Cinthia reminded us about the upcoming auction of the inscribed first edition of Emma that belonged to Anne Sharp in the comments of the mourning locket update a few posts down. The auction will take place at Bonhams on June 24.

Jane Austen was allocated twelve presentation copies by the publisher John Murray. Of these, nine were sent to family members (including Jane herself), one to the librarian of the Prince Regent (to whom the work was dedicated), and one to Countess Morley, these last under obligation from the publisher. The present copy is the only one given to a personal friend, testament to the strength of Jane’s feelings for Anne.

Bonhams expects the book to go for £50-70,000. We’ll keep an eye on these proceedings as well. (But if Sion or Cinthia win the lottery in the next three weeks, bidders beware.)

If you have not already taken the 2008 Jane Austen Survey, please do so before the deadline, June 30.

As a reminder (or for those new to the blog), the survey is being taken by an experienced survey research consultant, Jeanne Kiefer, who will be presenting her results at the JASNA AGM in Chicago this October. (By the way, registration is open for the AGM and filling up fast!) To be eligible to participate, you must have read Jane Austen’s six major novels and consider yourself a sincere Jane Austen fan. The survey will take about 15 minutes to complete.

Some tidbits from the results so far:

• More than 3,500 participants
• 200 respondents aged 70+
• 10 consider Elizabeth Bennet their least-favorite heroine
• 72% do not belong to JASNA
• Least-visited region (of those listed): India

Some careers of recent respondents:

• Theme park manager
• Funeral director
• Security guard
• Prison chaplain
• Horse trainer
• Costume designer
• Diplomat

Alert Janeite Helen sent us an article from the Financial Times that definitely goes in the “Approaching Hilariously Inappropriate Jane Austen Comparisons” category.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that if British politics were a Jane Austen novel, Gordon Brown would be the Darcy-esque hero while David Cameron would be the silver-tongued seducer and rogue.

Sigh.

Who can fail to think of Mr Brown when re-reading Mrs Bennet’s sage advice to her wavering daughter? “Forget your feelings, where else are you going to find a spendthrift meddler and political intriguer who surrounds himself with yes-men and disappears from view the moment there’s blame to be laid.”

*pages through Oxford Illustrated Edition looking for passage*

Anybody else had any luck?

To go with your Austen Season on ABC, Ovation is presenting Pride and Prejudice (1995) beginning tonight at 8:30 (hmm, might be showing already with the time difference–sorry about that).

The always-Alert Baja Janeite sent us an article about reading Jane Austen for the happy endings:

Strangely enough though, recently things have changed. The fact is, I no longer read a book that might make me cry, or even tear up. Basically, I just don’t want to feel depressed when I put it down. Just one sentence (“The ultimate confrontation is devastating.”) in a recent rave review of a book by an outstanding writer of our time immediately persuaded me never to pick it up. In my lifetime.

Nowadays I need happy endings. Both in books and in real life.

I need to know that it’ll all turn out okay right for the Jane Austen heroine, for Harry Potter in the end, for the abusive robins on my back patio who scream and yell at me every time I open the back door, because they have built a nest on the light out there.

For life in general.

We can’t promise much about life in general, but we can assure her that she’ll be happy with Jane Austen’s novels, as long as she doesn’t overthink them. (Should we let her know about Harry Potter? And we know that some people who read this blog haven’t read all the HP books yet, so do please be careful in comments.)