We were amused by this video produced by the Topeka and Shawnee County Library, which appears to be part of a series of videos. The camera gives a point of view interpretation of the opening of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler, which is read in voiceover. It’s quite fun; check it out!

A different kind of storytelling is going on with some Janeites who are doin’ it for themselves at lulu.com. Check out Allison T.’s reviews of Judith Brocklehurst’s novels, Maria, or the Story of a Disgraced Woman and A Letter from Lady Catherine below.

We also heard this week of a new book by Helen Baker, author of The Book of Ruth. The new book is called Connivance and is a post-Persuasion story about Mrs. Clay and Mr. Elliot. Both of Ms. Baker’s books are also available from lulu.com.

And we don’t think we remembered to link Chapter 9 of There Must Be Murder, “The Most Unpromising Circumstance.” There’s a cliffhanger ending and everything charming.

Have a wonderful weekend, Gentle Readers, and remember: Books are nice!

Reviews by Allison T.

It is with great pleasure that I bring to your attention two charming Austen sequels by Ontario region JASNA member Judith Brocklehurst: A Letter from Lady Catherine and Maria, or the Story of a Disgraced Woman, both self-published at Lulu.com.

A Letter from Lady Catherine begins when that lady, despairing that Anne will ever find a husband, swallows her pride and informs the Darcys that she and Anne will visit and they are to look out for likely suitors. A carriage accident on the journey leaves Lady Catherine with a broken arm and food poisoning and Anne is forced to take action to care for her mother and herself. She meets a pleasant young man—a reader and a thinker—and begins to find him more attractive than any gentleman she has yet met, when the Darcys arrive to take Anne to Pemberley. A burgeoning literary career, attractive new clothes and a newfound health contribute to Anne’s increased happiness, but, as a wealthy heiress, she can never marry the poor man she loves—or can she?

After her disgraceful elopement, Maria Rushworth (née Bertram) is banished by her family to a lonely, half-ruined farmhouse in the north of England. Tormented by thoughts of Henry Crawford, she appears to local society as “Mrs. Ward” and turns to horse-breeding to make money, while Aunt Norris discovers a new happiness in bringing the rat-infested house to order. Maria, or the Story of a Disgraced Woman tells the story of how the bored and lonely Maria transforms herself into a well-regarded businesswoman. But then the story of her affair leaks out, and Maria is whisked by the family back to Mansfield Park, where she must help Lady Bertram with the hard parts of her embroidery and take care of pug. Will she be stuck there forever?

The plots of these two sequels are so fresh and unusual that I can’t reveal more about them without spoiling the endings, and that, in and of itself, tells you something about the quality of the stories. And Judith’s characterizations—whether of Austen’s people or her own—are charming , though I was a little grieved to find that both Fanny and Edmund have turned into real Mr. Collins-like pills, and refuse to have Maria visit them or even talk to her. But I closed the books with a sigh of regret that they were over, and look forward to reading them again.

Great characters, great plots—but wait! There’s more! What sets these two novels apart from many historically-based Austen continuations is the elegance and precision of the prose. There are no annoying anachronisms, no violations of the Regency rules of behavior, and the language really echoes that of the period. As a bonus, Judith puts in little Austenian allusions for our amusement: for instance , when the gentleman that Anne loves gives her a King Charles spaniel, a little dog of no use whatsoever for hunting, Mr. Darcy, who is not found of little dogs, comments that at least it isn’t a pug. (What would Lady B think?)

Austenland is growing so large that it is becoming a financial challenge keep on purchasing (and housing) the sequels that appear each month, but I found these two books well worth the money.

Ms. Place at Jane Austen’s World has an exclusive interview with Robin Swicord, screenwriter and director of The Jane Austen Book Club. Part I, Part II.

When John Calley asked me to read Karen Joy Fowler’s novel, The Jane Austen Book Club, I was at work on an original screenplay about a dysfunctional family of Jane Austen scholars, which I planned to direct for Sony Pictures. I had spent years immersed in Austenalia, not only reading Austen’s novels repeatedly, but also absorbing her letters and juvenilia, and making my way through various academic treatises which explored Austen’s life and work from every imaginable angle. I joked to my Sony executive that I was on the way to making the only light Hollywood comedy ever to need a bibliography appended to the credits. However, in reading The Jane Austen Book Club, I found myself no longer in the company of sparring intellectuals. Here were ordinary people more like me; readers, seeking shelter and companionship in books. That contemporary readers have found refuge in Jane Austen’s well-ordered novels isn’t surprising, given what we’re seeking shelter from—congested traffic, ringing cell phones, squealing security wands, waiting rooms with blaring televisions. Recently I noticed that four of Austen’s six novels were for sale at the newsstand at the Seattle airport. Spend a couple of hours trapped in a terminal waiting for a flight that’s been delayed, and you’ll be only too happy to withdraw into a semi-rural English village, two centuries in the past. When you begin to love Austen, her world doesn’t seem that antiquated. Her characters worry about money, deal with embarrassing family members, cringe at social slights, and spend more time than they should hoping to fall in love, even when the local prospects don’t seem that promising. In short, her people are just like us—but without the commute and the twelve-to-fourteen hour workday.

Also, there’s a video at Hollywood.com with several of the actors in the film: Jimmy Smits, Amy Brenneman, Maggie Grace, and Hugh Dancy (if you’re interested in hearing his real accent).

Alert Janeite Helen B. found a Region 2 DVD of P&P Utah at a Dutch site–click on the icon on the upper left part of the page to translate the site to English. The film is in English with Dutch subtitles. At least, we’re guessing it’s Region 2…

Looks like Becoming Jane is being released in European countries; last week we saw trailers in several languages, and now Alert Janeite Sylvia L. sent us a review of Becoming Jane in German, though in Germany it’s called Geliebte (Beloved) Jane.