Austen Pride

A Tribute to the Books and Characters of Jane Austen

Dancing with Darcy at Jane Austen’s Chawton House

Ever wanted to dance a quadrille? You could do just that at the “Dancing with Darcy” Regency ball at Chawton House, near the village where Jane Austen lived eight of the last years of her life and wrote or revised all her great novels.

On July 3, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Austen’s arrival in the village, Chawton House will host a Regency Ball, complete with women in gorgeous gowns, men in breeches and cravats (or those red-coated uniforms), carriages and candles, 19th century music, a sumptuous supper created from 18th century recipes, and even some celebrities who starred in the BBC series of “Pride and Prejudice,” “Sense and Sensibility,” and “Persuasion.” (Sorry, no mention of Colin Firth. David Rintoul and Elizabeth Garvie, who starred in the BBC’s 1980 version of P&P, will portray the Darcys.)

Regency finery doesn’t come cheap. Tickets cost $5,000 (£3,000). All the proceeds will go to further the educational role of Chawton House, which has become a library and scholarly center focusing on women’s writing in English from 1600 to 1830.

Reading, and Not Reading, the Classics

In a delightfully amusing article on Examiner.com, Chicago Book Examiner Michelle Kerns skewers “10 books I should love…but for some reason, I hate.” Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, the least popular of her novels, makes the list. Kerns admits that she actually likes the bad girl, Mary Crawford, better than the spineless heroine, Fanny Price. (I agree—while I sympathize with Fanny, I find her priggish and boring. For that matter, I find Edmund boring as well. He’s like Mr. Knightley without the charm and sense of humor.)

New York Book Examiner Katie Henderson picks up on the theme with “The Books I Should Have Loved,” old and modern classics that in her opinion aren’t half as wonderful as we’re supposed to think they are. She leads off with Mansfield Park, and her dislike of the “preachy, uptight” Fanny Price.

What do you think, Austen fans? Does Mansfield Park deserve the thrashing?

Jane Austen Popular as Ever with Filmmakers

Next to Shakespeare, Austen is one of the most widely adapted English writers. The plots of her novels have been modernized, satirized, idolized, and revised every which way. And she’s as popular as ever, judging by projects in the works:

  • The BBC is once again filming a mini-series of “Emma,” for release this fall. The four-part series stars Romula Garai (“Atonement”) in the title role, with Jonny Lee Miller (who played Edmund Bertram in 1999’s “Mansfield Park”) as Mr. Knightley. We last visited “Emma” in 1996, which saw the release of both a BBC miniseries (starring Kate Beckinsale and Mark Strong) and a feature film. I’m not sure anyone can top the latter, with Gwyneth Paltrow’s delightfully dizzy Emma and Jeremy Northam’s devastatingly charming Mr. Knightley, but more of “Emma” can never be a bad thing. Thanks to the folks at Pemberley.com, you can see set photos of Romula Garai and Jonny Lee Miller. And there’s a video slide show of the filming in Kent on YouTube.
  • After having fun with the popular and highly regarded “Bride and Prejudice,” Bollywood is tackling “Ayesha,” the Indian equivalent of “Emma.” “Slumdog Millionaire” star Anil Kapoor is producing, and his daughter, Sonam Kapoor, plays the title role and Abhay Deol is her Mr. Knightley.

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Pride and Prejudice in the Twitterverse

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How would Austen’s most famous novel read if Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy forged their relationship on Twitter? Under the Mad Hat has answered that question with a clever retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice as a series of tweets. As a fellow writer, I appreciate the skill involved, and think it’s one of the funniest things I’ve read in ages.

I have to wonder—could this be where fan fiction is headed? Who has time to write 60-chapter adaptations of one’s favorite work, when one could simply tweet the whole thing?

Please note: The above Twitter profile for Mr. Darcy exists only in my fevered imagination and the file I created in Photoshop. There is a user called Darcy on Twitter, but I haven’t the foggiest idea who he/she is, except that it’s almost certainly not Fitzwilliam Darcy of Pemberley.