Sixteen years ago, an up-and-coming young writer and a scrappy little Philadelphia publisher hit the jackpot with a simple recipe: Take eight parts out-of-copyright text of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice . Add two parts zombies. Combine. Count the money as it rolls in.   I wasn’t a fan of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies , which felt to me like a one-note joke that outlasted its welcome long before Elizabeth and Darcy got hitched, and I liked the 2016 movie even less.  

One hundred and fifth in an occasional series  of excerpts from Jane Austen's letters.   How many marriage proposals did Jane Austen turn down?   The story of poor Harris Bigg-Wither, whose December 1802 proposal Austen accepted and then rejected the next day, is reasonably well-documented. Austen’s niece Caroline heard the story from her mother, who witnessed the aftermath, and years later, Caroline shared the details with her brother, James Edward Austen-Leigh, as he worked

The telltale compression of the calendar pages confirms that we are hastening toward the end of this landmark Austen 250 year. But don’t despair: With several marquee adaptations moving swiftly through the pipeline, it’s clear that 2026 will keep the flame alive.   The latest news comes courtesy of an interview with Fiona Shaw, the British actor who is starring in not one but two of the in-process Austens: The Netflix mini-series of Pride and Prejudice , in which she plays L

In the English county of Hampshire, some forty miles from the village where Jane Austen was born exactly 250 years ago, a new planned community is rising. Dedicated to environmental sustainability (heat pumps, EV chargers, ample green space) and the principles of new urbanism (walkable layout, community center, nearby schools), the garden village of Welborne sounds like it will be a delightful place to live.   To earn free publicity for this enterprise, the builder of some o

It’s fair to say that most of us apprehend Jane Austen by way of words. But for a few outliers, numbers may provide a way into her work. As we count down toward The Big Birthday next month, this week in Austen 250 celebrations offers something for both camps:   * For the linguistically inclined, the University of Western Australia, in Perth, is holding a mini-Austen conference next Monday, featuring an opportunity to view its library’s collection of Austen first editions.  

Which wine pairs best with Jane Austen’s novels?   As someone whose annual alcohol consumption can be measured in teaspoons, I wouldn’t know. So I was bemused to run across a recent story headlined “ Enjoy The Worlds of Jane Austen with a Glass of Bubbly ,” on a champagne marketing site called—yes—Glass of Bubbly.   According to the site, the perfect pairing for Austen’s novels is “a bottle of Vintage Champagne. . . . rich and complex in flavours and aromas, smooth, creamy an

About twenty-five minutes into Audible’s new audio adaptation of Pride and Prejudice , Sir William Lucas summons Elizabeth Bennet over for a chat. “Sir Lucas! Good evening,” she greets him.   That sound you hear is the irritated grinding of my teeth.   Mostly, I loved this adaptation. Sure, I could have done without the pop theme song and the occasional dialogic anachronism (“Bingley likes Jane a lot,” Charlotte Lucas says, sounding more like a twenty-first-century middle sch

Does the world need another Jane Austen podcast? Color me skeptical.   A rummage through Google and memory turned up eighteen non-fiction examples of the genre, and I doubt I found them all. There are podcasts sponsored by mainline Austen organizations, including Chawton House , Jane Austen’s House , and the Jane Austen Society of North America . There are podcasts devoted to excavating historical context , or dissecting Austen adaptations , or both . There are podcasts hoste

British screenwriter Andrew Davies turned eighty-nine last month, but he’s not slowing down. Quite the reverse.   Over the past six weeks, Davies—the author of four well-known TV adaptations of Austen novels, including the BBC’s iconic 1995 Pride and Prejudice -- has begun talking publicly about his next projects. Apparently, he’s working on three new Austen spinoffs—and hoo boy, they sound like doozies. Next to this stuff, Mr. Darcy’s wet shirt practically qualifies as abje

In life, Jane Austen’s royal connections were minimal. As Janeites will remember, the Prince Regent, later George IV, was a fan of her work. In 1815, a chance encounter scored Austen a private tour of the PR’s London residence, hosted by his librarian, and along the way, she received offer-you-can’t-refuse “permission” to dedicate Emma  to the royal personage. She complied. And that was the sum total of her close encounters with crowned heads.   Posthumously, however, Austen

No selfie sticks were anywhere in sight.   On an overcast afternoon last week, Winchester Cathedral unveiled a life-size bronze statue of Jane Austen in its Inner Close, bringing an end to seven years of hilariously overblown controversy .   The cathedral filmed the event, and several people in the audience raised their cellphones to record it. But predictions that installing an Austen statue would turn the tranquil site into a “Disneyland-on-Itchen” overrun by hordes of se

Jane Austen’s influence on Bridgerton  is old news. If the whole feisty-Regency-heroines-in-marriage-plots thing didn’t give it away,...