Guest post by Edward Sisson

With all the praise or criticism of the portrayals in TV and movies of Jane’s characters (and I’ve done my share of that), I wonder if readers might venture a little criticism of Jane herself (gasp) when it comes to her wonderful characters. Are there any moments in the books where you think Jane herself put a foot wrong, or struck a false note? I’m not talking about a character like Emma, who is supposed to have many faults, but a featured, good character who exhibits a trait Jane ought not to have included, or a moment that feels too contrived.

I can offer only one: Anne Elliot in Persuasion, in her visit with Mrs. Smith where Mrs. Smith discloses Mr. Elliot’s true character. They get to the subject of Mr. Elliot’s first (and at that point only) wife, and Anne comments “But was she not a very low woman?” and Mrs. Smith responds “Her father was a grazier, her grandfather had been a butcher.” And Anne does not make any comment to the effect that the woman’s father and grandfather ought not be the determinants of the woman’s own quality. This kind of snobbery, while very common in the day, does not strike me as true to Anne’s character. This exchange is included in the 1971 BBC production, but not in the 1995 movie.

A somewhat similar idea is to identify moments of behavior by some of the less-favorable characters that show a surprising good quality. What I am thinking of is the moment in Pride & Prejudice at the Netherfield Ball when Caroline Bingley cautions Elizabeth against Wickham, and Eliza brushes her off as the comment being merely snobbery about low birth, and Caroline recoiling and saying “it was kindly meant.” In the book I think this probably was not “kindly meant,” because Caroline approaches with “civil disdain,” and after her rebuff turns away with a “sneer.” But as played in the 1985 (8 not 9) BBC version (my favorite), Caroline is genuinely hurt at the rebuff, and it appears that her caution really was “kindly meant.” I’ve always liked that bit of complexity, of sprinkling in a little bit of good into a “bad” character.

Comments welcome!

Welcome to our regular Wednesday feature, Getting Local With Jane. If you’d like to meet up with some local, non-virtual Janeites, check out the listing–there might be something near you. And if you know about a local event or are organizing one, please send it in.

ETA: We just heard about this…the Colorado Springs Christian School High School in (obviously) Colorado Springs is putting on Pride & Prejudice this weekend, April 10-12 at 7 p.m.

We heard from JASNA’s Metro Kansas City Region, which is hosting a roundup discussion of PBS’ Complete Jane Austen on Sunday, April 20, “a chance to dish and dissect the latest adaptations.” The event will be at the Plaza Library in Kansas City, Missouri, 50th and Main, at 1 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Alert Baja Janeite sent us a link to “A Week of Georgian Delights” at the Theatre Royal in Bury St. Edmonds, Suffolk, on April 21-26, 2008. Events will include a lecture on the “Georgian Globe,” performances of Animal Magnetism, a play by Elizabeth Inchbald (of Lovers’ Vows fame), a concert of music from Jane Austen’s music collection, and other plays, readings, lectures, and family events.

The Knit*Lit Book Club of Plantation, Florida, will read Persuasion for their May meeting. They meet on the first Thursday of each month at the West Regional Library. They seem to read books that involve knitting–we suppose Mrs. Smith’s charity projects gave Persuasion the edge.

As always, if you attend any of these events and care to write up a report to share with AustenBlog readers, we’re delighted to post it.

JASNA has published the latest edition of Persuasions On-Line, which has the theme “Global Jane Austen.” Articles include (and how timely is this, after the news today about the casting of Sense and Sensibilidad?) “A la Señorita Austen: An Overview of Spanish Adaptations” by Carmen Romero Sanchez; AustenBlog reviewer Allison Thompson on “Trinkets and Treasures: Consuming Jane Austen,” which, knowing the authoress as we do, we are sure will be both amusing and instructive; and articles on Jane Austen in Japan and Turkey, the South Indian adaptation of S&S, Jane Austen and the French Revolution–well, our head is spinning. Turn off the bally movies and go read!

We were amused by John Walsh’s Austenesque take on the upcoming nuptials of Coleen McLoughlin and Wayne Rooney of Manchester United.

“I wonder, my dear,” said Mrs Bennett, “if I should wear the lilac taffeta to the ceremony in Portofino and the one in Croxteth. Or if I should change into a simple cream muslin for the Merseyside nuptials. What do you think?”

“I have spent five and sixty years without the slightest impulse to offer advice on ladies’ fashions,” said Mr Bennett. “It is a little late to start now. But who else is getting married apart from our Elizabeth?”

“Have you not heard?” cried his wife. “Lizzie insists on two weddings, one in a 16th-century Italian fortress, the other in a public house in Merseyside.”

“In the name of Providence,” gasped Mr Bennett. “Why embark on such a costly and divisive plan?”

“She is concerned,” said Mrs Bennett, “about Mr Darcy’s relatives. Some of them enjoy a reputation for unruliness. Excessive consumption of ale. Disarrayed clothing. Capacious vomiting. Unbridled fornication in the – ”

“Stop!” cried Mr Bennett. “I cannot believe Darcy capable of such behaviour. Despite his initial stiffness, I warmed to him and hoped to welcome him as a son-in-law. And now you tell me…”

Go check out the whole thing, it’s pretty funny…and we would suggest that Brand Darcy has been well-established for some time now.

Well! Just when one thinks she can take a breath and get back to reading old biographies of Jane Austen, here comes another film. Alert Janeite Cinthia (one of the managers of JACastellano, the Spanish-language Jane Austen discussion list) sent us an article from the Mexican newspaper Reforma that states Diana Garcia has been cast as Mary (Marianne) and Daniella Alonso as Nora (Elinor) for the upcoming film Sense and Sensibilidad. Cinthia is working on translating the entire article for us. The article also states filming begins in August.

For those unfamiliar with this project, it is a modern-set English language version of Sense and Sensibility, set in the Latino community of Los Angeles.

ETA: Making a few tweaks since we posted this in a hurry on our lunch break.

ETA 2 and bumped: to add the translation of the article, courtesy of Cinthia, after the break. (more…)

Now that they’re done with all the new Austen adaptations, reimaginings will come to the forefront. We already had some news today about Sense and Sensibilidad; it looks like Lost in Austen will be out next month; and now Alert Janeite Elizabeth sent us news about Emme–a hip-hop musical version of Emma. We did check for an April 1 posting date, but it looks like this is no hamster curry, Gentle Readers.

Screen Gems is planning a hip-hop musical reimagining of Jane Austen’s classic novel “Emma” for the bigscreen.

Chris Bender and J.C. Spink will produce via their Benderspink banner.

Contemporary-set tale, which takes place at an inner-city high school, revolves around a stepbrother and stepsister. Film will include at least 15 song and dance numbers. Tyger Williams penned the screenplay.

Screen Gems topper Clint Culpepper said he came up with the idea for “Emma,” which will likely be redubbed “Emme,” after watching the musicvideo “Lipgloss” by Lil Mama.

Austen’s novel also inspired the Alicia Silverstone starrer “Clueless,” which was set in a suburban Southern California high school.

“Now it’s urban,” Culpepper said. “This is the way it should be reimagined in the new millennium.”

They definitely get extra points for imagination. And hopefully some kickass dancing.

Alert Janeite Laurie let us know that Book Club Girl is sponsoring a contest to win several Jane Austen paraliterature titles and a DVD of one of the film adaptations, determined by a reader poll. P&P seems to be winning at the moment.