Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey via Marvel Comics – all five issues are now released [No. 5 came out on March 14, 2012]~ Get thee hence to your nearest comic book shop! – Here are the five covers:
For more information on this five issue series of Northanger Abbey, visit the Marvel Comics website and scroll through the images….
[all images from the Marvel Comics website]
5 January 2012
Well, first a very Happy New Year to one and all!! – I have been away from my computer, and find some of my gathered “news” is no longer actually new, so I include here just some goodies discovered on the internet, a good number only peripherally related to Jane, but interesting nonetheless… [or so I believe…]
News /Gossip
* How about taking a Jane Austen Cruise?! This coming July, you can head from Southampton to Guernsey, Spain and France for an 8-day cruise filled with all manner of Jane Austen diversions – http://janeaustencruise.com/
* Steventon remains unearthed!: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-16002088
* At the Huffington Post, Deirdre Le Faye on Jane Austen’s Letters – “9 Facts You Didn’t Know”:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deirdre-le-faye/jane-austen-letters_b_1153966.html?mid=555
* The Amanda Vickery broadcast of The Many Lovers of Jane Austen may have only aired in the UK, but we can view it here, with thanks to Diana Birchall for sending me the video link:
http://www.videozer.com/video/R5mHMAS?mid=56427
You might also like to check in at Jane Austen’s Regency World blog to see a review of the show by Tony Grant and the numerous (some indignant!) comments on his take on the Fort Worth JASNA AGM. You should watch the video and then read the review and comment if you can…!
The Circulating Library
* If you have enjoyed the Bitch in a Bonnet blog, you will be interested to know that Rodi’s writings on the first three Austen novels are available for your ereader! – all for 99c… read about it here:
http://bitchinabonnet.blogspot.com/2011/12/home-news.html
* Sense and Sensibility: The Bath/ Palazzo Bicentenary Edition Palazzo, illustrated by Niroot Puttapipat
Read more here: http://www.seattlepi.com/lifestyle/blogcritics/article/Book-Review-Sense-and-Sensibility-The-Bath-2413443.php#ixzz1h55k3iJ3
http://marvel.com/comic_books/issue/41722/northanger_abbey_2011_2
* Dr. Maureen Mulvihill spoke at the Florida Bibliophile Society on “The Evolution and Education of a Collector (1980s-): The Mulvihill Collection of Rare and Special Books and Images.” http://www.floridabibliophilesociety.org/mulvihill.html
* If you have an interest in bygone etiquette books, Abebooks compiled a list several months ago – here are some items for sale by various booksellers:
The Lady's Guide to Perfect Gentility - Emily Thornwell, 1856
* Yale has issued several new updates of their Pevsner architectural books:
* New works from Pickering & Chatto:
1. The Business of the Novel: Economics, Aesthetics and the Case of Middlemarch, by Simon R Frost
http://www.pickeringchatto.com/monographs /business_of_the_novel_the
2. Fashioning the Silver Fork Novel, by Cheryl Wilson
http://www.pickeringchatto.com/monographs/fashioning_the_silver_fork_novel
3. and something new about Jane, coming in June 2012:
Jane Austen’s Civilized Women: Morality, Gender and the Civilizing Process, by Enit K. Steiner:
http://www.pickeringchatto.com/monographs/jane_austen_s_civilized_women
Jane Austen’s six complete novels and her juvenilia are examined in the context of civil society and gender. Steiner’s study uses a variety of contexts to appraise Austen’s work: Scottish Enlightenment theories of societal development, early-Romantic discourses on gender roles, modern sociological theories on the civilizing process and postmodern feminist positions on moral development and interpersonal relations.
Austen is presented as a writer who not only participated in late eighteenth-century debates, but who is able to address twenty-first-century concerns of a theoretical and practical nature.
