Alert AustenBlog Reader Mock Tudor left a comment a few posts down that Deborah Moggach, one of the screenwriters of the upcoming film adaptation of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, will be giving a talk at the Guardian Hay Festival that will include clips from P&P3. The talk will take place on 3 June 2005 at 16:00 (that’s 4 p.m. on June 3 for the Yanks). If any of readers go and would be so kind as to send a report, we would be most appreciative.

Thanks for the link, Mock Tudor!

A correspondent (who shall remain nameless for now as we are not sure she expected to be named) sent us a scan of an advertisement from Bauman Rare Books offering a fragment of a letter written by Jane Austen, framed, for the low-low price of $7,500. Mere pocket change! We can find that in the crevices of the overstuffed chintz armchairs at AustenBlog World Headquarters! Yeah, sure.

The letter is listed as #119 in the edition of the letters edited by Deirdre LeFaye. Many thanks to our mysterious correspondent for this excellent goodie.

Alert AustenBlog Reader Jan H wrote to tell us of a post by Stephanie Ruth at the Republic of Pemberley stating that Andrew Davies (who is, of course, the screenwriter for P&P2, Emma3, and both Bridget Jones movies, among lots of other adaptations) will be giving a talk called “Mr Darcy’s Wet Shirt, a Couple of Trollopes and Other Temptations” at St. Peter’s Hall, Dormer Place, Leamington Spa on Tuesday, May 3, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are £7.50 and include a glass of wine. Mr. Davies will take questions afterwards. If any of our readers go to the talk, we’d love to publish your review.

Thanks for the heads up, Jan!

The Guardian has an article about the new library in Alton, which was the market town that served Jane Austen and her family when they lived in Chawton.

The interior, arranged over three floors, is equally simple, unpretentious and efficiently modern. The ground floor is the lending library with a self-service cafe, and separate reading areas for children and teenagers. The first floor boasts a desk of computers, a reference library and a Jane Austen study in one big-windowed corner. Under the pitched roof, the librarians have their comfortable office.

It sounds to us like it will be a great gathering place for the Alton community.

According to the Huntsville, Alabama Times, on this day in 1811 Sense and Sensibility was published!

Matthew MacFadyen, who will portrail Mr. Darcy in PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, is interviewed by The Guardian. After speaking of his upcoming role as Prince Hal in Henry IV at the National Theater, he addressed his reputation of being a bit prickly with reporters.

In September, he will move from the gravitas of the National to the opening of Pride and Prejudice, with its circus of international junkets – not an appealing prospect for someone who dislikes talking about himself. It’s traditional for interviewers confronted with subjects who won’t lay their psyches on the table, OK-style, to dismiss them as grumpy and uptight; both have been said of him, with no justification that I can see. He mentions the ‘Mind your own business’ headline and tries to explain that he hadn’t meant it to sound as it did (’She asked me about the third series of Spooks and I couldn’t give it away so I sort of told her to… well’). I thought you were going to be a right chippy little prince, I say. ‘Oh God, did you?’ He looks aggrieved. ‘It’s a real skill to be able to publicise yourself,’ he says, with a sigh, and leaves the rest of the thought unspoken.

Hmm…let’s see: Viewed as lacking in charm, when he is confronted with a subject deemed too personal he becomes somewhat rude and off-putting.

I’m thinking Darcy wasn’t too much of a stretch for Mr. Macfadyen.

Teresa AF, a good friend of AustenBlog, has written asking for the assistance of our readers. We are attempting to identify two of the musical pieces from the film adaptation of PERSUASION, specifically Henrietta’s harp concerto and the song that the group dances to at the Musgroves’ dinner party. If someone who reads the weblog knows the name of these pieces, please post them in comments, or if you are more comfortable with e-mail, send it to the Editrix at editor AT austenblog DOT com (that’s an e-mail address; read it out loud if you don’t understand). Thank you in advance!

The Blogcritics review P&P2:

I think I’ve discovered a facet of the “chick flick” phenomenon that I hadn’t before. It’s not the theme of the film so much as the quality. The true definition of a “chick flick” is a film of mediocre quality (plot holes, bad dialogue, convenient meetings, etc.) that nevertheless has the redeemable qualities of romance and attractive leads. The same is true for guy flicks/action films where the hero has unlimited ammunition, the bad guy’s henchmen can’t hit the broadside of a barn, and big bad guy himself has no motivation other than being evil. However, if a film is very well made, then people of both genders can like and appreciate it.

I can think of no higher quality film that surpasses the concept of “chick flick” in my experience than Pride and Prejudice. Created for the BBC, the miniseries has developed a justifiable reputation as one of the best adaptations of classic literature in recent memory.

And the fangirls stampede…Let’s see if the Darcy Effect can rival the Slashdot effect.

Rose Martin wrote to send us a review of Miss Lucy Steele by Ruth Berger, about which we posted previously.

