After a sleepless crazy week, a project that the Editrix and several other regulars here have been working on for a really long time (longer than it should have taken, but there’s this messy thing called Real Life involved) is ready for unveiling: Molland’s.

Those of you who visited Tilneys and Trap-doors may remember the old Molland’s forum there. The Editrix decided to move the interactive areas of the site to their own domain, and the e-texts of Jane Austen’s novels kind of go with the forum, so they were all to be moved. Then we were approached by our friend Robin, who had a collection of interesting out of copyright articles and essays about Jane Austen and her work that he had collected with the idea of adding them to the e-texts. Also, we asked Robin to start putting together a comprehensive list of Jane Austen-related links. Another friend, Cinthia, began to collect various illustrated editions of Jane Austen’s novels and offered to scan them and also recruited others who had already done so (thanks, Heather L!) to donate them as well, resulting in an incredibly huge list of illustrations for every Jane Austen novel. We think that the result is a pretty nice little resource site for Janeites, and we hope you all enjoy it!

We also thought the site complemented AustenBlog extremely well, so we added a permanent link to the right column (which you may have noticed already) and a reciprocal link to the blog at Molland’s. Some conversations that might range off-topic for the blog, or if you ever wanted to start a discussion, would be great to have on the forum. You do have to register, to help prevent spammers (tho’ we have learned they are basically unstoppable), but the registration is local, so you won’t be giving information to anyone but the Editrix. She is unbribable. Mostly.

Suggestions, comments, and bug reports are happily accepted.

We have also heard of a couple other interesting sites of interest to Jane Austen fans that are in the development stage…we will certainly present them when they go online!

P.S. Sorry for the dearth of posts lately, but we’ve been distracted with this project. Back to the grindstone tomorrow.

Definition, from m-w.com:

Main Entry: hu·mor
Pronunciation: ‘hyü-m&r, ‘yü-
Function: noun

3 a : that quality which appeals to a sense of the ludicrous or absurdly incongruous b : the mental faculty of discovering, expressing, or appreciating the ludicrous or absurdly incongruous c : something that is or is designed to be comical or amusing
synonym see WIT

The above is provided for eejit writers who don’t get obvious jokes when Jane Austen wrote them. The New York Times has a review of The Book of Lost Books by Stuart Kelly, about books that were lost in manuscript or never written. The article includes the following:

Jane Austen apparently laid the groundwork for a history entitled “The Magnificent Adventures and Intriguing Romances of the House of Saxe Cobourg,” but died instead.

It is hard to tell if the writer of the book or the writer of the article is confused; it is possible that both are; but surely one of them realized that Jane was JOKING when she wrote her “Plan of a Novel“? She was MOCKING all the eejits who tried to tell her what she SHOULD write, or the silly books being written by other authors. How can people not get that? Even if they read it out of context? Unless, of course, they, like the heroine of the Work, was “a faultless Character…perfectly good, with much tenderness and sentiment, and not the least Wit.”

The votes are in, and Pride and Prejudice has been chosen as one of the latest batch of Icons of England.

Dubbed as the first psychological novel by some for its depth of characterisation, Pride And Prejudice has it all – love triangles, class divide, vanity, snobbery. And the dashing Mr Darcy!

Hard to say it better than that! Don’t forget to check out the associated biography, features and “What Next” pages for this English icon.

The first performances of Paul Gordon’s musical version of EMMA will be presented as part of TheatreWorks’ New Works Festival. The first performance was last night.

The Paul Gordon fans at the JANE EYRE: THE MUSICAL forum have posted some photos of the cast, as well.

Thanks to Brontëana for the heads-up!

The Stage has reported that ITV, whose planned Austen-centric season we blogged about back in November, is attempting to get Billie Piper (currently appearing in the new series of Doctor Who) to play Fanny Price in their adaptation of MANSFIELD PARK.

The article emphasizes, however, that nothing has been confirmed as of yet:

The Doctor Who star is understood to be in talks to take on the role of Fanny Price in the production, which is penned by Maggie Wadey and is being made by Shameless producer Company Pictures. A source told The Stage: “She is very, very busy but it would be a real coup.”

No other casting for MANSFIELD PARK or NORTHANGER ABBEY, ITV’s other new production, has been announced.