* Gentleman’s Magazine exhibit at University of Otago – not yet online:
Gentleman's Magazine - Monash University
Special Collections,University of Otago Library, is fortunate to have an entire run of the Gentleman’s Magazine from 1731 to 1866. Started by Edward Cavein January 1731, and printed form many years at St. John’s Gate in London, it was a ‘repository of all things worth mentioning’. It was the first ‘magazine’ in the modern sense. It was also the most important periodical in 18th century England, reflecting in its pages the diversity of Georgian life, politics and culture. It covered current affairs, political opinion, lead articles from other journals, miscellaneous information such as quack cures and social gossip, prices of stocks, science and technological discoveries, notices of births, deaths, and marriages, ecclesiastical preferments, travel, parliamentary debates, and poetry. Writers such as Dr Johnson, John Hawkesworth, Richard Savage, and Anna Seward were just a few of the thousands who contributed to it. At 6d per issue, it was an outstanding bargain. It remains an inexhaustible mine of information for scholars of eighteenth century life, and because of the wealth of genealogical information and records, it has become an important resource for family historians.
Our exhibition ‘The Gentleman’s Magazine. The 18th century Answer to Google ‘ begins on 21 December 2011 and runs through to 16 March 2012, just in time for the new student intake. Eventually it will be online.
But while we wait for that – you can visit their latest online exhibition “In Search of Scotland”
http://library.otago.ac.nz/exhibitions/insearchofscotland/index.html
As we will are celebrating Charles Dickens 200th birthday throughout 2012, I will be posting a number of Dickens-related goings-on – I can only think that Austen would heartily approve of giving him his just due, and thus, he now has his own category in the PPWR:
1. A bookseller’s list of some of his works that they have for sale [Tavistock Books]:
http://tinyurl.com/7c2t2y3
2. This one is very exciting as it combines my love of Dickens and my love of London and makes full use of my iphone capabilities: Dickens Dark London from The Museum of London:
http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/Resources/app/Dickens_webpage/index.html
3. The Free Library of Philadelphia’s Dickens exhibit: http://libwww.freel library.org/dickens/
* Thomas Jefferson’s Granddaughter in Queen Victoria’s England: The Travel Diary of Ellen Wayles Coolidge, 1838-1839. Edited by Ann Lucas Birle and Lisa A. Francavilla. Hardbound, 464 pages, 20 color and 10 black and white illustrations. Copublished by the Massachusetts Historical Society and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. http://www.monticellocatalog.org/205632.html
Ellen Wayles Coolidge arrived in London in June 1838 at the advent of QueenVictoria’s reign – the citizens were still celebrating the coronation. During her nine-month stay, Coolidge kept a diary that reveals the uncommon education of her youth, when she lived and studied at Monticello with her grandfather Thomas Jefferson. This volume brings the full text of her diary to publication for the first time, opening up her text for today’s reader with carefully researched annotations that provide the historical context.
London’s clocks, theaters, parks, public buildings, and museums all come under Coolidge’s astute gaze as she and her husband, Joseph Coolidge, Jr., travel the city and gradually gain entry into some of the most coveted drawing rooms of the time. Coolidge records the details of her conversations with writers such as Samuel Rogers, Thomas Carlyle, and Anna Jameson and activists including Charles Sumner and Harriet Martineau. She gives firsthand accounts of the fashioning of the young queen’s image by the artists Charles Robert Leslie and Sir Francis Chantrey and takes notes as she watches the queen open Parliament and battle the first scandal of her reign. Her love of painting reawakened, Coolidge chronicles her opportunities to view over four hundred works of art held in both public and private collections, acknowledging a new appreciation for the modern art of J. M. W. Turner and a fondness for the Dutch masters.
As rich as her experience in England proves to be, Coolidge often reflects on her family in Boston andVirginia and her youth at Monticello. As she encounters her mother’s schoolgirl friends and recalls the songs her grandfather sang while working in his study, Coolidge’s thoughts return to Monticello and the lessons she learned there. Across the spectrum of her observations, Coolidge’s diary is always strikingly vivid and insightful – and frequently quite funny.
