We have finally got round to updating the links list. We also broke it down into more categories for ease of use. Some pretty interesting books coming out in the next few months. Check them out!

An anony-mouse posted in comments that the IMDB is listing February 2, 2007 as the U.K. release date for BECOMING JANE. We have no reason to believe or disbelieve this information, and have no idea if this date will have any bearing upon releases in the U.S. or other countries. We suggest treating this as rumor until some kind of confirmation is received.

Cheryl Klein, an editor at Arthur A. Levine Books (you may have heard about a certain series of children’s/young adult books upon which she has worked) has posted the text of a talk that she gave at a writer’s convention. The talk, “Aristotle, Austen, Plot, and Pleasure,” discusses the technical details of plotting in a way that really breaks through the English-major mumbo-jumbo and gets to the heart of the matter. And, of course, she talks about Pride and Prejudice!

What most people know about Austen is that her stories are about women who want to find husbands. They dance pretty dances. They wear pretty dresses. They talk a lot and drink tea. And then they get married.

And this is all true.

But her plots are about something else: They’re about women who make mistakes and take action based on those mistakes. Then they realize those mistakes, and they must come to terms with the consequences.

They get married in the end, but it’s more as a reward for the knowledge they gain through the mistakes than the reward in and of itself.

And this plot structure, it turns out, is straight out of Aristotle.

This is good stuff. Go read the whole thing, especially you fanfic writers–and those who have published yours, or have pretensions of doing so.

Yes, you read that correctly…an animated opera.

‘The Loathly Lady” is the first-ever animated opera. Based on a Chaucerian tale, the plot follows the adventures of an Arthurian knight, condemned to death unless he can find the answer to the question, “What do women want most?”

“With the advice of Merlin and Freud, the Knight sets out on a quest to interview a series of opinionated women: Jane Austen’s Emma, Sheherezade, the Lady of Shalott and Virginia Wolf,” Steiner said. “It is a Loathly Lady who finally tells him what women want, but at quite a price.”

Sounds like fun! The film will be screened in Philadelphia on July 19 and in New York City on July 28. See the link for details.

In the spirit of Northanger Abbey Day, which we declared a while back on a whim, we have decided that today is Persuasion Day at AustenBlog!

*sound of trumpet flourish*

Persuasion is our favorite of Jane Austen’s novels and the book that made us an Austen fan in the first place. We still remember the goosebumps that we experienced while reading The Letter. No one is happier than the Editrix at all the media attention being lavished upon Persuasion as of late. (more…)

Ah, yes, another bright young thing intent on “improving” Jane Austen. Apparently she took Edmund Bertram’s words to heart:

“(H)ad I a place to new fashion, I should not put myself into the hands of an improver. I would rather have an inferior degree of beauty, of my own choice, and acquired progressively. I would rather abide by my own blunders than by his.”

“A Small Hole,” a postmodernist sort of stage adaptation of Mansfield Park, is currently being staged as part of the New York International Fringe Festival. The title is taken, of course, from Henry Crawford’s declaration that he will make “a small hole” in Fanny Price’s heart. We have decided not to employ our rich imagination as to how the phrase might have been taken out of context.

The adapter no doubt considers herself daring and edgy, but to the rank-and-file Janeite this is pretty much yesterday’s newspaper. However, the opportunity for snarkage is simply too delightful to pass up. On to the spork-fisking! (more…)