JANE AUSTEN'S WORLD

MY AUSTEN ARCHIVE ON LINE
As I've always loved reading Jane Austen's novels since I was a teenager, now I especially love teaching about her, her world and her achievements to my students. This is my on line archive, that is to say, all the posts I've dedicated to her and her production as well as to the several film/drama adaptations from her works I've seen.
If you are among the thousands of Austenettes all over the world and are interested in having a look, here are the links to my professional blog, LEARNONLINE. CLICK ON THE 6 TITLES AND ... FLY HIGH!

1. MISS AUSTEN REGRETS

Based on the life and letters of Jane Austen, Miss Austen Regrets tells the story of the novelist's final years, examining why, despite setting the standard for romantic fiction she died having never married or met her own Mr. Darcy.

2. BECOMING JANE

Becoming Jane is a 2007 historical film directed by Julian Jarrold. It is inspired by Jane Austen’s (American actress Anne Hathaway) early life, and her posited relationship with Thomas Langlois Lefroy (Scottish actor James McAvoy). Although the film assumes an otherwise unproven relationship between Austen and Lefroy, the original screenplay was inspired by real events, which were chronicled in the book Becoming Jane Austen by Jon Spence, who was the historical consultant on the film. In fact, prior to Spence’s book, biographers Radovici (1995) and Tomalin (2000) have also acknowledged a relationship between Jane Austen and Tom Lefroy.

3. NORTHANGER ABBEY
& THE JANE AUSTEN'S BOOK CLUB

Northanger Abbey was written in 1798, although it was not published until after her death when it was compiled with her final novel, Persuasion. It is notable for being a fierce parody of the late 18th century Gothic style's fainting heroines, 'terror' (giving hints of something fantastic but dreadful, only to quash it later with mundane truth) and haunted medieval buildings. Austen targets with particular venom Ann Radcliffe's extremely popular The Mysteries of Udolpho and has her characters reading and mimicking it whilst the author undermines it at every opportunity. Austen's comparatively thin novel as good as destroyed Radcliffe's reputation for almost two centuries and the exciting gothic writ large of Udolpho is only now being reassessed. Northanger Abbey itself concerns a typical Austen heroine, the young Catherine Morland who is taken to the fashionable resort of Bath with the her friends the Allens. From there she travels to the eponymous medieval abbey, the seat of the Tilneys. As an impressionable girl, Catherine becomes obsessed with the possible atrocities going on at Northanger Abbey, inspired by Radcliffe's novel. As ever, Austen cannot resist injecting a little romance into proceedings and she puts Captain Tilney under the spell of the unpleasant, scheming Isabella Thorpe. The novel's central theme, common to Emma and Sense and Sensibility is the peril of confusion.

The Jane Austen Book Club is 2007 American romantic drama film written and directed by Robin Swicord. The screenplay, adapted from the 2004 novel of the same name by Karen Joy Fowler, focuses on a book club formed specifically to discuss the six novels written by Jane Austen. As they delve into Austen's literature, the club members find themselves dealing with life experiences that parallel the themes of the books they're reading.

4. SENSE & SENSIBILITY

The most popular adaptation of Sense and Sensibility is a 1995 British drama film directed by Ang Lee. The screenplay by Emma Thompson is based on the 1811 novel of the same name by Jane Austen. There is also a good BBC 3-part-adaptation of the same novel (2008) .

5. PRIDE & PREJUDICE 2005 & LOST IN AUSTEN

Pride & Prejudice is a 2005 film based on the popular Jane Austen novel of the same name. This second major motion-picture, Academy Award-nominated version was produced by Working Title Films, directed by Joe Wright and based on a screenplay by Deborah Moggach. It was released on September 16, 2005 in the UK and on November 11, 2005 in the US.

Lost in Austen is a four-part 2008 British television series for the ITV network, written by Guy Andrews and loosely based on Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Produced by Mammoth Screen, the first episode was shown on ITV at 9 pm on 3 September 2008, gaining 4.2 million viewers. The remaining episodes were broadcast on a weekly basis. Lost in Austen was released in the UK on DVD on 28 September 2008.

