Alert Janeite Marion Fraley sent us a link to an article on The Guardian’s book blog by John Sutherland (whom some of our Gentle Readers may recognize as the author of various literary puzzle books, including several featuring Jane Austen). Mr. Sutherland wonders why the world needs this new set of Jane Austen adaptations, because he thinks they won’t have anything new or surprising. It’s kind of cute, really, this confidence that these new films will be made with care and attention to the original novels. We hardened, cynical Austen whores (middle-aged and otherwise) know better, of course.

The massed ranks of Janeites, the classic reprint publishers and those specialist suppliers of horse-drawn carriages can all rejoice. ITV is taking four of the big six, and has abducted Andrew Davies from the BBC to do Northanger Abbey. The Beeb is hitting back with their own Sense and Sensibility, which makes near enough a full house.

Of course all the Austens have already been done recently for screens large and small. Some, like Ang Lee’s S&S, so well that it seems presumptuous not to leave a decent interval. But Jane Austen is the nearest thing to a church that the British have nowadays. And, going out as they will on Sunday evenings, these serials will attract four times as many as the 2 million or so Britons who attend C-of-E evensong.

This is very amusing, but we begin to suspect that Mr. Sutherland, despite the link in his post to this very blog, is laboring under several misapprehensions. He seems to think that all four ITV films will be new. Of course, we know that the Emma that ITV will show is the one from 1997 with Kate Beckinsale.

Judging by the excitement in the blogosphere it may even generate a “mania”, like the Forsyte Saga or the 1994 Middlemarch. Since ITV promises that the “take” will be “traditional” there are no great surprises in prospect - no nakedness, wet benippled shirts, or rolling in the hay.

Mr. Sutherland, during your visit to AustenBlog (and ta for the shout-out), did you not see the post about the naked Anglican priest? Geez, that was some of our best stuff. Shame you missed it.

The heart does rather sink at the prospect of some 40 hours of viewing.

Um…what? Does he think all these are six-hour miniseries or something? Oh, if only!

For the dull elves in the back: Four films on ITV, ninety minutes to two hours each. Three new, one old. That’s eight hours, rounding up. S&S07 will be four hours. That’s 12 hours total.

There would be more risk, but a lot of fun, if the TV-adaptation industry turned its attention to the fan-fiction, knock-offs and sequels which Jane has inspired. Some of it’s awful, some of it’s crazy, but some is extraordinarily fresh and interesting.

There’s not enough Tullamore Dew in the world. Really.

A little unfaithfulness, then, Mr Davies.

Not to worry.

Alert Janeite Amo let us know that a Billie Piper fan site has listed MP07’s UK air date as March 18. No source for that, so we have no way of confirming it, but hey, it’s as good a guess as any.

Review by MJ Ryan

When reading fan fiction, I’m a stickler for characterization. I can go with the flow regarding plot as long as the characters bear a passing resemblance to what the author created. Maybe a little deviation from the original characterization is to be expected when trying to explain the pairing of two ill-suited temperaments like Mr and Mrs Bennet from Pride and Prejudice. But a strong plot is necessary to gloss over the inconsistencies, or at least make you not care about them. Unfortunately, The Bennets has neither a strong plot nor good characterizations. The author tries to answer not only the question of how these two fell in love, but also explain the rift between the Collinses and Bennets and the genesis of Mrs Bennet’s infamous nerves. An admirable goal, to be sure. But, the plot is melodramatic and unbelievable and there is a bit of dialogue that is suspiciously similar to lines in Pride and Prejudice. Instead of expanding on the world that Austen created and infusing it with her own imagination, the author makes the characters of Fanny Gardiner and John Bennet one-dimensional and recasts the original characterizations into earlier generations, the most obvious of which is Fanny’s mother, a matriarch who is determined to marry her daughter off to the most eligible bachelor in the neighborhood. Yes, you’ve read it before and you’ll read it again. That’s the nature of fan fiction. Whether or not you’ll enjoy it will depend on the writer’s ability to transcend a trite plot with imagination and creative characterization. I’m sorry to say that those are two qualities that this story is lacking.

Killer robots!

What if they were to hold an Oscars purely for achievements in big-screen gadgetry? Instead of relegating all things techy to a single special effects award, put the gizmos centre stage!

[. . .]

7. Most In Need Of A Mid-Film Invasion of Killer Robots. An award category specifically for unfunny romcoms, drawn-out documentaries, or bum-numbingly dull meditations on life, which could only benefit from large doses of cyborg-dealt death and destruction. Automatically awarded to any new Jane Austen adaptation.

Or any Made Up Stories. Thanks to Alert Janeite Heather L. for the link.

We have updated to the latest version of WordPress and are subsequently extremely cranky. We like some of the upgrades (posting autosave! huzzah!) but whose bright idea was it to combine categories for blog posts and sidebar? We have just spent an hour uploading a new plugin to manage and sort our blogroll the same way we always did. This is not progress, nor has it been explained to us satisfactorily as a logical upgrade.

Anyway, if you run into any problems, post here to let us know.