[photo credit: The Huntington]
Helen Thompson, Northwestern University Professor of English and The Huntington’s Dibner Distinguished Fellow in the History of Science & Technology, will explore that question in a free public lecture Wednesday, February 4, at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
“How does the history of science help us interpret Jane Austen?” Thompson asks. “How do Austen’s marriage plots, balls, and carriage rides relate to the domain of flasks, distillation apparatus, and laboratory techniques?”
“This talk explores the fascinating practice of cosmetic chemistry in early modern England,” according to the event description. “By examining recipes for makeup and exposés of the women who used them to fake both beauty and virtue, Helen Thompson shows how women’s illicit chemical and sexual knowledge traveled through literary history to shape the meaning and narrative form of Austen’s novel ‘Persuasion.'”
The lecture runs from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. in Rothenberg Hall, with doors opening at 5:30 p.m. and a reception following at 7 p.m. at the Rose Hills Foundation Garden Court.
This is the Dibner Distinguished Fellow lecture.
Admission is free with reservation.
“Jane Austen’s Alchemy: Cosmetic Artifice in Austen’s ‘Persuasion'” will run Wednesday, February 4, at 6 p.m. at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino. For more information, visit https://www.huntington.org/event/jane-austens-alchemy-cosmetic-artifice-austens-persuasion. Tickets are free with reservation.
