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3 August 2004

Keira Knightley: Slave to the Text

Filed under: Pride and Prejudice (2005) — Mags @ 9:36 pm

In an interview that seems to have occurred a few weeks ago, Keira Knightley said that she will use the novel as her guide in her performance as Elizabeth Bennet in PRIDE AND PREJUDICE:

Q: And you’ll be playing Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. How excited are you to take on that role?

A: It’s a fantastic opportunity, just as it was to play Guinevere. They’re both strong female roles that if they come your way, you don’t turn them down. With Pride and Prejudice, it’s an adaptation of a book so if I have any questions, I have the book to run to. We haven’t started filming yet, but it should be good. I’m very excited.

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The Curious Incident of the Rich Man Used to Being Pleased

Filed under: Jane in the News — Mags @ 9:29 pm

Mark Haddon, the author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, the protagonist of which suffers from Asperger’s syndrome, claims that he constructed the novel in imitation of Jane Austen:

It has been suggested that his models for the novel were “Catcher in the Rye” and “To Kill a Mockingbird.” The three have some common ground as books about young outsiders, but, he said, the novel he had in mind when writing was actually “Pride and Prejudice.”

“Jane Austen writes about people with desperately restricted lives and codified by iron rules,” he said. “The first thing she does is to choose a genre, the romantic novel, which is exactly the kind of book those women would read if they were reading books. It clicked: that’s what I had to do with Christopher. I had read too many books and seen too many films where a person with a disability was seen from the outside. If I was going to treat him with complete empathy, I had to hand him the reins, make him tell the story, but make it the book he would read.”

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A whole CAMP full of officers!

Filed under: Austen Societies and Events — Mags @ 3:06 pm

(An editorial aside: Lydia lines always make the best titles, don’t they? Even the noncanonical variety.)

The town of Basingstoke in Hampshire (where Jane Austen danced at the Assembly Rooms) will hold an Austen Fayre on Saturday, 21 August.

Step back in time to the elegant Regency era with duelling officers, Redcoat equestrian displays, regency fashions, society gossip from regency ladies, soldiers recruiting for King George and regency dancing on the arm of a dashing officer!

“…and Mr. Bingley’s large fortune, the mention of which gave animation to their mother, was worthless in their eyes when opposed to the regimentals of an ensign.”

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