For those of you who saw the “site suspended” notice, apparently there was an issue with e-mail. The hosting company has reinstated the site but suspended e-mail until we get it straightened out. If you need to send us e-mail today, send it to austen blog (without the space) at gmail dot com.

It looks like the three new ITV films and the old Emma will will be broadcast on ABC in Australia sometime in 2008.

Jane Austen Fourplay. Four of Jane Austen’s great works, Emma, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, come to the screen in this four-part special.

Parenthetically, isn’t it interesting that the claims made when the new films were first commissioned that “every generation deserves its own new adaptations of Jane Austen’s novels” didn’t include Emma? Has this generation (for whatever value of “this” you wish to apply) been naughty and sent to bed early without a new Emma? “No Emma for you!” Just wondering…

Still no air date for the second part of Sense and Sensibility that we could find on the Beeb’s website, but the publicity machines have ground into motion nonetheless. The synopsis for the second episode is up for our sporking pleasure:

Colonel Brandon is called away on urgent business and Marianne and Brandon’s rival, Willoughby, are left to fall blissfully in love, as Andrew Davies’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic 19th-century novel continues.

Eleanor finally receives her visit from Edward, but his behaviour is so odd and distant that she is far from reassured. Sir John’s nieces, the Misses Steeles, come to Devonshire and Eleanor receives the shock of her life when Lucy Steeles confides in her that she is secretly engaged to Edward. Eleanor is heartbroken, but she’s true to her word and keeps Lucy’s secret, even from her sister, Marianne.

Marianne receives a horrible shock of her own when Willoughby suddenly takes off for London, declaring that he’s unlikely to ever return. The girls, however, are invited to London themselves to stay with Sir John’s mother-in-law, Mrs Jennings. Marianne sets off for London full of hope of being reunited with Willoughby. Little does she know how much Willoughby’s plans have changed since his happy days with her in Devonshire…

Not really much TO spork there, except the “Sir John’s nieces” bit–as Cinthia pointed out, they are really related to Mrs. Jennings, not Sir John, but that’s probably one of those necessary movie adaptation contractions. The only thing that troubles us is that it’s hard to tell how much of the London visit is shown–hopefully all of it, or the ending might be rather rushed. It’s nice to know we will see both the Miss Steeles, and it looks like Lucy will be played by Anna Madeley, who portrayed Mrs. Beeton in the recent biopic, in which JJ Feild took off his shirt several times. (Sylvia M. sent us a link to a Google Images search, too, though unfortunately not of JJ with his shirt off.)

Radio Times has some behind-the-scenes photos from the filming that show the costumes and locations (all look pretty good so far) and fun photos of the cast in costume with plastic rain hats, modern sunglasses, and digital cameras.

The Liverpool Daily Post has an article about Scouser David Morrissey, who plays Colonel Brandon. (And yes, we were rather amused by the title of the article. Cry ‘God for England, Brandon, and St. Jane!’) (more…)

Alert Janeite Lisa sent us an editorial from the Sydney Morning Herald about the importance–and pleasure–of reading, wisely quoting the Rev. Mr. Tilney, which is always a smart thing to do in our educated opinion.

The novel Northanger Abbey, one of Jane Austen’s less read works, has a gentle dig at the contorted plotlines and melodramatic expression of the gothic novels popular in the author’s day.

But still Austen offers a defence of the novel, having her hero Henry Tilney say, “the person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid”.

Today’s students need Jane Austen (and other authors who have stood the test of time) as much as ever. Good fiction is not a waste of time.

Preach it!

As well as helping us understand the world, fiction helps us understand ourselves. Jane Austen’s heroines are appealing (except, perhaps, the insipid Fanny Price)

Uh-oh….*runs as enraged Fannyfans burn down Sydney Morning Herald building*

Lisa also sent us a really funny article in the New Statesman by Sophie Gee, who has found a great new way to choose Christmas gift books: apply the Sir Walter Elliot test!

