We recently added several titles to our collection of e-texts at Molland’s Circulating-Library for the reading enjoyment of all Janeites.

As a result of many user requests, we’ve expanded the section on Jane Austen’s work to include Lady Susan, Love and Freindship (which includes Love and Freindship, of course, Lesley Castle, The History of England, and other juvenilia), and The Watsons. We are considering adding Sanditon as well so it will be included in the all-texts search index.

One addition that we’re really pleased about is a subject guide to the third edition of Jane Austen’s letters, edited by Deirdre Le Faye. The index is meant to complement the existing biographical, topographical, and general indices in the letters. Del Cain, a retired librarian from Florida, made these notes for his own use on index cards, which he then typed up. He asked for our help in putting the index online, and we have arranged it by one letter of the alphabet per page. We are trying to think of a way to make the index downloadable and printable without it being a huge PDF.

Janeites who have been enjoying her work on the Internet for a long time will remember Cathy Dean’s e-texts archive, which included some biographies and introductions to various editions of Jane Austen’s novels. Word reached us last year that the site had gone dark, though the texts were still available via the Internet Archive (but for how long?). We managed to track down Ms. Dean and ask if we could transfer the e-texts to Molland’s, and she gave her permission. We thank her for it! Among the items we’ve transferred are two book-length Austen biographies, Jane Austen and Her Times by G.E. Mitton (which is very charming) and Jane Austen by O.W. Firkins (less charming, but interesting to read from a historical perspective).

We’ve also included two family biographical works: James Edward Austen-Leigh’s A Memoir of Jane Austen and Jane Austen, Her Life and Letters: A Family Record by William Austen-Leigh and Richard Arthur Austen-Leigh (the original 1913 text). There also are some new shorter pieces. We have a stack of other texts to scan and add to this growing collection, so stay tuned! In the meantime, we hope you enjoy reading some of these texts, which are fascinating from a historical perspective. The 21st and even the 20th century have no lock on Jane Austen scholarship. Also, we’re very interested in user feedback, so let us know how you use the texts and how they can be improved.

All kinds of book news this week! (Actually we’ve been saving it up.)

Alert Janeite Carol let us know that romance author Mary Balogh is working on an Austen-related anthology project with several other authors.

And I have just agreed to participate in another anthology, this one the brainchild of Susan Krinard, who thought it would be fun to write paranormal novellas based on various Jane Austen novels. She had already recruited Colleen Gleason and Janet Mullany by the time she asked me. I was hesitant as I have never written anything paranormal, but I always find it difficult to resist a challenge, especially when it involves nothing more arduous than using the imagination. And so I have my sights set upon making something paranormal of the basic plot idea of Persuasion. The tentative title for the anthology is Bespelling Jane, and it will contain two historical and two contemporary novellas. You may watch for it some time in the future–if we can catch the interest of a publisher, that is!

Keep your tongues in your cheeks, ladies, and we suspect it will work a lot better.

Hot on our discussion the other day about Austen first editions and memorabilia, we have the results of an auction of a collection of first editions at Bloomsbury Auctions, which went for a lot less than you might expect.

Other highlights included a group of privately owned first edition Jane Austen books. Austen’s first book, Sense and Sensibility , 1811, had a contemporary author attribution of “Miss Austen,” and it sold for $24,200. Pride and Prejudice, also in three volumes, made $33,300; Mansfield Park fetched $6,460, Emma made $11,400, and Northanger Abbey sold for just above its higher estimate at $7,250.

Again, unclear if the listing of NA included Persuasion; most likely, as that book is not otherwise mentioned in the collection.

EADT has an article about the influence of playwright Elizabeth Inchbald (author of the infamous “Lovers’ Vows”) on Jane Austen’s work.

The latest edition of the Jane Austen Podnovel is now available.

Alert Janeite Amo sent us an article about a spoof rewrite of Shakespeare in “yoof-speak.” The author of the piece takes it to the logical conclusion and rewrites a certain opening sentence.

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife” could become “You’re loaded, but got no bird. You some sort of bender?”

On that note, Gentle Readers, that’s it for Friday Bookblogging. Until next time, always remember: Books Are Nice!

The Press Association reports that a copy of Emma inscribed by Jane Austen to Miss Anne Sharp, the governess at her brother Edward’s estate, Godmersham, will be auctioned by Bonhams on June 24. (Perhaps this is the sale? The catalogue is currently not available.) The auction house expects the book to sell for £50,000. Inscribed? That’s ALL? We think six figures is not out of the question, though of course auctions are always iffy. A quote from the current owner, who wishes to remain anonymous:

“The novel had been sitting in my family library for at least three generations and it remains a mystery as to how the book first got there.”

Indeed!

Alert Janeite Sylvia sent us a video of Pride and Prejudice in alternate reality…

And if you prefer your Jane Austen a little more low-concept, Alert Baja Janeite sent us a video of a cartoon cat reading the first chapter of P&P. No catch, that’s exactly what it is.