We could handle people calling JA the founder of chicklit, and using her in parodies, but this is taking it a bit far. We’re talking about Jane Austen the author here, people, NOT the Made-up!Jane coming to a BECOMING JANE film near you.

Kate Allan (who comments here at AustenBlog occasionally) has written a book with a fictional story inspired by Jane Austen. The heroine of Perfidy and Perfection is a woman who writes and hides it from her family, as did Jane Austen (not her immediate family, but nieces and nephews were not let in on the secret until several years after her first publication).

The novel site has a competition to win a copy of one of Kate’s books and she also hosted an online launch party, which because the Editrix spent the weekend lying about crocheting a reticule we neglected to post in time, but one can still read the archives, and we dare say post a comment if so inclined.

The Guardian has listed PRIDE AND PREJUDICE in its list of the 50 best film adaptations of all time. We are astonished to note that no other Austen adaptation made the list. It is unclear what criteria was used for the listing; from the article, it seems as though the quality of the original was weighed as much as the film, which is kind of strange in our opinion.

Thanks to Alert Janeite Robyn for sending us the link.

Dear Precocious Young Persons,

Leave Jane Austen out of your puerile parodies, please. We have a Cluebat of Janeite Righteousness and know how to use it. Just ask your compatriots at DePaul.

Cordially (for now),
The Editrix

I have been meaning to post here because I read Kevin Hood’s screenplay “Becoming Jane” a year or so ago, and wanted to report on it as there has been so much speculation about the script, but needed to find time to reread it first. I should explain that I am a writer (author of Mrs Darcy’s Dilemma, a best-selling P & P sequel) who works as a story analyst at a major Hollywood studio, and was sent the script by a friend. These things get around, and because of my lifelong interest in Austen I have actually been sent no fewer than *four* screenplays about the life of Jane Austen in the past couple of years! Yes, really. And Kevin Hood’s was by far, unquestionably, hands down, the best. He is apparently an accomplished English playwright, and his skill and confidence show in the sheer structural economy with which he introduces the large cast of Austen family characters and manipulates them in a natural and unforced way, with charm and humor. I had to admire it; it was one of the few screenplays I’ve read in years where I actually thought I couldn’t do better myself, despite my knowledge stemming from thirty years’ immersion in the subject. I don’t mean to sound arrogant here: I don’t write plays or screenplays myself, just books, and my job is actually reading novels for the studio, but hundreds of thousands of screenplays are circulated in this town, and the vast majority are ill conceived and written. So to “do better” than most of them is not difficult, and in fact the other Austen scripts were better than most of them, too. But Hood’s is something more than that. He is what Jane Austen would call a reading man, but also possesses a light touch. The other Austen screenplays are by reading people but without the dexterity, or have the light touch but are not by reading people!

Kevin Hood’s drama is *not* a literal, factual, faithful, plodding replication of precise events in Jane Austen’s life, and if you’re going to read (or see) it constantly exclaiming, “But *that* never happened! Jane Austen never had a neighbor anything like Lady Catherine! (That’s your Lady Gresham.) Henry Austen never behaved like that in London! If that character is supposed to be Blackall she never met him that early in her life!” then it’s possible that prejudice might prevent you from enjoying it. Justifiable prejudice, indeed, for no one doubts that we Janeites approach these things with our critical antennae *very* suspiciously extended; but this is a charming story and deserves an open mind. And I can at least explode one misconception that seems to have been assiduously spread by the project’s most ignorant, uninformed man who ever dared to be a press agent (whom I don’t think actually read the script): it does *not* make it appear that Jane Austen up and decided to become A Novelist because she was disappointed in Tom Lefroy! The script presents her as already a dedicated writer, already singular, already unfond of the marriage market and the idea of being a poor animal, before she meets him! (I can hear the collective sigh of relief.)

