Dear friends and readers,

I first began this thinking about what do with my summer on May 13; that was the day before I proctored my second and last final; I sent in the grades on May 16; and I wrote again that my problem was partly solved on May 18 when I discovered that my essay on Trollope film adaptations had been published in close to its ( Read more... )

Dear friends and readers,

I finished reading this at times moving novel last night and am writing a review which I hope does justice to its somewhat unusual quality for a type of fiction that is hard to categorize but clearly comes out of, is dependent upon Jane Austen's fiction. I heartily recommend buying (or taking out from your library) this ( Read more... )

Dear friends and readers,

I again make it my happy task to record another pleasant meeting of the JASNA-DC group ( the last time was Christmas dancing) I and Izzy have joined: it took place at the Holiday Inn in Arlington. There was a luncheon, piles of a large beautiful book, sewn, fine paper, wide margins, felicitiously chosen illustrations: Jane ( Read more... )

Dear friends and readers,

After watching Andrew Davies's 2007 Room with a View, I became convinced his character depiction of Lucy Honeychurch was precisely that of the character he gives Catherine Morland in the 2007 Northanger Abbey: literal words, tones, stances, kinds of scenes, and I've begun reading Forster's novel. I've discovered that ( Read more... )

Dear friends and readers,

Yesterday afternoon Izzy and I went to the early December JASNA-DC meeting (billed as a Christmas party for Jane): it was held at a community center in Bethesda, Maryland (rich neighorhood all around, very upper to middle class shopping along Wisconsin Avenue). Along with tea and cakes and punch, they had hired a group of ( Read more... )

Dear friends and readers,

As part of my sub-project for my book on Jane Austen movies, I'm exploring time-traveling books in order to understand Lost in Austen, and what better time-traveling book could I have chosen -- so I thought to myself -- than one which is also a Jane Austen sequel. I hoped Laurie Rigler's Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict ( Read more... )

Dear friends and readers,

This is another blog in progress: about McEwan's poetic novel, Atonement and the visionary film adaptation made from it, Atonement by Joe Wright, Christophe Hampton, Ian McEwan and Tim Evan (among several named producers).  I mean to come back and add to it after I meet with my students. For now here are the comments I will ( Read more... )

Dear Friends and Readers,

Izzy and I arrived home safely last night around 10:30 pm (Daylight Savings Time still); we both had our deeply gratifying moments, and happy times and conversation we'll try to remember for a long time to come.   As the title of this JASNA was Jane Austen and the Abbey, and its topics Northanger Abbey, the gothic, and ( Read more... )

 Dear friends and readers,

I read this remarkable sequel last night -- thanks to Edith Lank on Austen-l who told me it exists, and may be found printed in Hill's There are No Ghosts in the Soviet Union.  I make this blog on it because it has the merit of an intriguing parody and ironic commentary on Austen's Emma which I don't think Hill would have ( Read more... )

Dear friends and readers,

You may recall that in my blog of May 24th, 3 days ago I told of a DC-JASNA picnic Izzy and I attended and how in the raffle she won Sethe Graham-Smith's Pride and Prejudice and the Zombies.  She wrote about the picnic too (see her blog for May 23rd).  I didn't say she was philosophic about this win as she had said she ( Read more... )