Cara King has done another Jane Austen/popular movie mashup at Risky Regencies: this time it’s Jane Austen’s Twilight.

Thing is, Jane Austen already parodied Twilight; it’s called Northanger Abbey.

The Ball at Netherfield, that is; the latest chart in the Stitching Parlor’s Pride and Prejudice series.

Thanks to Alert Janeite Julie P. for the link.

Russell Brand!

MTV: Is there any truth to the rumors that you might play Johnny Depp’s brother in the upcoming “Pirates of the Caribbean” sequel?

Brand: I’ve seen some talk about that matter, but I think they’re still writing the script. Nonetheless, I am having a skull and crossbones tattooed on each of my nipples in anticipation of the plotline. I just hope it doesn’t affect my other work in Jane Austen adaptations.

Honestly, he’s perfect.

PBS is following up last season’s Complete Jane Austen with a big ol’ dose of Dickens (and Hardy, and Emily Brontë). More to the point for this blog, they also will be re-broadcasting Sense and Sensibility in two parts on February 1 and 8, 2009. Relive the magic!

Also, Laura Linney will be the host of Masterpiece Classics this season.

Welcome to Tuesday Open Thread, in which we highlight items that didn’t quite make the cut for a full blog post but we thought our Gentle Readers might find of interest.

Emma Thompson says there’s “no chance of a sequel” to Sense and Sensibility (1995). Someone seriously asked her that? And she refrained from striking him or her repeatedly?

Balance real life with online life the Jane Austen way, from Buzz, Balls & Hype (thanks to Alert Janeite Kelly for the link).

A diary that will be of interest to period history enthusiasts–though it seems to be a tiny bit after Jane Austen’s time.

As always, feel free to pimp your own Austen-related links or projects in the comments.

JASNA has scanned and digitized Persuasions No. 6 (1984), featuring papers from the 1984 Annual General Meeting in St. Louis. The AGM theme was Persuasion, so we’re very excited to read the papers. There are several other issues of Persuasions digitized and available to read online; do check out this great resource!

The Author’s Attic is a new website offering a lovely selection of Jane Austen-related jewelry (though we confess to rolling our eyes at the “Mrs. Darcy” bracelet–but then we’re one of those weirdo Tilney people). We really like the JA silhouette charm jewelry. Just in time for holiday shopping…

Alert Janeite Lisa sent us a link to a decoupage sheet featuring “a Pride and Prejudice couple” (and we can all guess which one). We’re not perfectly sure of the use for such an item, but it certainly is cute.

Several Alert Janeites (thanks to Cinthia, Sylvia M., Maria L., and Patty) have written to us with the news that the admin of the C19 forum, citing dependable sources, claims that Sandy Welch, who wrote the screenplays for the BBC’s magnificent adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South as well as the most recent adaptation of Jane Eyre, has written a new four-part adaptation of Emma for the BBC, to be broadcast in 2009.

If anyone from the BBC is reading, and this is more than a rumor, why don’t you make it three for three for your Main Male Spooks Hottie to move on to a Jane Austen adaptation, while sending Dorothy and many of our Gentle Readers (and, yeah, okay, the Editrix, too) into a genteel, ladylike tizzy? The campaign begins here: Richard Armitage must play Mr. Knightley.

Yes, we know, his shooting schedule for Spooks conflicts, but you’re the BBC, dagnabit. You can do anything.

We cannot state strongly enough how popular a casting decision this would be in Janeiteland. We’re talking Colin Firth in the wet shirt levels of hysteria. Do it. Just trust us for once. DO IT.

Who’s with us, Gentle Readers?

(post edited to update incomplete information)

We received several squeeing e-mails from the Janeite wing of Colbert Nation, telling us that Stephen Colbert had done a hilariously funny segment in which he mentioned Jane Austen. We can’t watch it till later today, so we’ve posted it below for everyone else to enjoy while we sit in the corner and sulk.

Thanks to Alert Janeites DeeDee, Kelly, and Julie for the info and link!

We’re overloaded with upcoming events of interest to Jane Austen fans. Check the list carefully–one could be in your home town! For Janeites in the U.S. and Canada, be sure to check out the JASNA Region nearest you, as many of the regions are planning events to celebrate Jane Austen’s Birthday in December, and some will be delighted to include Janeites who have not yet joined JASNA. Some events require advance registration, so do be sure to contact the regions in advance.