Yes, it is a love story, in which she has a romance with Tom Lefroy and is disappointed. It takes touches from Mr Darcy and elsewhere and attributes them to Lefroy’s character, a ploy which must be fictional. The poverty of the Austens is played up and surely JA’s parents never pressured her to marry as these do. There are quibbles, but all is accomplished with such panache and confidence that the script finally wins us over. There is invention galore: Eliza is more involved in the Lefroy matter than she could really have been (but why *not* bring her in); and there are scenes such as a sneaking-away to Astley’s and a meeting with Ann Radcliffe that are purely imaginary, but fun. The prominence in the plot of Judge Langlois, some changed names, the presence of Jane Austen at a bloody birth, an aborted elopement - yes, considerable invention. This is *fiction,* but plausible fiction, done in a consistent manner, with an internal truth all its own. Most of all, Hood’s achievement is that the contingencies of the plot actually make you *feel.* How rare is that in a screenplay! I confess that I, jaded I, actually shed a tear, which happens perhaps twice a decade. A very effective script and I will defend it. I will further venture to say that if it is not screwed up in the production (which could easily happen…I am not an Anne Hathaway fan, but then I also wanted to beat Keira Knightley about the head with her own torn off shin bone, to paraphrase Mark Twain), judging by the screenplay alone, this has at least a good chance of being a charming, moving, enjoyable film.

I will now take questions.

Diana Birchall
www.dianabirchall.com

We’re tired of ranting about the danged movie and want to make a happy post, so here’s something we’ve been saving for the right moment: UnDress Darcy and Lizzy. Hours of good clean fun!

And we didn’t draw them, so don’t complain that they don’t look like “your” Darcy and Lizzy.

Thanks to Alert Janeite Carol, who sent this in to us ages ago!

Brontëana wrote to tell us that Paul Gordon has posted two more songs from his EMMA musical to his Web site. They are called “Humiliation” and “Emma.” He described them as follows on the Jane Eyre forum, which doesn’t seem to be working at the moment:

“Humiliation”, sung by Kate Riender as Harriet - when she is snubbed by Mr. Elton at the ball.

“Emma” - unfortunately sung by me. This is the moment right afterwards - Knightly confesses his love for Emma - after she’s already left the room.

Alert Janeite Arwen posted the following information in comments:

A person claiming to know someone on the set of Becoming Jane posted a cast list on the IMDB message boards. I do not know if it true, but this is what the person said:

Anna Maxwell Martin is playing Cassandra, Jane’s sister
Julie Walters is playing Mrs Austen
James Cromwell is Mr Austen
Maggie Smith is Lady Gresham, an aristocratic landowner whose favourite nephew has fallen in love with Jane
Lucy Cohu is Jane’s half-French cousin who has been widowed but has designs on Jane’s brother, Henry
Ian Richardson plays Tom Lefroy’s cantankerous uncle
The person also said, “word is that Anne Hathaway is fantastic and her accent really spot on.” Also in the movie Lady Gresham does not like Jane Austen.

We are guessing that Lady Gresham’s nephew is NOT Tom Lefroy. We are further guessing that she is entirely…fictional.

Oh, and Eliza de Feuillide was not “half-French.” She was English, and had married a Frenchman, who was guillotined during the Terror for attempting to bribe a member of the Committee of Public Safety to dismiss charges against a neighbor. “Designs” on Henry? More like the other way around…actually both James and Henry Austen liked her and wanted to marry her. Apparently she liked being a widow very well indeed and had to be persuaded to give up her independence to marry Henry.

Also, Cassandra Austen was not present during Jane’s flirtation with Tom Lefroy. We only know about the bally thing because Jane wrote about it in letters to Cassandra. Obviously, had Cassandra been present, Jane would not have had to write letters to her about it, would she?

Say it with us…MADE UP STORY!

The Detroit Free Press reports that the new video game “Brain Age” uses quotations from classic novels, including Jane Austen’s.

“He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision — he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath: ‘The horror! The horror!’ ”

Ryuta Kawashima’s new game, “Brain Age,” deserves a 4-star rating if only for devising a clever way to convince gamers to read aloud from dramatic passages like this one by Joseph Conrad.

To rack up top scores in “Brain Age,” he requires players also to read aloud from Robert Louis Stevenson, Herman Melville and Jack London. As the days pass, the readings turn out to be more than macho adventure tales. The game includes passages from Jane Austen, Emily Bronte and Frederick Douglass.

These excerpts from great literature certainly are the most unusual aspect in “Brain Age.” But there’s a lot more than reading aloud in this suite of 15 minigames developed by Kawashima, who claims to be a Japanese medical researcher with a specialty in improving the functions of the human brain.

