August is for Austen

Here we are in the dog days of summer, or at least they are supposed to be.  Here in New York it’s been raining on and off for the past three days.  Just the kind of weather that makes you want to curl up in your apartment with a good book or movie.  This month, two Austen inspired projects have been released for those of us who either enjoy reading or watching romances set in olden times or who just adore Jane Austen.  Yes, August is for Austen, in 2013.

First up is the new non-fiction book AMONG THE JANEITES:  A Journey Through the World of Jane Austen Fandom by Deborah Yaffe which an enjoyable look at the Jane Austen fans who read her books religiously, belong to JASNA, love to wear the regency clothes, the very people that the new movie AUSTENLAND lovingly spoofs.  Along the way, she meets a Florida lawyer with a byzantine theory about hidden subtexts in the novels, a writer of Austen fan fiction who found her own Mr. Darcy while reimagining Pride and Prejudice, and a lit professor whose roller-derby nom de skate is Stone Cold Jane Austen.  Yaffe does a nice job of inviting the reader on her own personal journey with Jane Austen as well as the world at large.  My only quibbles with the book are that I wish she had gotten a chance to interview the creators of The Lizzie Bennett Diaries, or to examine a bit more of the explosion of Jane Austen sequels, prequels and alternative novels such as Lynn Shepherd’s MURDER AT MANSFIELD PARK or Stephanie Barron’s Jane Austen mystery series.  Most of the authors that she spoke went the self-publishing route although some were picked up by Sourcebooks who were the foremost publishers of Jane Austen paraliterature.  I took exception also to her calling some of the writers hacks. Given how much time it takes to write a novel, and to get someone to publish it, I think they should be patted on the back.

I did love that she spoke to the founders of The Republic of Pemberley.  I remember when I was first started re-reading the books and watching the various TV miniseries, the Republic of Pemberley was the only community where you could discuss the novels and Miss Austen.  I also loved that she focused on the early bloggers who focused not just on Jane Austen but her world as well.  If would have been nice if she had also mentioned the Channel 4 series REGENCY HOUSE PARTY as well.  All in all though, it was a lovely book and a love letter to Jane Austen.  This book would be a nice companion to Claire Harman’s earlier book JANE’S FAME: How Jane Austen conquered the world.  

Last night I went to see a screening the film adaptation of Shannon Hale’s AUSTENLAND starring one of my favorite actresses Keri Russell as Jane Hayes.  I haven’t read the book on which the film is based. I do remember picking it up when it came out in 2007 in the bookstore but I put it down because I have a love /hate relationship with Jane Austen fan fiction. I did enjoy Laurie Viera RIgler’s book CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT which is more of a time travel novel.  Having now seen the film, I’m not sure that I want to go back and read the novel.   The film was cute and very well cast, the costumes were stunning particularly some of the ensembles that Jane Seymour wore as well as Keri Russell,  the stately manor was to die for, but there was something off about the film and I can’t quite put my finger on what it was.

Perhaps it was the secondary characters in the film.  Jennifer Coolidge plays a variation on the usual over-sexed, not very bright woman of a certain age that she always plays.  I wasn’t quite sure why she was even at Austenland to tell the truth, since she didn’t know anything about Jane Austen nor had she read any of the books.  Jane Seymour plays the owner of Austenland but again I wasn’t sure what the purpose of her starting the project was about and if it was to capitalize on the craze for all things Austen she did a pretty slap-dash job of it.  JJ Feild plays Henry Nobley who is the Darcy character of the piece.  He’s handsome but not too handsome, and he wears the costumes well.  I did like his eventual backstory when it was revealed.

There were some amusing scenes showing the behind the scenes shenanigans with the actors who are participating in the week at Austenland, and it was amusing that Keri Russell’s character bought the cheapest package so she has to ride on the outside of the carriage and stay in the servant’s quarters.  They changed the impetus for her going to Austenland.  In the book, her great-aunt books her the trip.  In the movie, Jane decides to book the trip so that she can get over her Austen obsession once and for all. I have to say that I liked this change because it made Jane more active.  She knows that she has a problem and she's trying to deal with it.  Of course, she has a sassy but wise best friend who constantly berates her about how she's wasting her life dreaming about Darcy. No romantic comedy would be worth it's salt without the down to earth best friend.

I did enjoy the film but I’m not sure that it was worth paying $14.50 for it.  It’s more the type of thing that you would expect to see on the Hallmark Channel or Lifetime.  I did like that the movie was written, directed and produced by women.  Shannon Hale co-authored the screenplay with the director Jerusha Hess, and the film is produced by one Stephanie Meyer who wrote a little trilogy about vampires.  I would suggest that unless you really are dying to see this movie on the big screen, I would wait and rent it when it comes out on DVD or watch in on-demand.

