Review by MJRyan

Old Friends and New Fancies by Sybil G. Brinton bills itself as the very first Austen sequel. In this age of hyperbole, that seems like just the next outrageous statement in a long line of outrageous statements. However, this is a re-issue of a novel published in 1913. Imagine! An Austen-inspired sequel that hasn’t been influenced in any way, shape or form by Andrew Davies, Colin Firth, Emma Thompson, Keira Knightley or the BBC. Needless to say, I jumped at the chance to review a book unadulterated by pop culture.

Most unlike its inspirations, the novel opens with a broken engagement. It also opens with a healthy dose of a few of Austen’s least likable characters - Lady Catherine, Lucy Ferrars and Anne Steele. An inauspicious beginning, indeed. It seems that Lady Catherine and Anne de Bourgh are in Bath and have quite the group of hangers-on perfectly willing to bend to Lady Catherine’s wishes and whims. Especially simpering and scheming is Lucy Ferrars, who has her sights on Colonel Fitzwilliam for her sister Anne Steele. Unfortunately for Miss Steele, when the Darcys arrive with Fitzwilliam in tow to put in their requisite two-week appearance (the rift between Lady Catherine and Darcy at the end of Pride and Prejudice is never mentioned), Fitzwilliam is immediately enchanted with Miss Mary Crawford.

Characters from every novel are either woven into the story or mentioned making me wonder whom this novel was going to focus on. Once the narrative moves from Bath to Pemberley and London the focus narrows down to Colonel Fitzwilliam, Georgiana and Kitty Bennet, with Georgiana being the emotional center and primary focus of the novel. The overpopulation of characters in the story, some needlessly mentioned, made the story seem cluttered. I found myself, especially at the beginning, having to stop and think about the character mentioned, what book they were from, their previous relationships in the source novel and the new relationships within this novel. I loved that there was a list of characters and their respective books at the front of the novel. I wish all novels had a character list. I also think it should be a literary law that a map of the novel setting should be included at the front of every book. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a little map of England to see where Derbyshire is in relation to Herfordshire and London, especially for new readers? But, I love maps and looking at maps so I could be alone in the promotion of this literary law. I digress. Back to the book review.

While I was always aware I wasn’t reading Austen, the author does an admirable job of writing in Austen’s style, focusing on the perils and pitfalls of finding and retaining love in Regency England. Her interpretation of all characters with the possible exception of Elizabeth Bennet, are spot on. While it would be difficult to have Austen’s continuous wit, the author instills enough that I found myself laughing aloud quite a bit. The too brief appearance of Mr. Bennet especially made me chuckle.

Since it is a sequel to all of Austen’s novels, it would be a good idea to have read all of the books before you read this. At the very least, you should have a good familiarity with the scandal at Mansfield Park, the characters of Pride and Prejudice and the personalities of the characters from Sense and Sensibility before picking up Old Friends and New Fancies. If you’re searching for a book similar in tone and sensibility to Austen’s work but totally lacking feverish embraces or mention of tan breeches look no further. Old Friends and New Fancies will be a very satisfying read.

AustenBlog is giving away a copy of Old Friends and New Fancies, courtesy of Sourcebooks. Send your name, full mailing address, and your favorite Austen villain to editor@austenblog.com by 10 p.m. Eastern time, Tuesday, September 4, 2007.

We heard back from Sony Pictures Classics with more details of U.S. release dates for The Jane Austen Book Club.

The film opens on September 21 in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco/Bay Area, Scottsdale AZ, Chicago and Boston.

On September 28, it expands to Denver, Washington, Baltimore, Portland, Philadelphia, Dallas, Houston and Seattle.

On October 5, the film will expand throughout Alaska, Alabama, all throughout California, some more Colorado, all throughout Florida, Atlanta, Des Moines, Indianapolis, Kansas, Kentucky, New Orleans, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, all throughout New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Washington.

Stay tuned to AustenBlog for TJABC goodies and swag!

Variety has an article about Robin Swicord’s journey of making this film.

So she went back to a passion project she and Sony’s Amy Pascal had talked about for some 15 years, a movie about people who love Jane Austen. “Amy and I got serious about trying to do a movie about a dysfunctional family of Jane Austen scholars that would echo some aspects of ‘Pride and Prejudice,’” Swicord recalls. As of June 2006, Swicord’s “The Jane Prize,” an academic family comedy in the vein of “You Can’t Take It With You,” was on a slow track.