6.PRIDE & PREJUDICE 1995 + POWER POINT PRESENTATION "JANE AUSTEN AND THE NOVEL OF MANNERS"

Critically acclaimed and a popular success, Pride and Prejudice was honoured with several awards, including a BAFTA Television Award for Jennifer Ehle for "Best Actress" and an Emmy for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Costume Design for a Miniseries or a Special". The role of Mr Darcy elevated Colin Firth to stardom. A scene showing Firth in a wet shirt was recognised as "one of the most unforgettable moments in British TV history". The serial inspired author Helen Fielding to write the popular Bridget Jones novels, whose screen adaptations starred Firth as Bridget's love interest Mark Darcy.

A BIT OF JANE

"The more I know of the world, the more I am convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love."— Jane Austen in Sense and Sensibility

I really can't say when and why my devoted admiration for Jane - her strong-willed personality, her skillful pen, her extraordinary wit and irony - began ... I'm only aware that it started very early, at first "reading", with PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, at 14

I loved her heroines and daydreamt her heroes, wished to be back in time but also to meet those extremely polite gentlemen in my real life. I had a naive, romantic, a bit childish, vision of that world. Then I studied and re-read Jane's works at university and got to a more mature point view . To explain the difference between the first and second phase of my devotion, I might describe my "young" perception of Austen's world as a "BECOMING JANE" vision while the grown-up catch is more a "MISS AUSTEN REGRETS" vision.

THE "BECOMING JANE" OUTLOOK

Becoming Jane is a 2007 historical film directed by Julian Jarrold. It is inspired by Jane Austen’s (American actress Anne Hathaway) early life, and her posited relationship with Thomas Langlois Lefroy (Scottish actor James McAvoy). Although the film assumes an otherwise unproven relationship between Austen and Lefroy, the original screenplay was inspired by real events which were chronicled in the book Becoming Jane Austen by Jon Spence, who was the historical consultant on the film. In fact, prior to Spence’s book, biographers Radovici (1995) and Tomalin (2000) have also acknowledged a relationship between Jane Austen and Tom Lefroy.

Jane and Tom’s love story has been emphasised and fictionalised to work as the plot of a modern costume film. Jane doesn't accept a marriage of convenience and wants to live on her pen but gets involved in a romantic affair with Tom and even accepts to elope with him.

Anyway, to get into the core of Jane's real temper you'd better have a look at Jane Austen's Letters and at this site about the people in Jane Austen's life (Tom Lefroy) . You can even like "Becoming Jane" ( I do) but never recognize the real Jane in that romance.

Have a look at this rather sceptical review , for example. CLICK HERE.

THE GROWN-UP OUTLOOK: MISS AUSTEN REGRETS

Based on the life and letters of Jane Austen, Miss Austen Regrets tells the story of her final years, examining why, despite setting the standard for romantic fiction, she died having never married or met her own Mr. Darcy.
This is one of the most realistic film portraits of Jane Austen, at least the closest to what we really know about her, since it is tightly based on the few letters left to her sister Cassandra and to her young niece Fanny .
Everybody knows Jane Austen never married and this good biographical TV movie wonders whether she minded - how this spinster lady felt about the absence of a real Mr Darcy in her life.

The story is based on the fact that Jane Austen did receive a proposal of marriage from a wealthy young neighbour. And she accepted! She actually said yes to him - until after a long night of discussion with her sister Cassandra, she changed her mind. This intriguing decision inspired the story of "Miss Austen Regrets".
I especially appreciate the intelligent truthful look at Austen's life of this BBC Drama. It is, of course, one of my favourites in my dvd collection.
By the way ... what I always try to convey to my students, introducing Jane Austen's novels to them, is ... the idea that they are not going to deal with "romance-like stuff" . Jane Austen's world is other than that. She is a master of irony and watching her world through her smart eyes, we can perceive her disanchanted vision of a man/woman possible relationship: reading carefully through her novels, you realize she's absolutey unsentimental and deeply aware of her sex's secondary role in that man-centred society. What she did not do was to give in, to accept her destiny silently. She wrote and she reveiled her disappointment, through her ironic stingy criticism , to whole generations of thankful readers.
Surfing the Net in search for interesting materials or books about one of my best-loved writers, I've found this post you MUST read - "Run mad as often as you chuse, but do not faint" . It is in a very good blog about books, movies, dvds. If you want to have a look at it , click here: "In Training For a Heroine".

What about you? Which one of the two outlooks on Jane's personality do you prefer? Which of the two film portraits do you think is more similar to the "original"?

P.S. The flight goes on. Enjoy it!