Nibbles has a very relaxing voice, doesn’t he?

Spring has arrived at AustenBlog World Headquarters, and our thoughts lightly turn to summer relaxation. It’s time for a roundup of recent and upcoming Jane Austen-related book releases, and we think there are some you will want to add to your beach bag. We also have some other Jane Austen-related book news, so put up your parasol and read on.

First, the latest Dalziel and Pascoe detective novel from Reginald Hill is an updated homage to Sanditon.

The characters created by Miss Austen are brought into the modern setting of a seaside area which the local landowners and monied types are trying to make wealthy through health. When a titled lady at the head of this bid is found roasting on her own hog spit, Dalziel’s right-hand man Pascoe arrives to investigate.

Yikes! What a fate for Lady Denham! But this sounds like the perfect beach read–unfortunately it’s only available in the UK at the moment.

Radio Riel has some podcasts of discussions that took place after the recent PBS broadcasts of Jane Austen adaptations.

The Panorama of the Mountains blog tells us that Jane Austen’s books soothe the savage breast.

Everyone loves a (well-written) romance. When I’ve volunteered at the Prison Book Program, some prisoners request trashy romance novels, but we’re prohibited from sending them sexual content. So they’re sent books by Austen and the Brontes instead. No one’s complained to my knowledge.

Other books that have recently been released include Elizabeth Aston’s latest novel, The Darcy Connection (we should have a review this week); a reprint of Joan Aiken’s Emma Watson, a completion of The Watsons; Jane Austen: Her Golden Years by Muriel Keller Evans, a novel that seems to be covering the same ground as Miss Austen Regrets; and for those who prefer books of information, Hypocrisy and the Politics of Politeness: Manners and Morals from Locke to Austen looks like a scholarly take on an interesting subject.

Coming soon: the paperback version of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict will be released in a week or so; the much-anticipated U.S. release of Captain Wentworth’s Diary by Amanda Grange also occurs this month; a reprint of the first Jane Austen Mystery, Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor, also comes out later this month. A reprint of Park Honan’s biography of Jane Austen is due any day; a “Brief Life” also will be out very soon; and we just spotted another Joan Aiken reprint, Eliza’s Daughter, due out in November.

That’s it for Weekend Bookblogging (hey, it’s still weekend in some places), so until next time, always remember, Gentle Readers: Books Are Nice!

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!

The Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) has posted a preview of the next edition of its annual journal, Persuasions, which will be sent to JASNA members in May or June. As usual, the journal features essays from the latest Annual General Meeting, which this past year had the theme “Discovering Emma in Vancouver,” and as usual was a great long weekend packed with information and fun. We find that between the pre-AGM preparation of re-reading the novel, the weekend of presentations and discussions, and then reading the essays a few months later, we truly gain new insights into these novels that we’ve enjoyed so many times before.

It’s not too late to get your copy of Persuasions; if you join JASNA by May 1, you’ll receive Persuasions No. 29, the spring issue of JASNA News, and get an early opportunity to register for this year’s AGM, to be held in Chicago.

While you’re waiting for your copy of Persuasions to arrive, check out the latest issue of Persuasions On-Line, which also has several essays from the AGM and a great selection of “Miscellany” articles as well! You can also check out back issues of POL as well as the full text of several out of print editions of Persuasions. We can’t encourage our readers strongly enough to check them out.

Alert Janeite Dana sent us a link to a blog post about Jane Austen the Medievalist, riffing off the New Yorker article we posted about in last week’s Bookblogging.

Alert Janeite Maria L. sent us an article about a book that could have been written by Charlotte Lucas. The premise is that women shouldn’t wait for the perfect man to marry, but grab the first half-decent one that comes along.

She says what makes for a great courtship doesn’t necessarily make for a great marriage. “I think, for a lot of people, if they actually went with (Jane Austen’s) Mr Darcy, they might not be that happy. What is he like dealing with diapers and paying the bills?”

We think Mr. Darcy employs people to do those sort of things for him, actually. And we think the premise of this book is very sad, indeed.

A poll reveals that one in ten British students confess to watching film adaptations rather than reading the books for class assignments. This is news?

A book of short stories written by Dalziel and Pascoe author Reginald Hill includes a sequel to Emma.

And who but a writer of Hill’s calibre would have the brass neck to take on Jane Austen at her own game and write a sequel to Emma, set 20 years after Miss Woodhouse’s marriage to Mr Knightley.

About ten dozen fan fic writers and Emma Tennant?

The couple are childless and still living with Emma’s creaking-gate father, a fact which has probably driven the once-perfect squire into a dissolute life in politics. Back into their lives comes the now-widowed Frank Churchill, who is keen to save Emma from a life of debt.

Miss Austen would, I feel, have been shocked but amused.

And she would have referred the author to her nephew’s Memoir, which included the information that Jane Austen said that Mr. Woodhouse survived Mr. and Mrs. Knightley’s marriage only by two years. But after all, there must be murder, and government cares not how much.