February Book of the Month – The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things by Paul Byrne

Title:  The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things

Author:  Paula Byrne

Publisher:   Harper Collins

Publication Date:  1/29/2013

How Acquired:  Through the Publisher

What it’s about:  I came to Jane Austen relatively late in life it feels.  I didn’t read Pride and Prejudice until my senior year of high school.  As a moody teenager, I reveled in the gothic novels of Emily and Charlotte Bronte.  It was actually the film version of Pride and Prejudice starring Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson that got me interested in reading the book.  I found the movie so delicious and fun that I had to read the book.  Since then I’ve read Northanger Abbey, Emma and Persuasion and I’ve seen almost every single adaptation of all the books.  I’ve even read several biographies but I’ve never really felt as if I knew who Jane was.  She certainly wasn’t the character played by Anne Hathaway in BECOMING JANE that much is for sure.

The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things offers a startlingly original look at the Jane through the key moments, scenes, and objects in her life and work.  Instead of a chronological ‘then she did this, and then she did that,’ birth to death biography, each chapter starts off examining a particular object; the topaz crosses that her brother Charles bought her and her sister Cassandra, marriage bans, her first royalty check, an Indian shawl.  Byrne uses these items to explore the lives of Austen’s extended family, friends, and acquaintances. Through their absorbing stories, we view Austen on a much wider stage and discover unexpected aspects of her life and character. We learn fascinating stories about Jane Austen’s paternal aunt Philadelphia Hancock and her extraordinary journey to India to find a husband.  Then there is Jane’s maternal aunt Mrs. Leigh-Perrot and her sticky fingers which led to jail time as she awaited her trial.   Byrne also uses the objects to examine how Jane used the things that she learned, the gossip, navy life to inform and enrich her writing.  The reader learns that Jane Austen was actually fairly well-traveled for her time, traveling back and forth from Bath to Steventon, the seaside villages of Lyme, naval ports such as Portsmouth and Southampton and many trips to London where she had the occasion to see actors such as Edmund Kean and Sarah Siddons grace the stage.

What Byrne does is so fantastic, that I’m amazed that other writes don’t tackle their subjects this way.  It’s like peeling back the layers of an onion, as each layer is removed, more and more of the real person is revealed. My favorite chapters were actually the ones that dealt with characters and situations from Mansfield Park which is funny because it's actually my least favorite of her novels. However, Byrne's chapter in particular on the Earl of Mansfield and his great niece Dido Elizabeth Belle is so fascinating.  In each chapter, I met a new and fascinating person.  I think I spent almost as much time looking up people like the poet William Cowper as I did reading the book.

The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things introduces us to a woman who was much worldlier than she has previously been portrayed. Jane was far ahead of her time in not just her independence and ambition but also in her opinions. Byrne also examines how later generations of biographers and family members created the image of the genteel, unworldly spinister, and hid the tougher, more biting, woman who was both politically and socially aware of what was going on in the outside world.  Austen may have focused her fiction on four or five families living in the country, but those characters all interact with others who come from the outside world.  Byrne points out how ballsy it was for Jane to want to be published.  Although there were women authors like Mrs. Radcliffe, Fanny Burney (a particular favorite of Austen's), and Maria Edgeworth, Jane's novels fell into a category all by themselves, altogether quieter but much more realistic. By the time I put the book down, I felt as if Jane Austen had become a dear and treasured friend.

My verdict:  I strongly encourage everyone to buy this book, even if you’ve read other Austen biographies.  You will walk away from this book looking at not just Jane Austen but the novels with fresh eyes.

Scandalous Women around the Blogosphere

Just a quick round up of some links relating to various Scandalous Women.

Historian Tracy Borman, whose new book Matilda: Queen of the Conqueror, was published by Jonathan Cape on 1 September, has a great podcast over at BBC History Magazine about Matilda. Borman is one of the History Chicks, along with Alison Weir, Kate Williams, and Sarah Gristwood, who lecture in the UK.  How I long to be included in that group!

At History Today, there is a great article about Louis XV's mistress Madame de Pompadour, entitled Madame de Pompadour: The Other Cheek, detailing some of the obscene and irreverent 18th-century drawings targetting the royal mistress.  Thanks to Kathrynn Dennis of The History Hoydens for finding the article.  I would love to read a historical fiction novel from the POV of Madame de Pompadour.

Robert K. Massie, whose new biography of Catherine the Great, just came out this month has an interesting article over at The Wall Street Journal entitled: Catherine the Great's Lessons for Despots.

Speaking of women in power, TIME magazine had a nice cover story on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Was Jane Austen murdered? That's what crime novelist Lindsay Ashford wants to know.