* Cambridge University Press has just published Samuel Johnson in Context, a collection of 47 short essays about the great lexicographer and his world. The book, which is aimed at a college and general audience, is edited by DSNA member Jack Lynch (also author of The Lexicographer’s Dilemma: The Evolution of English from Shakespeare to South Park [2009]). Lynda Mugglestone contributes an article on “Dictionaries” and Lisa Berglund, the introductory chapter on “Life.” Visit the Cambridge UP website for a complete Table of Contents: http://www.cambridge.org/gb/knowledge/isbn/item6476720/?site_locale=en_GB
Few authors benefit from being set in their contemporary context more than Samuel Johnson. Samuel Johnson in Context is a guide to his world, offering readers a comprehensive account of eighteenth-century life and culture as it relates to his work. Short, lively and eminently readable chapters illuminate not only Johnson’s own life, writings and career, but the literary, critical, journalistic, social, political, scientific, artistic, medical and financial contexts in which his works came into being. Written by leading experts in Johnson and in eighteenth-century studies, these chapters offer both depth and range of information and suggestions for further study and research. Richly illustrated, with a chronology of Johnson’s life and works and an extensive bibliography, this book is a major new work of reference on eighteenth-century culture and the age of Johnson. [from CUP site]
* John Sutherland, Lives of the Novelists: A History of Fiction in 294 Lives (Profile Books, 2011)
And a review by Jonathan Bate: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/biographyandmemoirreviews/8899313/Lives-of-the-Novelists-by-John-Sutherland-review.html
* Death Comes to Pemberley by P. D. James. Listen to this interview on NPR:
http://www.npr.org/2011/12/08/143276773/in-pemberley-james-picks-up-where-austen-left-off
[ok. I have finished this – will post a short review and a compilation of other reviews – very mixed – but most Austen people seem to be universally disappointed … a shame really – it should have been better…]
* Rudd, Amanda. “The Spaces Between: Creating A Space for Female Sexuality in Frances Burney’s Evelina, Ann Radcliffe’s The Italian, and Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility.” Plaza: Dialogues in Language and Literature 2.1 (2011): 82-91. Full text here: http://journals.tdl.org/plaza/article/viewFile/5934/pdf_415
* This is a podcast on Jane Austen and the Body, with Cheryl Kinney and Elisabeth Lenckos [and thanks to Diana B. for the link]: http://www.chicagohumanities.org/Genres/Literature/2010-Jane-Austen-and-the-Body.aspx
Websites and Blogs worth a look:
* From the Letter & Layout – the rest is cultural history blog: about the Macaroni and Theatrical Magazine, with some mention of Almacks:
http://abeautifulbook.wordpress.com/2011/12/30/in-praise-of-eccentricity/
* Austen characters resolutions at Austen Authors: I thought this was very good and a lot of fun – can you think of more?
http://austenauthors.net/jane-austens-characters-new-years-resolutions
Museum Musings – Exhibition Trekking
1. National Portrait Gallery:
Queens in Waiting: Charlotte & Victoria [26 November 2011 – 9 September 2012]
Princess Charlotte and Prince Leopold
[by William Thomas Fry, after George Dawe, 1817]
In the early nineteenth century two young women would occupy the position of ‘heir to the throne’ in quick succession. One died tragically early, while the other, born to replace her, went on to reign for over sixty years as Queen Victoria. Telling a tale of romance, sorrow and renewed hope, this display focuses on the fateful linkage in the history of Princess Charlotte of Wales and Princess Victoria of Kent, and how both their lives pivoted around Prince Leopold – beloved husband to one, and trusted uncle to the other.
