Book the First: Janie Goes to England

In one week's time I will be on a plane to Dublin, from which will I will board a flight to London's Heathrow Airport and from there take a coach to the city of Bath, situated in the south western part of England.  I will be studying with Advanced Studies in England and taking two English courses.  Jane Austen in Bath and Transatlantic Romanticism (a comparative course on the English and American Romantic poets).  I applied for this program back in October and am, needless to say, very excited to finally get there.

Jane Austen, my namesake, lived in Bath for years.  Apparently, she held a strong dislike for the place.  I can easily believe this.  In her two novels set primarily in Bath, Austen sets the city in a negative light.  The likable Anne Eliot of Persuasion, which I read for class last spring, dislikes Bath. And the easily mocked, provincial, and impressionable Catherine Morland of Northanger Abbey, which I'm currently reading for class in England, loves the place.  Hopefully the city will make a more favorable impression upon me than it did upon Austen.

So far, my experience of summer school has been enjoyable.  I have to do much of the required reading before I arrive, so I've been immersed in Jane Austen and the Romantic poets.  I very quickly reread Pride and Prejudice, one of my favorites.  I loved it even more with this reading.  It doesn't hurt that the most beautiful and most amiable (if a little naive) character in the book shares my name.  I'm rapidly progressing through Northanger Abbey, which I've never read but am loving.  It's strength of composition and biting commentary really demonstrate the genius of the author.  As for the poets, I've started some William Blake, but am really looking forward to reading Wordsworth and Keats again.  Once the novels are finished, I'll have more time to attend to the poetry.  Preparation for Bath has already furnished the first few weeks of summer with plenty of amusement and promises more before my departure.  I can't wait to enjoy reading these works in England and visit the places they talk of, such as the Pump Room, the Royal Crescent, and Tintern Abbey. 

I'll keep this blog updated with my adventures abroad and potentially some adventures within the pages of cherished books.  Please keep me in your prayers as I travel and study.  You all will most certainly be in mine, especially if you comment on my posts.

Look out Bath!  Not so long ago, you were subject to Jane Austen's censure.  A week from tomorrow, another Jane is coming to form her opinion of you.

If you are into what could be a potentially boring history, here is a synopsis of Bath's Wikipedia entry:

Bath has quite an interesting history.  It houses the only naturally occurring hot springs in the United Kingdom, which also provide the foundation for its unusual name.  It began as a Roman spa town known as Aquae Sulis ("the waters of Sulis"), Sulis (or Minerva) being the goddess the natural spring was dedicated.  The Romans built great baths, a temple, and a city wall over the course of the first three centuries A.D.  The Romans eventually lost control to the Anglo-Saxons and their structures became worn down.  The Anglo-Saxons gave the town the name meaning "at the baths" which naturally gave way to it's current, apt name, Bath.

The city became home to a monastery, priory, and Bath Abbey, the site of the coronation of Edgar of England.  It became an ecclesiastical seat for the Roman Catholic Church, who, even after moving their seat to the nearby city of Wells retained the title "Bishop of Bath and Wells." 

As, by 1500, the abbey church needed restoration, the current bishop had a new, smaller one built.  This was completed shortly before King Henry VIII dissolved the priory in 1539.  The church was left unattended until the city's revival as a spa town during the Elizabethan era when it became the parish church.  Queen Elizabeth I gave Bath city status in 1590.

There was a great deal of building and restoration during the Stuart period and even more during the Georgian period.  The influx of tourists as a result of Bath's revival as a spa town necessitated this growth.  John Wood the Elder and John Wood the Younger laid out the new architecture of the city; this architecture is reminiscent of the cities classical foundations. 

In the early 18th century Bath gained a theater, and it's famous Assembly Rooms, including the Pump Room.  (Jane Austen writes of all of these!)  It declined in popularity in the 19th century and suffered some under the German air raids of the Second World War.  However, everything has been rebuilt and the city is now thriving, if somewhat touristy.  It is known as a center of both study and tourism.  Home to two universities and several other colleges, it has a large student population that is about to increase by one for five weeks!  England, here I come!