Review by MJ Ryan

When tackling the continuation of another author’s unfinished story, the new author must decide whether to try to divine from the available text which direction the original author was going or whether to take the characters in a new direction. I’m not sure it can be easily determined where Jane intended the characters in The Watsons to go. Maybe that’s why it remained during Austen’s lifetime a mere fragment, and maybe that’s why Aiken decided that the latter avenue would be best. Since it would be difficult to completely review the book without giving away a spoiler or two I will give a succinct two sentence review for those who don’t want to be spoiled: as a historical drama the book mostly works. As a continuation of what Jane Austen started, it falls short. For those not worried about being slightly spoiled, read on. (more…)

Wordcandy.net is having a giveaway–basically the same one we had last week, with five winners of a Jane Austen-related Sourcebooks title. So if you weren’t one of the winners in our drawing, check it out!

And there is still time to enter the current AustenBlog giveaway of a copy of the new paperback edition of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler.

To celebrate the paperback publication of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler, we are giving away a copy of the new paperback edition of the novel. To be entered in the drawing, send your full name and mailing address and your Jane Austen Addict confession to austenblog AT gmail DOT com. How have you embarrassed yourself for Jane Austen? (And yes, this is open to readers outside the U.S.) ETA: entries due by Saturday, May 10, at 10 p.m. U.S. Eastern time.

Congratulations to the winners of last week’s Spring Book Giveaway contest: Rebecca W. won a copy of The Darcys Give a Ball by Elizabeth Newark; Vicki R. (aka Baja Janeite) won a copy of Emma and Knightley by Rachel Billington; Marybeth won a copy of The Watsons and Emma Watson by Joan Aiken; Mariflor won a copy of Old Friends and New Fancies by Sybil Brinton; and Vicki K. won a copy of The Pemberley Chronicles by Rebecca Ann Collins. The winners all will receive notification e-mails shortly.

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!

You might not be able to afford the inscribed edition of Emma described below, but you can be one of five lucky winners of one of the latest Jane Austen-related publications from Sourcebooks. They are giving five AustenBlog readers the opportunity to win their choice of the following books:

Old Friends and New Fancies by Sybil Brinton

Letters from Pemberley and More Letters from Pemberley by Jane Dawkins
(Note: These are two separate books–please only request one of them.)

The Darcys Give a Ball by Elizabeth Newark

The Pemberley Chronicles and Women of Pemberley by Rebecca Ann Collins
(Note: These are two separate books. Please only request one of them.)

The Watsons and Emma Watson by Jane Austen and finished by Joan Aiken

Emma and Knightley by Rachel Billington

Mrs. Darcy’s Dilemma by Diana Birchall

To be entered in a drawing to win one of these books, send an e-mail to austenblog AT gmail DOT com with your name, mailing address, and the title of the book you would like to receive, by 10 p.m. Eastern time, Friday, May 2, 2008.

ETA: For the Jane Dawkins and Rebecca Collins books, each author has two separate books. Please only request one title. Apologies for the confusion. For those who have requested both, we’ll put you down for the first one–they are a series–unless you e-mail us and tell us differently.)

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!

Review by MJRyan

The premise of this book sounded intriguing - a young American woman in post-World War II England discovers that the story of Pride and Prejudice was based on a real couple. With the allure of such a romantic reality she begins investigating during her infrequent leaves from her job with the Army Exchange Service. What unfurls is so detailed a fictional history of fictional characters that it left this reader quite uninterested.

But this doesn’t even touch on my biggest issue with the book. By implying that Austen cribbed each and every character from real people, the author minimizes Austen’s genius at creating compelling characters from her imagination. I have no doubt that Austen’s characters were amalgams of people she knew in the course of her life; “write what you know” is a tenet for a reason. But, to write so blatantly of people she knew in real life would have not only cause offense but could have also exposed her as the anonymous authoress. (more…)

Review by MJRyan

“It seemed a harmless invitation, after all…”

So begins the description of Diana Birchall’s sequel to Pride and Prejudice, Mrs. Darcy’s Dilemma. When you read on and realize that the invitation was extended to two of Lydia and George Wickham’s daughters you realize that trouble will ensue. Once the two girls arrive on the page you realize what kind of trouble, who will instigate it and how and what the outcome will be. However, I’ve found that predictable plots are much more palatable when they’re executed well, and Mrs. Darcy’s Dilemma is well executed and, more importantly, enjoyable.