November 15-16, Lyme Regis: The second annual Jane Austen Weekend, featuring a lecture by Jane Austen’s relative Diana Shervington, a dance, a showing of The Jane Austen Book Club film, a tour of places that Jane Austen would have visited in Lyme Regis, and tea and tiffin at the Marine Theatre. Tickets are available by calling the Marine Theatre.

November 17, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia: Laura Carroll will give a free public lecture, “Warming the imagination with scenes of the past: Time-travel romances about Jane Austen,” in the dining hall of Duchesne College, University of Queensland, St. Lucia campus.

How can we really get into Jane Austen’s world? Do we fall through the looking-glass or stumble through the back of the wardrobe, or will a good old-fashioned concussion do the trick? Amongst the flood of new products recently marketed by the ever-resourceful Austen industry is a fascinating group of fictional works – novels and a television show - dealing with time-travelling contact between our world and Austen’s.

In these works, passionate Austen aficionados from the present are magically transported back to Austen’s England where they attempt to ‘pass’ as Regency types, notice what the novels exclude (dirt, bodies, servants, Americans) and encounter both the elusive authoress herself and Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy, who, somehow and surprisingly, appears to be even more explosively sexy in person than he is in fiction. Although the ‘reality’ of Jane Austen’s world is never exactly how they had pictured it, the time-travellers must somehow reconcile their fervent attachments to the scenes of the past with their knowledge of themselves as essentially twenty-first century persons.

Bizarre and occasionally perverse as these works are, they offer a rich vein of insight into the bizarre and often perverse nature of Jane Austen’s immense and durable popularity among readers of all varieties. These time-travel fictions make full use of the imaginative possibilities afforded by fantasy and romance to explore passionate readerly experiences of the kind that ‘disciplined’ literary criticism has difficulty thinking about.

Refreshments will be served afterwards, and “friends of Austenblog enthusiastically welcomed.” Can’t beat an invitation like that!

December 6, 2008, Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania: The Editrix (who when not keeping the Internet safe for tar-hearted spinster purist Janeites, is the author of The Jane Austen Handbook: A Sensible Yet Elegant Guide to Her World) and Friend of AustenBlog Diane Wilkes, author of The Tarot of Jane Austen, will be signing copies of their respective books at the Barnes & Noble on Chemical Road in Plymouth Meeting from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. We are informed that there will be a marching band in the store that day as well, and the Editrix could be persuaded to toss a flag for old times’ sake, so you really don’t want to miss it.

November 28-December 31, Odessa, Delaware: The Historic Odessa Foundation, as part of its Christmas celebrations in the restored Georgian houses of Odessa, will present “A Jane Austen Christmas: Vignettes of Customs and Traditions,” including “holiday recreations as inspired by the writings of Jane Austen.” On December 10 at 7 p.m., Margaret C. Sullivan (that’s right, your humble servant) will speak about Christmas traditions in Jane Austen’s time and sign copies of her book, The Jane Austen Handbook: A Sensible Yet Elegant Guide to Her World.

December 1-31, York, UK: Fairfax House presents Christmas With Jane Austen.

See how Jane Austen would have celebrated Christmas. This exhibtion uses evidence of family papers, diaries and household accounts.

An annual exhibition which complements our traditional display for the festive season, using the evidence of family papers, diaries, household accounts and the writings of Jane Austen. The rooms are bedecked with evergreens, and period set-piece displays bring the House to life in a very tangible way.

December 3, Brattleboro, Vermont: Bennington College Professor April Bernard will present “Powers of Persuasion” at Brooks Memorial Library at 7:00 p.m., “considering the lasting effect of Jane Austen’s “fairy tale for grown-ups,” Persuasion.”

December 5, 6, 12, and 13, Waltham, Massachusetts: Gore Place is offering a Jane Austen Holiday Tea and Tour at 1, 2:30, and 4 p.m.

Enjoy a traditional English tea served in the Great Hall of the 1806 Governor Gore mansion. The Gore mansion is one of the finest Federal period historic houses in New England. Traditional tea includes scones, savory tea sandwiches and assorted sweets.

After your tea, you’ll join a guide in period costume and hear tales of scandals in the Austen era as you view the beautiful rooms of this wonderful early 19th century home.

Admission for the tea and tour is $40 per person, $38 per for groups of 6 or more, $35 per for Gore Place members.

Now through January 4, 2009, Santa Fe, New Mexico: The New Mexico Museum of Art presents “Fashion in Film: Period Costume for the Screen,” featuring costumes from period films including Pride and Prejudice (1995), Sense and Sensibility (1995), and Emma (1996). We had the opportunity to see this exhibition when it was at Winterthur and if you have an opportunity to see it, do so!

