Jane Austen Tour and Book Club

Read- Tour- Discuss

Among the many reasons to enjoy reading Jane Austen is way she conveys a sense of place in the novels. Darcy surprising a visiting Elizabeth Bennet at his home in the large hall, cool in the afternoon of an English summer, surrounded by elegant chairs seldom sat in and ancestral portraits high on the walls. The Dashwood family, newly moved to a smallish cottage after the death of their father and the takeover of their home by half-brother John, meeting their benefactors for the first time in the handsome but cozy parlor of Barton Park. Emma Woodhouse caring for her fussy father by the fire in their estate’s drawing room. Austen sets scenes of intimacy and of social conversation in rooms, carriages, gardens, shops, even on the street.

When I imagine life in Hammond-Harwood House in, say, 1813, I see the rooms come into being. Francis Loockerman is in the small parlor off the dining room. Her sister sits with her, drinking tea served by a young slave named Juliet, and her children scamper in and out, demanding her attention. Richard Loockerman is in his study conversing with a local politician about the price of tobacco and possible protections on trade. As in a Jane Austen novel, the place and the people and the interactions all come together to form a meaningful story. Transferred from England to America during the same time period, the daily troubles and triumphs are not unlike when viewed through the lens of place.

A tour of Hammond-Harwood House featuring the similarities between Austen’s England and the Loockermans’ America is offered monthly. For November, we’ll add on a book group session led by Mike Parker, Professor of English Emeritus, U.S. Naval Academy. Read “Emma,” join the tour, then discuss the nuances of this profound, funny, and captivating book. Let the place, Hammond-Harwood House, take you into these worlds, different and yet the same. It often takes me there when I’ve spent time with one of Austen’s books.

Tour 2-3 p.m.
Book Club 3-4 p.m.