Jane Austen Centre at Bath

Jane Austen Quotes Delivered to Your Smartphone

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jane_austenThe Jane Austen Centre at Bath has created the Jane Austen Daily Quote App, a free smartphone app. You can set it to deliver a free daily quote from one of Jane Austen’s novels to your smartphone. This is a delightful idea and we are all for it.

The app also includes articles from the Centre’s online magazine and information about the Centre, as well as a link to its gift store.

Deborah Yaffe pointed out that not everyone has a smartphone. (HOW DO YOU PEOPLE SURVIVE?!?) It occurs to us that we can be better about providing Jane Austen quotation-related services to the non-smartphone-owning Janeite public. Things that make you go hmmm…. 😉

To get the app, go to your app store and search for “The Jane Austen Daily Quote App.” It’s currently available for Android and iOS.

Jane Austen Centre at Bath Unveils Wax Figure of Jane Austen

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It’s probably safe to say that all Janeites have had at least one moment of curiosity about what Jane Austen looked like. We don’t have much to go on–a dashed-off, incomplete, badly faded watercolor by Cassandra Austen is the only authenticated image of Jane Austen’s face, which has both frustrated Austen fans as well as inspiring them to create something better.

Today, the Jane Austen Centre at Bath unveiled a wax figure of Jane Austen, created by sculptor Mark Richards (the BBC has a shorter piece with a video interview of the sculptor), inspired by Melissa Dring’s forensic painting of Austen, done several years ago also for the Jane Austen Centre. The painting has received a mixed reception from Janeites, and we are not terribly fond of it, but we like this wax figure rather better. In fact, we like it quite a bit. Continue reading