Then producer Calley, who once ran Sony Pictures Entertainment and still checks in regularly with Pascal, approached Swicord with “The Jane Austen Book Club,” a 2004 bestseller by Karen Jay Fowler. Calley had read “The Jane Prize,” and clearly Swicord knew her Austen.

“The last thing I needed was something competing,” Swicord says. So she decided to do both.

According to Diana Birchall’s article from the set of the film in the latest issue of JASNA News, Ms. Swicord hopes to make The Jane Project her next, um, project; presumably it will happen only if TJABC does well.

Alert Janeite (and dedicated member of Team Tilney) Kelley B. sent us an article from the Salisbury Journal about Tim Luscombe, who adapted Northanger Abbey for the stage and is directing the production in Salisbury from September 6-29 and then make a national tour.

“My starting point is that I absolutely love it. Northanger Abbey is my very favourite Jane Austen book and it is a short novel. I just love Henry Tilney - people do.”

That might be the understatement of the century.

“He is so very wise,” says Tim. “Always ready to forgive other people. He has every right to be furious with Catherine, but ends up forgiving her, and teaching her to use her imagination in a more sensible way.”

*siiiiiigh* …. what were we talking about again?

The Gothic theme of the play will also be reflected in the lighting design, which will be in the style of the 19th- century German romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich, who used sepia ink to achieve his distinctive and striking images.

Sounds like fun! If you get to go, don’t forget to tell us about it.

Alert Janeite Lisa spotted an Austen reference in The Times’ TV column:

Jane Austen’s diabolical plans for world domination from beyond the grave continue unabated

Drat. Baldrick Dorothy, they’ve discovered our cunning plan…

The San Francisco Chronicle likes the musical production of Emma currently playing at TheatreWorks, though its praise is in terms that disturb us not a little.

All right, all you keepers of the Jane Austen flame, get over it. The new musical adaptation of “Emma” that’s onstage at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts almost certainly won’t conform to those burnished ideas of the 1816 English novel that Austen acolytes cherish.

Oh, hush. As long as it’s good, we’ll put up with a few inconsistencies…but only if it’s good.

You may well resist this take on a bright and ambitious young woman’s maturation that plays more like “Legally Blonde” - or “Legally Brunette” in this case - than it does some respectful PBS adaptation with period music.

Oh, heaven forfend an adaptation be respectful. Snotty yuppies the world over might have their moderne mellow harshed, and illiterate teenagers (and adults!) might actually learn something.

The show’s strongest suit may be its score. First, Gordon has the undervalued knack for writing memorable melodies. Some are ardently lyrical (Mr. Knightley’s impassioned “Emma”); others are sweetly comic (Harriet’s reverent love hymn “Mr. Robert Martin”). Second, in his Sondheimian mode, the composer can musicalize more complex emotional states, such as paradox (”The Conviction of My Indifference”) or emotional detachment and self-deception (”This Is How Love Feels”).

Now, that’s better.

The modernization that this reviewer so liked is disparaged, however, by the National Examiner.

Classics can be updated, sometimes with great success, but changing a comedy of manners into a musically bland piece of 21st century lack of manners is rather strange. The original Emma was already a too-modern figure in pre-Victorian England, matchmaking blithely and disastrously, shocking and charming the reader.

And yet, Austen’s Emma has almost nothing to do with the element-of-nature actress playing her in Mountain View — the sensational Lianne Marie Dobbs, who channels Barbra Streisand, Ethel Merman and Olga Korbut all in one. In directing her, Kelley must have remembered the words of his beloved Stephen Sondheim: “She twitters/She floats/Isn’t that alarming? What is she, a bird?”

Olga Korbut?

The rest of the large, hardworking cast is given over the Gordon’s excessive modernization, acting too large, in an un-British in-your-face amplification.

Thanks to Alert Janeite Lisa for the links.

Two articles from two different countries present Jane Austen as a pop icon and representation of her time, and ours.

Alert Janeite Miss V. let us know that The Sydney Morning Herald has an article about how the England of Jane Austen is long gone, despite tourism fueled by film adaptations (which we blogged about a few days ago).

Is England about Austen and rose gardens, or is it really just a dreary island where the cost of living is too high and the clash of cultures too much?

It’s both, of course. If they were alive today, chances are Darcy and his creator would have thoroughly disapproved of a culture where ill-educated footballers (and their perma-tanned wives) are idolised, and where fluffy reality television shows such as Celebrity Big Brother direct the national debate on race relations.