The story begins twenty five years after Pride and Prejudice and while there is plenty of attention paid to Mr and Mrs Darcy, it is the second generation of the Darcys, Wickhams and Bingleys that drive the action of the book. It should be no surprise that the couple with the least amount of sense and money have the most children. Lydia, ever the beggar, writes to Elizabeth and begs her to allow her two oldest daughters to visit, hoping with very little attempt at subterfuge to throw them in the way of young, rich men. Honestly, it is a bit astounding that Elizabeth and Darcy would agree to the visit at all. Birchall, being an adept storyteller, had little trouble convincing me.

Despite the title’s implication, Elizabeth is not the main character nor is the story entirely from her point of view. The action moves along at a brisk clip, switching between points of view, with possibly a bit too much page time dedicated to the more irritating characters from Pride and Prejudice in the middle of the book. Even when my teeth were set on edge by Lydia’s sense of entitlement, Mr. Collins’ speeches and Lady Catherine’s arrogance and pride, I admired Birchall’s ability to faithfully capture Austen’s characters.

Mrs. Darcy’s Dilemma, while not focusing entirely on the characters from Pride and Prejudice, is true to the source material in tone, language and characterizations and would be a satisfying read for fans of Austen paraliterature.

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!

Review by Allison T.

Long ago, in the dark ages of 1999, when mastodons and cave men roamed the earth and there were “comparatively” few Jane Austen sequels out there (“comparatively” being a word used cautiously, meaning that there were already a lot of sequels published but certainly fewer than the scores produced annually in recent years), Mary Street’s The Confession of Fitzwilliam Darcy appeared to soothe the breasts of Darcy-fans craving another fix of their favorite hero. They were satisfied and life was good, except that the book was printed in a small run and became very difficult to find.

The Confession of Fitzwilliam Darcy is now being reprinted by Berkley Publishing Group for the delight of a new generation of Darcy-lovers. They will not be disappointed—this is a straight-forward retelling of the story from the gentleman’s viewpoint. “I know not how Miss Elizabeth Bennet contrived to bring herself to my notice throughout the course of that evening,” the Confession begins, and from this promising point plunges directly into an engaging exploration of Darcy’s feelings. (more…)

Review by Allison T.

With this promising opening sentence—“Emma Knightley, handsome, clever and rich, with a husband whose affection for her was only equaled by her affection for him, had passed upward of a year of marriage in what may be described as perfect happiness….”—Rachel BIllington explores the challenges of early married life in Emma & Knightley; Perfect Happiness in Highbury. Emma has little to vex her, at least at first. But there are clouds on the horizon.

Poor Jane Churchill has died in childbed and the distraught and half-mad Frank is roaming the countryside talking wildly of suicide. Both Mrs. Weston, Mrs. Robert Martin (Harriet), and Mrs. John Knightley (Isabella) are all expecting—why isn’t Emma pregnant, too? Then comes bad news about John Knightley’s financial affairs. Emma travels to London to support Isabella in the last weeks of her pregnancy and meets there the exotic and somewhat peculiar Philomena Tidmarsh and her young step-son, the Rev. Tidmarsh. What is Philomena’s relationship with the Foundling Hospital? She plays the harp as divinely as Mary Crawford, but is she really a lady? (more…)

Review by Allison T.

“The romantic attachments of one’s children are a constant distraction,” says Mrs. Darcy to her sister Mrs. Bingley, and such is the theme of Elizabeth Newark’s The Darcys Give a Ball (Sourcebooks, 2008). Originally published in 1997 as Consequence, the book’s subtitle is “A Gentle Joke, Jane Austen Style,” and indeed this work is both gentle and amusing. As for the children, well! Fitz Darcy (Mr. and Mrs. Darcy’s eldest) is in love with his cousin Amabel Bingley, while Henry Darcy is falling for Eliza Collins (the youngest of their children, described as a “changeling,” not exactly pretty, but possessing a pair of fine eyes). Meanwhile, spoiled Juliet Darcy is angling for the handsome and dashing Gerard Churchill.

In an effort to distract Henry, the Darcys decide to give a grand ball in Juliet’s honor. And who should they invite? (Take a deep breath here.) Well, the lovely Dorothea Brandon, of course, and her cousin Nell Ferrars, the two young Tilneys, Priscilla and Frederick, and Alexander and Paul Wentworth (their father has been made Admiral, we are happy to note). Mrs. Darcy, who confesses to always having had a slight tendre for George Knightley, takes care to invite the Knightley twins, Colin and Christopher, and the two Bertram girls (their father is now Sir Thomas) as well as their cousins Pamela and Angelica Yates. Of course, they must invite Georgiana’s daughter, Lucy, as well as Colonel Fitzwilliam’s two red-haired children, Torquil and Catriona (he married a Scottish lady). (more…)

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!