In other paraliterature news, Colonel Brandon’s Diary by Amanda Grange will be out in July 2008! (UK hardback edition–there will be a U.S. paperback edition sometime in 2009.) There’s preordering information at the link.

Laurie Viera Rigler has resumed her series of blog posts on Jane Austen’s novels with Emma.

These “a-ha” experiences are high on the list of reasons why I love Austen. I have this theory that if you read her works enough times and really contemplate the life lessons therein, you can pretty much give up your psychotherapist. You can even reduce your library of self-help books to Austen’s six novels. They are so much fun to read, so satisfying, so full of dramatic tension and hilarious commentary, that you hardly know you’re getting a life lesson at all. Which is exactly how I like my life lessons delivered.

We agree that much of the genius of Jane Austen (and her continuing popularity) lies in the truth of her novels. John Murray wrote to Walter Scott about Emma, “It wants incident and romance, does it not?” Silly, silly man!

Alert Janeite Sarah sent us a link to a very amusing article in the New Yorker about the recent trend of memoirs that turn out to be mostly invention (and invention is what delights us in novels, after all).

And when history books are wrong they can be miserably, badly, ridiculously wrong, a point that wasn’t lost on Jane Austen, who, in 1791, when she was sixteen, wrote a brilliant parody of Oliver Goldsmith’s four-volume, march-of-the-monarchs “History of England, from the Earliest Times to the Death of George II.” (Goldsmith, the author of the novel “The Vicar of Wakefield,” wrote history to keep out of debtors’ prison.) Austen called her parody “The History of England from the Reign of Henry the 4th to the Death of Charles the 1st, by a Partial, Prejudiced & Ignorant Historian.” It consisted of thirteen perfectly dunderheaded character sketches of crowned heads of England. Of Henry V, she wrote, “During his reign, Lord Cobham was burnt alive, but I forget what for.” Of the Duke of Somerset: “He was beheaded, of which he might with reason have been proud, had he known that such was the death of Mary Queen of Scotland; but as it was impossible that he should be conscious of what had never happened, it does not appear that he felt particularly delighted with the manner of it.” Of the allegation that Lady Jane Grey, Edward VI’s cousin, read Greek: “Whether she really understood that language or whether such a study proceeded only from an excess of vanity for which I believe she was always rather remarkable, is uncertain.” Once in a great while, Austen happened to bump into a fact or two, for which she apologized: “Truth being I think very excusable in an Historian.”

In other book news, Alert Janeites Laurel Ann and Lisa sent us a couple of links to an article about Penguin’s new endeavor with ebooks, which will be “enhanced” with “a filmography, period book reviews, recipes and black-and-white illustrations.” We were concerned about formatting, but the Publishers Weekly article claims the enhanced ebooks will be compatible with all readers. It’s a pretty good idea, as there are so many nicely formatted ebooks of public domain texts available in every format that publishers will have to offer extra content to get readers to pay money for them. Jimmy Guterman of O’Reilly disagrees.

Although ebooks should have extras, those extras should take advantage of the interactive medium, not merely deliver more — and inferior — text.

Inferior? Jane Austen? Harrrumph. Or does he mean etexts are inferior to paper? Trust us, as a dedicated ebook user, once you start reading and get lost in the story, the medium in which the story is delivered becomes completely transparent. And besides, “interactive medium” indicates a connection to the Internet, which all ebook readers (meaning the electronic devices) do NOT have, and which many ebook readers (meaning people reading books) don’t want.

What’s most galling, of course, is that Penguin isn’t attempting to increase interest in ebooks as a medium by making these classics, long past copyright, available in free, un-DRM-encumbered formats. In an old-meets-new mashup, publishers could use free distribution of still-in-demand classics to generate interest in a form, ebooks, that is still only in the earliest days of its potential public acceptance. Wouldn’t you be more likely to try something new if it was free?

As we already pointed out, there are already tons of free ebooks of public domain texts available everywhere in every format. The publishers have to do something different to get people to buy them. We would like to see some scholarly notes and essays along with the more fun stuff, by the bye; there’s plenty of room for all.

In other news, two recent entries in Norm Geras’ Writer’s Choice blog series on Normblog mention Jane Austen. Meg Rosoff discusses the different layers of Pride and Prejudice:

Above and beyond the love story - people who would never consider reading the book have swooned over various film and TV versions - Pride and Prejudice is actually a book about class, about fortunes on the way up and down, inherited wealth versus new wealth, good marriages and bad, gentlemen and bounders, and the emerging English middle class at the end of the 18th century.

…and Olivia Lichtenstein writes about the continuing fascination of filmmakers with Pride and Prejudice:

In the past decade alone, Pride and Prejudice has spawned a BBC costume drama, an Oscar-winning feature film, a Bollywood version (Bride and Prejudice), the books Bridget Jones’s Diary and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, its sequel - arguably amongst the biggest of recent publishing sensations - and, of course, by extension, the two feature films they engendered. This year, a spoof Pride and Prejudice is planned, Jane Austen Handheld, a film which is to star Stephen Fry, Russell Brand and Lily Allen. I wonder whether frequent repetition diminishes the value of the original work of art, or at the least, people’s perception of it.

