Welcome to readers of the Philadelphia Inquirer
The Editrix’s hometown newspaper has a lovely article about the enduring popularity of Jane Austen, for which the Editrix and several of her friends from JASNA were interviewed.
It’s too bad that those not in the area can’t see the lovely layout in the print version of the paper with a photo of the JA Action figure in front of a computer displaying the front page of AustenBlog and a background of Jane’s portrait, not to mention the photo of the shelves of the Jane Austen Memorial Library and Reading Room–yep, that really is the Editrix’s bookcase with all those Jane Austen books in it. Now you all know how we can pull quotes and dates out of our butt so easily–lots and lots of reference books! And you can also sort of see our copy of L’abbazia di Northanger, too. (The smaller shot on the front page has a better view.)
March 5th, 2006 at 11:30 am
Congratulations on that! What a great article. Too bad we don’t get to see the accompanying pictures
March 5th, 2006 at 11:47 am
I was just coming online to tell everyone the same thing. We are all very proud of Mags and the article which will make hers perhaps the most famous (or the most hits) blog in the world. She did us proud in the article, and she works hard for us every day. So I say: hip, hip, hooray! Well done!
March 5th, 2006 at 12:42 pm
This calls for a trip to B&N to check for today’s copy!!! Congrats!!!
March 5th, 2006 at 3:55 pm
A wonderful article, you make us proud!!! Alas, I would love to see the pics.
March 5th, 2006 at 5:20 pm
Well, pshaw.
The photo of me is not bad but I have kind of a weird expression on my face. Or maybe I really do look like that.
March 5th, 2006 at 7:05 pm
Shoot. Where the heck do I get a copy of the Philadelphia Inquirer in far upstate New York?
March 5th, 2006 at 7:31 pm
Nice article
I really agree that “everyone has their own private Jane Austen.”
Do you have a scanner for the photos?
March 6th, 2006 at 9:59 am
Well, I was almost immediately up in arms at that “written in the stilted English of long ago” comment. *Sniffs disdainfully* Stilted my… But she redeemed herself as it was quite a nice article after that. Wish we could see the pictures too!
March 6th, 2006 at 10:58 am
Dorothy, get the smelling salts! Excitement from reading the article caused slight palpitations. Well done, Mags, very well done.
March 7th, 2006 at 5:09 am
Lovely article indeed! But - eeek! - Fergie’s daughter is planning a P&P party for her 18th birthday? Shudder….
(Mind you, I did put ‘It’s a truth universally acknowledged that a girl approaching her 40th birthday must be in want of a party’ on my own invitation a while back - I really am a Middle Aged Austen Whore(TM), aren’t I?!)
March 7th, 2006 at 1:23 pm
Well, Amanda, you still have plenty to look forward to. As someone explained to me (as I was approaching a significant birthday), “You’re not playing with a full deck until you reach 52.”
March 15th, 2006 at 6:51 am
I am disgusted with this article. Great job with the AustenBlog (congratulations and thumbs up!), but -
“In May, Headline publishing plans to reissue all six of Austen’s books as straight-up romance novels, with bubblegum-pink covers that scream chick-lit.”
made me sick.
Further, the complete description of all possible ways of consuming Austen’s biography and literature is not worth the paper it’s printed. Or is suitable to Peaches Geldof miseducation and lack of taste.
March 15th, 2006 at 9:49 am
the complete description of all possible ways of consuming Austen’s biography and literature is not worth the paper it’s printed
You mean like a blog?
I am the proud owner of a Jane Austen action figure and a bookcase full of biographies and paraliterature. I crochet doilies of Jane Austen’s silhouette. I make no apologies for my obsession.
And don’t blame the reporter for the publication of the Chick-lit version of Austen! We blogged about that a while ago.
I will add that our local JASNA region is thrilled with the article and that we have had several Janeites, now just discovering the existence of the organization, contact us to join. Our event for later this month is SOLD OUT and we have a waiting list. That has NEVER happened before.
We had a community event last night and one person came who said her mother called her and told her that there are “people like you in the paper” meaning Jane Austen fans. She has since joined JASNA.
I’m pleased that AustenBlog was recognized but much more pleased that Jane Austen was recognized–and very prominently, you can’t tell from the online version, but the article had a half-page on the front page of a major section of a Sunday edition, plus a whole page inside–and that my fellow Philly-area Janeites are discovering that there is an organization of like minds for them to join.
March 15th, 2006 at 12:54 pm
Substitute your post with the article in the Sunday edition - I will be perfectly happy
I don’t mind personal obssessions, I had one for JRR Tolkien`s works. I do not have a picture of myself fallen on his grave :), but I admit that I have bought almost everything connected to his work, even interpetations of clueless authors about Tolkien and his fiction world and this satisfies me completely.
It is hard to explain, but if I were Jane Austen, I wouldn’t have much appreciation for putting my name, life and works in an article promoting merchandize on my precious self and reporting a sequence of nearly nonsensical events (not your blog events!). (Modern Lydias with the scream chick-lit have nothing to do with Jane Austen’s work, beside the fact that she has already depicted them colorfully). It is something like to gild a refined gold. If I love JA novels, a mug wouldn’t add to my happiness (beside more reading and trying to discuss).