making things seem natural, hedging rows to look unkept, planting trees in a purposeful array, and shifting the flow rivers and creeks to appear in a more natural fashion.
- Later Elizabeth comments on the “ “variety of all the finest fruits in season” –grapes, nectarines, and peaches (which are all non native species) Mr. Darcy serves to his guests. Again, we’d like to think that Mr. Darcy is upholding a proud and honored position as a sustainable land owner, however he once again uses his affluence to purchase naturalness, to acquire the freshest fruits, even if they were grown on his own land, and demonstrates how food reveals more about a character than the cut of their coat or their type of carriage. Mr. Darcy is someone who keeps up with the trends, which, during Austen’s time included eating locally, being involved in agricultural activities and living in a “naturally” styled landscape, interestingly, today we are following some of the same trends.
- So this was the methodology I used throughout the research process for my thesis. I combined what I knew Austen ate, from her letters and histories from her life, plus what Austen knew from the books she might have read in her brother’s library or the experience she gained while growing up on the family farm in Steventon, and finally joined these two together with what society was saying about food in the late 18 early 19 century. All of these historical contexts combined form a sort of gastronomic index of gentility for Austen’s characters and their own social circles. I divided my research into four larger chapters. Those who grow, include farmers and even landed gentlemen who owned farmable land such Mr. Darcy. Those who consume, includes most of the characters however I focused on specific types of consumers, gluttons, obsessed, healthnuts, and locavores. Those who drink again includes most of the characters as it was a national past time. And, those who contemplate includes those characters who discuss food or reminisce over a particular dish they had at friends dinner party. One of the scholars who fueled my research actually argues that the idea of class didn’t exist in Austen’s time. While they did have social differences and hierarchies, such as landed gentry, the militia etc, the word class , which we use today as middle class, upper class, was never part of the vocabulary. I wanted to create a vocabulary through the various of food.