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Founded in 1994, THE COURSE offers art history lectures, opera and literature courses, guided museum visits and London walks.
In this 5 part series, THE ENGLISH COUNTRY HOUSE IN ENGLISH LITERATURE, Jeremy Musson, will explore the way in which the English country house has been portrayed in English literature. By studying various authors, the architecture and household roles of the country house underline characterization, scene and mood and how this in turn shaped our view of the country house in English visual culture. The authors’ personal experiences will be examined and considered for the value of the country house in terms of plot. Used as a vehicle for gathering a group of characters together under one roof for a defined space of time, the country house has long provided a convenient setting in which, as Blake Morrison has commented, tensions can develop, love affairs begin and catastrophes unfold.
JANE AUSTEN AND THE BRONTE SISTERS
In the first lecture, perhaps no English author is more associated with our idea of country house life than Jane Austen. Mr Darcy’s Pemberley is a house on the level of Chatsworth. While her architectural descriptions can be tantalizingly vague, she reveals much about daily life. Characteristics of houses such as Northanger Abbey and Mansfield Park help define and shape the character of her novels. The Bronte sisters were also daughters of a clergyman and they too populated their novels with country houses and their inhabitants. Thornfield Hall is the home of Mr Rochester in Charlotte’s Jane Eyre and in Wuthering Heights, Emily presents two houses whose contrasting styles and settings exemplify the characters who inhabit them.