P&P is THE play of the year! Everybody’s putting on a production, so we thought we would roll them into one post. Many are coming up this weekend or very soon. As always, if anyone attends any of these we would love to post your report on AustenBlog.

November 14-16 and 20-23, Norman, Oklahoma: Oklahoma University School of Drama and University Theater present the Jon Jory adaptation of P&P at Weitzenhoffer Theatre. Sunday shows are at 3 p.m., other days at 8 p.m. Tickets are $20, $17 for seniors, $12 for students with ID.

November 14-15 and 20-21, Silver Spring, Maryland: Montgomery Blair High School presents Pride and Prejudice at 7:30 each night. Tickets are $2 for students on opening night, Friday, November 14; all other performances are $4 for students and senior citizens and $7 for adults.

November 20-23, Farragut, Tennessee: Hardin Valley Academy presents Pride and Prejudice. Sunday show is at 2 p.m, all other nights at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $7 for adults, $5 for students.

All of us who cringed at the carpetbagging reselling can’t-possibly-be-a-Janeite who STOLE! STOLE WE SAY! poor Anne Sharp’s copy of Emma and is reselling it for an outrageous, nay usurious sum–well, here’s your chance to get in on the ground floor, as they say. Alert Janeite Laurel Ann let us know that a first edition of Pride and Prejudice is up for auction on eBay, and the starting bid is nothing if not affordable. We doubt it will stay in three digits for long, though. However, if any serious collectors happen to read this blog, we would like to point out that in our admittedly limited experience (limited to sheer voyeurism, that is), we have noticed that this type of thing tends to go a lot cheaper at auction than at retail. Just saying.

Gentle Readers will remember that Jeanne Kiefer took a survey earlier this year to learn more about the demographics of Jane Austen fans, and presented her findings at the JASNA AGM in Chicago last month. A summary of the results are now available, and if you would like to read the full report, you can e-mail Jeanne (information is at the link). We were not much surprised at the diversity of our little world, and found it all quite interesting reading. Check it out!

Jon Aquino, a most clever young man, has created an online text generator for web programmers and designers to use in place of “lorem ipsum” text. Instead of Latinesque nonsense, it generates random text from Pride and Prejudice. Change the number in the URL to however many sentences you need and it outputs text to fill in your empty spaces. Or just sit there randomly generating P&P text for giggles. Well played, sir.

The British are asking, in that inimitably polite British manner, if they can have credit for the Great American Pastime. After all, as we Janeites already know, the first mention of “base ball” in a novel occurs in the first chapter of Northanger Abbey, written between 1798 and 1803 and published posthumously in 1817:

Mrs. Morland was a very good woman, and wished to see her children everything they ought to be; but her time was so much occupied in lying-in and teaching the little ones, that her elder daughters were inevitably left to shift for themselves; and it was not very wonderful that Catherine, who had by nature nothing heroic about her, should prefer cricket, base ball, riding on horseback, and running about the country at the age of fourteen, to books — or at least books of information — for, provided that nothing like useful knowledge could be gained from them, provided they were all story and no reflection, she had never any objection to books at all.

Now, with the wrap-up of the World Series (won by the Philadelphia Phillies, the World [Expletive Deleted] Champions–and how do we know the Phillies are the World [Expletive Deleted] Champions? BECAUSE CHASE UTLEY SAID SO!), author Julian Norridge is making a case for the British invention of baseball in his book, Can We Have Our Balls Back, Please? (article charmingly illustrated by a photo of Brad Lidge of the Philadelphia Phillies, the World [Expletive Deleted] Champions). He uses the mention of baseball in NA as well as references to baseball in a young man’s diary from 1755 to make his case.

He argues in his book that the reference indicates British people were familiar with the sport prior to its supposed invention much later in the United States.

“There’s no doubt it was being played in Britain in the late 18th century, and equally no doubt that it traveled to America,” he writes.

The Telegraph and Fanhouse also have articles. (Note to the Telegraph: That’s General Abner DOUBLEDAY, not Graves, who didn’t really invent baseball.)

It should also be pointed out that Mrs. Tilney, Catherine Morland as was, totally picked the NL East this year. Not that we’re, you know, rubbing it in or anything.

Thanks to Alert Janeites Lisa and Zoe for sending the CNN link.

