AustenBlog . . . she’s everywhere » 2008 » January

3 January 2008

The reviews roll in

Filed under: Sense and Sensibility 2008 — Mags @ 12:38 am

Decidedly mixed among AustenBlog readers; it doesn’t seem that anyone hates it particularly, but most seem to have wished for a little more. But we must prim up our mouths and turn the other cheek and show everyone what sweet, civil little Janeites we can be, because if ITV and the BBC and PBS are kind enough to serve it up for us, we must clean our plates and not ask for more! Like maybe a few laughs, and a few less What The Frank Churchill moments. Or maybe a couple of hours where we don’t find ourselves reaching for the Official AustenBlog Titanium Spork™ at least once.

The views from the press seem rather similar, with the writers trying very hard to either love it or hate it and finding themselves unable to muster much enthusiasm either way. Maybe they are still a bit hung over from New Year’s Eve. (more…)

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More on Laura Wade’s adaptation of The Watsons

Filed under: Stage — Mags @ 12:15 am

Alert Janeite Amo found a reference to Laura Wade’s stage adaptation of Jane Austen’s unfinished work, The Watsons, which we blogged about a while back.

‘I’m also doing a play with Laura Wade [writer of Breathing Corpses and Other Hands] based on an unfinished novel by Jane Austen called The Watsons. Laura has finished the novel herself, dramatised it and introduced a character called Jane Austen and a character called Laura Wade. There is an argument between the two about how the play should finish and a debate about what brings greater happiness in the 18th century versus the 21st century. For Austen, for example, the happy ending was a marriage because the idea that you could sleep with your prospective partner before marriage was totally impossible.’

For Austen, the happy ending was a marriage because it provided social and financial protection to her heroines. Certain adapters to the contrary, it’s not all about sex.