Tag: Mansfield Park

News

This Week’s Web Round-Up

BookLady DebLeave a comment

Another week, and just a few things about Jane…my next post will be on some reading thoughts with several book reviews…..

*Head over to She is Too Fond of Books blog and  “simply leave a comment mentioning what you would find most appealing and most challenging about living in Jane Austen’s world” …and enter to win the free giveaway of Rigler’s Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict.  The contest ends September 5…

*And again, you MUST visit Austenprose and Laurel Ann’s ongoing tribute to Mansfield Park.  The posts and giveaways are nearing an end (oh! woe is me!…they have been delightful!), so be sure to visit the last few posts on the final chapters of the novel, the several sequels, and some contemporary opinions of MP. It all ends today August 30…

*See a reproduction of a Jane Austen quilt at JASA (this was sighted on the blog Quiddity Quilts.)

*Great Brampton House up for sale for £5 million… Lady Pidgeon’s Recency style home in Herefordshire.

Click here for more on the Duchess, being released on September 5, with Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes and Charlotte Rampling; the Sept / Oct issue of Jane Austen’s Regency World Magazine (recently revamped with a whole new look by its new owners) has Knightley on the cover.  Click here  for the Table of Contents.

News

This Week’s Web Round-up….Part 2

BookLady Deb2 Comments

So here is another Round-up this week, largely because I discovered a few tidbits sitting in a draft that I forgot to put in my last “round-up” post…so while this is mostly old news, it is still perhaps good enough news to pass on…

  • This is for THIS WEEKEND, so head over there if you can!:  A reminder about the Jane Austen Weekends at the Governor’s House in Hyde Park, Vermont.  For more information, go to the website… the first scheduled weekend is August 15-17 (but there are others if you missed out on this one!)
  •  Obama as Darcy??   see the New York Times article by Maureen Dowd “Mr. Darcy Comes Courting” comparing Obama to our Mr. Darcy… please bring your sense of humor! (the Austen discussion boards are filled with chatter about this!)…and now this is such old news, I am embarrassed!
  • Send an Austen e-card to your favorite Janeite!  see the cards at the Austenfans site:  (as reported on Jane Austen Today blog) 
  • Throwdown poll at Jane Austen Today blog (you must go there to understand it!)
  • There is a Pride & Prejudice quiz at About.com, so test your knowledge! 
  • And this is likely VERY old news, but I just discovered Mrs. Darcy’s Story, so take a look at what this fanfiction site offers….  
  • Read Ms. Place’s review  along with Ellen Moody’s analysis of the 1971 film adaptation of Sense & Sensibilty.
  • And more news on the ITV show Lost in Austen, billed as Jane Austen Meets Life on Mars…
  • And I have certainly noticed this, but the Central New Jersey JASNA Chapter has posted how journalists are crazy for the phrase “it is a truth universally acknowledged…” to apply to any number of thoughts…little did Austen know that “it [would] be a truth universally acknowledged that the new two-door Ford Capri is a dream to handle.”  See the full article at the Telegraph.UK site.

And now for some current news items:

  • Read about Stoneleigh Abbey…the house that inspired Austen…. from the Leamington Spa Courier.
  • If you are in the market for buying real estate in the U.K., the Pynes, widely considered the model for Barton Park in Sense & Sensibility, is on the market for £2.5 million.
  • Ms. Place at Jane Austen’s World has another fashion-filled post on The Regency Gentleman’s Neckwear.
  • At Australian Women Online, August is Jane Austen Month:  you can purchase various books and DVDs of Austen movies from their ABC Shop (there is a nice write-up of the products, but you will need an Australian DVD player to view the movies….)
  • Pride & Prejudice is offered as an ebook at Project Gutenburg (available in MP3, iTunes, Ogg Vorbis and Speex formats). Northanger Abbey, Emma, Sense & Sensibility, Mansfield Park, Persuasion, Love & Freindship, and Lady Susan are also downloadable audiobooks.
  •  John Kessel’s “Pride and Prometheus”is available online as a podcast…..”Miss Mary Bennett, the bookish younger sister of Elizabeth Darcy…” (Originally published in 2008 in Fantasy and Science Fiction)
  •  Graeme Blundell of The Australian writes of his “pride in overcoming his prejudice against bonnet dramas”…he reviews Cranford and other costume-laden television productions in “The Eyes Have It.”
  • Jane Austen’s Sailor Brothers is now available for download at Manybooks.net.  The book was written by J.H. and Edith Hubback and first published in 1906.

And please visit Austenprose every day for the next two weeks for the “Mansfield Park Madness” journey of Laurel Ann….post a comment and become eligible for all sorts of giveaways and learn to love Fanny in the process!

Query

Why is Jane Austen so Popular?

BookLady Deb5 Comments

I was having dinner with a great buddy the other night and we of course got talking about Jane Austen, as we are wont to do….we have both been reading Austen for a good number of years, attend the annual JASNA meetings together, and discuss the latest movies, occasionally disagreeing, but have terrific conversations nonetheless.  We most often quibble over Fanny Price and Mansfield Park (she dislikes Fanny with a passion, loves Mary & Henry Crawford and hence the whole book tends to lose its bite!) … I have told her that there is now a wonderful new Blog just about Mansfield Park, but alas! she does not care….

But our discussion the other night, with my very NOT Austen-loving husband in rapt attention, tended to the very basic question of “why is Jane Austen so popular right now?”  We can say that the movies and Hollywood are driving the popular culture, that Colin Firth as Darcy has changed the face of the romantic hero for all time, that she has always been popular so what’s all the fuss, that she gives us a respite in the world of computers and television and cell phones and ipods always THERE demanding our attention, that her writing is so superb we cannot but read and re-read because there is nothing to compare, her wit and social commentary are unparalleled, etc., etc. …. there is no one answer for sure….but I thought I would put this to the blog test and see what sort of response we can get from the cyberspace world out there that is filled with Austen blogs, sites, comments, articles…and just give you all a chance to wax poetic on this very basic thought:  why IS Austen so popular now? and why are her 6 novels (plus all the other wonderful jottings) on YOUR reading pile?  Any thoughts and comments appreciated….especially from those who might be better than me at convincing my friend that Mansfield Park is quite a delightful book after all!

[there is a great article on this question at the Masterpiece Theatre site, titled Why Jane? Why Now? ]