April - 2018

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Janet knows Jane

Apr 30, 2018

Janet knows Jane

It’s not every day that the first question a newspaper asks of a newly appointed government official is “Are your parents big Jane Austen fans?” But that’s what a Vancouver Sun reporter asked the non-profit CEO who became lieutenant governor of the Canadian province of British Columbia last week. Since the new appointee’s name is Janet Austin, she’s probably heard this question before. In any case, the answer is yes: Indeed, the family are such fans that when Janet’s sister J

Playing for keeps

Apr 26, 2018

Playing for keeps

Despite my near-total lack of interest in video games, I am always happy to hear of another game-creator developing an Austen-themed product (here and here, for instance), presumably with an eye firmly on the female market. The latest is Austen Translation, slated for a May 1 release, wherein you play “a young unmarried woman of uncertain means who is closing in on her expiry date.” You attend four social events, during which you must outflank other eager bachelorettes and la

Janeites, Janeites everywhere

Apr 23, 2018

Janeites, Janeites everywhere

These days, it’s de rigueur in some circles to think of Jane Austen as a closet lefty: subversive social satirist, anti-slavery ideologue, radical feminist critic of the patriarchy. But a recent mini-tsunami of news about Austen fans with decidedly more conservative orientations is a healthy reminder that the Janeite faith has no political litmus test. Exhibit A: Nerves of steel. . . and the heart of a Janeite? Tammie Jo Shults is the preternaturally calm and competent pilot

Jane the MOOC-er

Apr 19, 2018

Jane the MOOC-er

Janeites tend to know quite a bit about Jane Austen: her books, her characters, her family, her life and times. But hey – there’s always more to learn, right? Next Monday sees the launch of “Jane Austen: Myth, Reality and Global Celebrity,” an online course developed by the University of Southampton in England and co-taught by Gillian Dow, a university English professor who is executive director of the library at Chawton House. The class – a so-called MOOC, or Massive Open On

Emma, the (latest) musical

Apr 16, 2018

Emma, the (latest) musical

Good news for those of us who can never get enough Jane Austen adaptations: Apparently, theater professionals in London and New York are working on a new musical based on Emma. London casting for an upcoming workshop production was announced last week, and an invitation-only reading was held in New York last September. The show’s book and lyrics are by playwright Meghan Brown, and the music is by composer Sarah Taylor Ellis. It’s encouraging to see an all-female writing team

Jane Austen: Leading girls astray since 1811?

Apr 12, 2018

Jane Austen: Leading girls astray since 1811?

Back when I was writing Among the Janeites, I happened across two Facebook groups whose titles encapsulated a common set of attitudes about Austen’s novels. One was called “I am going to marry one of the men in Jane Austen’s novels.” The other was called “Jane Austen gave me unrealistic expectations of love.” I recalled those now-defunct nests of Janeite Facebookers earlier this week, when my Google Alert sent me word of an opinion column in inews.com, the online version of

Gateway to Austen's education

Apr 9, 2018

Gateway to Austen's education

Few are the places with genuine Jane Austen connections. Austen’s birthplace, Steventon Rectory, was razed in the nineteenth century; though some of her temporary homes in Bath survive, her long-term residence in Southampton is gone, replaced by a pub. Jane Austen’s House Museum, aka Chawton cottage, is a treasure, of course, and Austen’s grave in Winchester Cathedral is worth a pilgrimage, but many of the sites that Janeite tourists visit are movie locations where Austen her

On this day in 1809. . .

Apr 5, 2018

On this day in 1809. . .

Thirty-second in an occasional series of excerpts from Jane Austen's letters. Publishers jerk authors around. This is not exactly news, least of all to authors who have argued over titles and cover art, watched publication dates come and go with no action, or pleaded in vain for increases to the publicity budget.* Nor is this a modern phenomenon, as the letter Jane Austen wrote exactly 209 years ago today [#68(D) in Deirdre Le Faye's standard edition of Austen's correspondenc

Down on Up Lit

Apr 2, 2018

Down on Up Lit

One of the most useful sentences Jane Austen ever wrote is surely this one: “Pictures of perfection as you know make me sick & wicked.” (It’s from a March 1817 letter to her niece Fanny Knight -- #155 in Deirdre Le Faye’s standard edition of Austen’s correspondence.) I think of this line when I come across portrayals of Austen as a purveyor of upbeat, light-hearted escapism, rather than what I take to be her more nuanced and shadowed, albeit still comic, version of reality.