P&P 2005 Gift Set!

Oh, I was so very delighted to see this! I am a huge fan of the 2005 Pride & Prejudice film and this gift set is full of fabulous extras! It came out today and I got it at Walmart this evening for something like $14.96, which is half off. There was no mention of the sale in the dvd section, but after I the checker scanned it I nearly danced the waltz.

Features include:

• The gorgeous gift box. Inside there is a space to write the owner's name (make sure you use elegant handwriting!)

• Both the widescreen and full frame versions of the film

• The Politics of Dating Featurette

• The Stately Homes of Pride & Prejudice

• Galleries of the 19th Century

• Pride & Prejudice Family Tree

• A 64-page Production Photo Book

• The full CD Soundtrack. Beautiful music!

• All the special features found on the original film

I am so very excited to have this special edition of Pride & Prejudice!

Lost In Austen Contest!

Ms. Place is having a Jane Austen South Park Character Contest over at Jane Austen's World and asked me to mention it, which I am most pleased to do.

The great prize is a copy of the fun novel Lost in Austen: Create Your Own Jane Austen Adventure by Emma Campbell Watson, which I also reviewed below.

Here are Ms. Place's rules:

If you would like to try your hand at creating a Jane Austen hero or heroine character, please go to the South Park character generator and submit your entries to me via my email. The contest will be open for one month. The winner of the contest will receive a copy of Lost in Austen: Create Your Own Jane Austen Adventure by Emma Campbell Webster. Your entries will be featured on this blog.

So start creating your own Captain Wentworths, Elizabeth Bennets, and Mr. Darcies now! Secondary characters are also welcome. Readers of my blog will be given the opportunity to vote for the winner starting September 1.

You will find the necessary links and e-mail by using the contest link above.

Here is my heroine character (though I won't need to win the book!):

Mrs. Elizabeth Bennet Darcy

Book Review: Lost In Austen

In the middle of July, a lady named Catherine, from Riverhead Trade publishing company, e-mailed and asked if I would like to receive an advance copy of Lost in Austen: Create Your Own Jane Austen Adventure by Emma Campbell Watson, a Brit who graduated from Oxford, where she specialized in Jane Austen. I said I would be delighted and have since received the book and read it.

Lost in Austen is, as the subtitle suggests, a sort of "choose your own adventure" book. I remember reading them when I was younger, but none were as amusing as this!

As the press release says:

As Elizabeth Bennet, you the reader control the story, and thus the outcome of the book. For example, a wrong turn on the way to Netherfield takes you into a Sense and Sensibility landscape where you meet, fall in love with, and are forsaken by John Willoughby; accept an invitation to Bath, and you could find yourself in Northhanger Abbey, where the beguiling Henry Tilney makes you an offer you won’t want to refuse.

You can read the book in two ways: play along with the game and keep track of your scores, or just read it and choose whichever option you prefer, without reference to points. I chose to play and keep track of my scores. At the beginning, the author recommends the reader keep track of five categories: Accomplishments, Intelligence, Confidence, Connections, and Fortune on separate slips of paper (or at least sides of paper), as you will be writing a lot of numbers. Alongside Accomplishments, you also keep track of your failures. Your Connections are split between "Superior" and "Inferior." As you read, you make choices, gain points, subtract points, and discover your accomplishments, failings, superior and inferior connections. Your score can vary wildly, as your feelings of intelligence and confidence, etc., do in real life. Sometimes you come across a question or a little quiz, and the answer you choose nets you a certain number of points or causes you to lose points.

Webster followed Pride and Prejudice quite closely and based the points off of the novel (and other J.A. novels). I only once ran across characters from another novel, but when I skimmed through saw some very interesting references to other J.A. books. I really felt like I was reading Jane's novel, but with a super little game thrown in. It was great fun to keep track of my points (even when I was deep in the negatives!) and try to decide how to behave as Elizabeth Bennet.

In the end, I was successful and achieved a prudent marriage and lovematch with none other than Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, my Dream Man!

Lost in Austen could easily be played with another person (or a couple of Janeites!). It is a very amusing novel and I highly recommend it to any Jane Austen fan (or anyone who might be interested in becoming a Janeite!). I look forward to reading it again and creating another adventure. You will be able to find Lost in Austen by Emma Campbell Webster at any bookstore beginning 7 August 2007. If you buy it, please do let us know what you think!

Book Information: Lost in Austen: Create Your Own Jane Austen Adventure by Emma Campbell Webster (ISBN: 978-1594482588; 7 August 2007; $14.00; paperback)

My Book and Notes

Book Review: Letters From Pemberley

The second Jane Austen book I was sent and asked to review is Letters From Pemberley: the First Year by Jane Dawkins. (You can read my first review, of Old Friends and New Fancies, here.)


As the title implies, Letters From Pemberley: the First Year is a series of twenty-five letters from the new Mrs. Darcy (aka Elizabeth Bennet) to her sister, the new Mrs. Bingley (aka Jane Bennet). Readers of Pride and Prejudice will remember that a letter played an important part in changing Elizabeth's feelings about Darcy, so Dawkins choice of letters as her medium fits quite well.

Dawkins described her work as "an old-fashioned patchwork quilt, where in place of the scraps of fabric . . . there is a line or a phrase or a sentence from one of Jane Austen's books or letters stitched alongside the lesser scraps" of Dawkins' work. She also took favorite characters from other Austen novels, gave them different names, and worked them into Lizzie's letters. It was very amusing to pick out who was who or which lines were from which books or letters (I even kept a little list! It is quite gratifying to figure these things out!).

