Metro D.C. Region: Jane Austen and Music (VIRTUAL)
Jun 23
7:30 PM - 9:00 PM
Jane Austen and Music
The Metro D.C. Region will host Gillian Dooley live from Australia for a Zoom discussion. Dooley will speak about her recent book She played and sang: Jane Austen and music, which explores the role music played in Austen's life and in her novels. Dooley is Honorary Senior Research Fellow in English at Flinders University. She has published and presented internationally on Jane Austen and has curated programs of music from Austen's personal collection.
Music occupied a central role in Austen's life, and she made brilliant use of it in her books to illuminate characters’ personalities and highlight the contrasts between them. Until recently, our knowledge of Austen’s musical inclinations was limited to the recollections of relatives who were still in their youth when she passed away. But with the digitization of music books from her immediate family circle, a trove of evidence has emerged. Delving into these books, alongside letters and other familial records, She played and sang unveils a previously unknown facet of Austen's world.