“Miss Lucy Steele”, the new German S&S retelling by Ruth Berger, is an extremely well written, altogether delightful book. It is very like Austen’s own writings in its lovely irony, but different and more modern in scope and outlook. S&S has never been my favourite Austen novel, mostly because Edward is, well, not really the kind of man you’d fall in love with, is he? And Elinor herself, in her moral perfection and unfailing self-control, is certainly a less lovable character than other Austen heroines. Her morality is at times one-sided and self-serving. She judges Lucy harshly for wanting to marry Edward, a man richer than herself, but isn’t she guilty of the same sin?

Ruth Berger cleverly exploits these weaknesses of the S&S characters when she rewrites the story from Lucy’s perspective. She starts years before the onset of the story in S&S to give a very plausible family background to Lucy and her silly sister Anne, and also fills in the details about Lucy’s long-standing engagement to Edward that is only mentioned in passing in S&S. But she focuses on Edward almost as much as on Lucy. S&S never leaves Elinor’s perspective, and what we are told about Edward are largely Elinor’s conjectures. She thinks he loves her and not Lucy. Lucy (in Berger’s novel) thinks Edward loves her and not Elinor. Edward himself, Berger tells us, rather likes them both and doesn’t really care whom he marries in the end. It could even be the lord’s daughter chosen for him by his mother. But his most fervent wish is to be finally left alone by all those pestering women who pressure him, so that the poor boy finds himself in the most humiliating predicaments all the time!

The book is a joyful read for everyone, not only for those who know S&S. Hopefully, there will be an English translation soon, although I am afraid the truly lovely style will suffer somewhat from translation.

Thank you for pointing me to the book.

Rose

You’re welcome, Rose. We are glad that you enjoyed the book. However, we are exceedingly fond of Elinor Dashwood and find it hard to believe that Jane Austen meant for us to consider Lucy Steele at all sympathetic–though she is a brilliantly-drawn character, certainly. Nor does Elinor, in our opinion, judge Lucy because she wants to marry a richer man; Lucy wants to marry him BECAUSE he is rich, not because she loves him. If she loved Edward, would she have thrown him over so easily for Mr. Robert Ferrars? Well, we suppose we would have to read the book to discover Ms. Berger’s argument on that score, hmm? Thanks for sending in your review, Rose.

This is just SO Darcy.

Found at the IMDb P&P message board (not a place for the faint of heart): The Evening Standard interviewed Matthew Macfadyen, asking about his interview in the Telegraph last year that set off alarm bells amongst the Janeite faithful (including some members of the AustenBlog Staff!)

Macfadyen had not read the book or seen Colin Firth’s legendary take on the brooding, breeched one before filming started and, as a result, had a torrid time with some members of the press. ‘I had one really bad interview,’ he admits. ‘I hadn’t even started rehearsing and the interviewer kept asking, “How is your Darcy going to be different?” and I thought, “Oh, f*** off!”.’

For the record, he has read the book now (’beautiful, fabulous’) and sees Darcy as ‘a young man who’s lost, who’s grieving for his parents and has this huge responsibility of running the house and looking after his sister – which is construed as hauteur and arrogance. People are usually only haughty because of fear.’

Is anyone else reminded of the kinder, gentler, wised-up Darcy after Elizabeth’s blistering dressing-down?

The comment about Darcy grieving is excellent in our opinion; also it plays into the director and screenwriter’s view of the characters of P&P having a great deal of responsibility at a young age. It is a theme we have explored in our own readings and writings on the novel. Well done, Mr. Macfadyen; well done, indeed.

(Dorothy, take a nice hot pot of Orange Pekoe to Julie B. directly. Don’t forget the vinaigrette.)

Jill Heydt-Stevenson of the University of Colorado, author of Jane Austen: Comedies of the Flesh, will give a lecture on political and sexual humor in Jane Austen’s novels at Providence College in Providence, Rhode Island on Wednesday, April 20 at 7 p.m. The lecture will take place at the fourth floor function room at the Feinstein Academic Center on campus. The lecture is open to the public.

The Guardian has an article about an art exhibition in Bath featuring paintings of children, including paintings by Jane Austen’s contemporaries, Gainsborough and Hogarth. Who can write about 18th century children without mentioning Jane Austen’s work?

A trip to Bath is itself a journey to the 18th century. It’s hard, looking at the beautifully austere architecture of the Georgian spa town where Jane Austen took the waters, to believe this was a child-centred culture. Yet Rousseau’s cult of the primitive was fundamental to the revival of this ancient Roman city in the 18th century. The doric grandeur is meant to evoke Stonehenge, the primal energy barely contained by the straight lines of classical design. This says it all about the 18th century – on elegant stages and in elaborate costumes basic urges were deliberately indulged. At Bath, the cool interiors of the Assembly Rooms were a perfect setting for sex. And Jane Austen for one saw this as infantilist, a gratification of folly by flirts who lacked adult common sense.

