With all the interest in the Rice portrait auction next week, JASNA has added some information about another possible portrait of Jane Austen to their Web site. The little painting, from James Stanier Clarke’s “Friendship Book,” is unidentified, but many experts think it quite possibly a painting of Jane Austen. Jane met Clarke, the librarian to the Prince Regent, when he called upon her at the Regent’s command and gave her a private tour of Carlton House, the Regent’s London residence. He seemed rather taken with our Jane and helpfully suggested several subjects for her upcoming novels. (What a guy.) In our more fanciful moments, we like to think that Mr. Clarke had a bit of a crush on Jane.

JASNA has been granted permission to reproduce the portrait on their Web site (that means: don’t steal it for your own site) and also has uploaded a PDF of Joan Klingel Ray’s article about the painting from Persuasions No. 27.

Like the Rice portrait, we put this in the Definite Maybe category. We’ll most likely never know for sure; but it’s fun to speculate and discuss.

We suppose you all have noticed the banner ad at the top of the page (and it’s a pretty good deal! ETA: the code should work now!), and we thought it time to announce our “If I Am A Wild Beast I Cannot Help It” World Tour 2007: Spanning the Globe from Philadelphia to Willow Grove! (That is quite hilarious if you are from the area. Trust us. Really!) We have set up a page at Tilneys and Trap-doors for our public appearances in support of our upcoming book, The Jane Austen Handbook: A Sensible Yet Elegant Guide to Her World, over the next month or so.

The Editrix will be signing books at the Quirk Books Booth at the Philadelphia Book Festival 2007 on Saturday, April 21, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. (though the Book Festival goes on all day Saturday and Sunday). The booth will be located on 19th Street near Vine Street in Center City Philadelphia.

We also will be at the Jane Austen Book Fair at the Barnes & Noble store in Willow Grove, PA on Saturday, April 28, from 2 to 4 p.m. The Book Fair, which benefits JASNA’s Eastern Pennsylvania/Delaware Valley Region, will go on all day. If you plan to make any purchases at the store that day, please download this voucher (PDF); ten percent of all purchases (except for food items or gift cards) made at the store with the voucher on April 28 will go to JASNA. The Editrix and her friend Diane Wilkes, author of The Tarot of Jane Austen, will sign their books, and Diane tell us she will be doing fun tarot-card-related things, so we will have to come up with something diabolical, that is, equally wonderful.

If you will not be able to come to either of these appearances, we will have signed bookplates available via snail mail. Details to follow!

The lovely and talented Jim Macdonald watched P&P95 the other day and, like many of us, let his imagination roam.

For example: Mary “You have delighted us long enough” Bennet playing pianoforte and singing at the ball at Netherfield Park. Imagine if she had sung, instead of the rather dull song she attempted, the Cab Calloway Saint James Infirmary Blues, or Minnie the Moocher. That would have certainly enlivened the party.

No doubt; but imagine what Mr. Collins would say!

Or, during the period when Mr. Bingley is in London, he rents Netherfield Park to Sir Francis Varney. Into every generation a slayer is born … Mary Bennet, Vampyre Slayer. She alone will have the strength and skill to fight the vampires, demons, and forces of darkness …

And here some are saying it was Asperger’s syndrome! Check out the post, and the comments; they enlivened our day (and we had our share in the conversation, of course).

Erine (the jewelry designer formerly known here as Lin) has followed her Persuasion and Northanger Abbey-inspired earrings with a set inspired by the ladies of Pride and Prejudice. If you are interested in purchasing a pair of these earrings, leave Erine a comment on her Livejournal or send her an e-mail at austen DOT inspirations AT gmail DOT com.