A common Janeite fantasy goes like this: You meet Jane Austen. Naturally, she finds you interesting and delightful. You get her take on, say, social media or contemporary feminism. You learn how Sanditon was going to end. Heck, maybe you even pluck up the courage to ask her what was the actual deal with Tom Lefroy. Is she offended that you pried into something so personal? Of course not! (See under: interesting and delightful.) A sweet dream, no? And apparently one that’s sha

Just in case all the usual reasons to admire Ukrainians -- courage, grit, unshakeable commitment to democracy – aren’t enough for you, here’s another one: Apparently, someone at the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense is a Janeite. Every day for at least the past few months, the Ministry of Defense’s Twitter account has posted a grim accounting titled “Total combat losses of the enemy.” The accompanying chart sums up Ukraine’s count of Russian soldiers killed and military equipment

Although Jane Austen’s novels never commanded huge print runs – the biggest, for Emma, totaled only two thousand copies -- Austen first editions seem to come up for auction fairly regularly. Back in 2020, a single buyer paid a total of more than $240,000 for first editions of all six novels. A 2021 auction scored even higher prices, as first editions of the Big Six -- including the copy of Mansfield Park owned by American composer Jerome Kern -- brought in $637,500. Last week

As Christmas approaches, the internet has been filling our Janeite stockings with tidbits of Austen-related news: --Ahoy, there: Last week, PBS released a new thirty-second trailer for the third and final season of Sanditon, the on-again-off-again-on-again TV series based very, very loosely on the novel Austen left unfinished at her death. The trailer, filled with dramatic vistas of near-deserted beaches, breathy snippets of dialogue (“You cannot choose who you fall in love w

After a year that brought not one but two same-sex updates of Pride and Prejudice, we probably don’t need further proof that the queering of Jane Austen is well underway. But in case you’re not yet convinced, there’s more: a theatrical Austen parody/homage entitled Hubris & Humiliation is coming to next year’s WorldPride festival in Sydney, Australia. The new play sets its story in contemporary Sydney and offers “a jumbo-sized serving of Austen-inspired queer joy,” says its a

By now, we know that the Pride and Prejudice formula—opposites attract, enemies to lovers, snobby-meets-snarky—accommodates many variations. We’ve seen Darcys and Elizabeths divided over their racial/national identities, religious commitments, attitudes toward gentrification, and choice of martial-arts disciplines. In that context, a human-animal pairing really shouldn’t be much of a departure. And thus it is that I, at least, welcome the news that Miss Piggy wants to star in

When you shell out $250 to $450 for a night in a university town’s boutique hotel, what amenities do you expect to get for your money? Breakfast? Sure. Free Wifi? Definitely. Complimentary champagne? Won’t say no. But how about Jane Austen room service? Because the University Arms, a luxury hotel in Cambridge, England, recently announced the launch of a special new service: the Book Butler program, wherein specially trained staff members help meet guests’ reading needs. Once

A year after a priceless nineteenth-century literary collection was rescued from the auction block and donated to public institutions across the UK, the British Library will celebrate this treasure trove of manuscripts and rare printed books with a hybrid event taking place tomorrow. The proceedings start at 7 pm (UK time), and a £5 ($6.14) registration fee buys either a ticket to the in-person London event or an online link good for forty-eight hours of access. The centerpie

Jane Austen’s famous remark about the relative value of tangible and intangible assets–“tho’ I like praise as well as anybody, I like what Edward calls Pewter too”–reminds us that, in her day, money fell squarely into the tangible category. So, despite the curious love-hate relationship that Bitcoin fans apparently have with Austen, it might seem unlikely that Our Jane could have any connection to the ongoing crisis in the world of cryptocurrency, that realm of impenetrable o