The Globe and Mail (Toronto) has a huge feature article on Jane Addiction (huzzah! a clever title that doesn’t reference a Mike Meyers movie!) in their film section, discussing the upcoming spate of Jane-related films, including Becoming Jane and The Jane Austen Book Club.

They’re called Janeites. And God help you if you mess with them.

Ya got that right, sister. (more…)

Suitably for St. Patrick’s Day, Alert Janeite Carolin let us know that Martina Devlin speaks with true sense AND sensibility on the lasting legacy of Jane Austen for unison.ie. (You need a password, but it’s easy to register, or you can get one at BugMeNot.)

I’m not a total Janeite. I’d like to see just one of her novels reach a conclusion where the happy ending isn’t automatically signalled by marriage. Or for Austen to glance outside the drawing room and comment on life from a servant’s perspective.

But that’s like eating a bowl of ice-cream and afterwards complaining it’s too cold. Austen specialises in wit and social observation and she confines it to her own class. She writes about what interests her - a cardinal rule of writing - and she does what she does well.

Exactly! Getting a point across using what Sir Walter Scott called “the big bow-wow strain” (describing his own writing) is much easier than doing it on a small scale and with tremendous subtlety. (more…)

Alert Janeites Sylvia M. and Rosa Cotton sent us a trailer for ITV’s behind-the-scenes program; this week is featuring Lewis, but we suppose the JA Season will be featured sooner or later, as it appears in the trailer. We also found, at the same site, a trailer just for Mansfield Park. We are fairly certain that none of the dialogue highlighted is actually in the novel; interesting considering how much of the novel must have been cut to make it fit two hours.

Also we found an article about Newby Hall, where the novel was filmed.

She said: “It had the right look, the right period, the right scale of house for a baronet, beautiful grounds, delightful owners and an estate manager who helped us to organise the whole enterprise. Mercifully, we didn’t have the usual problems with telegraph poles and overhead wiring; the landscape around Newby Hall is refreshingly free of visible 21st century nuisances.”

*coughexceptbadadapterscough*

Speaking of, Jed Mercurio discusses the difficulties of adapting classic literature in The Guardian.

But marketing original drama isn’t easy. I’ve created four original series so far, and every single one felt more of a challenge to promote than to write. The audience doesn’t now the story or the characters. That’s hard to explain in a trailer or a billboard poster.

Now compare the adaptation. Frankenstein is a concept the audience understands from the title alone; the project is already “branded” without a single poster or preview. The strength of the adaptation lies in its commercial viability.

So then why is it necessary to “modernize” the stories for younger audiences? We wonder…

Novelist Michelle Styles is shocked to learn that her child’s teacher considers Pride and Prejudice “a girl’s novel.”

When did JA become for women only? She is a classical writer who helped make the modern novel what it is today. P&P is far more than simply a good romance to curl up with. It is just as worthy as Waterland to be studied. Has its success as a romance blinded people to its other qualities? When I did Emma at school, the emphasis was on the characterization and social satire, rather than on the story. I don’t think the boys complained. Why should a novel with a good and easily accessible plot be ignored in favoured of something that may or may not stand the test of time.

We thought some of our male readers would like to respond.

Alert Janeite Sylvia M. found some musings about Becoming Jane in The Observer.

Some people are being sniffy about the new biopic, Becoming Jane. What were the producers supposed to do? There will always be an audience greedy for Jane Austen on screen, but she only published six books and they can’t just keep remaking Mansfield Park. The alternative was trying to film the unfinished Sanditon, but that’s a real coach crash of a novel (in-joke for the diehard Austen fans there).

Yes, yes, we get it.

Sylvia M. opined that she wouldn’t mind seeing a filmed version of the completion of Sanditon by “Another Lady.” We like that book and love the fragment, and wouldn’t mind seeing a completed version filmed, either; though, pray, not adapted by Andrew Davies.

Hathaway hasn’t made an effort to get ugly in her Austen guise, but she has done her best to be Method. She bought quill pens so that she could write home while imagining herself to be Jane Austen. She also told the press that she had used her ‘British accent’ on and off set, and eaten beans on toast and Marmite. All Jane Austen’s favourites.

No doubt.

We won’t bother to parse the faux letters home, but allow our Gentle Readers to enjoy and discuss themselves.

We know that because we got about four hundred e-mails AND a copy of the New York Times book section left on our desk at le travail du journée in relation to their article on The Annotated Pride and Prejudice and other books, not all related to Jane Austen. It was the feature article on the front page of the section, with a huge illustration (same one as in the link), so we guess the flurry of notice and activity is not all that surprising.

What is a little surprising is that, of all the books about Jane Austen’s novels that could have been named, the author of the piece chose to highlight What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew by Daniel Pool, as it’s been out for around ten years (we’ve had our copy about that long, anyway) and it is much more oriented to Victorian novels than to the Regency/Georgian setting of Jane Austen’s novels, making it not that useful for Janeites, though interesting to read for those who enjoy novels set in Victorian times. The 19th century was not that homogenous in its customs and outlook, and there is not a lot of primary resource material for the earlier period, so most books on “19th century” history are not helpful to those wanting to know more about Jane Austen’s time. Trust us, we know this, from researching another book, perhaps more suitable to the purpose. (Here endeth today’s shameless self-promotion) (more…)

Alert Janeite Amo spotted confirmation on her agent’s site that Hattie Morahan (IMDB page) will play Elinor Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility 2007. Hattie joins Charity Wakefield (IMDB page) as Marianne, also confirmed on the agency site (same agency!) No confirmation yet on the rumor of Dominic Cooper as Edward Ferrars.

Ms. Wakefield’s page says she has “just started” shooting and Ms. Morahan’s page says she is “about to start” shooting. Obviously they must be done casting…we need news!