Several of the many tributes to the late Susan Sontag contain one of Ms. Sontag’s comments about cultural critic Camille Paglia:

Paglia never forgave Sontag for snubbing her at a party in 1973. By the late 1980s she was declaring that her intellect had eclipsed Sontag’s. “I’ve been chasing that bitch for 25 years,” said Paglia, “and at last I’ve caught her.”

“We used to think Norman Mailer was bad,” said Sontag, “but she makes Norman Mailer look like Jane Austen.”

We think that says it all.

Susanna Clarke’s magnum opus, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell, has been compared to Jane Austen (as well as J.R.R. Tolkien and J.K. Rowling), but in an interview with the Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin), Ms. Clarke says that her favorite author is indeed Jane Austen.

However, Clarke is quick to note that her starting point has always been her favorite author, Jane Austen. That’s why “Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell” takes place in the early 1800s - it’s Austen’s time period - and that’s why the novel often reads more like a comedy of manners than a sweeping epic about the fate of magic in England.

Jane Austen’s writing also helped Clarke understand the social details that govern her characters’ world. She freely admits that even though she was writing about magic, she often borrowed observations, characterizations and precise behaviors from Austen’s writing. In many ways, using Austen as the fixed point in her compass was a good idea, she said. An American journalist once told her that the world of Jane Austen is as foreign as a fantasy novel to modern readers.

To most readers, perhaps, but we dare say not so much to the readers of AustenBlog.

In the interview, Ms. Clarke also says that she found inspiration in the work of Charles Dickens, Patrick O’Brian, and Ursula K. LeGuin (Jane Austen Book Club reference! Ha!)

According to KeiraWeb.com, Lee Hall, one of the screenwriters of the upcoming film adaptation of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, said on BBC Radio 4 that the film is “a bit of a teen flick.”

DOROTHY! Our vinaigrette, and a pot of strong tea, DIRECTLY!

We don’t have Real Player at AustenBlog World Headquarters and are too lazy to download it, so we can’t listen to the whole thing. You can listen to the show for up to seven days after it was broadcast, which leaves about four or five more days. Go here to listen to the show. We would love a transcript of the pertinent parts of the broadcast if anyone is up to it–we won’t publish it on the site, just paraphrase for everyone’s information.