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You can sign up for the challenge until July 1:

–The Pride and Prejudice Bicentenary Challenge 2013

Posted in Books, Books and Film, Favorite Authors, Favorite Books, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice 200, tagged Austenalia, books, Jane Austen, Janeite, Pride and Prejudice, Pride and Prejudice 200, Pride and Prejudice 200th Anniversary on May 14, 2013| 1 Comment »

pride-prejudice-bicentenary-challenge-2013-x-200 I just signed up for the Pride and Prejudice Challenge! I have actually been celebrating the novel’s 200^th Anniversary on my own, but now I am making it official. (Also, despite my daydreamy browsing of Janeite blogs … I’ve only just discovered the challenge.)

I always love rereading P&P, but this year I am trying to be more mindful of its ongoing influence on our culture.

The Bicentenary Challenge does just that, by prompting us to look at the different books, films, and updates that this beloved novel continues to inspire 200 years later.

Like Potterheads and Trekkies, we Janeites just can’t get enough of Pride and Prejudice!

Neophyte: 1 – 4 selections
Disciple: 5 – 8 selections
Aficionada: 9 – 12 selections.

If you haven’t read Pride and Prejudice … now is the time! No just watching the movie doesn’t count, especially not the somewhat improvised 2005 Kiera Knightley version.

I’m shooting for Aficionada. Here’s what I’ve read, watched, mulled so far:

1. Pride and Prejudice 200th Anniversary post

2. Pride and Prejudice (reread)

3. Sense and Sensibility (reread)

4. Pride & Prejudice graphic novel by Marvel Comics (amazing discovery!)

5. Pride and Prejudice 1995 BBC Miniseries

6. Pride and Prejudice 2005 film

7. Spotlighting Jane Austen in the News:

Jane Austen, Genius of Economic Game Theory

Kate Middleton Decried as Jane Austen Character

8. Perusing Austen blogs and #JaneAusten via twitter for even more Austenalia

More Jane Austen on Word Hits…

The Pride and Prejudice Bicentenary Challenge 2013

Jane Austen, Genius of Economic Game Theory

When Pride and Prejudice Clicks: Boring to Brilliant

How Did I Not Know about Marvel’s Pride & Prejudice

Kate Middleton Decried as Jane Austen Character

Check Out WordHits on Facebook

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Austen Fans Celebrate 200 Years of ‘Pride and Prejudice’

–How Did I Not Know About Marvel’s Pride & Prejudice?

Posted in Book Reviews, Books, Favorite Authors, Favorite Books, Jane Austen, Literature, Pride and Prejudice 200, Rave-views, Young Adult, tagged Emma, Jane Austen, Marvel Comics, Northanger Abbey, Pride & Prejudice, Pride and Prejudice, Pride and Prejudice 200, Pride and Prejudice 200th Anniversary, Sense and Sensibility on April 4, 2013| 1 Comment »

triple covers

How, HOW did I not know that Marvel published a comic book, er graphic novel, of Pride & Prejudice?! It came out three years ago. I am hugely, abominably embarrassed. I wouldn’t even share this mortifying tale, except for the hope that others might benefit.

Let me say up front that this Marvel P&P is a gem. Regency romance meets comic book—pure genius!

p and p dance As a kid, I loved Betty and Veronica and all the superheroes comics. I don’t read them much anymore. (I go to all the movies!) When I see the Marvel or DC logo, warm memories of childhood summers flush to the surface. For Christmas, I got my 10-year-old godson the DC Comics Encyclopedia. He already had the Marvel one (the boy is very advanced).

To blend Marvel with Jane Austen is such a frothy new twist (well, to me). The illustrations really capture the characters—except Mr. Collins could be more repellent. Also, Pemberley looks a bit like the White House, but overall the settings are spot on. The editors chose the best quotes—the banter between Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, the snobbery of Lady Catherine de Bourgh. They even included the moment when Darcy acknowledges that Jane Bingley is very pretty, “though she smiled too much.”

Here’s another great way to celebrate Pride and Prejudice’s 200^th Anniversary. Even better news: Marvel has also come out with Sense and Sensibility, Northanger Abbey, and Emma. I haven’t been this excited since Pride and Prejudice and Zombies!

When Pride and Prejudice Clicks: Boring to Brilliant

British Radio Host Hits Out at Duchess of Cambridge as ‘Very Jane Austen’

–Kate Middleton Decried as Jane Austen Character?