We have always found it difficult, perhaps even impossible, to like Edmund Bertram. We find it infuriating when he hurts poor Fanny by rationalizing Mary Crawford’s behavior to her, putting words in Fanny’s mouth to excuse Mary, encouraging Henry Crawford’s suit, talking about his love life problems with Fanny, just rubbing salt in the wound. There is a reason we call him the Lord High Mayor of Wankerville. Of course he doesn’t mean to hurt Fanny, but that doesn’t make it any easier for the reader to endure. Every lash of his emotional whip on poor Fanny’s wounded spirit is like a slap in the face; just because those lashes are inadvertent makes them no less painful.

Needless to say, we approached Edmund Bertram’s Diary with some trepidation. If anyone but Amanda Grange had written it, our courage might have failed; but we gained confidence from Ms. Grange’s thorough preparation and her sympathetic treatment of her subjects in her previous work. We waded in boldly, and were not disappointed. Amanda Grange may be the best friend Edmund Bertram ever had–except Fanny Price, of course. (more…)

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!

T.C. Boyle is not only a Friend of Jane, he dated her! He tells the whole story in “I Dated Jane Austen,” now available to read on his website, with some funky woodcut illustrations. Check it out, it’s a riot.

Found via Knowledge Problem

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…)

In honor of Jane Austen’s birthday (we guess), the Washington Post has a roundup/review of several recent books related to Jane Austen and her work. The author doesn’t come right out and say they’re all abominations, and in fact says some are quite good, but we think, if you will excuse the cliché, she is missing the forest for the trees. Oh, and missing something else as well…

Any search for the key to her 200-year survival as a beloved novelist combined with the current outpouring of television series, movies, books and even create-your-own-adventures runs smack into the hero of Pride and Prejudice, Henry Fitzwilliam Darcy.

Henry?!? Way to blow your legitimacy for reviewing this stuff in the second paragraph, sweetie, for the dashing Mr. D. uses that particular Christian name only in Bad Fanfictionland, written by women who can’t imagine themselves Lizzy moaning in ecstasy, “Fitzwilliam! Oh, Fitzwilliam!” Because why else change the poor guy’s perfectly good, usable Christian name, indeed the one that Jane Austen saw fit to bestow upon him? Which makes it good enough for us. We know it’s too bad he couldn’t have a nice, easy name like Colin or Matthew, but if you can’t handle the Fitzwilliam, we suggest you get out of the library.

Although, of course, Henry is a perfectly wonderful name for a hero and we like it a bunch.

Is there a danger here for Austen lovers? Is this derivative work a manifestation of admiration: the better the novels the more profound the tribute? Or do these doubly fictitious characters intrude? Does a married Lizzy Bennet, Emma seen through George Knightley’s eyes, or Caroline Bingley in avaricious pursuit of a wealthy husband creep into our minds and take up residence shoulder to shoulder with the characters their creator presented? Do we want to think of Lydia suffering from syphilis, or Lizzy having a miscarriage? Are these tributes or acts of vandalism?

Oh, for crying out loud. They’re just a bit of fun for Janeites who enjoyed the novels and want to learn something about her or her world, or just want a little more story. We’re glad the author addressed each book as an individual item, even if we don’t agree with all of her reviews, because at least she didn’t say they all stink on general principles. It’s one thing if they’re not your cup of tea, but that doesn’t mean they are necessarily bad. Each book deserves to be considered on its own merits.

That being said, while we and the other Austen authors we know take our work quite seriously and do our research and try to get it right and make it fun and enjoyable for our readers, ultimately we know they’re not as good as Jane Austen’s work and never will be. We’re just having some fun with it, and hoping to give some fun to our fellow Janeites, and maybe giving our fellow Janeites a different way to look at the novels, which makes the experience of reading them that much richer. And we submit there is nothing wrong with that.

At times, the better the sequel, the harder I find it to hold on to the originals. My new Mr. Darcy as a husband and father is not the romantic hero of Pride and Prejudice.