Naaaaaah.

And lastly, Alert Janeite Lisa pointed us to the Blogger News Network, which has a review of Pemberley Remembered, a new P&P sequel; we’ll have a review here at AustenBlog next week.

That’s it for Weekend Bookblogging, Gentle Readers, so until next week, remember: Books Are Nice!

Pray forgive the dearth of posting of late. We’ve developed a nasty allergy to the computer this week, but seem to be getting over it.

Continuing our theme of electronic books as we wrap up Read an Ebook Week, we were really pleased to hear from Linda (also known as Linda Fern), who has digitized a really valuable resource for Janeites, The Loiterer. From the introduction:

The centrepiece of this collection is James Austen’s The Loiterer, a periodical of sixty issues published in Oxford in 1789 and 1790. James wrote the majority of the issues with his brother, Henry, among others, contributing articles. After the final issue was published in 1790, James had the entire sixty issues bound into two volumes and published with a limited number of copies. A “pirated” Dublin edition was published in 1792.

[. . .]

After reading The Loiterer in its entirety, I considered it to be a valuable adjunct for understanding Jane Austen’s life, world and works. Also, it may possibly answer some questions that have eluded us as to what and when Jane Austen knew on some subject or other..

We agree! Linda also has collected the content of the late Ashton Dennis’ “Male Voices in Praise of Jane Austen” website and a series of essays about “Jane Austen and the Wars” by R. Jason Everett. We strongly encourage our Gentle Readers to check it out–and bookmark the site and plan to return, there’s lots of good stuff here to read.

Also expanding on our post of earlier this week, Harry T. has uploaded Mobipocket format ebooks of Emma (with the Brock illustrations), Jane Austen’s Minor Works, including just about everything that isn’t a novel, and the Brabourne edition of Jane Austen’s Letters to MobileRead.

Ms. Place at Jane Austen’s World has post about the Thomson illustrated Complete Jane Austen, with a link to Google Books.

And in the “What the Heck Is It?” department, Alert Janeite Julie P. sent us a link last week, and Maisy has also linked it in comments, to P&P by “DVD Bookshelf.” As near as we can figure, it displays the text onscreen as a narrator reads it. Is this supposed to be a film for the strictest purists or something? Besides, when we listen to an audiobook we like to multi-task: needlework, housework, craft projects, HTML coding…

That’s it for Weekend Bookblogging, Gentle Readers, and always remember: Books (including Electronic Books) Are Nice!

This post was made possible by Pat Benatar’s Greatest Hits, which we sung along with badly, with accompanying head banging and shoulder shimmying, to help us to break out of our blogging malaise. We even managed to wake up the Wickhams at the crack of 3 p.m. George just screamed at Lydia to “put on a (expletive deleted) shirt.” Oh my.

We are Bookblogging midweek since A. we didn’t get around to it over the weekend and B. It’s Read an Ebook Week! We have had our Cybook Gen3 for a few weeks now and it rocks our socks. Naturally one of the first things we did was download all of Jane Austen’s novels, plus Lady Susan, Love and Freindship, the Memoir, Life and Letters, and a couple of other interesting oddments to our Cybook. And not only do we have all of Jane Austen’s work (and work about her), we have books by the Brontës, Mrs. Gaskell, Mrs. Radcliffe, Fanny Burney, L.M. Montgomery, Dickens, and a metric truckload of Trollope–and much more–and we are using maybe 5 percent of the capacity of our 1GB SD card. We carry this device around with us daily. The Cybook is the thinnest and lightest reader with an eInk screen, though the cover adds some heft to it, but it fits easily in our smallish handbag. We have played with a co-worker’s Kindle and were extremely impressed by the ease of use. We thought the interface seemed kludgy before we used it, but it’s amazingly intuitive. We also have heard many wonderful things about the Sony Reader, and if you don’t mind or even prefer a backlit display there is the eBookwise, or you can use your Treo or BlackBerry or mobile phone or PDA to read eReader or Mobipocket format books. (We still have many eReader format books on our Treo.)

Incidentally, all of the books we mentioned above were free. We also received $50 in downloads of paid books from BooksOnBoard when we purchased our Cybook (haven’t used it all yet). But most public domain books, for all devices, are free to download from somewhere. Manybooks.net probably has the best selection, both of books and of formats; Feedbooks has a smaller selection but its books are really nicely formatted. Community members at MobileRead have digitized dozens of public domain books in various formats, and MobileReader Harry T. has uploaded lovely ebooks of Jane Austen’s novels in Mobipocket and Sony Reader formats, including the C.E. Brock illustrations from Molland’s and Solitary Elegance! We just downloaded five of the Big Six in Mobipocket format to enjoy on our Cybook.

