Sony Pictures Classics will give posters from The Jane Austen Book Club to ten AustenBlog readers. If you would like to be added to the drawing, send your full name and mailing address to editor@austenblog.com by 10 p.m. Eastern time on Thursday, September 27, 2007. If you like, tell us about “your private Austen.”

Nine winners will receive a copy of the poster; one grand prize winner will receive a poster, a copy of the movie tie-in edition of the novel, and a copy of The Jane Austen Handbook, A Sensible Yet Elegant Guide to Her World signed by the Editrix, which we are including because we are so happy to end our drought of Jane Austen-related films that we didn’t like! (If you would like to be in the drawing for the poster only, just let us know in your e-mail.)

To see a larger version of the poster, click on the smaller version at left.

Alert Janeite Lisa sent us this article, which had us scratching our head. It’s a typical “O Hai, Jane Austen Is Teh Hawt Right Now” sort of article, but he mentions the two P&P musicals; then at the end, a list of Friends of Jane that sounded, well, awfully familiar, as most of them had been mentioned at one time or another on AustenBlog.

We were a little put out at first that an article that had so clearly used AustenBlog as a source could not be bothered to mention us, but then on a re-read we realized that the list of F.O.J.s actually had come from Carrie Rickey’s article from earlier this summer, for which we were interviewed, and some information for which came from AustenBlog (which was, of course, mentioned in the article and was the reason we were invited to the screening and interviewed for the piece). Ms. Rickey is not credited, either.

The other curious thing about the article was the person quoted within it, “author and Austen fan Patricia Kennealy-Morrison.”

As Lisa wrote to us, “Who’s Patricia Kennealy-Morrison?”

We wondered, too; her name sounded vaguely familiar, so we thought she must have written a book related to Jane Austen at some point, and doesn’t the article sort of make it seem that way? We wielded our ninja-like Google-fu and discovered that Ms. Kennealy-Morrison’s main claim to fame is that she married Jim Morrison over the anvil. (The marriage ceremony performed at Gretna Green and other Scottish locations for the benefit of British lovers on the run in Jane Austen’s day was basically handfasting.) (And not that one could blame her. Dude. Jim Morrison. We wouldn’t wait for the banns to be cried, either.) (more…)

(We’re working on our review, we swear!)

Lots and lots of reviews rolling in for The Jane Austen Book Club; it’s at 61% at Rotten Tomatoes, and we especially liked this bit from Michelle Orange’s review at The Reeler.

Time was clearly taken here to do better than fine with material that had a sizeable no-brainer audience built right into the title.

Thank you. THANK YOU. With all the new adaptations and films we’ve snarked in the four three years of this blog, our main complaint has been the complete disregard for the sensibilities of the main audience for such adaptations–Janeites. And the thing is, are our sensibilities that much different from the rest of the world’s? We don’t really think so; and what’s wrong with challenging the public to stretch a little? Director Robin Swicord even noticed a renewed interest in Austen among her cast.

Still, when Swicord tried to get her cast into the spirit by hosting a book club meeting to discuss “Emma,” she was a little surprised at the response.

“Maggie Grace was the only one who’d done her homework,” Swicord said, citing the actress who plays book clubber Allegra. “Everyone else had pulled stuff off the Internet. But as we talked, people began to say, ‘I wish I’d read the book.’ It was so funny to watch their interest in Austen ignite.”

Uh huh. And even still,

But Swicord was clear on her desire not to take “a strong intellectual approach.”

And the film doesn’t, not really; the discussion by the book club is average, like any group of reasonably intelligent people reading good books might have, with differences of opinion and built-in prejudices (and, referring back to the first article we linked, “competitive hosting and eating.” Oh yes).

“There are some people who are very dedicated to the cult of Jane,” Swicord said. “I appreciate those people enormously, and I am a hair’s breadth away from that myself.” Swicord invited some of them — members of the Jane Austen Society of North America, a group Swicord has been tempted to join — to the “Book Club” set.

hee hee. Wait till Vancouver, Robin. We are JASNA. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile. The Hollywood Reporter also has an article about Ms. Swicord’s journey in bringing the novel to the screen, which includes, among other things, the fascinating information that the editor’s name is Maryann Brandon. She makes it seem all “I picked her because of her great work on Alias” but we Janeites know the truth! She also talked to All Things Considered.