But Austen probably would have loved the verve of the English press - for all its faults, it is probably the wildest, most passionate, and most free press in the world - and she would have adored watching the bungling royals. She was, after all, a serious gossip.

Alert Janeite Lisa sent us a link to a Newsday article about the recent emergence of Jane Austen as a pop culture icon.

So other than the sense and sensibility she brings to her novels, what is it about Austen that never seems to go out of favor? “I wrote my entire book trying to answer that question for myself,” Fowler said. “What I like about her is the romantic element, the happy endings and the chance to escape from our own wired world into a world with picnics, pastorals and swamps.”

And sandwiches aren’t the only things being attacked at those Austen picnics. “She’s just a brilliant social observer and a kind of gentle satirist,” said Scott Harshbarger, associate professor of English at Hofstra University. “She’s right in the middle of the romantic age, which was a very turbulent era with a great deal of social unrest. Yet her novels all take place in drawing rooms and balls and really explore the minutiae and ironies of society. People have read her novels as a way of escaping the scary world outside. It’s nice to escape to this wonderfully nuanced social reality that she’s created.”

We have confirmation from Sony Pictures Classics that The Jane Austen Book Club will open in “select cities” in the U.S. on September 21 and nationwide on October 5. We are attempting to ascertain if “select cities” includes any other than New York and Los Angeles (as the website currently says).

We are increasingly drawn to its elegiac tone.

P.S. Those who won the TJABC book drawing, keep an eye on your mailbox–we are told the books went out yesterday.

Lots of Janeite events this autumn! Alert Janeite Julie T. told us about a Gallery Talk at the Milwaukee Art Museum on September 23, 2007, in conjunction with JASNA’s Wisconsin Region. Amy Kirschke, who studied English Country Houses with the Attingham Trust, will be guiding visitors through the museum’s decorative arts collection, highlighting paintings, prints, and home furnishings from the Regency period and its American counterpart, emphasizing connections to Jane Austen’s life and novels. A reception with refreshments will follow the talk. The event is free with museum general admission and open to the public.

The Riversdale House Museum in Riverdale Park, Maryland, will have a talk on Jane Austen’s time in Bath on Saturday, September 29.

Jane Austen In Bath: An Afternoon in the Pump Room

Come to Riversdale on Michaelmas Day to hear Dr. Elizabeth Child speak about Jane Austen’s Bath. Survey food and fashion in the heyday of the watering place with our confectioner and milliner and partake of the waters.
Fee: $10/person - Advance registration required by September 23

Thanks to Austen-tatious for alerting us to this event.

The National Post has an article about the JASNA AGM coming up in a little more than a month in Vancouver, BC. We hope you have already registered if you wanted to attend–the event is sold out! What is it all about, you might ask?

Mary Atkins, a retired teacher from North Vancouver who has been an Austen society member for 20 years and passionate about Austen for 50, says: “My family is saying, ‘You know, she only wrote six books. How much is there to talk about?’ But there is so much contemporary information that rounds out our knowledge. It’s not just her books that are so fascinating; it’s the social history. She documents that very well.”

It’s also partly communing with fellow Janeites. Imagine geeking out on Jane in a room full of several hundred other people geeking out on Jane. How fun is that?

They’re finding out down under, too–the Sydney Morning Herald had an article about Austen fans enjoying Jane’s work, including the JASA annual meeting, which was held last weekend in Sydney, and some who don’t wait for the official events.

John Garden runs Earthly Delights, a Canberra company that specialises in all things Regency, from ballgowns to events at which more than 80 people dress and behave in the style of the era. He says: “The bulk of people who come are in their early 20s … they like the whole thing of coming together, interacting in a physical way other than just going to the pub.”

Stephanie D’Abruzzo, who played the Bingley equivalent character in last year’s off-Broadway production of I Love You Because (a modern-set musical P&P with the genders switched), will play Sam in the New York Musical Theater production of Austentatious, which will run from September 18 through 29. Austentatious is a musical about a community theater group putting on a really, really bad production of Pride and Prejudice (though we did actually rather enjoy the addition of pirates to the story). We saw the play at the Philly Fringe Festival last year and it is hilarious!

Alert Janeite Lisa sent us a link about the Dallas Theater Center’s production of Pride and Prejudice, which has previews beginning tomorrow and opens on September 4. The article reports that after the matinee on Sunday, September 9, a conversation with the director, Stan Wojewodski, Jr., and a talk-back with the cast will follow the matinee on Sunday, September 16. Both events are free.