Posted in Books, Jane Austen, Literature, Pride and Prejudice 200, Reading, Reading Culture, tagged Elizabeth Bennet, Emma, Jane Austen, Kate Middleton, Mansfield Park, Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice, Sandi Toksvig, Sense and Sensibility on March 18, 2013| 8 Comments »

In an attempt to criticize Kate Middleton, British radio host Sandi Toksvig has dismissed her as being ‘very Jane Austen.’ Now I cannot even begin to fathom how that could be construed as negative, but it gets worse. Toksvig complains of Kate, “I cannot think of a single opinion she holds—it’s very Jane Austen.”

Clearly Toksvig has never actually read any Jane Austen, because her books are almost entirely composed of characters giving their opinions.

In fact, Austen’s novels were actually rather progressive in her day because her heroines were so expressive. Spirited Elizabeth Bennet readily speaks her mind, much to the discomfiture of Lady Catherine de Bourgh, who remarks “upon my word, you give your opinion most decidedly.” Mr Darcy notices this also, and it’s one of the things that draws him to Lizzy.

Emma Woodhouse also shares her opinions eagerly, even when, as noted by Mr. Knightley, they are completely off-base. “Mr Knightly loves to find fault with me,” she tells her father. “We always say what we like to one another.” Indeed, Emma dislikes Jane Fairfax precisely because “there was no getting at her real opinion. Wrapt up in a cloak of politeness, [Jane] seemed determined to hazard nothing She was disgustingly, was suspiciously reserved.”

Marianne Dashwood, aka ‘sensibility,’ is most demonstrative about her romantic ideals. Her sister Elinor, who has more ‘sense,’ is equally ready to counter with arguments for reason. To Colonel Brandon she worries that Marianne’s openness is “setting propriety at nought.”

Also in this novel, the respectable and educated Edward Ferrars realizes that he cannot love Lucy Steele when her letters contain flattery but no substance.

While Persuasion’s Anne Elliot may be reserved, her opinion is well-regarded (except by her unkind father and sister). After Louisa Musgrove’s accident, both her brother Charles and war hero Captain Wentworth turn to Anne for advice and leadership. “‘Anne,’ cried Charles. ‘What is to be done next?’”

Even Fanny Price, the ‘Most Likely to be Voted a Pushover,’ takes a stand when her cousins plan to perform a risqué play. She also, despite enormous pressure, refuses to marry the disingenuous Henry Crawford, which gets her banished from Mansfield Park. Both Fanny and Lizzy Bennet decline financially advantageous proposals from foppish men, despite the very real threat of indigence and homelessness.

If Kate Middleton is like a Jane Austen character, it is because she exhibits a similar tempered resolve as well as much grace under challenging circumstances. Why all this Kate bashing? Ahem, Hilary Mantel.

In addition to strong heroines, Austen liked to poke fun with a variety of foolish, ill-informed, and opinionated characters. Lady Catherine de Bourgh, though she has never studied piano, determinedly criticizes the finger work, style, and execution of anyone who plays for her. From the tiresome Mr. Collins, to the know-it-all Mrs. Elton, to the pompous Sir Walter Elliot, these caricatures opine confidently, and often nonsensically, on topics they know nothing about. Does this not seem rather like Sandi Toksvig in her disparaging of Jane Austen (and of Kate)? Perhaps it is Toksvig who is the Jane Austen character after all.

Author Hilary Mantel Calls Kate Middleton ‘Plastic’ and ‘Designed to Breed’

Hilary Mantel Defends Kate Middleton Comments

Royal Bodies — A Lecture by Hilary Mantel

Jane Austen Bio and Links via JaneAusten.org

–Change the Clocks, Change the Books

Posted in Books, Escapist Reads, Fiction, Jane Austen, Literature, Pride and Prejudice 200, Reading, Reading Culture, tagged A Christmas Carol, A Storm of Swords, A Winter's Tale, Bring Up the Bodies, Charlotte Brontë, Daylight Savings, Gone Girl, No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency novels, Pride and Prejudice, Pride and Prejudice 200, Spring Forward, The Lacuna, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, The Wandering Falcon, Twelfth Night, Wedding Night on March 11, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I don’t know what it is about ‘Spring Forward,’ but I always find myself reshuffling my TBR pile. During winter, the early darkness and the cold winds prompt me to reach for heavier, atmospheric tomes. I started off November with Bring Up the Bodies, Hilary Mantel’s study of Thomas Cromwell versus Anne Boleyn. I followed that with mostly moody fare like G.R.R. Martin’s A Storm of Swords, Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë, and one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, Richard III (after they found him in a parking lot in Leicester). Shakespeare’s histories and tragedies feel like winter reading, but the comedies seem more apropos to spring and summer—except of course, Twelfth Night and A Winter’s Tale, which I should really put in my rotation next December.

