We have received some more details about the Jane Austen Festival that will take place in Canberra, Australia, from 16-20 April, 2008. There are not just social gatherings planned, but a reticule make-and-take workshop, dance lessons, a fashion show, and not one but two balls! Check out the link for all the details, and if you go, we would love to publish your report.
ETA: The festival is in APRIL, not June. We apologize for the error.
The University of the Pacific’s Center for Professional and Continuing Education will give a weekend course on “Jane Austen on the Big Screen” this weekend, 9-5:30 on Saturday and Sunday. Recordnet has an article about the course with details and contact information.
Austen’s elegant prose, rooted in late 18th century and early 19th century England, has transcended time. She died at 41 in 1817, but her books never have been out of print.
The reason is as simple, direct and alluring as thestories and characters in Austen’s seven books.
“She really stuck to core issues between people,” said Smith, 44, who has taught her two-day film course five times at Pacific and led Austen reading groups in Stockton and Latin America. “Not just love, but also how sisters get along with each other. She focuses on relationships. People recognize those dynamics.”
Again, if you take the course we’d love to hear about it.
The Cleveland Free Times has a review of the current production of Pride and Prejudice at the Cleveland Play House, complete with opening-line pastiche.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single book in possession of a wide readership must be in want of a large-scale stage production. True-blue Austenites may long for the ironic intimacy of the real Jane. But those who are less acquainted with the five Bennet sisters, their impossible mother and long-suffering father will go for the broader strokes, the almost burlesque aspects of the early-19th-century marriage market.
And yet again…reader reviews are very welcome!
