Does anyone have a copy of the 1977 edition of Pemberley Shades by D. A. Bonavia-Hunt? If so, please e-mail the Editrix. (No, we don’t want to buy it; we have a question about it.)

Review by Diana Birchall

The Jane Austen boom heats up with the arrival of screenwriter/director Robin Swicord’s deft and funny adaptation of Karen Joy Fowler’s popular novel. Six women who form a book club to read their way through Jane Austen’s novels may sound like a recipe for a summer nap, but Swicord’s charming comedy is bright and alert. A bitingly funny opening montage shows the irritating overload of computers and cell phones gone mad in modern city life, and we immediately understand why the book club members need to escape into the Austen canon for solace. Ironically, their fraught lives find their own reflection in the books – Sylvia (Amy Brennerman), whose husband is having an affair, trembles at the infidelities in Mansfield Park; her charmingly accident prone lesbian daughter Allegra (Maggie Grace) is drawn to the duality of Sense and Sensibility; and Grigg (Hugh Dancy), the group’s one male member, is an adorable modern day Mr. Darcy as computer nerd. The ensemble’s hilariously disparate characters have a warm chemistry together and are impressive individually. Amy Brennerman’s emotionally wrenching Sylvia is tenderly supported by the expressive Maggie Grace as her daughter, and Maria Bello is outstanding as a ditz who’s emotionally lavish with her dogs but unavailable for relationships. Swicord, employing lively, vibrant camera work and joyously colorful settings, orchestrates the unlikely spectacle of actors doing lit crit with jokes, with such seemingly effortless verve as to put us, as Jane Austen said, in “dancing, laughing, exclaiming spirits.”

We are delighted to report that Jane Austen prevailed in last week’s round against Edgar Allen Poe at The Book Mine Set, and this week she’s up against a very tough adversary: Lucy Maud Montgomery. (We know a few Janeites who will be rending their garments over this decision.) Go vote! You have till July 10th!

Alert Janeite MJ Ryan let us know that the 1940 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice will be spotlighted on Turner Classic Movies on July 21. MJ tells us,

The hosts for this series this season are Robert Osborne and Carrie Fisher. A short (2-3 minute) discussion by the two hosts of the movie and why it’s an essential will precede and follow the movie.

A good opportunity to see it if you haven’t–they’re all worth seeing at least once, no matter what you’ve heard.

Calling all Janeites in Louisville! A meeting to organize a new JASNA region in Louisville will be held next Saturday Sunday, July 15.

Fans of author Jane Austen who would like to form a regional chapter of the Jane Austen Society of North America are invited to an organizational meeting at 2 p.m. July 15 at Historic Locust Grove, 561 Blankenbaker Lane. Call (502) 897-9845.

Good luck with the organizing! We are a life member of JASNA and enjoy it very much. Do check it out if you are in the area (and really anywhere in the U.S. or Canada–check to see if you have a local region.)

Our only excuse for skipping Friday Bookblogging is that we have lots of projects going on right now and lots of deadlines; including Chapter Seven of “There Must Be Murder,” which should be posted very soon.

There’s not much out new in Jane Austen-related books, but one title we really would like to bring to your attention is a re-release of Irene Collins’ excellent biography Jane Austen: The Parson’s Daughter. It discusses the early part of Jane Austen’s life, up until the time she leaves Steventon, and how being the daughter of the rector of Steventon shaped her life and her writing. If you have not read any of Irene Collins’ books about Jane Austen–well, what are you waiting for? We cannot recommend this book highly enough, especially in the face of what we’re going to get in the cinema this summer.

Another new book worthy of notice is Dover’s new edition of Jane Austen’s unfinished works, Sanditon and The Watsons. If you have not yet read these two fragments, we recommend that you do so, as they provide excellent insights into Jane’s skill level and working style at two times in her career; for The Watsons, early in her career (between P&P and NA) and for Sanditon, the last thing she wrote, and even in its unfinished state a work of brilliance.

If you’re up for reading Jane-related works online, you’re in luck. An anonymous contributor sent us a link to a comic book version of Pride and Prejudice that is being published on Flickr. It’s a work in progress; in the latest page, Elizabeth refuses to walk with Mr. Darcy, Miss Bingley and Mrs. Hurst at Netherfield. (This is not to be confused with the manga-style comic P&P that, as far as we know, is still in the works. If this gives you a taste for Jane Austen comics, don’t forget the wonderful version of Northanger Abbey included in Graphic Classics Volume 14.)

We’ve already mentioned the special edition of Persuasions On-Line dedicated to P&P05. We are looking forward to working our way through the articles.