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

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

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

Say this for Jane Austen: She’s an inexhaustible source of roles for actresses who have aged out of the film industry’s ingenue...

Like periodical cicadas, Austen adaptations come around on a predictable schedule. Every ten or fifteen years, a newly hatched crew of...

When I’m asked which Jane Austen novel is my favorite—and if you write a book about Jane Austen fandom, you will be asked this question...

I still remember the first time I watched the BBC’s iconic 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice .   At the time, my husband and I lived...

Ninety-seventh in an occasional series  of excerpts from Jane Austen's letters.   What tribute does a friend owe to a published author?...

Over the past decade-plus, as Jane Austen’s novels reached their publication bicentennials, writer and scholar Sarah Emsley invited...

Back in the 2010s, when I first started reading Jane Austen fanfic, the typical example of the genre was a romance novel, either Regency...

Early in the Hallmark Channel’s new adaptation of Sense and Sensibility, the recently bereaved Dashwood women stand on the front steps of...

When my children were in grade school, their English teachers often required them to annotate their reading: For each chapter, students...