Visiting Jane Austen During the Holiday Season

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Source: Review Copy from Publisher

When it comes to Jane Austen and Christmas, Janeites and Austen-lovers long to know how their beloved authoress celebrated the holiday season. Many of the holiday traditions we celebrate and recognize come from the Victorian Era and later, but what about the Georgian Era? What are the differences and similarities between the Austens’ holiday festivities and our own modern-day celebrations?

In A Jane Austen Christmas, Carlo DeVito illustrates six different and significant Christmas seasons in Jane Austen’s life. Each chapter is devoted to a different year and expounds upon not only the special event that occurred that year but also the traditions and festivities the Austens would take part in and practice during that time. The six years and a breakdown of each chapter is below.

1. 1786 – Jane meets cousin Eliza de Feuillide for the first time.
2. 1794 – Jane receives her writing desk for her birthday.
3. 1795 – Jane encounters and flirts with Tom Lefroy.
4. 1802 – Jane receives a proposal from Harris Bigg-Wither.
5. 1809 – Jane’s first Christmas at Chawton.
6. 1815 – Jane publishes Emma.

I loved how this book was segmented and highlighted specific Christmas seasons in Jane Austen’s life.  The traditions and pastimes of the Austen family were easily brought to life with the vivid descriptions and details provided in these chapters. In addition, I greatly appreciated the informative context of traditions and customs practiced during the Georgian Christmas season. I loved learning about the games and amusements, the making and drinking of homemade wine, beer, and other libations, and the household customs and family celebrations that dear Jane and her family would have enjoyed. I found the background information fascinating and wonderfully edifying. It is exactly what I wanted to know about Jane Austen and the Georgian Christmas season!

I thought the concept and premise for A Jane Austen Christmas was brilliant and well-executed, I was such a fan of how the information was presented, the years and traditions highlighted, and the book’s overall attractive and elegant design. However, much to my disappointment, there were a surprising amount of uncaught errors. I’m not talking about typos and missing commas – more along the lines of embarrassing blunders that were too frequent and too big for me to ignore. Such errors included:

• Misspelling the names of two Austen bloggers that were cited
• Mixing up family relations (Thomas Knight, who adopted Edward Austen and made him his heir, was not George Austen’s brother!)
• Citing the unpublished Northanger Abbey (Susan) manuscript sold to Crosby as both Catherine and Lady Susan.
• Referring to Mr. Bingley as a character in Sense and Sensibility.
• Misspelling Austen (Austin) and Charlotte Lucas (Luca) to name a few.

I’m not one to bring up editing often in my reviews as I know that to “err is human” and because a couple misspelled words or grammar mistakes are forgivable and not very distracting. But I’m afraid the numerous amount of errors and misrepresented facts I found in this book is not as forgivable. These mistakes present inaccurate information that misinforms the reader and puts into question the research, attention, and time put in by the author and editors. It’s both disappointing and frustrating as I loved everything else about this book and would have been happy to give it 5 stars! But I’m afraid due to the many unacceptable errors that I found to be disruptive to my overall enjoyment, my rating will have to be 3.5 stars. Which is a shame because this could have been a perfect gift to give to Janeites and Austen-lovers this year!

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