Considering the AP article about the Christie’s auction of the so-called “Rice portrait” contains some of what is called “mushy language” at the Editrix’s travail du journée, we are delighted to see that JASNA has published more extensive information about the portrait on their Web site.

Elsa Solender, past JASNA president, has written a short overview of the situation with more information about the auction: it will take place on April 19, 2007 at 2 p.m. 10 a.m. (please note change in time), and there will be free viewings of the portrait at Christie’s Rockefeller Center galleries on April 15-18 (see the article for details on time). The auction itself also is open to the public.

JASNA also has uploaded a PDF of the article from the Summer 2004 issue of JASNA News about the portrait, which we referenced in our previous post on the portrait. (The Editrix wrote a long essay about the article on her personal blog.) The article contains more extensive information about the claims of the painting as a portrait of Jane Austen.

There also is a link to the Christie’s listing, which has extensive information about the provenance of the painting and how it passed through the Austen and Rice families to the present owner as well as information about the various details that Christie’s took into account in deciding upon the painting’s authenticity.

Singer/songwriter Rosie Bell decided that Jane Austen’s female characters need jobs, and did a little career counseling for the ladies.

Elizabeth Bennet is of course the most attractive young woman in English fiction – witty, intelligent and outspoken. She can play and sing, though not brilliantly (”more pleasing than capital”), that is, she can project her personality in performance. She can be lead singer of a rock band and will give great chat between the songs and wow them at interviews.

Of her four sisters, there is Jane Bennet who believes the best of everybody so she can be a much put upon social worker, who is careful not to be “judgemental”; Mary Bennet who mistakes jargon for knowledge so can teach Cultural Studies somewhere; while the noisy and flirtatious Lydia Bennet is a pole dancer in a club; and the insipid Kitty Bennet, always following her sister, runs the club’s cloakroom.

Rosie makes inspired choices for all the ladies in each of the novels. Do check out this hilarious post!

The Page 99 Test blog recruited Deirdre Lynch, editor of the Oxford World’s Edition of Persuasion and the book Janeites: Austen’s Disciples and Devotees, to give Persuasion the Page 99 Test: “Open the book to page ninety-nine and read, and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you.” (Ford Madox Ford) Professor Lynch used the Oxford World’s Edition of the novel for the test.

As it happens, p. 99 takes us straight to the opening of the novel’s second volume and so to a moment when, as seasoned readers of early-nineteenth-century fiction, we are expecting to gear up for transition. We’re at chapter 1 again, and primed for a fresh start. Persuasion, however, investigates the situation of a woman who — older than is the norm for an Austen protagonist — feels as if change is no longer possible. Persuaded to break off her engagement with Captain Wentworth eight years before the novel opens, Anne Elliot looks initially to be a heroine who already may have missed her only chance at a story, who is forced accordingly to live off and in memory. With the end of a long war, Wentworth returns to England and back into her social circle, but Anne won’t let herself re-open the book on the past and let herself hope: “Now they were as strangers; nay, worse than strangers, for they could never become acquainted. It was a perpetual estrangement.” Still, Volume 1 ends with signs of change. The characters visit the seaside, Anne, revived by the change of scene, seems to start to live in the present — and then, suddenly, there comes an accident of unexpected, frightening seriousness: Louisa Musgrove (the woman Wentworth appears to be courting) falls from atop a breakwater. As careful readers, witnessing this accident, we will have noticed how at this moment of panic, Wentworth, usually in command, now helpless, turns to Anne for assistance.

We wonder what Page 99 was in the little duodecimo volumes of the original? Hmmm.

(Hey, they mention Buffy, and the references suggest themselves.) Alert Janeites Ann and Kirsten sent us a link to a conversation with David Shapard, the editor of The Annotated Pride and Prejudice, on NPR’s “Talk of the Nation,” discussing the historical context of the novel and how the footnotes illuminate the text. Follow the link to listen to the conversation online.

Jay Handelman reviews the Asolo Repertory’s production of Pride and Prejudice, currently on stage in Sarasota, Florida. First he points out a common problem with just about any literary adaptation:

There have been more than a dozen stage adaptations of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice,” and none of them has ever approached the popularity of the book. This sweeping story of romance in early 19th century has so much to tell that it’s nearly impossible to get it all onto the stage in any way that matches the grace of Austen’s classic novel. Transforming all the wonderfully expressive, internal thoughts of the characters into something dramatic on stage represents a formidable challenge.

Tell us about it, bubba.

Catherine Sheehy’s new version, commissioned by the Asolo Repertory Theater, gets in most of the major plot lines and some minor subplots, but relies too heavily on narration. The audience is told what happened rather than seeing events unfold. And director Mark Rucker, Sheehy’s longtime collaborator, tends to have his cast members line up to have conversations, diminishing any sense of natural exchanges.

[. . .]

The three-hour running time gives the playwright a chance to deal with a lot of the story, but Sheehy has not found a way to also get the audience to really care about Austen’s characters.

Well, it’s early yet. We hope some of our Gentle Readers get to see this production and send us a review!

All the excitement over the reveal of the cover art for the last Harry Potter book prompted Alert Janeite Sarah O. to send us a note pointing out an interesting tidbit from J.K. Rowling’s author photo from the “adult edition” of the book.

It may be a common promo picture, but I was looking at the new adult cover art for the final Harry Potter book, and noticed JK Rowling has a copy of Jane Austen’s letters on her book case (Above her left shoulder, i.e. on the right of the pic). When I think about it, Rowling has used letters in some very important ways in her books; perhaps she learned this from Austen?

An excellent point! Discuss!

*sigh* Guess we’ll have to make a category for this, though every feeling revolts! Alert Janeite Elizabeth sent us a link with a little more information about the upcoming ITV program (not sure if it’s meant to be a one-off or a series), Lost In Austen.

ITV is to turn Pride and Prejudice into a time-travel saga. The broadcaster wants to emulate the success of the BBC One series Life on Mars, in which a detective is catapulted back in time, and build on the triumph of a run of Jane Austen adaptations, featuring stars such as Billie Piper.

In Lost in Austen, Amanda, a chardonnay-swigging West London girl, discovers a bonnet-wearing woman in her bathroom who introduces herself as Elizabeth Bennet. Through a series of accidents, Amanda is transported to Regency England, where she melts before Mr Darcy’s brooding glare. Miss Bennet, meanwhile, breathes life into the modern girl’s useless boyfriend.

It’s official. They’re filming fan fiction.

Alert Janeite AmandaJ sent us a link to ABC’s “Margaret and David” review of Becoming Jane, which has just opened Down Under.

DAVID: Margaret?

MARGARET: It seems like a retrograde version of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE.

DAVID: Sort of, yeah.

MARGARET: Doesn’t it, because, I mean, we just had Keira Knightley striding through the fields, getting mud-splattered and realistic in the last version, and this seems to me terribly cliched and rather unimaginative, particularly in its casting.

DAVID: Yeah, it’s a case of deja vu, isn’t it?

MARGARET: Yes. It’s sort of a shame that they broached this subject that should have been really interesting and really just tried to regurgitate what we’ve seen quite a few times before.