Pépite

Chapter · South Africa · At the table

A wine in Jane Austen

Seven hundred and sixty-three hectares behind Table Mountain

When Jane Austen has a glass of Cape wine brought to a heroine in 1811, she does not explain what it is: her reader knows. This path starts there, goes back to the seven hundred and sixty-three hectares chosen in 1685 behind Table Mountain, and comes down to 27 October 1808, the night three hundred people marched on the town.

Context first

A lesson to read before the others, to set the scene.

  • The place
  • The era
  • The people
A vineyard behind the mountainBehind Table Mountain, a governor picked seven hundred and sixty-three hectares in 1685 to make wine on. That wine would be drunk in English novels and French poems, and it was made by enslaved people.9 min

The lessons in this chapter

  1. 1A glass for a broken heartIn 1811 Jane Austen has a glass of Cape wine brought to a heartbroken heroine without explaining what it is: constantia was known well enough to sit in an English medicine cupboard.10 min
  2. 2Opium and constantiaIn 1861 Baudelaire files the Cape wine between opium and a burgundy, in lower case like a common noun: proof that a South African wine had a place in French cellars and in the French language.9 min
  3. 3The night of 27 OctoberOn 27 October 1808 an enslaved tailor dressed as a Spanish captain led three hundred people from farm to farm to take Cape Town and negotiate the end of slavery. They were stopped at Salt River.11 min

How these lessons are written

Each lesson starts from first-hand sources: Wikisource, Gallica, Persée, archives, museums and institutes. A fact without a source does not get written, and every lesson lists its own as direct links.

The rhythm

A lesson is five minutes of cards and four questions. Those questions then come back the next day, then at 3, 7, 21 and 60 days, and that return is what makes it stick. One a day is enough, and you can do several in a row.

Build my planSee every country