Admittedly, ebook readers, especially the eInk readers such as the Cybook, Kindle, Reader, and iRex iLiad, which are the top of the line technology (and correspondingly expensive), are still in early adopter territory. We can see that they may not work for some readers; though we are really impressed with how well Amazon has done in making the Kindle work out of the box even for the non-tech-savvy and in providing a variety of content. DRM is an issue, which is going away with music but still very much an issue with ebooks; the main problem with DRM is portability between devices, and the Kindle and Reader use proprietary ebook formats. But for those of us who mostly read classics anyway, it’s not as much of an issue; there really is a tremendous amount of totally free public domain content out there, and everyone is at least talking about DRM. Whether it will do any good remains to be seen.

We used to say “Can’t curl up in bed with a computer, so we’ll never read ebooks.” Well, you can certainly curl up with one of the latest generation of readers; and some intrepid types even take them into the tub and on to the beach, properly protected of course. We still read and collect and enjoy paper books, but we are really enjoying our adventures in ebooks. Incidentally, stay tuned–we’ll be adding some new etext titles at Molland’s very soon! We’re happy to answer any of our Gentle Readers’ questions about ebooks or the Cybook in comments.

Speaking of digital text, JASNA has digitized Persuasions No. 10, which includes essays from the 1988 AGM in Chicago (which is, of course, where the AGM will be this year as well). The theme of the conference was “Jane Austen’s England” and the list of papers, both related to the conference and not, look fascinating.

The News Observer (North Carolina) has an article about the Everyman’s Library, currently featured at an exhibition at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill’s Wilson Library.

Early dust jackets were graced with Thomas Carlyle’s assertion that “The true university in these days is a collection of books.” The Everyman’s edition of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” was graced with Sir Philip Sidney’s lovely line, “A tale which holdeth children from play and old men from the chimney corner.”

We’ve updated the list of upcoming books and those currently on the shelf in the menu at right. Hopefully we’ll get it together to do a post highlighting all the latest publications!

That’s it for Friday Weekend Midweek Bookblogging, and always remember, Gentle Readers: Whether electronic or paper, Books Are Nice!

Alert Janeite Eileen wrote to tell us that Jane Austen is one of only four women listed in the top 100 of the WorldCat Identities project. Eileen commented,

And the four represent an interesting cross section of our gender!

Jane Austen
Agatha Christie
Mary, Blessed Virgin
Virginia Woolf

That’s an interesting combination of women, all right!

We asked Eileen for more information about the project, and she told us:

This is a project that is experimenting with ways to improve how library catalogs work. It uses the OCLC WorldCat database, which is the largest database of library holdings in the world. You can search on an author, composer or even a fictional character and the results returned are organized in a more intuitive manner than most library catalogs. . .It’s still experimental and clearly has some work to do (it classes The Jane Austen Book Club as a work about Jane Austen). But let’s say you’re just getting into Jane. Clicking on her identity leads you to a list of books she wrote, as well as books about her, cross references and related subjects. All in one place.

Eileen also sent a link to the aggregate data for Jane Austen so far on the project. This is an amazing project, and will be incredibly useful (and obsession-generating) to those of us who can never get enough information on our favorite subjects. Eileen also sent a link about the project that explains it pretty succinctly:

The idea of WorldCat Identities is simple: create a summary page for every name in WorldCat.

One of our favorite aphorisms is: Librarians Rock! Because you do.

Lots of bookblogging to do this week! Huzzah! *AustenBlog Cheerleading and Dance Team begins chanting “Books Are Nice! Books Are Nice!”*

First up we have a real treat: photographs of a first edition copy of Pride and Prejudice! Julie T. tells the story in an e-mail to the Editrix:

My wonderful son is visiting his girlfriend at Wesleyan University. Today they went to the school’s rare book room, and look what Jake asked to see! It’s a first edition, and please note the name inscribed in the front cover, “Harriet Gardiner.” What could be more appropriate for the owner of this book (other than, perhaps, Elizabeth Darcy)

Click on the thumbnails below for larger images:

Photos by Jake Zien

Thanks so much to Jake and Julie for sharing the images, and for allowing us to post them.

Speaking of Pride and Prejudice, Laurie Viera Rigler continues her series at About.com’s Classic Literature blog with a really lovely entry on P&P. (more…)

Our inaugural edition of Getting Local With Jane was a big hit–so much so that we received news of a couple of events that will be taking place so soon as to not bear waiting for next week’s edition!

This is a very exciting event:

Meet the cast and director of The Jane Austen Book Club on Tuesday, February 5, at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble, The Grove at Farmers Market, Los Angeles (3rd Street and Grove Drive). Maggie Grace, Amy Brenneman, Kathy Baker, and Robin Swicord (screenwriter/director) will greet fans and sign DVDs.

Also, check out the link — jasna.org has an exclusive video clip in which Joan Klingel Ray, Claire Bellanti, and Robin Swicord discuss Jane Austen and her men, including Harris Bigg-Wither.