This new approach was suggested by the opening sentences of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, which give the best description of reading I know:

Sir Walter Elliot, of Kellynch Hall, in Somersetshire, was a man who, for his own amusement, never took up any book but the Baronetage; there he found occupation for an idle hour, and consolation in a distressed one; there his faculties were roused into admiration and respect, by contemplating the limited remnant of the earliest patents; there any unwelcome sensations, arising from domestic affairs, changed naturally into pity and contempt as he turned over the almost endless creations of the last century; and there, if every other leaf were powerless, he could read his own history with an interest which never failed.

Even as we laugh at Sir Walter for his snobbishly trivial turn of mind, we admire Austen for putting her finger so exactly on what gives reading its delight: “occupation for an idle hour and consolation in a distressed one”. Which of us doesn’t have an equivalent of the Baronetage to take down in hours of need, hoping that nobody is looking?

Well, that would probably be Jane Austen’s books for us! And a few select titles by Georgette Heyer. Do read the whole article, it’s really fun.

The audio version of Laurie Viera Rigler’s Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict got a great review in Publishers’ Weekly:

Orlagh Cassidy is delightfully fun as Courtney Stone, a modern Los Angeles girl nursing a heartbreak who wakes up to find herself inhabiting the body and life of a Jane Austenesque Regency girl. Cassidy is spot-on with Courtney’s California accent, modern-day moaning about men, self-analysis and doubt, and sarcasm—and then, without missing a beat, flips easily into the proper, upper-class English tones of Jane (the Regency girl Courtney has replaced, whose accent came with the body), her pompous, controlling mother, her desperate suitor and her sympathetic best friend.

We are pleased to report that the U.S. release of Captain Wentworth’s Diary by Amanda Grange is available for preorder and will be released on May 6, 2008. Check out the cover on Amanda Grange’s website.

Lastly, we heard from Professor Janet Todd, who gave a great plenary talk at the JASNA AGM in Vancouver this past October. She has written a book called Death and the Maidens about the Wollstonecraft-Godwin-Shelley-Byron circle of Jane Austen’s lifetime–authors, poets, and amazing and sad lives. Prof. Todd found some kinship between Fanny Wollstonecraft, who committed suicide at 22, and Fanny Price. It sounds like a really interesting book, and insight into a very different kind of lifestyle than that which Jane Austen and her family–and even her characters–led.

That’s it for Friday Bookblogging this week, Gentle Readers, and always remember: Books Are Nice!

Alert Janeite Jenn spotted a fun Austen reference at Daily Candy London.

Faced with the challenge of buying gifts for five daughters, Mrs. Bennet had given up on scouring for individual items, when each always coveted what the other had received.

“I don’t want the same as everyone else”, cried Lizzy. “Nor do I!” shrieked Jane. “I’m the eldest! I want something grown-up!”

Kitty, busy stitching bust-enhancement pads into a party dress, joined in. “I want something fashionable but not trendy. Like diamonds, for example”.

Lydia was silent, whilst Mary, seated at the window, was too busy ogling the gardener’s son to care.

Would Jane ever “shriek,” though?

Ilya Somin, an assistant professor at George Mason University School of Law, posted at the law blog The Volokh Conspiracy about property law as a plot point in Pride and Prejudice.

The reason why it is so important for Mr. and Mrs. Bennet’s five daughters to find wealthy husbands is that they cannot inherit their father’s estate, since it is subject to the fee tail - a now archaic form of property estate that was required to pass through the male line. As a result, upon Mr. Bennet’s death, his land (which forms the overwhelming majority of his wealth) will go to his nearest male relation, the despicable Mr. Collins. In the early nineteenth century, few women could acquire significant wealth other than by inheriting it or marrying into it; thus the Bennets’ predicament. As Austen explains in Chapter 7:

Mr. Bennet’s property consisted almost entirely in an estate of two thousand a year, which, unfortunately for his daughters, was entailed, in default of heirs male, on a distant relation; and their mother’s fortune, though ample for her situation in life, could but ill supply the deficiency of his.

