The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 34

SummerTimes TUESDAY JAN 4 2000 SummerPeo pie 7 I I .1. '1 1 1 i v. IT HI i VoixA i ii. i- 11 Escapes Jane Freeman Of a genteel persuasion Susannah Fullerton lives out her passion for all things Jane Austen. Photograph by Narelle Autio Au bi oower To escape the modern grind, Susannah Fullerton travels through time to Georgian England to soak up the life, times and novels of her favourite author.

"Jane Austen is my therapy. Whenever I'm feeling depressed or need cheering up, I turn to Jane Austen. "And the fashion was very pretty, particularly if you were slim. And the men's fashions were lovely, all those high boots and jackets. "I don't think I'd want to be alive then, however.

I do think that with our modern medicine and conveniences we have it better. But it is lovely to go back into that world in your imagination. A world of elegant conversation, dances, beautiful homes and you don't have to worry about the filth, the grime or the lack of decent medicine." Originally from New Zealand, Fullerton is ladylike in a way that Austen would have approved of neat print sundress, pearls, white sandals and a cloud of soft dark hair. She lives in a Victorian terrace in a leafy Paddington street, but the interior is faintly Georgian with its honest wooden floors and furniture mingling with comfortable squashy couches and landscape watercolours on the wall. One entire bookshelf is crammed with Austen novels and biographies.

Emma is her favourite, followed closely by Pride and Prejudice. Fullerton says her mother read her Pride and Prejudice when she was 10 and she immediately fell in love with Mr Darcy. "I haven't been out of love since. I went on to read the other novels and loved them. I never get sick of them.

Initially, I read them mainly for the love stories, but I also became very interested in that era the way women had to behave, the vital importance of getting married. "I became fascinated by the houses, the architecture, the art, the china. I wanted to know about cooking in Jane Austen's day, fashion, music, art, all the different aspects of the period. "The books have taught me so much over the years about the world we live in. Human nature doesn't change and Jane Austen had this wonderful understanding of how people work and what motivates them.

"And, of course, you change as you read the novels. When I first read Emma I was 12 and the hero, Mr Some people retreat from the bustle of workaday life to that little shack on the coast. Others favour a hobby farm where they can play with alpacas, grapevines or olive trees. But when Susannah Fullerton wants to get away from the helter-skelter of everyday life, she escapes into another century. Fullerton is a Jane Austen fanatic and whenever she needs a break from life as a lecturer and mother of three, she slips back into Georgian England.

"Jane Austen is my therapy. Whenever I'm feeling depressed or tired or I need cheering up, I turn to Jane Austen," she says. "Sometimes it's for the humour, sometimes the romance, sometimes just the sheer reading pleasure. It's just very relaxing to get transported to that time and also to enjoy the sheer elegance of every sentence, that Austen writes. People don't speak as elegantly as that these days; we're much more relaxed and casual.

"But the great charm of Jane Austen's writing is that the characters are so articulate and express themselves so beautifully." Fullerton rereads Austen's six novels every year (although never in any particular order "just as it moves She regularly goes to England to visit Austen's house in Chawton or pops down to Lyme Regis where she has jumped off the Cobb wall, just like a character in Persuasion. She also collects editions of Austen novels very keen on the different researches the history of the period, rereads Austen's letters, plays the music, eats the food and even learns the dances. Her passion extends past the Austen novels to the whole Georgian period in England, which she enters in imagination at least "It was a lovely period, particularly elegant and gracious if you had money, of course," Fullerton says. "It was one of the most attractive periods of English design, those beautiful Georgian houses, not as cluttered as the Victorian with tremendous simplicity and elegance. Knightley, seemed incredibly ancient because he was in his mid-30s.

Now I think that 35 is a lovely age. And 111 still be reading the book when I'm old enough to be Mr Knighdey's grandmother." Her fascination with Austen led eventually to Fullerton's present work as a freelance literature lecturer. As president of the Jane Austen Society of Australia, she presides over an annual program of meetings, conferences, study days, country weekends, Jane's birthday lunch (December 16), a writing competition, the library, the international Jane Austen pen-pal network and Regency Fair, the bookshop selling Jane Austen craft, stationery and bags. The society was founded 10 years ago with 23 members and now has 400. Dressing up, Fullerton confides, is not a big part of the society.

"Many members don't want to get dressed up. But we do have weekend conferences where there is a grand dinner and some of us get dressed up. I have to confess I thoroughly enjoy getting dressed up and presented to be someone in Jane Austen's period. "My life would have been very different if there was no such person as Jane Austen. Apart from running the society, which is a big job, it's led to my work as a freelance lecturer.

I've also made wonderful friends and she has given me tremendous pleasure. "I read very widely and I'm involved in other literary societies, but Jane Austen is the one I return to again and again. I think she's the greatest novelist who ever lived and she has enriched my life enormously. I couldn't imagine a life that doesn't include Jane Austen. "I suppose it is an escape, but in a good sense.

I think of it as a wonderful pleasure, relaxing and stimulating. I read the books in the bath or listen to them on audio while I drive the car. I have three young children, so I tend to always have a book with me. If I have to wait 10 minutes at a soccer match or at Brownies, 111 whip out a book and start to read.".