Jane Austen News - Issue 69
What's the Jane Austen News this week?
You Could Live In Longbourn
Jane? Is That You?
There's been something of a backlash recently against the image of Jane Austen which is set to appear on the new £10 bank note, which will go into general circulation in the UK this September.
The image which will be used on the note was based upon the unfinished portrait of Jane as painted by her sister Cassandra, but never completed as the Austen family said it did not look like her. However complaints have been made that the portrait of Jane which appears on the note has been "given a Disney style touch up". Paula Byrne, one of Jane's biographers, said that "they presumably said to the artist, 'make it look prettier'. It is like doctoring a selfie by a celebrity."
Three years ago the Jane Austen Centre contacted the Bank of England to offer their own specially-commissioned image of Jane for use on the note. Bath MP Don Foster wrote to the Bank of England on behalf of the Centre and Victoria Cleland, the Bank's Chief Cashier, wrote back:
We noted with interest the unveiling of the new Jane Austen waxwork: an exciting feature for the... Jane Austen Centre.
However, I am afraid it would be incredibly difficult at this stage to change the image that will be on the £10 banknote.
The Bank gave very careful thought to this selection, considering the available portraits of Jane Austen and consulting a number of experts.
In a recent statement, Centre spokesman David Lassman added that:
Although we had to accept the Bank of England's decision, we feel it was a missed opportunity, given the level of criticism their final choice is currently receiving from Austen experts.
The Lost Letters of Mr Collins and Mr Bennet

At the Jane Austen News we'll admit that we're intrigued, both by the book's subject and by the new genre which Rose Servitova speculates her epistolary book may be the first of - that of a "Georgian Bromance"!We know the two men write to each other as there are four letters between them in Pride and Prejudice, yet we are told that Mr Bennet is a reluctant and unreliable correspondent. And although Mr Collins’s company is irksome to Mr Bennet (who encourages his cousin not to visit often for fear of risking the displeasure of his noble patroness) we know that he derives great enjoyment from Mr Collins’s letters. He tells his daughter Elizabeth "I would not give up Mr Collins’s correspondence for any consideration".
It was this line that triggered my envisioning their letters – the stories and intrigues that they may contain and transcribe them to paper. I wondered if their relationship could evolve over time as life threw both good and bad their way.
A Visit From Al Jazeera



2 comments
The £10:00 note image of Jane is very Disney like. Surely the Bank of England could do something before it is released. Can’t we have on on-line petition to stop this until they at least have an image of her that at least looks more realistic?
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