Like all writers Jane Austen reserves subtlety and nuance, not to mention backstory, for her major characters, reducing her minor characters oftentimes to caricatures, albeit ones so deftly drawn that they frequently steal scenes right out from under everyone else on the page. No one makes me wince more than Mrs. Bennet or cringe more…
“Today is Jane Austen’s 250th Birthday,” writes Barbara Peters in today’s eNews (subscribe here immediately). She continues “I have to wonder what Jane would make of the long arc of her literary career, and of how people may read her novels today in a post-colonial age. So as I offer a new Austen-adjacent novel rave,…
The newest, and yes (sob) final novel in Stephanie Barron’s Jane Austen mystery series, this one set in an all-boys school, which has to be fun. Here are some thoughts on previous titles. Jane lives! And so does Byron in this tenth novel in the Jane Austen series by Stephanie Barron. On their way to…
It is a truth universally acknowledged that any book you truly love is in need of a properly annotated edition. Here is one such. Let me just start quoting: “…A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!” Mrs. Bennet on Mr. Bingley, of course,…
Read more One cannot ever consider Mr. Collins too presumptuous.
Lady Elliot [Anne's mother] had been an excellent woman, sensible and amiable; whose judgement and conduct, if they might be pardoned the youthful infatuation with made her Lady Elliot, had never required indulgence afterward...
# Permanent link to I wonder who else in Jane’s life is being pilloried here.
We watched the last episode of Sanditon last night, Barbara Peters of the Poisoned Pen and I. We have a few issues. Spoilers follow. *** First of all*, what’s with all the period detail inaccuracies? To mention just a few: What’s with Charlotte wearing her hair down all time, instead of pinned up as befits…
Being the thirteenth of Stephanie Barron’s Jane Austen mysteries. Jane, as the newly revealed author of Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park, is summoned to Carlton House. Not, as you might expect, to meet its tenant, the Prince Regent, who is occupied by sitting for his Waterloo portrait, but to view the prince’s magnificent library…
Read more When Providence provides, what can Jane do but investigate?
...Younger sons cannot marry where they like.”
...“Is this,” thought Elizabeth, “meant for me?”
# Permanent link to A Paean or a Lament?
[From the stabenow.com vaults, October 16, 2009] Here’s my top ten list of books that make me want to quit writing, because I’ll never write anything this good, so why am I bothering. 1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I know, kind of obvious, but I defy anyone, whether they’re reading it for the…
For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund
Part dystopian future, part teenage love story, part philosophical debate on whether a man's reach should or should not exceed his grasp and what either might mean to the larger community of mankind (but don't let that scare you), told through a clever replotting of Jane Austen's Persuasion.
Well into a post-apocalyptic future Earth history, Luddite Elliot refuses to run away with Post Kai, choosing to sacrifice her own happiness to ensure the survival of the Reduced workers on her family estate. Four years later Kai returns triumphant, rich and successful beyond their wildest youthful dreams. Elliot still loves him, he appears to hate her, and his intelligent, able Post companions only emphasize the differences between his life and hers, spent everlastingly cleaning up after her spoiled sister, her cruel father and her wicked cousin.
Horror and Jane don't pass the smell test for me, but science fiction and Jane sure did. I especially enjoyed that Anne -- sorry, Elliot -- got to have a job and to do it well.
Note: My book club is going to be reading and discussing this book together with Austen's Persuasion later this year.
# Permanent link to Part dystopian future, part teenage love story, all Jane Austen