
Back in the spring, we shared some ideas with you on how to entertain yourself at home. Since then, there has been a boom in Jane Austen content on YouTube as fellow fans have reached out to one another to learn, create, and just share their love of Austen. In fact, so much content was released this summer that it was easy to feel overwhelmed! Here are a few highlights (some videos were available only for a limited time).
Watch and learn
The Jane Austen Summer Program may not have convened this summer, but Jane Austen & Co., our initiative offering free events, has produced a collection of webinars centered on "Staying at Home With Jane Austen." Topics include embroidery, food, games and dancing. Check out past webinars here or click here to sign up for future programs. Likewise be sure to like and subscribe the channel so you don’t miss out! Here's one on Regency fashion featuring fashion historian Hilary Davidson:
The home of Jane Austen’s brother and the center for early women’s writing has its own YouTube channel. Catch a lecture or take a virtual stroll through the gardens and home itself. You can also access its special summer series of talks for a small donation. Topics include a conversation with playwrights on adapting Austen for the stage and a discussion with Janice Hadlow on her book "The Other Bennet Sister."
Read-alouds and virtual productions
Most Janites know her best as Lizzie Bennet of the 1995 BBC miniseries adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice," so it was a delight to see her reading the novel aloud in her Instagram stories. Thankfully, she recorded it and uploaded it to YouTube so we can enjoy it whenever we want!
Similarly, there were staged readings of various Jane Austen novels and original plays. Some of those videos had expiring links in accordance with union rules and legal rights, but others have survived, including this one from the Sun & Moon Theatre company.
Conventions at home
This week, the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution is mounting programming themed on "Rediscovering Jane Austen." Topics include a discussion of "Persuasion," "Jane Austen's Feminist Message for Young Women Today" and "Jane Austen and the Slave Trade." Find details here.
In March, Bianca Hernandez hosted a virtual Jane Austen convention (#virtualJanecon) with videos including:
Scribe&Scribble on Austen adaptations and an analysis on the directorial choices in the storytelling.
Yvette Keller shares tips on organizing your Regency-era clothing in your closet.
"Bonnets at Dawn" is mostly known as a podcast, but the creators also have two videos available on their channel, from Chawton House and from Elizabeth Gaskell's house.
Tea With Cassiane looks at the historical accuracy of dances from famous Jane Austen adaptations. Since the virtual Jane Austen convention, she has since focused on each of the adaptations in each episode for a deeper exploration.
The Jane Austen Festival in Louisville moved its annual event online this year. Videos from this year have been removed from YouTube, but you can view videos from previous years.
Fashion, Fun and More
Burnley and Trowbridge has been a reliable source for historically accurate textiles, but the company has branched out and made some sew-along videos so you can craft with them, too!
Pinsent Tailoring now has his own YouTube channel, too, giving us a look at men’s fashion from the Regency period.
Costume College was held online as well, and you can see the full collection of panels and talks, including those that focus on fashion during Austen's lifetime.
If you have been wanting to learn more about dance throughout history, as well as those from the Regency era, check out the Historical Dance Society lectures. Click here to view.
Coming Soon
This year, for the first time ever, the annual general meeting of the Jane Austen Society of North America will be held online, which means there is no cap on attendance! You can register for that event here. But hurry: Registration closes at 11:59 p.m. Sept. 30. (You will need a current JASNA membership in order to register; get your membership here.)
There is so much more content out there that we simply could not include it all. What have you been watching?
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