We missed the big debut date on Tuesday, but we’re sure most Alert Janeites know that the Region 1 DVD of BRIDE AND PREJUDICE was released this week. Most of the reviews are positive; we’ve collected those we found of interest below the fold. (more…)

Alert Janeite JaneFan sent a link about a lecture on “The World of Jane Austen” tomorrow, July 11, 2005, at 7 p.m. at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, 500 17th Street NW, Washington, D.C.

Jane Austen is perhaps the most beloved writer of English fiction. She created plots and characters that evoke the people and mores of her time–the early 19th century–but are timeless. Her characters and her plots are often adapted, and even copied, but never bettered. Ever since their publication during the Regency period, her books have sparked debate and exploration of her themes: the struggles between love and security, the ramifications of bad (or good) behavior, and the conflict between tradition and innovation. This presentation by Virginia Newmyer, lavishly illustrated with slides, touches on all the novels, from Sense and Sensibility to Persuasion, and includes glimpses of the treatment of Austen’s works in film and television. Ms. Newmyer lectures frequently both in Washington and Britain for the Smithsonian Institution.

The lecture costs $12 for members of the gallery and $16 for non-members. If you go, send us your review!

Alert Janeite Paola sent us an article in the Mauritius newspaper l’express dimanche about a candidate for office there, Paula Atchia, who once wrote a continuation of Mansfield Park.

Férue de littérature, et notamment de Jane Austen, elle a pris beaucoup de plaisir à écrire, il y a quelques années, Mansfield Letters, la suite imaginée d’une obscure nouvelle de l’écrivain anglais, qui fut, de son propre aveu, un « échec retentissant ». « L’ordre et l’équilibre de ses idées, la construction de ses phrases me fascinent. J’aspire à ce sens de l’équilibre. »

With the help of Babelfish and our own (admittedly imperfect) grasp on le français, we came up with the following translation for the paragraph:

Set on literature, and in particular on Jane Austen, she took much pleasure in writing, some years ago, Mansfield Letters, the imagined continuation of an obscure novel of the English writer, which was, in her own words, a “resounding failure.” “The order and the balance of its ideas, the construction of its sentences fascinate me. I aspire to this sense of balance.”

Obscure?!?