The Oxford University Press has announced the release of a new book on Jane Austen, titled “A Fine Brush of Ivory: An Appreciation of Jane Austen”, written by Richard Jenkyns.

Focusing largely on Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, and Emma, but with many diverting side trips to Austen’s other novels, Jenkyns shines a loving light on the exquisite craftsmanship and profound moral imagination that informs her writing. Readers will find, for instance, a wonderful discussion of characterization in Austen. Jenkyns’s insight into figures such as Mr. Bennett or Mrs. Norris is brilliant–particularly his portrait of the amusing, clever, always ironic Mr. Bennett, whose humor (Jenkyns shows) arises out of a deeply unhappy and disappointing marriage. The author pays due homage to Austen’s unmatched skill with complex plotting–the beauty with which the primary plot and the various subplots are woven together–highlighting the infinite care she took to make each plot detail as natural and as plausible as possible. Perhaps most important, Jenkyns illuminates the heart of Austen’s moral imagination: she is constantly aware, throughout her works, of the nearness of evil to the comfortable social surface. She knows that the socially acceptable sins may be truly cruel and vicious, knows that society can be red in tooth and claw, and yet she allows the pleasures of comedy and celebration to subordinate them.

The OUP site offers the cover book for $25 (without S&H), but some research done by the excellent AustenBlog Central Bargain Hunters found the book available for $17 on amazon.com

If anyone reads this, we’d love to read a review!

Working Title Films, the company that produced the first “Bridget Jones” film and is also responsible for the sequel, has put up a new trailer on their website. They also have stills from the movie, as well as an on-set diary, which, sadly, is not written a la Bridget.
Let’s just hope the movie is v. good!

Madonna has been accepted at Oxford University, where she will study English Literature–presumably including the work of Jane Austen.

Contacted at his parsonage in Gloucestershire, the Rev. Mr. Henry Tilney, late of the same university, said, “In every power, of which taste is the foundation, excellence is pretty fairly divided between the sexes; yet, though Mrs. Tilney says I am rather a good dancer, I would not endeavour to join the lady in question’s troupe of performers. One could wish that she would extend the same courtesy to others.” Mr. Tilney’s colleague and fellow Oxford man, the Rev. Mr. Bertram of Mansfield Park and Thornton Lacey, said, “Thank the Lord she won’t be in my old house.” One Mr. J. Thorpe of Putney expressed a vulgarism that we cannot repeat in a family publication and vowed that Mrs. Ritchie is a “d——d fine gal,” and a Mr. Wickham of London said, “Too bad she didn’t choose Cambridge. We knew how to treat the ladies there.”

And now we have been sufficient silly (and not really on-topic) for the day. Say good night, Gracie.

Artlook has a more in-depth look than we’ve seen yet on “Jane Austen: A Life in Music,” the concert/play hybrid show current touring Australia.

The idea for Jane Austen: A Life In Music emerged after a casual chat about Austen’s interest in music. The early romance writer has always fascinated McDonald: ‘She lived a quiet life in a rural village, never married and shared a bedroom with her sister her whole life,’ she says. ‘And yet she had an enormous, rich inner life and created amazing worlds in her books. It really was a triumph of imagination over experience.’

McDonald suggests Austen is widely loved, often with a ferocious loyalty, because of her subject matter, which is personal and relational. ‘She validates the inner life of ordinary people doing ordinary things,’ McDonald explains. ‘She shows normal people in domestic situations, feeling sensitively about so many things.’

We hope some smart producer is reading this weblog and brings this show to the States!