Incidentally, alert readers will remember that we reported last week that the play inspired an article in which a no doubt well-meaning journalist used the adjective “Victorian” to describe the time period in which it is set. Lisa commented that in the photo accompanying the article about the play, the actress’ hair looks suspiciously…Victorian. We were a little more taken aback by the gentleman’s coiffure. Really, we’re surprised it wasn’t described as “Jane Eyre Meets Becks.” No doubt the actual play will be more period-correct.

A UK tourism report noted that film locations in the UK have seen increased visitors. The Bath Chronicle discusses how Austen films such as Persuasion 07 (and 95, we dare say, which showed Bath to great advantage) have increased tourism not only to Bath but to surrounding areas, such as the village of Lacock, a filming location for Pride and Prejudice 95 and Emma 96.

During 2006, the city provided the backdrop for 116 productions including TV adaptations of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, Dracula and Beau Brummel.

Wow!

The BBC noted that Basildon Park, the location for Netherfield in P&P05, experienced a 76% rise in visitors after being featured in the film. Wow X2!

Congratulations to Amy R., who won the drawing for a copy of Letters From Pemberley. We still have a pile of swag to give away, so if you didn’t win, be ready to try again!

Review by Allison Thompson

OK, kids, listen up. When family and friends ask you what you want for the holidays this year, stand up straight and reply firmly and clearly: “Lost in Austen; Create Your Own Jane Austen Adventure by Emma Campbell Webster.” Then count the days until you can unwrap your treasure.

Lost in Austen is a hoot: witty, sly and intriguing. The premise of this interactive adventure is that “you” are Elizabeth Bennet and your goal is a happy marriage to a wealthy gentleman. You start your quest with 200 Intelligence points, 200 Confidence points, a very low Fortune score of 50 points and absolutely no Connections or Accomplishments. As you pass tests and answer questions, you gain and lose various points, rapidly amassing Failings and Inferior Connections and less rapidly gaining Fortune Points and Superior Connections.

Webster’s interspersed comments and the awarding of points throughout the main narrative (that of P&P) are both perceptive and witty, but the most amusing aspect of this interactive story are the adventures that you have meeting and accepting (or rejecting—remember, it’s up to you) romantic overtures from Messrs. Knightley, Wickham, Willoughby, Churchill, Crawford, Tilney, Elton, Martin (yes, Harriet’s Robert Martin), Captain Wentworth (your first love), Tom Lefroy, and a mysterious Mr. Bennet (an estranged distant cousin). What happens to you if you do accept Mr. Collins’ proposal? What if you elope with Willoughby? Why is Lady Catherine packing heat? At unexpected points you discover that you have FAILED as a heroine and your tale is over (sometimes rather dramatically, as when you encounter the vengeful Miss Bingley as you are staggering back to the inn near Pemberley after your carriage overturns). But not to worry, just go back and make another decision to move in a different direction.

This isn’t a quick read—the fun of the book comes from flipping back and forth among the various “diversions” and dead ends as you are sent from page to page. (My particularly favorite diversion comes when you encounter a rather scary Fanny in her little white attic….) And, should you successfully complete your mission, at the end there is an intriguing final decision for you to make—depending on the level of your Intelligence Points.

Lost in Austen is in fact so entertaining that the Eager Heroine might have to buy it for herself right away and ask for a sweater for the holidays instead.

(This book has been published in the UK with the title Being Elizabeth Bennet: Create Your Own Jane Austen Adventure. — Ed.)

The first review is in of the musical production of Emma at Theatreworks in California.

Lianne Marie Dobbs couldn’t be a more scrumptious Emma, the 21-year-old landowner’s daughter whose advice wreaks havoc for anyone who admires her.

Dobbs plays Emma as more of a hurricane than a spring shower, a babelicious Auntie Mame.

Hee! One can rather imagine Miss Woodhouse saying “Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!” Though perhaps not in those exact words.

Timothy Gulan doesn’t fade into the woodwork long as Mr. Knightley, Emma’s brother-in-law and longtime pal. He complements Emma more with every insult, the wise-guy she needs more than she needs Mr. Churchill. As the leading mouthpiece for Gordon, Gulan gets a lot of the best lyrics, which are witty and full of great interior rhyming. The latter is also a component of the title song, to which Gulan imparts the longing no one was sure was part of the Knightley character, to a tune reminiscent of Jeffrey Osborne’s “On the Wings of Love.”:

“Emma, the heart wants what it wants./And it haunts me constantly when I’m with you./Emma, my soul lies at your feet./I have been discreet but now I’m overdue.”