The Jewish Daily Forward is reporting that a six-part, Hebrew-language adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, set in 21st-century Israel, will be broadcast on the Israeli cable provider Hot (!) next summer.

In the series, the tempestuous romance between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy will now take place between characters named Alona Sadeh and Nimrod Artzi, the latter recast as a high-tech worker rather than a stuffy landowner. The production will be scripted and directed by Irit Linor, who recently completed a new Hebrew translation of “Pride and Prejudice” and who previously translated Charles Dickens’s “Nicholas Nickleby.” Prime-time soap opera veteran Yael Hadar and stage and TV actor Dan Shapira will play the romantic leads.

Six parts! Elizabeth as heroine! Take that, ITV!

Welcome to Friday Bookblogging, our weekly (well, most of the time) feature in which we round up news about Jane Austen’s novels, books about Jane Austen’s novels, books inspired by Jane Austen’s novels, and anything related to books and Jane Austen.

Ivy Farguheson reviews Sense and Sensibility (yes!) in the Indiana Star Press.

The story begins with the Dashwoods, Marianne and Elinor among them, discovering that, after the death of their father, the girls’ half brother, John Dashwood, will be the heir of the home. After his wife’s passive aggressive nature causes the women to move with their mother to a cottage on another relative’s land, the two elder girls, Marianne and Elinor, discover what love truly is and how to react to its complex nature.

The topic is as serious today as it was 200 years ago and a look in the self-help aisle of any bookstore will make that clear. But through Austen’s characters, especially Mrs. Jennings, the old woman who makes it her job to know everything about everyone else’s love life, comedy eases the anxiety felt by the sisters and the readers. Love may or may not be given to the girls by the end of the book, but for certain, they will remain strong in who they are.

Alison Flood is all for literary crushes, but doesn’t get the Darcy thing.

Lots of people seem to have a thing for Mr Darcy – I never got that one, his broodiness always struck me as a little dull

Anyone care to enlighten her? (Don’t ask us, we are Team Tilney!)

How come Jane Austen’s books aren’t on the not on the list of “laugh out loud” fiction?

Jane Austen, whom Kelly adds as an afterthought at the end of his post, also wrote some great comedy: I laughed a lot louder when I read Emma than when I read Catcher in the Rye, which a lot of commenters suggested.

That’s because the New York Times is a bunch of phoneys!

That’s it for this week’s Friday Bookblogging, Gentle Readers; until next time, never forget: Books Are Nice!

Alert Janeite Lisa sent us links to a couple of local performances of Pride and Prejudice that take place over the weekend.

November 6-9, Augusta, Georgia: Augusta State University presents the Jon Jory adaptation of Pride and Prejudice at the George C. Maxwell Performing Arts Theatre; the shows are at 8 p.m. on November 6-8 and 3 p.m. on November 9. The MetroSpirit and Augusta Chronicle have articles about the show. Tickets are $5-10 and available at the box office.

November 6-9, 2008, Costa Mesa, California: Vanguard University will be presenting the Jon Jory adaptation of Pride and Prejudice at the Lyceum Theater. Shows are at 8 p.m. on November 6-8 and at 2 p.m. on November 9. Tickets are $12-14 and are available online.

Welcome to Getting Local With Jane, our (usually) weekly feature in which we highlight upcoming local events of interest to Jane Austen fans. Even if your town doesn’t appear on the list, keep checking back–you never know when there will be an event in your town. And there certainly are a lot coming up! We’re also incorporating a couple of upcoming stage presentations of P&P in this post.

November 9, Colorado Springs, Colorado: Joan Klingel Ray will present “Jane Austen for Smarties” at the Kraemer Family Library on the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs campus at 2 p.m.

November 14-16, Cincinnati, Ohio: McAuley High School will present the Jon Jory stage adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Tickets are $6-8; see link for details.

December 4-7, Ann Arbor, Michigan: The University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance will present a stage production of Pride and Prejudice at the Power Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets are $18-24 ($9 for students with ID) and are available online.

December 6 and 13, Camp Hill, Pennsylvania: Christmas Tea with Jane Austen and Friends, 1 p.m., Over the Teacup.

January 17, 2009, Pasadena, California: The Society for Manners and Merriment will hold their annual Jane Austen Evening at the Pasadena Masonic Hall, which really begins in the afternoon with tea and then stretches into an evening ball. Tickets for the tea and dance are $50; dance only $30. Preparatory dance classes (advanced and beginner/intermediate level) will be held on January 4 and 11; classes are $10 for a half day and $15 for a full day.