Now, the changing of the clocks and all that extra daylight are teasing me with spring fever. I’m aching for sunnier, lighter reading. I particularly enjoy reading Jane Austen in the spring. I love the brightness and delicacy of her writing. Over the weekend, I reread Pride and Prejudice (for the 200^th anniversary!), which Charlotte Brontë decried as “a carefully fenced, highly cultivated garden, with neat borders and delicate flowers.” But, that’s exactly what I am craving right now: literature that can fill the flower gap while my daffodils inch out of the ground.

One of my ritual spring reads is usually the newest No 1 Ladies Detective Agency novel. Alexander McCall Smith’s descriptions of, “the clear and constant sun,” the acacia trees, and Botswana’s dry, dusty plains work almost like a few hours in front of a sunlamp—a literary jolt of vitamin D. I am so vexed that the latest title has been pushed to November. I got a similar escape to desert heat, when I read The Wandering Falcon by Jamil Ahmad, which takes place in the tribal regions of Pakistan.

This spring, I plan to finally reach for The Lacuna, Barbara Kingsolver’s novel about Diego Rivera in Mexico. I’m embarrassed to admit that I will be digging into the hardcover, which I bought ages ago. (Sigh, the perils of the TBR.) Kingsolver’s Animal Dreams, The Bean Trees, and Pigs in Heaven are also great reads for the sun-starved.

Finally, spring fever makes me crave page-turners, so both Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and the new Sophie Kinsella, Wedding Night, will be at the top of my pile. If only I didn’t have to wait until April for Sophie!

Austen Fans to Celebrate 200 Years of Pride and Prejudice

–When Pride and Prejudice Clicks: Boring to Brilliant

Posted in Book Reviews, Books, Favorite Authors, Favorite Books, Fiction, Jane Austen, Literature, Pride and Prejudice 200, Rave-views, tagged books, Elizabeth Bennet, Jane Austen, Janeite, Mr. Darcy, Pride and Prejudice, Pride and Prejudice 200, Pride and Prejudice 200th Anniversary on January 28, 2013| 4 Comments »

P&P pen classic Today, January 28, marks the 200^th anniversary of the publication of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, and celebrations abound both here and in the U.K. For many years now, P&P has been one of my favorite books. I confess, however, that when I first tried to read it I simply could not get into it. I was 15, and having been primed on Judy Blume and Danielle Steele, I wasn’t ready to appreciate Austen’s refined language and her subtle, yet nice, plot pacing (‘nice’ here in its regency-era connotation).

The characters all seemed stiff and a bit dull. Austen does a great job early on of making Mr. Darcy seem like rather a jerk, nor was the landed gentry thing working for me. My taste in heroes ran more towards Indiana Jones. But my eldest sister made me promise to finish, so on I read … until I got to the letter that Darcy writes Elizabeth after she has refused his marriage proposal:

“Be not alarmed, Madam, on receiving this letter, by the apprehension of its containing any repetition of those sentiments, or renewal of those offers, which were last night so disgusting to you.”

I burst into laughter, caught myself, and read it again. I ran to ask my sister who said that yes it was supposed to be funny. Suddenly, Mr. Darcy had some spunk and personality. I won’t go into the letter, which has important plot points. But through that missive, both Elizabeth Bennett and I became acquainted with a different side of Darcy. He’s actually very clever and amusing, something that Colin Firth managed to bring out so perfectly in the must-see BBC miniseries of Pride and Prejudice.

Recent editions of Pride and Prejudice.

Not only did I fall for Darcy, I finally fell for Jane Austen. I flipped back to earlier parts of the book. Aha. Now I saw Mrs. Bennett as silly comic relief (not just tiresome). I howled when Mr. Bennett, weary of hearing about Mr. Bingley at the ball, retorts “say no more of his partners. Oh! That he had sprained his ankle in the first dance!” I just loved the supercilious Lady Catherine de Bourgh, who scowls at Elizabeth’s piano playing and boasts: “if I had ever learnt, I should have been a great proficient.”

Aside from the caricatures, I grew to know the keen, observant, and witty ‘Lizzy’ Bennett. Instead of pining over sonnets, she quips, “I wonder who first discovered the efficacy of poetry in driving away love!” Then, after her disastrous encounter with Darcy and her dear sister Jane’s own broken heart, Lizzy heads off on a walking tour. “Adieu to disappointment and spleen. What are men to rocks and mountains?”

I raced through Pride and Prejudice, with newfound enthusiasm, and then devoured Austen’s other novels. Like most Janeites, I’ve reread them so often that whole sections seem to be lodged in my head. My favorite keeps changing—sometimes Emma, sometimes Persuasion—really, must one choose? Still, Pride and Prejudice will forever be special to me because it sparked me to ‘get’ Jane Austen.