The winner of the drawing for a copy of 101 Things You Didn’t Know About Jane Austen by Patrice Hannon is….Rob Hardy! (Who apparently is not the same Robert Hardy who played General Tilney and Sir John Middleton in various Austen adaptations, though his first posts gave us a bit of a turn.)

Congratulations, Rob!

Just like last week with MP, we’re interested in your opinion of the new film version of Northanger Abbey. Let us know if you’re familiar with the novel as well–we won’t make fun of you, we promise, we just find it interesting to compare the opinions of those who have read the novel with those who have not.

NA07 tonight for the Brits, and Alert Janeite Kathleen sent us scans of the Radio Times articles about the film. The main article seems to be establishing the meme that no doubt will be rammed down our throats: that NA isn’t that good anyway, so isn’t it lovely that Andrew Davies has fixed it?

Lustful brigands, rumpled beds, girls in their nighties tied to trees…it’s hardly Jane Austen as we know it, but ITV’s production of Northanger Abbey is the most enormous fun. Adapted for the screen by Andrew Davies, the script plays expertly with the Gothic fantasies underpinning Austen’s least-filmed–and possibly, least-loved–text.

There are just so many things wrong with that sentence that we are at a loss. (more…)

A few more articles surfaced in reference to the makeover Jane Austen received for the new Wordsworth Edition of the J.E. Austen-Leigh Memoir. Kathryn Hughes points out that this sort of thing has happened before:

A few years ago, I published a biography of George Eliot. Now, if Austen was average looking, it’s only fair to say that Eliot was a bit of a dog: a huge nose, mannish chin and crumbling teeth did not make for a great look.

When it came to deciding on a cover for the book, my publishers gave me no option: there was one passable portrait of Eliot, painted by a man who probably had a crush on her, which would form the basis of the cover image. Even then, the image would be touched up: out came the Bobbi Brown lipstick again, not to mention a bit of Touche Eclat. By the end, she looked like a proper princess.

Barbara Ellen writes that biofilms of famous authors do pretty much the same thing–and worse. (Thanks to Alert Janeite Rob Hardy for the link.)

If even the literary establishment thinks one of its biggest female hitters is a dog, what hope does Austen, or any ‘ordinary woman’, have in Hollywood? Of course, what used to happen quite a lot was a reworking of the madonna-whore routine, sexing everything up to ludicrous degrees (recall, if you will, Jennifer Jason Leigh panting her way through Mrs Parker and the Vicious Circle). However, this doesn’t seem to be the case with Zellweger or Hathaway. Rather, in a direct reversal of ’sexing’ prominent women up, Hollywood appears to have taken to toning them down, rebranding them (or should one say re-blanding?) as wispy, likable, ‘fragrant’ characters. All resulting in less a reworking of a woman’s life story and character than a near-evaporation.

At thespoof.com, they get downright silly.

“Look, I don’t want to offend any feminists out there…” said Helen Trayler of Wordsworth, “… but Mr. Darcy wouldn’t have given this chick a second look. She’s just dog-ugly. So, we decided the best way to start the true book of her life was to lie on the front cover.”

Colin Firth was asked to look at the original picture, with his insight into Mr Darcy, and to give an honest opinion.

“They say you can’t judge a book by it’s cover. But how can you not when the woman was so clearly covered with ugliness?” Said Firth.*

Hilarious. We’re rolling on the floor here.

*Disclaimer: We’re quite certain Mr. Firth said no such thing–that piece is meant as a parody.

Alert Janeite Franka let us know that the IMDB is reporting that Dominic Cooper, previously listed as Edward Ferrars, actually is playing Willoughby, and that Dan Stevens is playing Edward Ferrars. Franka opined that Dan Stevens looks more like a Willoughby, but we think Dominic Cooper has a bad-boy vibe to him that will suit Willoughby, especially since we’ve been told that the first scene will reveal his villainy anyway.

As always, treat this as rumor until confirmed somewhere more official than the IMDB.

The Jane Austen Society of North America has digitized Volume No. 13 of Persuasions, their yearly journal, and made it available on the organization’s site. The volume includes papers given at the 1991 Annual General Meeting in Ottawa, Ontario, which had Emma as its theme. (Just like the upcoming AGM in Vancouver!) There’s some really interesting papers here, and we look forward to reading them.