Oh, now who’s romanticizing? Mr. Darcy of the novel is not just the rich, handsome, brooding Alpha Male, he also is a kind master and landlord who takes care of his estate and, therefore, the welfare of people who are under his domain. We modern folks are brought up to the idea that Self-Determination Is Good and Feudalism Is Bad, and it’s not that we don’t agree, but placing oneself in Jane Austen’s world, the place of the master of a large estate like Pemberley is huge. He provides social security for the people who live on his estate. Some people might see that as exploitation, but Jane Austen, clearly, does not, because let’s face it, those people had no other safety net. There was no NHS, no unions, no welfare. There was just Mr. Darcy. That he takes his responsibilities seriously and ensures the livelihood of the people under his care is extremely important in Jane Austen’s consideration. It’s when Elizabeth finds out just how good a master and landlord is Darcy that she falls completely in love with him. Compare him to, say, Sir Walter Elliot, who does just the opposite, and see what we mean. Mr. Darcy the “husband and father” is probably not much unlike Mr. Darcy the squire, and if readers insist on romanticizing him, we think they’re missing the point.

But clearly, a large number of readers don’t care. They want to linger in those drawing rooms and take comfort from a society that knew exactly who took precedence at the dinner table. The tiny but vibrant business of becoming Jane is unlikely to die out anytime soon. What would Miss Austen have made of it all?

Is that the only way to find fascination in history? As a refuge? We think not.

And what would Miss Jane Austen have thought of it all? She probably would have wanted a cut of the profits, and who can blame her?

EDITED to make sense. Sorry, we have a splitting sinus headache and words aren’t working well for us at the moment.

Alert Janeite Lisa sent us an editorial from the Sydney Morning Herald about the importance–and pleasure–of reading, wisely quoting the Rev. Mr. Tilney, which is always a smart thing to do in our educated opinion.

The novel Northanger Abbey, one of Jane Austen’s less read works, has a gentle dig at the contorted plotlines and melodramatic expression of the gothic novels popular in the author’s day.

But still Austen offers a defence of the novel, having her hero Henry Tilney say, “the person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid”.

Today’s students need Jane Austen (and other authors who have stood the test of time) as much as ever. Good fiction is not a waste of time.

Preach it!

As well as helping us understand the world, fiction helps us understand ourselves. Jane Austen’s heroines are appealing (except, perhaps, the insipid Fanny Price)

Uh-oh….*runs as enraged Fannyfans burn down Sydney Morning Herald building*

Lisa also sent us a really funny article in the New Statesman by Sophie Gee, who has found a great new way to choose Christmas gift books: apply the Sir Walter Elliot test!

This new approach was suggested by the opening sentences of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, which give the best description of reading I know:

Sir Walter Elliot, of Kellynch Hall, in Somersetshire, was a man who, for his own amusement, never took up any book but the Baronetage; there he found occupation for an idle hour, and consolation in a distressed one; there his faculties were roused into admiration and respect, by contemplating the limited remnant of the earliest patents; there any unwelcome sensations, arising from domestic affairs, changed naturally into pity and contempt as he turned over the almost endless creations of the last century; and there, if every other leaf were powerless, he could read his own history with an interest which never failed.

Even as we laugh at Sir Walter for his snobbishly trivial turn of mind, we admire Austen for putting her finger so exactly on what gives reading its delight: “occupation for an idle hour and consolation in a distressed one”. Which of us doesn’t have an equivalent of the Baronetage to take down in hours of need, hoping that nobody is looking?

Well, that would probably be Jane Austen’s books for us! And a few select titles by Georgette Heyer. Do read the whole article, it’s really fun.

The audio version of Laurie Viera Rigler’s Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict got a great review in Publishers’ Weekly:

Orlagh Cassidy is delightfully fun as Courtney Stone, a modern Los Angeles girl nursing a heartbreak who wakes up to find herself inhabiting the body and life of a Jane Austenesque Regency girl. Cassidy is spot-on with Courtney’s California accent, modern-day moaning about men, self-analysis and doubt, and sarcasm—and then, without missing a beat, flips easily into the proper, upper-class English tones of Jane (the Regency girl Courtney has replaced, whose accent came with the body), her pompous, controlling mother, her desperate suitor and her sympathetic best friend.

We are pleased to report that the U.S. release of Captain Wentworth’s Diary by Amanda Grange is available for preorder and will be released on May 6, 2008. Check out the cover on Amanda Grange’s website.

Lastly, we heard from Professor Janet Todd, who gave a great plenary talk at the JASNA AGM in Vancouver this past October. She has written a book called Death and the Maidens about the Wollstonecraft-Godwin-Shelley-Byron circle of Jane Austen’s lifetime–authors, poets, and amazing and sad lives. Prof. Todd found some kinship between Fanny Wollstonecraft, who committed suicide at 22, and Fanny Price. It sounds like a really interesting book, and insight into a very different kind of lifestyle than that which Jane Austen and her family–and even her characters–led.

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