It is in Bath that Catherine Morland, in Northanger Abbey, reads the overgrown fairy tales of fashionable Gothic novels, when she should be starting to see the world through adult eyes. The fashion for horror stories in the 18th century was a form of infantilism – part of a culture that also discovered fairytales and published almost all the great nursery rhymes – Tommy Thumb’s Pretty Song Book in 1744, Mother Goose’s Melody in 1765.

Just figuring out that Bridget Jones and Pride and Prejudice have something in common!

My wife is a “Bridget Jones” fan. She’s read the books by Helen Fielding. She’s also read the inspiration for the Jones books — Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice.” And yes, she’s watched multiple film versions of those stories, as well.

We suppose that IS exciting news to most of the world.

A profile of Working Title Films principals Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan in the Guardian compares the involvement of Universal Studios (which owns Working Title) in the production of P&P3 and the new film THE INTERPRETER:

Universal’s involvement will vary widely from project to project. Bevan gives two contrasting examples – Pride and Prejudice, starring Keira Knightley and with a budget of just over $20m, and The Interpreter (out this weekend), a thriller directed by Sidney Pollack and starring Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn. “With Pride and Prejudice they said OK – they hadn’t met the director, they didn’t question any part of the casting, when they saw the movie they were delighted with it. The Interpreter is patently a huge movie, one of their cornerstone films of the year. By the time you’ve taken into account marketing and so forth, it’s a gigantic investment. Collective heads are on the line for a film like that, rather than just our heads.”

They say they are not abandoning the British romantic comedy:

They are keen to staunch rumours that the era of British romantic comedies from Working Title is dead, and firmly place Pride and Prejudice as part of that brand.

We’re confused…didn’t they say P&P was NOT a romantic comedy?

(And a Bridget Jones musical? Perish the thought.)

Volume 26 of Persuasions, the journal of the Jane Austen Society of North America, was delivered to AustenBlog World Headquarters today (much to our astonishment, as usually it does not arrive until June or July). It’s packed with papers about Persuasion, as that was the theme of last year’s Annual General Meeting, so the Editrix anticipates much blissful reading ahead.

North Central High School in Washington Township, Indiana will present a stage production of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE through Saturday. They’re not giving away the Big Twist. Smart.

The Boston Globe notes that the Biography Channel will rebroadcast the BIOGRAPHY episode featuring Jane Austen on April 22 at 4 p.m., followed by the episode on Sylvia Plath. Fascinating combination; Miss Morland would approve.

Chawton and Godmersham, two estates once owned by Jane Austen’s older brother Edward, are mentioned in an article in the Globe and Mail about gardens that inspired authors.

Those gardens that have inspired writers and poets have a special charm. They were the haunts of the characters whose works have thrilled or moved us. To sit on the garden bench where Barrie may have conceived the idea for the boy who would forever remain a child, or to walk on the lawn where Jane Austen imagined her Mr. Darcy, of Pride and Prejudice, pacing in heartbroken frustration, adds a whole new dimension to the space.

[. . .]

Fans of Jane Austen will probably already be familiar with Chawton House in Hampshire, her family home for many years. It was purchased by American Sandy Lerner, one of the founders of Cisco Systems, and Urban Decay Cosmetics, among others, and is in the process of being restored. The gardens here are extensive, and have been returned to the way they would have been when Austen lived here. The original walled kitchen garden which is being brought back to life, and which will provide organically grown fruit, vegetables herbs and flowers for the house, was a favourite place for Jane’s mother to garden. Austen herself revealed a love of gardens in her work and in her daily life. “You cannot imagine what a nice walk we have round the orchard,” she wrote in one of her frequent notes about the garden. “The row of beech look very pretty and so does the young quickset hedge in the garden.”

But another property is also interesting. Austen’s brother Edward owned Godmersham Park, in the Stour Valley between Canterbury and Ashford, and she spent much time there looking after him after his wife died. It is thought to have provided the model for Pemberley, the estate of her fictional hero, Mr. Darcy, in Pride and Prejudice. It was Elizabeth Bennet’s visit to Pemberley that helped to change her opinion about Darcy, and began her change of heart. “To be mistress of Pemberley might be something,” Elizabeth muses, and the rest is literary history.

The gardens of Godmersham House are unfortunately hidden behind high brick walls, but they are open to the public one day a year, usually in the spring. Even if you can’t see the formal gardens, there are walks in the park by the river, and a small part of the estate is open to visitors.

Well, LOST was a repeat, so Dorothy wisely laced our Rooibos with an bracing shot of Tullamore Dew and we watched the new sitcom STACKED on Fox, which an article previously posted indicated would contain a Jane Austen reference. (spoiler, obviously) (more…)

We haven’t seen any news about this, but on a hunch, we checked Amazon.com and saw that the Region 1 DVD of BRIDE AND PREJUDICE will be released on July 5, 2005. (Region 1 is playable in the U.S. and Canada.) It is available for pre-order at Amazon.com now.