Featuring a range of portraits in wax, watercolour, and print, as well as commemorative images, it includes an engraving of Princess Charlotte’s last portrait from life by Sir Thomas Lawrence, completed posthumously. By bringing together these images, the display traces the idealised nature of the imagery used to represent a young woman in direct line to the throne at a time when the nation tired of the debauched Prince Regent’s rule. [from the NPG website]
* Winterthur is offering a workshop: Furniture in the South: Makers & Consumers – March 1–2, 2012
http://www.winterthur.org/?p=946&src=eblast
[image: Easy chair made in Charleston, South Carolina, 1760-70]
* An exhibition of recent acquisitions at Monash University– a memoir of a London pickpocket [George Barrington]:
http://www.lib.monash.edu.au/exhibitions/recent-acquisitions6/virtual-exhibition/items/item29.html
* Exhibition at the Boston Public Library – Rare Books Exhibition Room, through March 30, 2012:
From Pen to Print: the Handwriting Behind the Book features handwritten letters, notes, postcards, and other manuscripts that reveal personal, private, and otherwise veiled aspects of the production of books. Putting authors’ manuscript materials on display alongside their print books, the exhibition reveals the passions, obsessions, lofty dreams, and gritty realizations triggered by the writing and publishing process. These materials capture the relationships between 19th- and 20th-century American authors, editors, and readers, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, Alice Cary, Walt Whitman, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Robert Frost, and more. Open in the Rare Books Lobby at the Central Library in Copley Square through Friday, March 30, 2012, 617-536-5400. Special hours: M, T, W, F: 9am-5pm; Th: 11am-7pm
* American Christmas Cards 1900-1960: by Kenneth Ames: the exhibit at the Bard Graduate Center is now over, but you can read about it here:
http://www.bgc.bard.edu/gallery/gallery-at-bgc/focus-gallery-1/christmas-cards.html
and more about the book here: http://yalepress.wordpress.com/2011/12/13/for-the-card-carrying-shopper-kenneth-ames-on-christmas-cards/
Regency Life
* History Today – articles on Georgian England [many are for subscribers only, but there are several available to all]: http://www.historytoday.com/early-modern-16th-18thc/georgian
* The Charleston Museum– Fashion Plates: Illustrating History’s Latest Styles, 1760-1920s [November 19, 2011 – May 6, 2012]
http://www.charlestonmuseum.org/exhibits-fashionplates
And you can follow the Museum’s Textile Tuesday, a weekly post of a piece from their extensive textile collection : http://charlestonmuseum.tumblr.com/
Shopping: [I’m done with shopping…]
For Fun:
Visit the blog of the Jane Austen House Museum [now penned by Julie Wakefield of Austenonly!] for a post on board games for the holidays – “Snakes and Ladders the Jane Austen Way” …
Enjoy the browsing! – let me know if you find anything interesting to share…
The first issue of Marvel Comic’s rendition of Austen’s Emma is on the stands at your local comic book shop!
As in the previous Marvel editions, Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, Nancy Butler writes the text, but there are newcomers to the artwork: Janet K. Lee illustrates, and Nate Piekos pens the script.
My only complaint is it seems to lack depth – it is perhaps a little “too light bright and sparkling” – Emma and Harriet look too much alike to differentiate without reading the dialogue, and everyone but Knightley is blond or white-haired, and Emma seems to scowl in sort of a snobbish condescending way, though many would agree that is the way she should look! [and I do love Emma’s scarlet pelisse!] But Ms. Butler does gets the dialogue just right.
[Emma] You have forgotten one matter of joy to me – that I made the match myself. And I accomplished it when everyone said Mr. Weston would never marry again. But I determined that he should four years ago when we met him in the rain and Miss Taylor borrowed his umbrella. — When such success has blessed me, I cannot think I will leave off match-making.
Success? [says Mr. Knightley] – A straightforward man like Mr. Weston and a rational woman like Miss Taylor can surely be left to manage their own concerns. Where is your merit in this, Emma?
Will see if this series grows on me as the others have done … Issue 2 will be released April 6, 2011. All five issues and the hardcover: certainly another edition of Emma you must add to your Austen Library!
[Images from Marvel Comics, Jane Austen’s Emma, No. 1]
update: here is a review at Comic Book Resources
This is today on the B&N Romance Blog ~ Marisa O’Neill posts her interview with the Marvel Comics / Jane Austen adaptations writer Nancy Butler:
Marisa O’Neill: What gave you the idea to create graphic books from the Jane Austen classics?
Nancy Butler: I’ve been friends with Marvel senior editor Ralph Macchio for many years. Since we first met, I’ve been nagging him to create comics that would bring in more female readers. Whenever he described the Marvel Illustrated line, he kept bringing up “boy” books . . . Treasure Island, Moby-Dick, Three Musketeers, etc. I finally asked him why they didn’t do something that would appeal to female readers. “Like what?” he asked. Pride and Prejudice immediately popped into my head. He was a bit skeptical, but when he pitched it to marketing, they bit. And then they asked him if he knew someone who could write the adaptation. Ralph knew my background writing Regency romances, knew I had a fan following and contacts in the Austen world, so he suggested me.
MO: Why Pride and Prejudice?