I quite enjoyed Letters From Pemberley: the First Year and was glad that Dawkins did not feel the need to make Lizzie, Darcy, Jane, Bingley, Georgiana, and other characters new again. We read Jane Austen novels repeatedly because Jane created such realistic and fabulous characters. I think too often people try to "improve" upon them, which just cannot be done. Dawkins also understands this and wrote these letters in Lizzie Bennet Darcy's persona, not some other Lizzie's. I can easily imagine Jane having written these herself.

Lizzie is adjusting to life as mistress of Pemberley and wife of Mr. Darcy, attempting to develop a deeper relationship with Darcy's sister, Georgiana, and find her place in a higher level of society than she is used to living in. As much as her family drove her crazy on occasion, she misses being with them. Her letters to Jane describe her activities, her feelings, and her hopes.

Elizabeth and Jane are closest to each other out of the five Bennet daughters and their letters provide solace as they make their ways in their new lives. I can imagine doing the same with my sister (if she wrote letters).

I look forward to reading Letters From Pemberley: the First Year again (and figuring out more of Jane's lines!) and would recommend it to any Austen fan! You can find it at any bookstore. Do pick up a copy and let us know what you think!

Book Information: Letters from Pemberley: The First Year by Jane Dawkins (ISBN: 978-1-4022-0906-2; May 2007; $13.95 U.S./ $17.95 CAN; paperback)

My thanks to Cathy at Sourcebooks, Inc.!

When He Says He Loves Her

My friend Aj sent me the link to this and I just had to post it! We both love Josh Groban and Pride & Prejudice, so this video brings the best of both together! Enjoy! So pretty!


I found this one:



And another that Aj found:



I found a bunch more here, including a video set to "Remember When It Rained." Hooray!

Visit Jane Austen's World and vote in The Battle of the Darcys: Colin Firth vs. Matthew MacFadyen. The contest runs through tomorrow. Matthew needs our help! UPDATE: voting ends in an hour! 9pm PST/12amEST

New Fancies

If you read my blogs, then you know I am a devout devotee of Jane Austen's. So, I was very excited to receive an e-mail from Sourcebooks, Inc., a publishing company, asking if I would like to read a couple of books and review them. I replied that I would be delighted.

Here are the press releases for the books, which I will receive soon:

The First Jane Austen Sequel Ever Written is Finally Republished!


If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Jane Austen should feel adequately flattered by modern-day authors. However, the Jane Austen sequel is not a modern creation. The first ever Jane Austen sequel was published in 1914 and quickly became a hit among Austen fans eager for more. However, that once beloved first sequel has been unavailable to readers for nearly a decade.

Sourcebooks, Inc. is proud to once again bring the original Jane Austen sequel into the hands of Austen lovers, Old Friends and New Fancies: An Imaginary Sequel to the Novels of Jane Austen by Sybil G. Brinton (ISBN: 978-1-4022-0888-1; July 2007; $14.95 U.S./$19.95 CAN; Paperback)


Charles Wenz, Life Member of the Jane Austen Society, calls Old Friends and New Fancies “the ultimate Jane Austen sequel.” Unlike other sequels, which focus on just one Austen classic, Brinton’s novel impressively intertwines the lives of the most beloved characters from all six. Making use of references made to the characters by Jane Austen herself, documented in her nephew’s memoir, Brinton brings together all the characters left standing at the end of the novels—particularly the unmarried ones—for an inventive and entertaining story of matchmaking.

About the Author

Little is known of Sybil G. Brinton. It is believed that Ms. Brinton was born in England in the 1870s, and that she was in her late thirties when her book was published. She describes her work as a “little attempt at picturing the after-adventures of some of Jane Austen’s characters.”

And the second:

Letters from Pemberley

The Story Lives on in this Enchanting and Celebrated Sequel to Pride and Prejudice


Originally self-published, Letters from Pemberley achieved great success, selling over 8,000 copies and receiving four stars and 88 reviews on Amazon. Sourcebooks, Inc. is proud to finally give this book its proper place in the bookselling market so it can reach even more Austen lovers.

Letters from Pemberley: The First Year by Jane Dawkins (ISBN: 978-1-4022-0906-2; May 2007; $13.95 U.S./ $17.95 CAN; paperback) has been praised by Susan Watkins, author of Jane Austen: In Style as “[D]elightful . . . it is great fun. Well done, Jane Dawkins!” Susannah Fullerton, President of The Jane Austen Society of Australia calls the book “[A] pleasant and believable story . . . an enjoyable read.”

Rather than a sequel, this book more closely resembles an old-fashioned patchwork quilt, combining Austen’s ideas, language and historical context with Dawkins’s original story. Dawkins caringly gives Austen her due, incorporating a line or a phrase or a sentence from one of Jane Austen’s books or letters into every piece of her tale about Elizabeth Bennet’s first eventful year at Pemberley.

About the Author

Jane Dawkins has been an Austen fan most of her life. Born in Palestine, she grew up in Wiltshire, neighboring county to Jane Austen’s Hampshire. This book is a product of her curiosity about Elizabeth’s first days at Pemberley and her study of not only Austen’s life but also her times. Dawkins aspires for her readers to be as entertained by reading this book as she was by writing it.

Which Classic Female Literary Character Am I?

Which Classic Female Literary Character Are you?

You're Elizabeth Bennett of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen!
Take this quiz!








Quizilla |
Join

| Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

*Sigh*

I saw this photo and HAD to blog it. Isn't it absolutely gorgeous. Thanks to Poebegone on Flickr for having it!

Pride & Prejudice - Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet 05,
originally uploaded by poebegone.

I ADORE this picture!

Is He Out There?

My mother and I are watching my favorite Pride & Prejudice and it is pouring rain outside.

I wonder if I should go outdoors and see if Mr. Darcy is waiting for me?


After all, that could be my hair in the picture. Elizabeth (Keira Knightley) and I do have the same color of hair and eyes.

Always Happy to Be Lizzy

Take the Quiz here!