Roger Ebert liked it, unsurprisingly, as he is an F.O.J., despite his troubling affection for MP99. (more…)

Hee. Alert Janeite Lisa sent us a link to an article about Colin Firth in which he talks about his relationship with Mr. Darcy.

But Firth’s life really changed when he emerged, sodden-shirted, from the lake as Mr Darcy in the BBC’s 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. The screenwriter Andrew Davies recently revealed the plan had been for Darcy to be naked. Firth had “a bit of the usual tension about getting your kit off” but thinks it remained sexy because we “rerobed, not disrobed, Austen”.

He groans at the very mention of Darcy, whom he regards as “a part-time burden. It got my name recognised but it also put me in a box. Things were going well; I was building a diverse working life.”

Darcy made him feel “a bit of a star” (he smiles pleasurably at that thought), his wife Livia Giuggioli would greet the sight of him dishevelled every morning with an ironic, “Oh look, it’s Mr Darcy”. But, Firth says, “12 years on it feels like a school nickname you can’t shake. It occurred to me the other day to change my name to Mr Darcy and be done with it.” I laugh but he is serious, despite parlaying the Darcy image to his advantage in the Bridget Jones movies, playing Mark Darcy, much obsessed over by Helen Fielding’s lead character.

“The frustration is anything I do not on a horse looks a stretch,” says Firth, smiling yet serious. “When I did Fever Pitch, to get into my own jeans to play a guy living in North London where I lived, to play a character from my own background – people considered that a stretch.”

Discuss. We know you want to.

(On Saturday once again! We are determined to be caught up today.)

There are not just new Austen-related sequels and biographies and other works coming out these days, there also are new editions of her novels. Premier Books has released a set of the novels in Canada (they seem to only be available at Chapters) that have covers with a modern feeling: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Persuasion, Northanger Abbey. One might also say they echo the film posters for P&P05 and Becoming Jane. Also, the Adventures in Reading blog posted new covers for the Vintage Classics Series editions that are taken from period fashion plates. We like those very much, even though the periods displayed might not match the setting of the book.

What do you think of these new book covers? And how many editions of the novels do YOU own? (We have: one set, Chapman editions; one set, softcover Everyman Library editions given out by the Daily Telegraph earlier this year, courtesy of Dear Friend of AustenBlog Kathleen; several Brock illustrated antique editions of various novels; assorted paperbacks that we pick up at the book swap to lend/give away, which are currently all with a co-worker; e-books in eReader and Mobipocket versions.) (more…)

Jeffry Denman, who played Charles Bingley for the demo CD of the musical adaptation of Pride and Prejudice by Lindsay Warren Baker and Amanda Jacobs, has posted one of the songs on his website. It’s called “Isn’t She Wonderful” and is a duet with Laura Griffith, who played Jane Bennet. (And thanks to Lori Bajorek for the demo CD of the play that we received today!)

A while back we posted about an older adaptation of Sense and Sensibility that would be released by a Dutch film company. Alert Janeite Maisy let us know that a poster at the Republic of Pemberley has ordered and seen the film, and reports that, despite the cast information on the DVD listing that relates to the 1980s BBC production, the DVD is indeed the 1971 version with Joanna David (Mrs. Gardiner in P&P95) as Elinor and that the film is in English. Please remember that the DVD is coded for Region 2, so you must have the proper equipment to view it (please refer to this comment by Tony A. for information about that).

The TheaterWorks production of Emma has broken the company’s box office records.

It seems being Jane has never been more popular. This world premiere musical has grossed the highest number of single ticket sales in the company’s 38 year history. Zounds!

The show has been extended through September 23–that’s tomorrow!

Thanks to Alert Janeite Lisa for the link!

Tomorrow (almost today, over there!) Emma Campbell Webster, author of Lost in Austen/Being Elizabeth Bennet, will be at the Jane Austen Festival in Bath. She will lead a Jane Austen adventure around Bath and then sign copies of her book.

On Wednesday, September 26, Patrice Hannon will be speaking at the 92nd Street Y (at Lexington Ave) in New York City from noon until 1 p.m. Her program is titled “Ask Jane: Things You Didn’t Know About Jane Austen and Her Heroines.”

…as she brings to life the “world according to Jane” from the point of view of Austen and her heroines. Hannon also shares some lesser known facts about the beloved novelist’s life.

Tickets are $16 and available online.