The first blog post I ever wrote about Jane Austen appeared here on February 4, 2013 , nearly thirteen years ago. Today’s post is my 1,354 th —and my last.   I’m not wrapping up the blog because Jane Austen no longer makes waves. On the contrary: This next year is already shaping up to deliver the usual onslaught of Austen-related news: * Three new Austen-themed adaptations will hit screens large and small: The BBC’s ten-part series The Other Bennet Sister , based on a Pride

Every author dreams of having her work spotlighted by a celebrity with a book club, an online following, and a guaranteed power to pump up sales. Reese Witherspoon , anyone? Barack Obama’s annual best-of list , maybe? Oprah Winfrey (oh, please, dear Lord)?   Jane Austen got the pre-Internet version of this boost when the Prince Regent asked/commanded her to dedicate Emma to him, and today she hardly needs the extra publicity—her books are still selling well , 250 years after

In her lifetime, Jane Austen may not have been as famous and revered as she deserved to be. But in death, she’s making up for lost time.   Case in point: The BBC’s talk-radio programming schedule for the next two weeks, which looks, if you squint, like All Austen, All The Time .   The soft opening took place back in early November, with the Radio 4 broadcast of a new two-part adaptation of Northanger Abbey.  Over the weekend, the channel’s digital counterpart, Radio 4Extra, a

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.  

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

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

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

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

No one knows how long we’ll have to wait to see the newest screen adaptation of Pride and Prejudice , the buzzy Netflix version now filming in the UK. But the latest audio version of the novel, a four-and-a-half-hour adaptation with a full cast, dropped last month, and Audible celebrated by co-hosting a New York City bash—or, rather, a “ Luxe Pride and Prejudice Party . ”   The party— naturally , it was “an immersive experience”—was held at a bar/restaurant with Victorian

Jane Austen’s views on the international tragedies of her time are mostly unknown, except when they are brutally unsentimental. “How...

Twenty years ago, Matthew Macfadyen’s Mr. Darcy strolled out of the morning mist to a swelling strings-and-piano accompaniment and sent...

The new Netflix adaptation of   Pride and Prejudice seems to be coming along nicely: Press outlets in the UK have breathlessly reported...