For those in the Seattle area, Laurel Ann of Austenprose and co-blogging duties at Jane Austen Today will host “An Evening With Jane” in conjunction with KCTS 9 at the Alderwood Barnes & Noble on Thursday, February 7 at 7 p.m.

The night will begin with a short introduction to Jane Austen, the inspiration for our series, The Complete Jane Austen, as well as other “prequels, sequels and Austen-inspired publications,” says Laurel Ann. And we will not shy away from the Janeite’s favorite activity: Discussing the history of Jane Austen adaptations, including interpretations of her novels, casting and highlights–and the history of her original book publications.

Questions and discussion by the attendees will be encouraged. Laurel Ann and hosts will be serving complimentary tea and scones, sending guests home with gift packs, and offering a drawing for books and posters.

RSVPs are encouraged–see the link for details.

Tunkhannock (PA) Public Library will host a discussion on “What Makes Pride and Prejudice an Enduring Novel?” on Wednesday, February 6 at 7 p.m. in conjunction with the Wyoming County Reads program.

Don’t forget to send us your local Jane Austen events for Getting Local With Jane!

Laurie Viera Rigler continues her series on Jane Austen’s novels at the About.com Classic Lit blog, this week writing about Mansfield Park.

If you’ve ever had an opinion that your friends considered uncool, and you stuck to it despite ridicule and pressure, you’ll find a kindred spirit in Fanny Price, and you’ll want her reward to be the man she loves. However, if you’re still doing shots with your inner bad girl, you’ll be rooting for Mary Crawford to win the object of her, and Fanny’s, affections.

Heh.

Whilst trolling manybooks.net for free e-books, we happened on a site called The Best Media in Life is Free, which has a listing of free e-texts of books from 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. The listings are broken up into Pre-1700, 1700s (The first two on the list…The Monk and The Mysteries of Udolpho!), 1800s (including Jane Austen’s novels), and 1900s. Now that is what we call a reading list! We recommend manybooks.net for e-books in just about any format you need; and feedbooks.com also has a wonderful list of free public domain e-books, which have been beautifully formatted for easy and pleasant reading.

Speaking of e-books, a while back we snarked on the Kindle a bit, but in the past week had the opportunity to play with one. We take back our fugly comment, because the Kindle is anything but. It’s really quite cute! It’s tiny and clean-looking, and it makes using and reading e-books an incredibly easy experience. You just push a button and get a book in seconds; which might pose a problem if one is not careful with paid downloads, but feedbooks.com has set up a really easy way to get free, nicely formatted public domain e-books on your Kindle as easily as you download them from Amazon. Download their Kindle Download Guide, which installs as a book, and “shop” for free e-books right from the guide. We are having serious gadget lust and need to get an eInk e-book reader SOON! It probably still will be a Cybook Gen3; but we really love the ease of use of the Kindle.

Adventures in Reading reviews Jane Austen: Obstinate Heart by Valerie Grosvenor Myer.

Austen is described as a person with charm and wit, but also as an individual looked down upon socially as being rather “backwards” or common by her family later in life. Some of Austen’s nieces and nephews are described as rather snobbish and prudish (they would be entering the Victorian period after all) and Myers discusses how parts of Austen’s life were “white washed” in the years after her death by her family. Myers’ approaches a “sour grape” perspective on Austen’s life versus the romantic entanglements of her heroine’s.

Lori Smith, the author of A Walk With Jane Austen, was interviewed at the She Plants a Vineyard blog.

SPV: Many women love Jane Austen’s novels. What is it about her novels that are so timeless and that we can relate to?
Lori: There are lots of answers to that question—her writing is lovely, she herself had a wonderful wit and energy for life, which comes through in her stories, they’re full of humor and her characters are people that we still recognize today. And she’s writing about falling in love, which is an awful lot of fun on its own. But there’s much more substance to her than just the romance.

I think a big part of it is the character that Austen wove into her stories. They’re not so much about falling in love as they are about the kind of people who are allowed to fall in love, people whose characters have been refined, who have been willing to admit their own faults and change. They’re worthy. I think that gives her stories incredible strength—which sometimes movies and spin-offs miss.

We were referred to A Great Undoing, Natalie Jenner’s entry in the Amazon.com Breakthrough Novel Award competition. The novel is a modern retelling of Persuasion, set in Montauk, Long Island and Manhattan in the 1960s. You can download and read a free excerpt and leave feedback. The novel currently is a semi-finalist in the competition and will advance to the next round based upon the feedback that the excerpt receives, so get to it, Janeites!

And we are reminded that we have not updated our sidebar book links in a very long time, and hope to get to that task this week. That’s it for this week’s Weekend Bookblogging, Gentle Readers, and always remember: Books Are Nice!

