Introducing Solitary Elegance
My web site has outgrown its Comcast space, so I took the plunge and purchased a domain name and a web hosting service.
The web site had its beginnings last year when a Pemberley poster mentioned that a Brock-illustrated Northanger Abbey was available on eBay. I had picked one up at a used book store some time ago, and was curious about the going rate. Not only was this particular edition more than I paid, but it had only 12 illustrations, compared to the 24 I had. I replied to the post, mostly just to alert potential buyers that they wouldn’t be getting a complete set of illustrations. Others responded that various old editions of Austen novels had different numbers of illustrations, all taken from an original set of 24 per novel, and thus my edition, with a complete set, was extremely collectible. People hadn’t seen all the Brock illustrations, and I was getting tired of counting contractions and in need of a nesting project, so I made a little gallery. Our home ISP has some web space; I figured a couple of Pemberlians would take a look over the next several days, and that would be the end of it.
The collectibility issue had piqued my interest, though, and Brock’s illustrations are lovely, so I decided to have a look around used bookstores and online for other novels. Over several months’ time, I found other Brocks in various locations, noted that many of these illustrations weren’t available on Pemberley, so I made additional pages for the other novels. In late April 2006 I wondered if anyone was still looking at these illustrations, so I added a web counter to the pages to track hits.
Meanwhile, the NA adaptations page started out as a small off-shoot from the main illustrations page. I’d added a few links to NA-related topics on the NA-Brock page — information I’d enjoyed and thought other NA fans might like to know about. While finishing up research for my own screenplay, I’d found two or three stage play adaptations, watched the 1986 movie, listened to the recent BBC radio play and found the variety of interpretations interesting. Curious to know if there had been any other adaptations, a Google search turned up Rolf Breuer’s excellent bibliography of Austen completions, sequels, and adaptations, and the realization that there were many, many more adaptations than I had previously thought. After several months of work, on 1 June 2006, the NA Adaptations page made its debut as a work in progress. Readers have been very helpful, contributing information, photos, and even a full transcription of the 1986 screenplay!
It became apparent very quickly that these web pages were outgrowing the space allotment for a personal ISP account, so on 21 July 2006, Solitary Elegance was born. I chose the title from a letter Jane Austen wrote to her sister Cassandra, describing a delightful visit to her brother Henry in London.
The move happened just in time, as news about the upcoming ITV Northanger Abbey movie started to increase the following week, including the first tidbits of casting information. On 31 July, the web site received its one thousandth visitor since starting the counter on 21 April and shows no signs of slowing down for the time being.
I continue to be surprised and a little awed by the variety of visitors to the site, and I hope that they find the illustrations and other information as enjoyable and useful as I have.
