Last week we posted about a mourning brooch that may or may not contain a lock of Jane Austen’s hair that will be auctioned later this month. The BBC now has an article on the piece (ha! Does that mean AustenBlog scooped Auntie Beeb?) The article has a better photo of the piece and also answers a question that came up in the comments of the original thread: can they test these cut locks for DNA against known locks of Jane Austen’s hair to authenticate the piece?

It is well-documented that Jane’s sister Cassandra Austen cut off several locks of hair as mementoes, before her sister’s coffin was finally closed.

Nobody knows what happened to them, but one theory is that they were given to one of her six brothers and made into decorative items.

Dominic Winter of the auction house said: “The best suggestion is her brother Edward but this is speculation and the truth may never be known, as all we know is that the owner unearthed it in an antiques shop in Worcestershire over 20 years ago.”

Auctioneer Chris Albury said: “There is new DNA technology available (which would identify who the hair belonged to) but this has proved too expensive.”

If the test verified that the hair was indeed Jane Austen’s, it might prove a wise investment (although we don’t know how much the test actually costs; if it is, say, 10,000 pounds, maybe not so much). If the test reveals the hair is NOT Jane Austen’s, it certainly is a “sunk expense,” a term our MBA elder brother introduced us to recently vis-a-vis computer repair.

The piece is expected to fetch at least £5,000. Circle June 18 on your calendars, Gentle Readers. We’ll definitely report the results as soon as we get them.

ETA 6/3: The Guardian also has an article with an even better photo of the piece–which is a locket, not a brooch. *smacks self with Clue Trout*

We received a link from two Alert Janeites, Julie S. and Kirsten, to the Entertainment Weekly review of the new Sex and the City movie (spoilers contained in the review, apparently, though we read it without being much spoiled). Of course it contained a reference to Jane Austen, because how could it not? Chicks like shoes and SatC and Jane Austen, right? They all go together, right?

If Carrie’s desire for love had an element that was undeniably…aspirational, what of it? Wasn’t that true of Jane Austen’s heroines?

No, not really. Carrie Bradshaw is perfectly capable of supporting herself very well. She lives in Manhattan and has a large collection of Manolos; clearly girlfriend is not flipping burgers at the truck stop, or marrying a Mr. Collins just to have an establishment of her own.

A commentary in thisisderbyshire also compares the film to Jane Austen’s novels:

These women are dangerously high maintenance but, despite their fabulous fashions, designer jobs and lavish lifestyles, at least three of them haven’t moved on from the Regency heroines of a Jane Austen novel.

Pride and Prejudice’s Bennet girls faced being on the shelf at 30 if they hadn’t found a man; Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw is told by the boss of Vogue that 40 is the last possible age that a woman can be seen in a bridal gown. Only sex-mad Samantha (Kim Cattrall) seems to have found a more modern attitude to life.

As a result, Sex and the City the movie, plods the same, wholly predictable course as every romantic comedy since Ms Austen invented the template. Only the dresses have changed.

Do we have to bring out the fake movie quote again? If that’s what you think Jane Austen’s books are about, you need to read them again.

SFGate invokes Herself when exhorting the public to not use impolite language.

It’s enough to make you wish you lived in Jane Austen’s society, where an insult was as subtle as a raised eyebrow.

But even in “Jane Austen’s society” one encounters the likes of a John Thorpe. Probably a good thing he stuck with the D word.

It started last night with Kate Beckinsale’s Emma. There probably won’t be too much commentary until they get into the new stuff. Dianne Butler had a few things to say in her column in the Courier Mail:

YOU’D think if the ABC was going to have a Jane Austen festival they’d include Clueless in there. Major disappointment.

I mean, if they can serve up the 12-year-old Emma they’re wheeling out on Sunday night I don’t think there’s any reason why we shouldn’t expect a 13-year-old Emma.

JASNA’s Metro Kansas City Region will hold their Annual Box Hill Picnic on June 8 at 2 p.m. in Loose Park at 52nd and Wornall. Regional Coordinator Ellen Schwaller Goebel writes to tell us:

We’ll be on top of the hill- naturally!- south of the Rose Garden; look for the tent and women in hats. No donkeys or caro sposos necessary. For info- and a rain date if necessary- email jasna (dot) metrokc (at) yahoo (dot) com.

Sounds like a great time!

Seems like it’s worth seeing.

Director Rebecca J. Ennals has staged Pear Avenue artistic director Diane Tasca’s adaptation of the novel in a manner similar to the way shows are done by San Francisco’s highly successful company Word for Word.

That means that the stage script for “Northanger Abbey” contains not just dialogue, but a large amount of non-dialogue narration taken directly from Austen’s text. The art of staging a script like this includes assigning these sentences of non-dialogue narration thoughtfully to specific actors, so that they end up playing both narrator and character parts, back and forth in quick alternation.

This allows the actors to have many moments when they can shift between playing their characters and playing an omniscient narrator who gets to comment on the character. This creates a rich and dramatic gloss on the text, and opens up a lot of wonderful performance moments. The current Pear adaptation uses this approach effectively.

We would have to see this to decide if it really works, but it certainly sounds intriguing. We believe it would work better on stage than on screen.

The night I attended, one rare discord in the performances occurred when Tilney, sitting after a walk with Catherine and his sister, expressed an almost bitter and rude edge to his manner, which created a false character note.

Oh dear, oh dear…

“We shall get nothing more serious from him now, Miss Morland. He is not in a sober mood. But I do assure you that he must be entirely misunderstood, if he can ever appear to say an unjust thing of any woman at all, or an unkind one of me.”

Eleanor is the best sister ever.