Jane Austen’s House: There's no tempest brewing over tea cups

Jane Austen’s House wants to set the record straight about how it’s setting the record straight.

Yes, the museum displays will soon include information about how the author’s father was the trustee of an Antigua sugar plantation and about how tea drinking — by both Austen and her characters — is linked to colonialism.

However, the Guardian reports, the museum disagrees with media description of these additions as “historical interrogation” and “a revisionist attack.”

Rather, it said in a statement, they are a response to frequent visitor questions about how Austen lived during the era of slavery and abolition.

“We would like to offer reassurance that we will not, and have never had any intention to, interrogate Austen, her characters or her readers for drinking tea,” the statement concludes.

Related posts 

• British Library apologizes for linking poet Ted Hughes to slave trade 

• Dakota Johnson will star in a modern version of Persuasion