Rosina Filippi's Duologues and Scenes from the Novels of Jane Austen: Arranged and Adapted for Drawing-Room Performance (1895) was groundbreaking. The first published dramatization of Austen's fiction, Filippi's Duologues led thousands of women to give voice to Austen's characters on amateur stages of all kinds. The scenes were used as a female empowerment tool in countless girls' schools, because Filippi selected out Austen's domestic protest speeches for performance. This was how many girls would first have come to know their Austen. (Learn more in chapter four of The Making of Jane Austen.)
Filippi's Duologues included illustrations by Margaret Fletcher—an artist who would go on to found the Catholic Women's League--to guide actors on costumes. But Fetcher's illustrations also offered interpretations of Austen's characters and models for female behavior and polite, powerful comportment. Fletcher's illustrations suggest sociable, lively heroines, echoing the work of the scenes themselves. Below are Fletcher's illustrations. The final cupid image is certainly inspired by the figures in Hugh Thomson's Pride and Prejudice edition (1894), a great illustrated success, published the previous year. (See Chapter Three of The Making of Jane Austen for more on Thomson.)
Filippi's Duologues included illustrations by Margaret Fletcher—an artist who would go on to found the Catholic Women's League--to guide actors on costumes. But Fetcher's illustrations also offered interpretations of Austen's characters and models for female behavior and polite, powerful comportment. Fletcher's illustrations suggest sociable, lively heroines, echoing the work of the scenes themselves. Below are Fletcher's illustrations. The final cupid image is certainly inspired by the figures in Hugh Thomson's Pride and Prejudice edition (1894), a great illustrated success, published the previous year. (See Chapter Three of The Making of Jane Austen for more on Thomson.)
