“Pictures of perfection make me sick & wicked.” — Jane Austen

Even though he might look like perfection onscreen, my most beloved Mr. Darcy is a flawed and complex character. It is a testament to Austen’s genius that a character that spent so little time actually speaking has been the subject of so much fascination — and fiction — down through the years. Pamela Aidan, with her trilogy of stories entitled A Novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman, brings us her charming and satisfying vision of Pride and Prejudice, seen from Darcy’s perspective. Her first volume, An Assembly Such as This, covers the time between the assembly at Meryton and Darcy’s arrival back in London after the Netherfield ball.

(more…)

From the home office in Chawton, Hampshire, the top 10 reasons why posting on AustenBlog has been a bit spotty and distracted lately:

10. Busy plotting infiltration of Persuasion 2007 set

9. Sending Andrew Davies anonymous letters telling him that we can guarantee him an Emmy win for Northanger Abbey 2007 if he deposits £20,000 in our numbered Swiss bank account as a show of good faith.

8. Determining if our hotels in Arizona have wifi so that we can liveblog the JASNA AGM in Tucson, Arizona

7. Crocheting pretty camisole for JJ Feild so that his Henry Tilney doesn’t get a complex over Freddie’s frillies

6. Compiling exhaustive list of demands suggestions for Amanda Grange for when she writes Henry Tilney’s Diary

5. Practicing scales so can go on road with Austentatious…lalala! mimimi!

4. Basking in admiration of syncophantic minions, distributing chocolate

3. Arm-wrestling Heather L for title of Official Webmistress to Da Man

2. Lobbying Congress and Parliament for new law instituting harsh punishment for anyone who calls Jane Austen “the godmother of chick lit”

::drumroll::

And the number one reason that posting on AustenBlog has been a bit spotty lately….

1. The Editrix has been finishing up the final edits and rewrites for The Jane Austen Handbook: A Sensible Yet Elegant Guide to Her World, which will be published by Quirk Books in 2007. (Available for preorder on all the Amazons! And yes, this is our tongue-in-cheek way of announcing the book, which we’ve been working on in our Top Secret Writer’s Lair for some months now.)

We’re turning the blog over to the lovely and talented Tasha whilst we enjoy the beauties of nature and the beauties of JASNA next week! *waves hankie*

We have received some photos of the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey’s production of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE–just enough to whet the appetities of those who will be attending! Click on the thumbnails for larger versions.

Captions from left to right: Jane and Elizabeth; Elizabeth and Wickham (boo! hiss!); Elizabeth and Darcy (huzzah!); Elizabeth seems to be a little more amenable to Mr. Darcy’s persuasions than previously.

For those who are disappointed that they missed Jane Austen Day at the Winterthur Museum, there is another Austen-related event coming up.

On Saturday, November 4th from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Winterthur is hosting a family day called Book Behind the Film. The Vagabond Acting Troupe will present Writing Threads, a walking tour that features the words and thoughts of William Shakespeare, Henry James, Jane Austen, Agatha Christie, and Karen Blixen. Writing Threads is a 25 minute walking tour of literary thoughts, presented in the galleries of the Fashion in Film exhibition. For more information, visit the Winterthur Web site or call 302-888-4600 or 1-800-448-3883.

We recommend going to see the Fashion in Film exhibition at least. Emma and Marianne’s wedding gowns, the lace on Mr. Bingley’s sisters’ gowns, and did we mention Colonel Brandon’s regimentals? Yes, we did, but they are worth mentioning again.

Erin sent us a link to a music video she made with images from SENSE AND SENSIBILITY set to the music of Christina Aguilera. It’s very sweet–check it out!

In an interview on About.com, Maria Bello described her role in the film version of THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB as:

Bello will also be shooting The Jane Austen Book Club in LA as well. “It’s based on a book called The Jane Austen Book Club.

Gee, a film called THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB based on a book called…The Jane Austen Book Club! Who knew?

It’s about these five women and a man that start a book club and it’s all Jane Austen, all the time. It’s how you see their lives going through [that]. Like the book at my house is Emma and my life starts to look like Emma’s life at the same time. I fall in love with this young guy. It’s pretty cool.”

It looks like she is playing Jocelyn from that description. We find this intensely curious as Jocelyn and her best friend Sylvia were fiftysomethings in the novel, and according to her IMDB page Ms. Bello is not even forty. The “young guy” is supposed to be in his forties–and too young for Jocelyn to think of as a match for herself at first (and a nifty reversal on Emma and Mr. Knightley’s age gap). Hollywood strikes again. We had our Barbie crush, the gorgeous Dame Helen, in mind for the role, but nobody listens to us, do they?