Knit the Classics, a blog that combines a group read with group knitting, is reading, discussing, and having their needlework inspired by Mansfield Park this month. One hopes someone will make Miss Price a pretty shawl to keep off the draughts when she is sitting in the east room with no fire…

We found a review of The Companion Chronicles, audiobooks of Dr. Who adventures narrated by four of the companions of the various incarnations of the doctor. What does this have to do with Jane Austen, you may well ask?

Frostfire is the best of the four. Marc Platt is the author: he lands the Doctor, Vicki and Steven in the frozen London of 1814, where they team up with Jane Austen - Jane Austen - to defeat a nefarious force that threatens to suck the energy out from the whole of London, and maybe the world. Platt and through him Maureen O’Brien (playing Vicki for the first time in over forty years!) between them catch the First Doctor’s voice perfectly, though poor Steven doesn’t get much to do. It’s nice to have a framing narrative of Vicki - now Cressida - reminiscing about the events of years before, for her subjective time line, or three thousand years in the future, by Earth time, and it turns out to have more relevance to events than anticipated. There is a typical Marc Platt paradox by way of plot resolution, and you have to swallow the concept of Jane Austen as woman of action, but it is tremendously enjoyable.

We found Frostfire for sale at play.com, if you would like to check it out.

Alert Janeite Diane let us know that Barnes & Noble’s online book club will be reading the Annotated Pride and Prejudice beginning June 4; though it looks like the discussion has already begun. Editor David M. Shapard will be taking part in the discussion.

Becoming Jane Austen is not the travesty you might think it is, considering the film that it has inspired; the filmmakers have apparently taken a general theme and a very little piece of the book and run, very far, with it. The book is a thoughtful look at Jane Austen’s life, and has some interesting things to say. We ultimately found the author’s arguments unconvincing, but feel that interested Janeites should not hesitate to read the book in conjunction with less speculative biographical material.

The book covers the basic outline of the little that is known about Jane Austen’s life; the difference from other biographies comes in the speculation on Jane’s motives and inspiration. Mr. Spence sees Jane’s brief romance with Tom Lefroy as the biggest inspiration in her life, along with the flirtation between Henry Austen and Eliza de Feuillide.

Spence argues that Jane and Tom, rather than parting forever in January 1797, did have an understanding of sorts; Jane only had to pass muster with Tom’s demanding uncle, who was paying Tom’s way through law school. Spence speculates that Jane was not found an acceptable bride for an up-and-coming young barrister, but Tom never told her so; while she waited for him in vain, thinking that they were to be married at some point, she wrote Pride and Prejudice as a “gift of love.” Spence claims that Jane dropped in names from Tom’s family (his mother’s maiden name was Gardiner) and his favorite novel, Tom Jones (though Cecilia, from which Jane Austen took the title of P&P, also has a character named Bennet) as hidden messages for Tom, but he became engaged to an Irish heiress only a few months after the time of the alleged uncle-vetting, several months before George Austen sought publication for First Impressions.

All this sleuthing makes for interesting reading, but one should keep in mind–as it is not really made clear by Mr. Spence’s writing style–that it is all speculation. Whether it is convincing is up to the individual reader. We would strongly advise against reading this book without reference to other works, equally speculative but written with equal scholarship, that have very different things to say about Jane and Tom; then make up your own mind.

Another theme that Spence accords to Jane’s novels is coded messages to Eliza de Feuillide–first to stay away from Henry Austen, and then later to telegraph Jane’s approval of their marriage. We found the claim that Northanger Abbey is such a message to be particularly specious. How can anyone write about the meaning of Northanger Abbey without once mentioning The Mysteries of Udolpho? Indeed Mr. Spence makes no mention of the influence of literature on Jane Austen’s work, which we think is an unfortunate omission.

We also found it interesting that the story of the Mysterious Suitor-by-the-Sea–the story Cassandra Austen supposedly told a couple of nieces about a gentleman who showed a romantic interest in Jane Austen, which Jane returned, somewhere around 1801, but then he died before he could pursue it–is relegated to an appendix. That brief romance, which admittedly may or may not have happened, and Jane’s purported interest in that gentleman, would pretty much explode most of Mr. Spence’s theories about Tom Lefroy’s influence on Jane Austen’s life and work, and putting it in almost as an afterthought strikes us as a trifle evasive. Better to try to explain it away within the text, we think.

All this being said, we hold it a good thing to challenge one’s dearly-held beliefs once in a while; blows out the mental cobwebs and makes one rethink, re-evaluate and restate one’s position, even if one remains unconvinced by new arguments. So if you are interested in reading Becoming Jane Austen, Gentle Reader, we suggest that you do so, particularly with the film coming out; but we suggest that you balance it with more traditional approaches to Jane Austen’s life and work.

Review by academichussy

Most books that deal with Jane Austen in some regard that are not mainly academic or at least well researched tend to fall flat on their faces. And Austenland by Shannon Hale is no exception.

Ms. Hale, who up till now wrote young adult books and is making the move to adult fiction, hasn’t really quite grasped the concept of “adult” fiction. The advanced reading copy is a mere 195 pages from start to finish and I finished the book in a few hours. The premise, about a young woman dreaming of her own Mr. Darcy (and who seriously hasn’t?) seems to lack the sophistication that an adult book should have. The main character, Jane, is supposedly in her early 30s, but there is no depth to her and her actions sometimes feel as though she IS indeed a teenager struggling with her hormones. At times I felt like I was imagining Jane popping big pink pieces of bubblegum and twirling her hair around one finger.

The concept, I’ll give Ms. Hale, is a good one. It was an idea I had been toying with myself (as I’m sure that there are others that have toyed with the same), but overall, the book is just one big piece of fluff with very little substance. And call me pedantic, but on the very first page she refers to Jennifer Ehle not by name but as the “comely, busty English actress.” Ehle, as we know, is an American despite the fact that she’s lived and worked in London for many years.

Either way, it’s not that this little gem is a bad read, but if you love Jane Austen or are even remotely familiar with the Regency era, this is just crap. They are also cross-promoting the book in the YA market, which makes sense to some degree, but seriously, knowing how huge the Austen-pop culture has become, why on earth are they marketing this for adults when it is clearly not geared to us?

Alert Janeite Franka let us know that the Dutch television network NCRV will be showing three Austen films in June. Franka says that the festival is in honor of the 190th anniversary of Jane’s death; we agree with her that it is an odd thing to celebrate, and besides they’re off by a month or so!

The films are Persuasion on 3 June (we’re not sure which one–they have a photo of the 1995 version, and a link to a trailer that didn’t work for us but is probably the 1995 version, though it makes more sense that it would be the newer one), Northanger Abbey on 10 June, and Emma (we think the Kate Beckinsale one) on 17 June. Enjoy your festival!