The Real Jane Austen Quotes

“After having much praised or much blamed anybody, one is generally sensible of something just the reverse soon afterwards.”
― Paula Byrne, The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things

“Frank, the most pious of the brothers, was known for lacking a sense of humour. He was a ponderous and serious-minded sailor. In the Austen family his letters were famous for their length and their mundane detail. A family anecdote recalled his character perfectly. A naval colleague went swimming in the tropics. Frank observed calmly and slowly, ‘Mr Pakenham you are in danger of a shark – a shark of the blue species.’ The captain thought it was a joke, but was told by Frank, ‘I am not given to joking. If you do not return immediately, soon the shark will eat you.”
― Paula Byrne, The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things

“This propelled Dr Graham to national fame. He moved to London and in prime premises in Pall Mall set up his electromagnetic musical ‘Grand State Celestial Bed’, an exotic form of infertility treatment. The Celestial Bed had a tilting inner frame that allegedly put couples in the best position to conceive. Their movements set off music from organ pipes which breathed out ‘celestial sounds’ whose intensity increased with the ardour of the bed’s occupants. Stimulating fragrances were released into ‘the temple of Hymen’, the canopy that encircled the electrical bed. A pair of live doves fluttered above.”
― Paula Byrne, The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things

“She was fortunate enough to see the superb comic actress Dora Jordan, star of Covent Garden and mistress to the Duke of Clarence, playing the part of Nell in The Devil to Pay, one of her most famous roles. Nell is a timid cobbler’s wife who is magically transformed into an aristocratic society mistress who makes a better wife to her husband, Sir John, and a kinder mistress to her servants than the irascible Lady Loverule. Because of her success in this role, Dora was known as ‘Nell of Clarence’. Jane was ‘highly amused’ – strong praise from a woman with her standards.”
― Paula Byrne, The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things