Today I enjoyed a real treat. It was a free concert of music from Jane Austen's own collection, along with readings from her novels. This was held in the library of my sister's university and she'd let me know it was on early last week. There was a grand piano, a flute and a few singers. In the interval they fed us up on all sorts of delicious food. Soft cheeses, figs, gherkins, olives, sweets, macaroons, fudge, all sorts of cakes. I couldn't believe it was all laid on for nothing. I'll have to ask my sister to look out for future library happenings.

I enjoyed listening to all that music from the turn of the nineteenth century, yet a little bit would go a long way with me. It's nothing like my favourite music, yet I guess if I'd lived back then, I would've loved it. They would've been the popular love songs and ballads of the time they were written. I'll tell you the style of music it is. They are written very much like grand old hymns, such as, "Holy, Holy, Holy," "To God be the Glory" and "How Great Thou Art." Yet they were just common loves ballads and parlour music. It showed me that the hymns were merely Christian music written in the current style of their era, just as our favourite Christian music, such as Hillsong music, is written to suit modern listeners. All very interesting.

A few more things about Jane Austen. I've enjoyed all 6 of her books but my personal favourites were Emma and Persuasion. As it was her shortest book, I re-read Persuasion this last week, to get me in the mood for this concert. It highlighted to me how sad it was that Jane Austen herself remained a spinster and maiden-aunt. That book's hero, Captain Wentworth, is as big a hunk as you'd find in any day and age, proving that Jane certainly wasn't immune to the charms of men. Her novels always lift my mood whenever I read them, so I think her general faith and attitude toward life must've been great. Whenever I'm working on my own writing, going over and over what I've editing, changing words, slashing out bits of text, adding bits that should've been mentioned earlier, I think of how much harder it must've been for Jane Austen, sitting in the Parsonage parlour with her pen and ink, doing everything by hand!

Now that I've started, I might re-read Northanger Abbey in the near future too.