With all the excitement over the Complete Jane Austen, we would like to take this opportunity to issue our periodic reminder that Jane Austen wrote six novels, not just the one with that moody Darcy git (TEAM TILNEY REPRESENT!), and if you haven’t tried them all yet, there’s no time like the present! And even after you finish the Big Six, there’s more Jane to read–let us know if you need a list.

Laurie Viera Rigler, the author of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, is writing a series on each of Jane Austen’s novels for About.com’s Classic Literature blog in conjunction with the films. Last’s week’s Bookblogging included her Persuasion post, and this week she wrote about Northanger Abbey.

Every era likes to marginalize certain forms of art. In Austen’s day, it was the novel (and not just the Gothic ones). Today, it might be graphic novels or romance or so-called “women’s fiction” or “chick lit” or science fiction or horror. Take your pick. Despite the snobbery, Jane Austen and her whole family were, in her own words, “great Novel-readers, & not ashamed of being so.” Nevertheless, Northanger Abbey is a hilarious send-up of just the kind of horror-and-romance-fest that Catherine Morland—and Jane Austen—liked to read. The difference between the heroine and her creator is that Catherine Morland kept expecting real life to play out like one of her favorite novels, while Jane Austen thought real life had its own set of fascinating stories to tell.

The Adventures in Reading blog has a few posts examining Persuasion, which, as many of our readers know, is our favorite Jane. The first part has an anecdote that made our jaw drop:

My sophomore year in college a classmate of mine told me about his experience with Persuasion in another class. While I cannot recall what he said the instructor had said, I do recall that he argued the novel was classist and he felt Anne Elliot was a “gold digger.”

WHAAAAAAAAT? Anne Elliot, of all people, a gold digger? Our Cluebat of Janeite Righteousness, let us show you it.

Part 2 has more reflections upon the novel–it’s always so interesting to hear from someone making their first engaged read.

Another character I have yet to mention but that plays an enormous part is Mrs. Smith. Anne knew Mrs. Smith from her school days and only knew that shortly after Anne left the school that this woman became Mrs. Smith and seemed to have married quite well. When Anne rediscovers her, Mrs. Smith is an invalid, dependent on the “kindness of strangers”, selling hand made crafts through a friend, and living most of her life in two small and shabby rooms. Mrs. Smith plays a key role in revealing Mr. Elliot’s (the cousin and heir) true character to Anne, but I will say I found her more of a remarkable character after reading about Austen’s own invalid brother. Perhaps there is no connection, but at the very least Mrs. Smith is a very interesting comparison to Lady de Bourgh’s daughter in Pride & Prejudice.

We doubt Mrs. Smith had anything to do with George Austen, but it is interesting to contrast her treatment, as someone who is genuinely ill–indeed, crippled to the point of being unable to walk–and yet bears with her infirmities and her deplorable financial situation with cheer; and (this always gets us) as poor as she is, she seeks to sell her little knitted items to do good for even poorer people. As a comparison with hypochondriacs such as Mary Musgrove, Mrs. Bennet, and, yes, Anne de Bourgh (though we have no way of knowing if she was really ill or not), and considering that Persuasion was written as Jane Austen was suffering the first symptoms of her fatal illness, Mrs. Smith is a truly amazing character.

That’s it for this week’s Friday Bookblogging, Gentle Readers, and always remember: Books Are Nice!

Just a quickie this week, since unfortunately it’s all about the films at the moment, but we would like to draw our Gentle Readers’ attention back at least momentarily to the fact that all these new films are based upon novels, and indeed very good ones.

ETA: We nearly forgot! The discussion of The Midnight Bell by Francis Lathom will begin Sunday (that’s tomorrow) at Molland’s. Jump right in to the discussion.

Laurie Viera Rigler, author of The Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, has written a really lovely article about Persuasion for about.com.

If you’ve ever felt like your family didn’t treat you the way they should; if you’ve ever been misunderstood, misled, or misguided in any way, then Persuasion will speak your language. If you’ve ever yielded to the opinions of others over what your heart told you to do, if you’ve ever given up someone because you were told you had to, if you’ve ever wasted even a tiny bit of this short life holding onto resentment instead of opening up to forgiveness and love; then you will get your second chance to make things right with Persuasion.

We especially agree with this part:

And as an added bonus, the book has the best love letter of any novel you’ll ever read.

YES! Thanks to Alert Janeite Laura S. for the link!

The Telegraph has an interesting article about reading among the younger generation, which touches a bit on Jane Austen.

But does it matter? Isn’t an obsession with books just an out-of-date, middle-class hang-up?

Ministers don’t lament the fact that people don’t paint watercolours any more. Posh and Becks admit they never open a book and they haven’t done too badly.

Depends upon the value one places on not doing too badly.

It is unfair to blame children’s disenchantment with books on computers and DVDs when most adults prefer slumping in front of a screen to curling up on the sofa with a book.

You can’t expect your child to read - rather than watch - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when you have just sat through Sense and Sensibility without any intention of picking up a Jane Austen. If you spend evenings on eBay and never get round to finishing the latest Robert Harris, you’re not an ideal role model.