Another fascinating article on the Bronte Sisters.  Why has no one filmed a miniseries or a film about the sisters? I had heard rumors that Michelle Williams was involved in a project but there's nothing on Internet Movie Database.  I, personally, think that James McAvoy would make an interesting Branwell Bronte, and I would definitely cast Cary Mulligan as either Charlotte or Anne. Given the interest in remaking Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights ad nauseum, you would think a film about the sisters would be a slam dunk.

Happy Birthday Jane Austen and Giveaway!

Dearest Cousin Jane
by Jill Pitkeathly
Harper Collins, March 2010

From the back cover: In Dearest Cousin Jane, an enchanting new novel that draws on historical fact, Jill Pitkeathley paints a luminous portrait of the true-life cousin of a literary legend—from her flirtatious younger years to her profound influence on one of the world's most beloved authors.

Free-spirited and seductive—outrageous, precocious, and a well-known flirt—Countess Eliza de Feuillide has an unquenchable thirst for life and a glamorous air that captivates everyone around her. Rumored to have been born of a mad love affair between her mother and the great Warren Hastings of the East India Company, Eliza sees the world as her playground—filled with grand galas, theater, and romance—and she will let nothing hold her down. Even tragedy cannot dim her enthusiasm. Losing her only child at an early age and widowed when her husband—the dashing French count Jean de Feuillide—is claimed by Madame la Guillotine during the dark days of the Reign of Terror, Eliza is determined to remain indomitable, unpredictable, and unfettered. And it is this passionate spirit that she brings to a simple English country parsonage to influence the life, the work, and the world of her unsuspecting cousin . . . a quiet and unassuming young writer named Jane Austen.

Today is Jane Austen's 235th birthday, so one lucky winner will get a copy of Jill Pitkeathly's novel about Jane's cousin Eliza Feuillide Dearest Cousin Jane as well as a copy of Janet Mullany's paranormal novel Jane of the Damned. I have read both novels so I can assert that both are extremely enjoyable for different reasons. Dearest Cousin Jane, although it's ostensibly about Jane's cousin, is really more about the Austen family itself.  The book is told from multiple first person point of view including Eliza, Henry Austen her future husband and Jane's brother, James Austen, Jane's older brother, Cassandra, Mr. & Mrs. Austen, Eliza's mother Philadelphia Hancock and Jane's cousin Philadelphia Walters.  They all have their own take on Eliza which is fascinating but Eliza remained elusive to me. By the time the book ended, I felt I knew less about her than I did before.  Pitkeathly's assertion is that Eliza was the model for certain of Jane's characters, most notably Mary Crawford in Mansfield Park although Jane herself said that her books were not drawn from life.  However, reading this book, I could see elements of Mary Musgrove and Fanny Dashwood in Mary Austen, James's second wife, and also hints of Mrs. Bennett in Mrs. Austen.


Here are the rules for the giveaway. Sorry, this is only for Canadian and American readers! The contest runs from today through Monday, December 20th.



1. Leave your name and email in the comments. Email is very important so that I can contact you for your address.
2. If you are not a follower and become one, you get an extra entry
3. If you tweet about the giveaway, you get an extra entry.
Good luck

Happy Birthday Jane Austen

Happy 224th birthday to Jane Austen! Even after all these years Jane is still relevant and selling books. Jane isn't strictly Scandalous (her cousin Eliza de Feuillide might qualify for that title), but she wrote a few women who would qualify like Mary Crawford in Mansfield Park. Although she only wrote 6 complete novels during her lifetime, there has been an explosion of sequels and prequels to many of her books, particularly in the last ten years. There's even a mystery series featuring both Jane Austen, as well as Elizabeth and Darcy.

If you want to read a review of Jane Austen as a Vampire, check out Reading the Past's review here. And don't forget Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which Natalie Portman will produce and star in.

In honor of Miss Austen's birthday, the Risky Regencies are hosting a week lost celebration here. Leave a comment on any post and be entered to win some groovy prizes.

Also, there is a currently an exhibition on Jane Austen in NYC at the Morgan Library called "A Woman's Wit: Jane Austen's Life and Legacy." You can see an online exhibition here. You can also read a review of the exhibition over at The Duchess of Devonshire's Gossip Guide to the 18th century here.

Syrie James has written an excellent book called The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen which I highly recommend. You can read the first chapter of the book here.

Also Masterpiece Classics will be showing the new version of Austen's Emma starring Jonny Lee Miller and Romola Garai in January. You can check it out here on PBS's website here. Not a huge Jonny Lee Miller fan but I do adore Romola Garai so it should be interesting to watch.

If you have teenagers and younger children you want to introduce to Austen, pick up a copy of Marvel's graphic novel of Pride and Prejudice at Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble.com.

For everything Jane, don't forget to check out Jane Austen's World here or the Austen Blog here.

And there's always Netflix for films like Becoming Jane and Miss Austen Regrets.