The only thing better than a book is a free book. And perhaps the only thing better than a free book is a free book with a Jane Austen connection. Accordingly, I’m happy to pass along a link to The Book Rat, which is giving away a slew of Austenesque books and gewgaws to mark the blog’s tenth annual celebration of Austen in August. (That really ought to be a national holiday, don’t you think?) I will admit to a teensy smidgen of self-interest here, since my book Among the Jan

It’s been clear for a while now that Jane Austen has evolved from revered writer into lifestyle brand: FamousJane, bringing you Classy Romance With A Dollop of Smarts since 1811. In case any of us were still wondering how fully that evolution had progressed, however, last week’s tidbits of Austen news (at least the non-Sanditon-related ones) should make everything clear: * We already knew about the Austen-themed soap, toothpaste, lip balm, body lotion, and perfume. (Because

For the past week or so, barely a day has passed without a story in the British press about the forthcoming eight-part television mini-series Sanditon, based on the novel Jane Austen left unfinished at her death. Just in case anyone has missed the news, however, broadcaster ITV has commissioned a twelve-meter-wide billboard in the southern English coastal town of Bournemouth, which will be painted publicly over five days beginning Sunday, the day the show begins airing in Bri

In the most famous passage of perhaps the most famous essay ever written about Jane Austen, the psychologist and literary critic D.W. Harding suggested that many of Austen’s readers don’t fully understand her. “Her books are, as she meant them to be, read and enjoyed by precisely the sort of people whom she disliked,” Harding wrote in “Regulated Hatred: An Aspect of the Work of Jane Austen,” first published in 1940. “She is a literary classic of the society which attitudes li

Thirteen years ago, when PBS’ Masterpiece Theatre aired a new adaptation of Jane Eyre, the network offered viewers a chance to buy something advertised as, if memory serves, “the companion novel.” That would be Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 masterpiece, one of the landmarks of English literature. Beginning next week, ITV in Britain will air a new adaptation of Sanditon, the novel Jane Austen left unfinished at her death. As Maggie Sullivan of AustenBlog has noted, ITV is clearly h

Jane Austen, her brother Henry would have us believe, didn’t care about making money. “She became an authoress entirely from taste and inclination,” Henry Austen wrote in 1817, in the biographical note appended to the posthumously published first edition of Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. “Neither the hope of fame nor profit mixed with her early motives.” Austen herself was franker about her financial ambitions. “People are more ready to borrow & praise than to buy—which I c

According to my parents, one of the most important promises they made to each other upon their marriage was this one: no surprise parties. I share the parental distaste for such enforced spontaneity -- perhaps it’s genetic? – so I had a mixed reaction to a news tidbit that finally crossed my desk recently, a few weeks after its initial splash. Back in mid-July, as an actor named Geneviève Lowe wrapped up her final performance as Elizabeth Bennet in a British theater company’s

It’s been a wet week for Janeites. Last Monday, we were treated to the first trailer for Sanditon, the forthcoming ITV-PBS adaptation of the novel Jane Austen left unfinished at her death. As Janeites know, Sanditon is set at an up-and-coming seaside resort, and so it’s no surprise that the trailer features plenty of sweeping shots of sandy strands, ocean vistas, and attractive actors disporting themselves on the beach. By which I mean playing cricket! What were you thinking?

If you've commented on my blog at some point in the past few months and felt aggrieved that I hadn't approved and replied to your remarks -- I apologize! My blogging platform is supposed to notify me when comments are posted so that I can moderate and answer them, but -- as I noticed only today -- this function has apparently been malfunctioning for quite awhile. I'm hoping to get the problem fixed, and in the meantime, I'll be checking on my comments often, but if I neglect

As I have pointed out rather often, most recently earlier this week, the Internet is filled with quotes from filmed adaptations of Jane Austen novels that are erroneously attributed to Austen herself. You might think, then, that you could avoid embarrassment by checking searchable databases of Austen’s texts to make sure that the words you plan to quote can actually be found therein. And this would, indeed, be a great first step. But Austen is a slippery writer. Just becaus