Yes! Perhaps that’s the answer for children who are too young to handle Jane Austen’s work–read it to them, or better yet, with them.

That’s all for Weekend Bookblogging this week, Gentle Readers, and always remember: Books Are Nice!

Alert Janeite Jenny let us know that the Kansas City Public Library is about to start a “Jane-uary” program, with a month-long series of events, including lectures, films, and group discussions. Reservations are required for many of the events, so check out the site and send ‘em in! They also have a Jane-uary blog.

Alert Janeite Cate wrote to ask if we had heard of a series of young adult novels by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer set in the Regency and incorporating a school of magical training, sort of like Jane Austen meets Harry Potter or, as Cate put it, “a junior version of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.” Don’t think they’re derivative, though; a reviewer pointed out that the first book was published in 1987, long before either J.K. Rowling or Susannah Clarke pulled out their own wands and started writing. The series includes Sorcery and Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot, The Grand Tour: Being a Revelation of Matters of High Confidentiality and Greatest Importance, Including Extracts from the Intimate Diary of a Noblewoman and the Sworn Testimony of a Lady of Quality, and The Mislaid Magician or Ten Years After. We had never heard of these books but plan to look them up, once we’re a little more caught up in our to-do list!

Speaking of upcoming reading, some of us who hang out at Molland’s will be reading The Midnight Bell by Francis Lathom. If that title sounds familiar, it’s one of the “Northanger Novels” that Isabella Thorpe lists for the benefit of her new friend Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey:

“Dear creature! how much I am obliged to you; and when you have finished Udolpho, we will read the Italian together; and I have made out a list of ten or twelve more of the same kind for you.”

“Have you, indeed! How glad I am! — What are they all?”

“I will read you their names directly; here they are, in my pocket-book. Castle of Wolfenbach, Clermont, Mysterious Warnings, Necromancer of the Black Forest, Midnight Bell, Orphan of the Rhine, and Horrid Mysteries. Those will last us some time.”

“Yes, pretty well; but are they all horrid, are you sure they are all horrid?”

Attentive Janeites also will remember that Mr. Austen read The Midnight Bell, as Jane Austen wrote to her sister Cassandra on 24 October, 1798:

My father is now reading the ‘Midnight Bell,’ which he has got from the library, and mother sitting by the fire.

One presumes he enjoyed it; as Jane once wrote, the Austens were novel-readers and not ashamed of it. It sounds like a real corker, too!

Young Alphonsus Cohenburg enters his mother’s bedroom and finds her covered in blood. She tells him his uncle has murdered his father, and orders him to flee Cohenburg castle forever to save his own life!

A disconsolate exile, Alphonsus wanders the earth seeking the means of survival, first as a soldier, then a miner, and finally as sacristan of a church, where he meets the beautiful Lauretta. They wed and establish a home together, and everything seems to promise them a happy future. But their domestic tranquillity is shattered, when a band of ruffians kidnaps the unfortunate Lauretta! Alphonsus must solve the mystery of Lauretta’s disappearance and the riddle of his mother’s strange conduct. And when he hears that ghosts inhabit Cohenburg castle, tolling the great bell each night at midnight, the mystery only deepens….

Horrid indeed! The schedule for our reading is not yet determined but likely will start the second week in January, er, Jane-uary, so there’s plenty of time to get a copy and join us! We will be sure to let you know when the final schedule has been determined.

That’s it for this week’s Friday Bookblogging, and always remember, Gentle Readers: Books Are Nice!

Nothing like waiting till the last minute, is there?

The Adventures in Reading blog is delighted by Northanger Abbey, but then, aren’t all right-thinking people? (more…)

The Winter 2007 issue of JASNA’s online journal, Persuasions On-Line, has been published and is available to read for free on the JASNA website.

We haven’t had a chance to read all the articles yet (or even close to it) but can’t wait to dig in. We can recommend two papers related to breakout sessions that we attended at the Vancouver AGM, Jane Fairfax’s Choice: The Sale of Human Flesh or Human Intellect by Lynda A. Hall and Reading Elegant Extracts in Emma: Very Entertaining! by Susan Allen Ford, who also is the editor of Persuasions and Persuasions On-Line. (Especially cool at that breakout: an actual copy of Elegant Extracts dated possibly from the eighteenth century!)

Another article which we knew about in advance and really looked forward to reading is Joan Klingel Ray’s essay about the extent of the relationship between Tom Lefroy and Jane Austen, which acts as a much-needed counterpoint to a lot of romantic speculation that’s been bandied about (and filmed!) in the past few years. Whether or not you liked Becoming Jane or the book that inspired it or the eye-sporking insanity that has surrounded it, we suggest you read that article!

And like the past few years, the Winter issue contains Barry Roth’s valuable Jane Austen Bibliography for 2006. Check your library and reading list and make sure you didn’t miss anything!

We would love to discuss this issue with anyone who is interested, and have started a discussion at Molland’s.