Each day, players are supposed to fire up “Brain Age” and play several games involving math, vocabulary, short-term memory and critical thinking. Some days that involves reading aloud. Other days, it may involve a Sudoku puzzle or rapid-fire math problems.

What impressed us most was the possibility that a player just might get hooked on Conrad or Bronte and this little handheld game might actually spark someone to put down the electronic gadget for a while and pick up a literary classic. Now, that is really cool!

We’re thinking that the quotation might be from Northanger Abbey…or maybe it’s just wishful thinking.

A violent gust of wind, rising with sudden fury, added fresh horror to the moment. Catherine trembled from head to foot. In the pause which succeeded, a sound like receding footsteps and the closing of a distant door struck on her affrighted ear. Human nature could support no more. A cold sweat stood on her forehead, the manuscript fell from her hand, and groping her way to the bed, she jumped hastily in, and sought some suspension of agony by creeping far underneath the clothes. To close her eyes in sleep that night, she felt must be entirely out of the question. With a curiosity so justly awakened, and feelings in every way so agitated, repose must be absolutely impossible. The storm too abroad so dreadful! — She had not been used to feel alarm from wind, but now every blast seemed fraught with awful intelligence. The manuscript so wonderfully found, so wonderfully accomplishing the morning’s prediction, how was it to be accounted for? — What could it contain? — to whom could it relate? — by what means could it have been so long concealed? — and how singularly strange that it should fall to her lot to discover it! Till she had made herself mistress of its contents, however, she could have neither repose nor comfort; and with the sun’s first rays she was determined to peruse it. But many were the tedious hours which must yet intervene. She shuddered, tossed about in her bed, and envied every quiet sleeper. The storm still raged, and various were the noises, more terrific even than the wind, which struck at intervals on her startled ear. The very curtains of her bed seemed at one moment in motion, and at another the lock of her door was agitated, as if by the attempt of somebody to enter. Hollow murmurs seemed to creep along the gallery, and more than once her blood was chilled by the sound of distant moans. Hour after hour passed away, and the wearied Catherine had heard three proclaimed by all the clocks in the house before the tempest subsided or she unknowingly fell fast asleep.

Bumping this up to add new information. –Ed.

A commenter claiming to be an extra in BECOMING JANE posted in comments that James Cromwell is playing Mr. Austen and that Maggie Smith is playing Lady Gresham. We don’t know who Lady Gresham is, either; books are being feverishly studied as we type. Relative of Tom Lefroy? Irish nobility? Friend of Eliza Austen? Eccentric neighbor? Who knows? Does it matter? It’s a Made Up Story, remember? ETA: A commenter posted that Lady Gresham gives the ball at which Jane and Tom meet. No idea if she is real. We’re not even sure that the information of who gave that ball is available.

ETA: Our new friend “Wilder” also posted that Julie Walters is indeed playing Mrs. Austen. We have no reason to disbelieve Wilder, but please note that it is unconfirmed information.

The press is still intent on stirring up a kerfluffle, and it’s just comedy gold watching them all fall over themselves. Starpulse.com has an article which includes the rather hilarious claim that Jane Austen, who died, as they say, without issue (and glad of it from all reports), has “direct descendants.” Anna Chancellor, whom we all know as Miss Bingley in P&P2, is not a descendant of Jane but of her elder brother Edward. To the subject therein: Miss Chancellor thinks Anne Hathaway “too pretty” to play Jane Austen.

And now Anna Chancellor, who is a direct descendant of Austen, has slammed the decision to transform her esteemed relative into a ravishing beauty. She says, “In my mind Anne Hathaway is just too pretty to play her. Jane was a very plain woman. Her beauty was in her brain. But that’s what Hollywood does.”

We respectfully disagree. Jane was described as pretty by several relatives. Not beautiful, perhaps, but not plain. (Put down the extremes and back away slowly!) Actually, we’ve always fancied that Jane looked rather like…Anna Chancellor. (Really. Not being snarky.)

The British-made film will tell the story of Austen’s doomed love for Irish lawyer Tom LeFroy, played by James McAvoy, which floundered because LeFroy’s financial prospects failed to impress Austen’s family.

MADE UP STORY! MADE UP STORY!

Doomed love, indeed.