NB: I pointed out to Ralph that between the enduring BBC series with Colin Firth, the Bridget Jones movies, and the Kiera Knightly movie, P&P was hot, hot, hot. He thought I was exaggerating, but before the hardcover compilation was even available for sale, the Jane Austen Society had ordered enough copies to put the project in the black. The sales manager also reported that they were getting more emails about that comic than almost any other title on their list. Ultimately, P&P was reviewed in Entertainment Weekly, spent 13 weeks on the NY Times Graphic Novel bestseller list, and was the featured photo in an article on graphic adaptations in Publisher’s Weekly. I was also interviewed by Vanetta Rogers of Newsarama and by Bill Radford, the comics guru at the Colorado Springs Gazette. (Bill told me his column on P&P was among the most shared for 2009.) Naturally, after all this attention, Marvel was eager to do another Austen title and they chose Sense and Sensiblilty.
MO: How do you go about condensing each book to fit into the installments?
NB: This is the tricky part. First of all, I had never done an adaptation before. And I had to learn the Marvel style—which involves creating a detailed plot and then writing a script after the art is done. I knew I couldn’t condense every part of these complex novels into five 22-page comics. So I focused on the parts I knew people expected to see . . . all the favorite “beats”—the clever exchanges, the arguments, the catty comments, the heartfelt revelations. Once I built that basic framework of “must have” scenes, I filled in directly from Austen to flesh out the stories. Whenever possible, I use Austen’s dialogue and observations. I’m always amazed—after each issue is completed—by how much I was actually able to fit in there! My great hope is that readers don’t find the comics either crowded or choppy.
MO: Did you work closely with the graphic artist?
NB: Yes, it’s critical to have good communication with the artists, especially since they weren’t as familiar with the Regency era as I was. I worked with Hugo Petrus of Barcelona on P&P. Hugo has a very traditional comic style that some felt was wrong for Austen. But I liked his attention to detail. Sonny Liew of Singapore did three of the P&P covers . . . and based on favorable reader response, Marvel decided to have him do the interiors of S&S. His style is more lyrical and idiosyncratic, and I think it fits Austen very well.
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[see the full text at the BN Romance Blog]
Note that Issue # 4 [cover above] was released on August 25, 2010; Issue #5 will be released on September 22; and the hardcover edition on November 10th. At $3.99 / comic and $19.99 for the hardcover, this might be the least expensive [and most fun!] addition to your Austen collection! so call your local comic book store today! [in Burlington, this is Earth Prime Comics on Church Street].
[Posted by Deb]
Marvel Comics has done it again – this time with Sense & Sensibility!
Here are the covers for the five issues: go the Marvel Comics website for more information and release dates [May 26 – Sept. 22, 2010]
And here’s one other S&S in the shops: Anthropologie offers this edition of S&S as the latest must-have in their literature collection published by Penguin:
Literature’s great works ditch their stuffy dust jackets for smartly embossed canvas covers. Perfect for replacing well-thumbed favorites or creating a bookshelf piece de resistance.
See Anthropologie.com – also available: Pride & Prejudice, Emma, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Great Expectations, The Woman in White, and more… click here for the full list] – each about $20.
[See the previous posts on Marvel’s Pride & Prejudice ; #2; #3; #4; #5; and the hardcover edition]
[Posted by Deb]
As I have been out of the loop the past few months and now trying to catch up, I will post several links of interest that I have been making notes of – some old news, some VERY old, some off topic but interesting none the less, and some worth repeating, but in the words of Jane herself, that since I noted these, three months have passed, so I “entreat you to bear in mind …. that during that period, places, manners, books and opinions have undergone considerable changes.” [Advertisement by the Authoress to Northanger Abbey].
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Here is a link to the Bodleian Library’s Centre for the Study of the Book project of conserving Jane Austen’s Volume the First, her Juvenilia compilation that includes Henry & Eliza, The Adventures of Mr Harley, and The beautifull Cassandra. “Austen wrote in a ready-made bound blank-book and completed the transcript when she was seventeen. The manuscript was bought for the Bodleian Library through the Friends of the Bodleian in 1933 and was first published in an edition by R. W. Chapman (Oxford, 1933).” [from the Bodleian website]
see the Bodleian Library Centre for the Study of the Book for more information and photographs.