You’ll hear that at the wedding of more than one Emma, I reckon.

Oh, we want to see this now.

Friday was a bit fraught here at AustenBlog World Headquarters, and we spent Saturday recovering on our fainting-sopha, so here we are on Sunday with all the latest news about Jane Austen’s novels and books related to them.

Alert Janeite Kay sent us a link to Minnesota Public Radio’s program with David Shapard, editor of The Annotated Pride and Prejudice. Unfortunately we were unable to listen to the program as we don’t have the Real player on our computer; we confess we are wondering why there is an image of a different edition of Pride and Prejudice displayed, and even more concerned that the author is listed as “Jane Austin.” Surely an edition of P&P edited by Claudia Johnson doesn’t have Austen misspelled on the cover, does it? Surely not!

Cheryl Klein has a great post on her blog about reading Jane Austen’s novels at particular seasons. Book groups could find this very useful, and we think any Janeite could as well.

If you would like to try some audio versions of Jane Austen’s novels, Nikolle Doolin continues her series of podcasts of individual chapters of Persuasion.

We stumbled across a blog post at The Spectacled Bear announcing a new version of Persuasion in Portuguese.

And here’s the best bit: It’s a parallel text edition, which means you get the Portuguese text alongside the original.

How cool is that?

Alert Janeite Lisa sent us an article about how, rather than the usual Dead White Men whose work predominates in Western culture, lately the ladies have had their share in the conversation, and of course Jane Austen is included.

Take Dead White Female author Jane Austen. She might still not be on every freshman English major’s first-semester required reading list, but her work has been heartily consumed by the entertainment industry: serious BBC adaptations, tongue-in-cheek contemporary reinterpretations, and, most recently, a glamorized pseudo-bio of Austen’s own life called Becoming Jane (in theaters now) that turns her into one of her own heroines. There are also Austen-themed tarot cards, blogs edited by devoted Janeites,

Hey!

fan fiction, musicals, even YouTube mash-ups that dub contemporary shows such as Gilmore Girls with Regency-era dialogue.

And lastly, we received two new books at AustenBlog World Headquarters: Just Jane by Nancy Moser, a fictionalized biography of Jane Austen, and an annotated version of Pride and Prejudice that is being released concurrently by the same publisher, Bethany House. Here is a review of Just Jane, and look for AustenBlog’s reviews of both books (as well as a giveaway).

In the meantime, don’t forget to register for the drawing to win a copy of Letters From Pemberley. You have until Monday night at 10 p.m. Eastern time.

Alert Janeite Lisa noted that Playbill has another article about the Emma musical that opened this weekend in California, with some new photos of the production. Of particular interest is the second photo, which seems to be of the Box Hill picnic–and one can easily identify each character!

Alert Janeite Lisa was alarmed by this article in the Dallas Star-Telegram announcing the Dallas Theater Center’s stage version of Pride and Prejudice, which begins previews on Wednesday and runs through September 23.

Why is everything so Austen-tacious all of a sudden, what with the movie Becoming Jane and the forthcoming The Jane Austen Book Club? Join in the Victorian fun as the Dallas Theater Center opens its 2007-08 season with Catherine Sheehy’s adaptation of what is arguably Austen’s best-known work, Pride and Prejudice. Stan Wojewodski Jr. directs.

Victorian. Victorian. We shall retire to Bedlam. We hope that some kind Dallas-area Janeite will see the play and report back to AustenBlog before we do!

It’s still hard to tell exactly when The Jane Austen Book Club film will be opening everywhere. The official website says September 21 in New York and Los Angeles, and “coming soon to a theater near you.” We’ve read wide release a week later, a month later, and January (yikes!). Some things we’ve heard from sources makes us think there will at least be a limited release across the U.S. in September/October. However, we can at least give news of two definite screenings, albeit for fairly small audiences.

The New York Times alerted us that the film will have a screening at the Toronto International Film Festival. The Festival website lists the screening on Saturday, September 9 at 9:30 p.m.

Also, the organizing committee of the 2007 JASNA Annual General Meeting in Vancouver has announced that for attendees who staying over on Sunday night, after the official closing of the event, there will be a screening of the film. It’s unclear if this is a special screening, or, since the film might be open by then, if they are renting out a theater. Either way, how fun to see it with fellow Janeites!