Alert Janeite Lorraine wrote to tell us that JASNA has made No. 15 of its yearly journal, Persuasions, available online. The conference papers are related to the 1993 AGM at Lake Louise on Persuasion. Another piece of interest is about the founding of JASNA, written by Joan Austen-Leigh.

Review by Allison T.

Dear Jane,

R U THERE? R U LISTENING? GR8! Now, will you just toddle on over to Mount Olympus and borrow a few teeny-tiny thunderbolts from Jove and zip them off post-haste in the direction of The Dashwood Sisters’ Secrets of Love, by Rosie Rushton?

O migod, life is so harsh for the Dashwood girls! I mean, their dad left their mum to marry this bimbo, Pandora, with silicone boobs and a very demanding aura. Ellie, the eldest sister, still hasn’t had a real romance at the incredibly advanced age of seventeen and a few months, while Abby, blessed with bigger boobs than her elder sister, goes through boyfriends at the rate of one every few weeks, and Georgie seems to be a hopeless tomboy at thirteen. Then Dad dies & the mazzuma is all gone and the girls and their mother are forced to go live in a little cottage in Norfolk–no all-night raves, no clubs, no department stores!–and attend a state school (public school for Americans). Way harsh! Then Abby meets this cute drummer, Nick, but although she likes him at first, she doesn’t like like him, if U know what I mean, and then she meets this XSively cool guy, Hunter, who seems to have a lot of money although his dad is being investigated for fraud but she doesn’t care about that because she really like likes him, and then he wants her to, you know, prove it and then, well… (more…)

Apparently we’re not the only ones surprised (and delighted) by Dwyane Wade’s classic novel of choice.

I was leafing through The New York Times Book Review the other day, in my weekly stab at keeping current on books I know I’ll never have time to read, when I was startled to see the face of Dwyane Wade, the superstar guard of the Miami Heat, staring back at me.

He was posed in a double-page advertisement alongside three other big names in basketball.

He wasn’t endorsing a product you’d expect, like Nikes or Powerade or “Got Milk?”

Nope, a smiling Wade was holding a copy of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

A 6′4″, 212-pound all-star who averages 27.5 points per game.

Plugging the ultimate in chick lit.

Penguin Classics, paperback publisher of distinguished titles, has enlisted NBA and WNBA players to help rouse young people’s interest in literature.

They’re pairing great writers of yesterday with sports heroes of today.

It’s a novel approach to image-building for the NBA, so concerned with toning up its act that players must now hide the hip-hop wear and put on business casual attire when off the court.

I did a real double-take. I didn’t think Pride and Prejudice was anything a pro basketball player would be caught dead caring about — unless maybe Carmen Electra starred in the remake.

Oh gawd. Don’t give them any ideas.

Once you get past the stereotype of Austen being a women’s writer, you see that her subject is universal, said Susan Jones, an associate professor of English at Palm Beach Atlantic University.

“Pride and Prejudice is a book that is really about people being true to themselves,” said Jones, who’s also co-coordinator of the South Florida branch of the Jane Austen Society of North America, “even when people around them are pushing them in one direction or another.”

You’ve got to hand it to Wade, to try to show other young people there’s more to “classic” than a type of Coke or an ESPN channel that re-runs old games.

We couldn’t agree more!

And, for those who missed it, JASNA President Joan Ray posted in the comments of the first post about Mr. Wade that JASNA is giving him an honorary membership.

(That might be kind of cool, in a train-wrecky sort of way.)

The Telegraph has an article about a survey of female readers, who say they prefer thrillers to romance novels.

However, today’s survey by Woman & Home magazine found that if women could pick one “desert island” book it would be the romantic classic Pride and Prejudice.

Mr Darcy was also regarded as the sexiest fictional man, beating Heathcliffe (Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights), Rhett Butler (Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell) and Mr Rochester (Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte).

Hmm. We would not call Heathcliff sexy, exactly. Mr. Rochester has the broody thing going, but Heathcliff is rather…single-minded, shall we say?

But, some things never change.

If they were to be a character in a book, most women would be Elizabeth Bennett. (sic)

Well, of course.

We have some sad news to report. Melissa Nathan, the author of the Jane Austen-inspired novels Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field and Persuading Annie, among other novels, has passed away from breast cancer at age 37. The Guardian has an obituary.