Happy 238th Birthday, Jane Austen! Part II

          Technically, her birthday is over in England. Interestingly enough, the Jane Austen Center in Bath celebrates a festival, not in December, but rather in September (it's not too late to add this to my Christmas list).  We did miss the Jane Austen Society of North America South Carolina Region's celebration on December 14.  I truly thought Google would have some fun little game or design to commemorate her birthday; maybe they are waiting for her 250th.

In case you need a brief biography of Miss Austen, here is one by Carolyn Kellogg of the LA Times:
       

     Jane Austen was born on this day in 1775. Happy 238th birthday, Jane Austen!

Austen, of course, was the author of novels that have endured and delighted for centuries. Her biggest hits are "Pride and Prejudice," "Emma" and "Sense and Sensibility" -- lasting stories of young women coming of age in Edwardian England. Less well-known, but no less Austen-y, are "Mansfield Park," "Northanger Abbey" and "Persuasion."

Born into an affluent family, Austen had a comfortable upbringing not unlike her characters': She learned to play piano, visited friends, attended dances. She also, from a young age, wrote. Her first published work was "Sense and Sensibility," published in three volumes; it was originally published anonymously, identifying Austen only as "A Lady."

Austen lived to be 41, with two of her books, "Persuasion" and "Northanger Abbey," published posthumously. She is now buried in Winchester Cathedral and a plaque in her memory is in Poets Corner in Westminster Abbey.

Last week, an 1869 watercolor portrait of Austen sold for more than $270,000. In 2016, her face will begin appearing on the 10-pound note in the U.K. Meanwhile, her books grace shelves all over the world.

I have seen her plaque in Poets Corner and rather upset with myself that I didn't get a picture of it.  

In googling "Jane Asuten Birthday," I found a book that looks interesting: Among the Janeites by Deborah Yaffe.  Since the world of Jane Austen fandom fascinates me, I plan on adding this to the Jane Austen shelf.  It will go nicely with What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew.

I must confess that I have not read all her novels <collective gasp of horror>.  I have started Sanditon. So, to honor her 239th birthday, I have set a goal of reading them all before December 16, 2014.  Jane Fairfax is my model, not Emma.

Happy 238th Birthday, Jane Austen! Part One

Last year, I tried to write about one of my favorite authors on her birthday and completely missed it.  This year, I have decided to spend the whole month of December on Miss Austen and the literary accomplishments that have long outlived her, also ensuring that I will not miss her birthday again!

In the 196 years since her death, Jane Austen has managed to become a cottage industry without even trying.  It is quite popular to take her characters and add adventures to their lives, to further their stories and to give readers, and watchers, more of the Austen characters we've grown to love.  The Republic of Pemberley, an all-things-Jane-Austen website, lists sequels to all of Jane's books but is not exhaustive since the book I'm reviewing for this post isn't on the list.  This is the page for Pride and Prejudice. I freely confess to printing out this list and reading several of these books, some so droll as to be painful to finish and others so racy I am quite sure Miss Austen would  not approve.

Searching the virtual shelves on Amazon under "Pride and Prejudice sequels" produced 386 hits and "Pride and Prejudice variations" had 336 results, with several books appearing on both searches.  Googling "pride and prejudice sequels and variations" produced 375,000 hits; it seems Lizzy and Darcy might be the favorites of Jane-Austen-wannabes through the (almost) centuries.

Austenprose.com, another website devoted to Jane and her books and their sequels, is celebrating the bicentenary of P&P, each month reviewing a movie or sequel.  Spend some time clicking around because she has a very comprehensive dictionary listing terms defining the various genres of fan fiction.

The book I'd like to discuss falls under the Contemporary category: "A novel based on Jane Austen, her characters, or plots that is set after 1945."  P.D. James wrote Death comes to Pemberley.  I have never read anything by James; the book jacket describes her as "the queen of mystery" and "the greatest living writer of British crime fiction." (I wonder about this walking-on-eggshells description: are they afraid of offending Agatha Christie fans?)   It was extremely tedious to read the same description in three different chapters, making it seem like the plot stalled in the middle of the book.  I kept wondering how that repetition was important but it never became clear.

This book also seemed to think the Darcys needed therapy to help resolve issues from their courtship and marriage six years earlier.  Elizabeth still carried regret over her attentions to Wickham and Darcy still struggled with how to treat him as a brother-in-law, a situation of his own making due to his love for Elizabeth.

I didn't appreciate the sacrifice of a minor character and the deathbed confession of another character.  I would have liked it better if Wickham had, in fact, hanged.  Having to be married to Lydia is not punishment enough.

In the beginning of the novel, James does very well imitating Austen's writing style - sentences that are lines long and pages with no paragraph breaks.  But once past the introduction, which was very well done, her writing reverts to, what I am guessing, is her own mystery/crime writing style.    

I also must say that I did not guess the mystery until I read the deathbed confession, which seems a bit forced, but I did guess one part, which I am sure you will too, if you read this.  It took me about a weekend.

In googling the title, I discovered that this book is to be/has been made into a BBC miniseries.  Kudos to Mrs. James' agent!  It will air on PBS sometime in 2014.  I will be watching!