Jane Austen Society of North America Wisconsin Region

Spring Gala Recap
by Liz Cooper
The Wisconsin Region Spring Gala featured Dr.
Sheryl Craig’s talk titled, “’Wealth has Much to do
With It’:
The Economics
of
Sense and
Sensibility.”
While
Jane Austen
was
writing
her first
Vicky Hinshaw, Sheryl Craig, & Liz Cooper
draft of
Sense and
Sensibility in 1795, Parliament was debating Poor
Law reform. When they negotiate how much money
will be given to Mrs. Dashwood and her daughters,
John
and Fanny
Dashwood
reenact
the
debates in
the House
of Commons
and
ultimately
come to
the same
conclusion.
Jennifer Carlson and Carolyn Hippert
Kathy O'Brien, Diana Burns, & Judy Beine
Austen’s geographic placement of her admirable
characters on estates in southwest England reflects
the generous response to poverty that Prime Minister
William Pitt advocated and which Britain’s rural
landowners in Sir John Middleton’s Devonshire
and Colonel Brandon’s Dorset voluntarily adopted.
The no-new-taxes position that radical Whigs opposed
to Pitt advocated is echoed in the conversations
and actions of Austen’s miserly and detestable
characters. Members commented after the talk
that it was one of the best lectures they have heard
in many years.
Vicky Hinshaw presented her well-received Ft.
Worth AGM session, “The Sensible Regency Wedding.”
Her illustrated talk covered the intricacies of
the marriage process in the time of Jane Austen as
well as the social, economic and political implications
of marriage.
Trish Vanderhoef, Joanne Fuller, Jane Glaser, &
Carolyn Hippert
Marion Stuenkel and Jean Long
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