[Volume the First, before conservation, from Bodleian website]
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A Richard Armitage alert! [2 items of literary interest]
* Naxos Audiobooks 
will be releasing Georgette Heyer’s Venetia with the velvet sounds of Richard Armitage – alas! it is, like his previous outing on Sylvester, abridged, but certainly worth the listening – then buy the book and fill in the blanks!
Release date in April, so watch for details – you can order the cd or download directly.
Radio Productions: “Clarissa” by Samuel Richardson
Adapted in four parts for the Radio 4 Classic Serial by Hattie Naylor.
14th, 21st, 28th March and 4th April 2010 at 3pm – Radio 4.
And repeated following Saturday at 9pm.
CAST
* Robert Lovelace is played by Richard Armitage
* Clarissa Harlowe is played by Zoe Waites
* The company: Alison Steadman, Deborah Findlay, Miriam Margolyes, Oliver Milburn, John Rowe, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Adrian Scarborough, Stephen Critchlow, Cathy Sara, Sophie Thompson, Ellie Beaven, Lisa Hammond and Linda Broughton.
“Clarissa” is directed by award-winning classic serial director Marilyn Imrie and is a Catherine Bailey production for BBC Radio 4. Click here for more information; click here for the podcast of the first two shows.
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Teaching Pride & Prejudice: four blog posts from Dana Huff, a high school English teacher, on her Huffenglish blog: [these are from 2008, but I just discovered them… see disclaimer above!]
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More handsome men reading Austen at the Carte Noire website, this time Joseph Fiennes and Sense and Sensibility. And stay around for awhile and listen also to Dan Stevens, Dominic West, and Greg Wise…
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Marvel Comics, after its successful five-issue run of Pride & Prejudice, will be publishing its latest venture into Jane Austen territory with Sense & Sensibility – contact your local comics retailer and subscsribe today. Release date is May 26, 2010
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More tomorrorw….
[Posted by Deb]
I have posted in the past on the Marvel Comics five issue series of Pride & Prejudice [you can see these posts here: issues one, two, three, four, and five] ~ but now the hardcover issue is available for purchase at your local comic book store. It is a lovely book, with a dust jacket [picturing the cover of the first issue] and including a title page [of Elizabeth sitting on a stone wall reading Mr. Darcy’s letter], an introduction by the adapter Nancy Butler, and illustrations of all five covers appended at the end. A must-have addition to your Austen collection… or a special gift for your Austen-fanatic friends…
See Marvel Comics for more information.
[Posted by Deb]
Get thee hence to your local comic book store tomorrow [August 12, 2009], as the fifth and final issue of the Marvel Comics Pride & Prejudice is released:
COVER BY: Sonny Liew
WRITER: Nancy Butler
PENCILS: Hugo Petrus
INKS: Hugo Petrus
COLORED BY: Aubrey Sitterson
LETTERED BY: Dave Sharpe
THE STORY: All good things come to an end. Join us for our final issue, as we find who weds whom, who is left alone, and if Mrs. Bennet can manage to stop screaming for more than three minutes… Rated T …$3.99
IN STORES: August 12, 2009
IMPRINT: MARVEL UNIVERSE FORMAT: Comic
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Also note that there will be a hardcover edition containing all five issues – to be published in October and available now for pre-order. You can view information at the Marvel Comics website, but check your local comic book store for ordering details. [I have to add here that my local comic book store, Earth Prime Comics, has been the most helpful and accommodating retail store of any I have patronized in a long time! – I might even return to my early years as an avid Superman / Batman comics reader just to continue to visit them – or maybe even find a graphic novel or two!]
[Posted by Deb]
News Alert! Issue 4 to be released today July 8, 2009!
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NOTE: a hardcover edition of the 5 issues will be released later this year on November 11, 2009!!
And here is a sneak preview of the cover for Issue # 5, to be released in August:
Posted by Deb
Please see the post below for information on our JASNA-Vermont June 7th event on Austen & Fashion
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The third issue of the Marvel Comic Pride & Prejudice will be released on June 10, 2009. Visit Comic Book Resources for a preview [click on the cover and continue through 7 pages of text] ~ a must-have for your P&P collection!
[from Comic Book Resources.com]
Posted By Janeite Deb
Jane Austen in Vermont 