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!