A Dance with Jane Austen by Susannah Fullerton
Jane Austen’s love of dancing shines through her novels and her correspondence, which features many lively accounts addressed to her sister Cassandra of the balls and dances she attended. Balls and dancing also fulfilled an important social role in the society in which Jane Austen and her characters moved.
In this book, Susannah Fullerton provides the historical context of the references to dancing in Jane Austen’s letters and novels, explaining the different styles of dance, the etiquette of the ballroom, and the progress of the evening, from learning to dance, to arrival at the ball, to the supper at the end of the evening and the ‘talking over’ of the evening afterwards.
The text is enlivened with contemporary illustrations that help the reader form an image of this important contemporary social entertainment.
Categories