This plot device is far from the only property-related issue in Pride and Prejudice. It is striking that nearly all the villains in the story (Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Mrs. Bennet, Mr. Collins, and others), are motivated in large part by a desire to acquire valuable landholdings for themselves or their children. In another part of the story, Austen censures big landowners for looking down on merchants who make their living through trade rather than from income derived from their landholdings. Similar negative views of big landowners appear in several of Austen’s other novels, especially Mansfield Park and Persuasion. On the other hand, Austen wasn’t completely negative in her attitude towards the landed gentry. The good qualities of one of the key positive characters in Pride and Prejudice are first revealed through the care he bestows on his estate and its tenants.

Actually, it’s not so much owning land as what you do with it that gains one of Jane Austen’s characters the approval of his Creator. Mr. Knightley, for instance, takes very good care of his estate, and she called it Donwell (Done-well) Abbey for pity’s sake.

Don’t forget to read the comments to the post–they’re a lot of fun!

*From P&P, Vol. I, Ch. XIII:

“Oh! my dear,” cried his wife, “I cannot bear to hear that mentioned. Pray do not talk of that odious man. I do think it is the hardest thing in the world that your estate should be entailed away from your own children; and I am sure if I had been you, I should have tried long ago to do something or other about it.”

Jane and Elizabeth attempted to explain to her the nature of an entail. They had often attempted it before, but it was a subject on which Mrs. Bennet was beyond the reach of reason; and she continued to rail bitterly against the cruelty of settling an estate away from a family of five daughters, in favour of a man whom nobody cared anything about.

A couple of reviews have popped up of the stage production of Pride and Prejudice currently being staged by the Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review liked it a bunch:

The play focuses on the evolving relationship between Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy as they wrestle with their own pride, prejudices and misperceptions.

But in constructing her novel, Austen also drew a full complement of rich and interesting characters, and Jory’s adaptation sees that the characters are not neglected or overlooked. He pays full attention to the adventures and foibles of other members of the Bennet family — Elizabeth’s four unmarried sisters, her hysterical, delusional mother and her somewhat retiring father, as well as other favorite characters such as Mr. Collins and the imperious Lady Catherine De Bourgh.

Jory retains the narrative voice of the original novel, allowing it to flow through the mouths of a succession of characters. Director and choreographer Scott Wise keeps the action moving seamlessly and rapidly through the swiftly changing landscape of town and country settings created by scenic designer Gianni Downs.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette liked it as well, but with some reservations.

The problem is not the size of the story: this is not one of those three-volume Victorian epics, and adapter Jon Jory has compressed it efficiently by focusing resolutely on Elizabeth. But the great joy of the novel is Austen’s narrative voice, commenting with wit and compassionate insight. How to preserve that?

You can’t, although Jory does work some of Austen’s witty asides into the dialogue, and others we can guess at as we watch machinations undercut or gone awry. As for the novel’s famous first sentence about any man of good fortune needing a wife, Jory assigns it to a Bennet family chorus, letting them express directly what Austen gently mocks.

That first sentence, comes about five minutes into the play, because Jory starts by having Mr. Bennet introduce his family. That’s uncharacteristic for him but in the popular mode of “Nicholas Nickleby” in which characters turn narrator.

This device and ruthless pruning enable the story to move very quickly. “There is to be a ball,” someone says, and the next instant all are dancing. I admire this fluidity, but the audience better pay attention — there are a couple of transitions so quick it felt like the Reduced Shakespeare guys did the compressing.

Overall, it sounds like a good one. The play runs through December 22. Tickets are $15-45 and are available online.

We thought this was kind of fun. A fundraiser for a community art center in Augusta, Georgia, on December 16 will honor not only Jane Austen’s birthday, but the Boston Tea Party and the birthdays of Ludwig von Beethoven, William “The Refrigerator” Perry, and Noel Coward–all of which took place on December 16.