Enfilade

There’s no shortage of stimulating events marking this year’s 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, and readers will know this terrain much better than I. But for anyone tring to keep up, the following sites offer a useful starting place. –CH

• Ben Jureidini, “Is 2025 the Year of Jane Austen? From Society Balls to Blockbuster TV Shows, the 250th Anniversary of ‘Britain’s Greatest Author’ Is Set to Break Records,” The Tatler (6 January 2025). Miss Austen and The Other Bennet Sister on the BBC, a Dolly Alderton adaptation of Pride and Prejudice heading for Netflix, and a tourism boom for real-life regency balls, there’s something truly Austentatious about 2025. Link»

• “Worldwide Guide to Jane Austen 250th Events,” from the Jane Austen Centre in Bath, which focuses on the life and works of Jane Austen, as well as the Regency period in which she lived. Link»

• The Jane Austen Society, founded in 1940 by Dorothy Darnell with the purpose of raising funds to preserve the Cottage in the village of Chawton, Hampshire, where Jane Austen lived with her mother and sister Cassandra from 1809 to 1817. Link»

• The Jane Austen Society of North America, a non-profit organization staffed by volunteers and dedicated to the enjoyment and appreciation of Jane Austen and her writing. Link»

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Opening at The Morgan in June:

A Lively Mind: Jane Austen at 250

The Morgan Library and Museum, New York, 6 June — 14 September 2025

Organized by Dale Stinchcomb and Juliette Wells

Morning Dresses from Gallery of Fashion (London: N. Heideloff, 1798), figs. 198, 199 (New York: The Morgan Library & Museum; PML 5680).

A Lively Mind immerses viewers in the inspiring story of Jane Austen’s authorship and her gradual rise to international fame. Iconic artifacts from Jane Austen’s House in Chawton, England join manuscripts, books, and artworks from the Morgan, as well as from a dozen institutional and private collections, to present compelling new perspectives on Austen’s literary achievement, her personal style, and her global legacy.

Beginning as a teenager, Austen cultivated her imaginative powers and her ambition to publish. Encouraged by her family, especially her father and her sister Cassandra, she persevered through years of uncertainty. Her creativity found expression in a range of artistic pursuits, from music-making to a delight in fashion. The story of how Americans first encountered and responded to Austen’s novels, unbeknownst to her, emerges from four surviving copies of an unauthorized edition of Emma published during her lifetime. Following Austen’s death, family members preserved their memories of her, while carefully guarding what was publicly revealed. Austen’s audience continued to grow as those who loved her novels helped new generations of readers to appreciate them. In addition to celebrating Austen, A Lively Mind commemorates the landmark gift of Austen manuscripts to the Morgan in 1975 by Alberta H. Burke and draws extensively on the extraordinary collection she bequeathed to Goucher College in Baltimore.

A Lively Mind: Jane Austen at 250 is organized by Dale Stinchcomb, Drue Heinz Curator of Literary and Historical Manuscripts, and Juliette Wells, Professor of Literary Studies at Goucher College. It is made possible by generous support from the Drue Heinz Exhibitions and Programs Fund, Cynthia H. Polsky, Martha J. Fleischman, the Caroline Morgan Macomber Fund, the Lucy Ricciardi Family Exhibition Fund, and Alyce Williams Toonk.