TALKING JANE AUSTEN WITH ... DEBORAH YAFFE, AUTHOR OF "AMONG THE JANEITES: A JOURNEY THROUGH THE WORLD OF JANE AUSTEN FANDOM"

First of all Deborah, welcome to our online book club. I’m really glad you’re here today to introduce yourself and your new book to our readers.
Thank  you for inviting me!

Of course, my first question is:  “How did it come that you  decided to write about  Austen  fans,  the so – called Janeites” ?

I’ve been an Austen fan since I was a child, and over the years I attended a couple of the Jane Austen Society of North America’s annual conferences, which I loved.  About eight years ago, I read Karen Joy Fowler’s novel The Jane Austen Book Club and decided it would be fun to found a book club like that, dedicated to reading all the novels in order. I roped several neighbors into the group, and during our Pride and Prejudice discussion, a question came up about the entail, that legal device that’s so important to the inheritance issues in P&P. The next day, trying to research this question online, I decided to drop in on the Republic of Pemberley, the largest online Austen fan site, which I’d vaguely heard of but never visited.  I fell instantly in love with this community of fellow Austen obsessives  and started spending inordinate amounts of time there, to the point that I would get embarrassed when my husband caught me at it – after all, I was supposed to be hard at work on a book on a completely different subject.  One day, I was telling him about this wonderful community and its many quirky personalities, and he said, “You should write a book about that.” It took me a few years, but eventually I did.

REBECCA H. JAMISON, EMMA: A LATTER-DAY TALE - BLOG TOUR, GUEST POST & GIVEAWAY

Emma and the Problem of Advice

Guest Post by Rebecca H. Jamison

In Jane Austen’s Emma, Harriet Smith would’ve been much better off if she’d listened to her heart. Instead, she listened to Emma and had to suffer the rejection of two different men before marrying Robert Martin, the man who asked her in the first place. Emma is certainly the worst advice-giver in the book, but she isn’t the only one. Mr. Woodhouse, Mrs. Weston, and Mr. Knightley all offer up plenty of opinions during the progress of the novel.

Mr. Woodhouse turns people off with his constant stream of health advice. He cautions against eating wedding cake and any other sort of tasty food. For the most part, the characters ignore the old man. But, on one occasion, his son-in-law loses patience when Mr. Woodhouse tells the young father not to listen to his own doctor. Mr. Woodhouse may think he’s helping people, but his words sometimes alienate him from those around him.

TALKING JANE AUSTEN WITH ... EMILY BRAND, AUTHOR OF MR DARCY'S GUIDE TO COURTSHIP

Thanks Emily for taking the time to answer my questions and agreeing to talk Jane Austen with me. This is my first curiosity:  when and how did you come to write a Jane Austen sequel?

Mr Darcy’s Guide to Courtship is more of a prequel: it is set shortly before the events of Pride and Prejudice, and imagines the advice that Darcy might have given Bingley on how to attract a suitable lady before he is let loose on Hertfordshire’s female population.

As an historian, my recent research has focused on the real seduction manuals – often just collections of what we’d now call ‘chat up lines’ – that were in circulation in and around Jane Austen’s lifetime. Many of them are really entertaining, and I wanted to bring them back into public view somehow. Austen’s books have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember, and it only seemed right to reveal how men really went about winning a lady’s affections through the medium of Regency England’s most eligible bachelor himself!

WHAT WOULD BE IN JANE AUSTEN'S iPOD?

 (by guest blogger Marcela De Vivo) 

Access to any kind of music during the Regency era was largely dependent on the abilities of amatuer musicians in a given household to play it on their own. There was no television or recording devices, and live music was generally limited to the cities and streets, where performers were easy to find, and the sounds of music were fairly commonplace. 

 However, in a household like the one Jane Austen grew up in, learning music was looked upon as a highly valuable and important aspect of life, thus every member of a family was expected to develop their skill with a particular instrument. In Austen’s case, the pianoforte was the most popular option.

 So, if Austen had an iPod during that time, she would have undoubtedly had music that was played by herself and her family members recorded and kept on one of her favorite playlists. Scotch and Irish Aires were popular during her time, as well as folk music and a variety of classical composers, many of which we would recognize today.   

THANK YOU, MISS AUSTEN! LEO CHARLES TAYLOR PRESENTS HIS "PRIDE AND PREJUDICE ASSASSINATIONS"

In February of 1813 Miss Jane Austen wrote a letter to her sister Cassandra. Pride & Prejudice had just been published and Miss Austen took the time to express her thoughts on the novel. On the whole she was pleased, although she did not care for her mother's audible presentation of the novel to their friends. Near the beginning of the letter Jane stated that the work was a little too bright and needed shade, perhaps a mention of Napoleon.

 It has now been 200 years since this wonderful novel has been printed and the letters of Miss Austen bring a sense of reality to her work and her character. She was not wholly pleased, but then again, are any of us ever satisfied with our work. A novel, which had taken the better part of two decades to get into print, was found to still contain an editing mistake, and while the reviews were favorable, Miss Austen had sold the copyright to a Mr. Egerton and signed away her rights for future financial gain. While Miss Austen may not have greatly profited from her novel, she did achieve a much more sought after goal. She is now known the world over and will continue to influence men and women in a positive way; Miss Austen achieved immortality. Whether Jane wanted this immortality we may not know, but it is hers and I wish to thank her for her influence.

MR DARCY'S GUIDE TO COURTSHIP - THE SECRETS OF SEDUCTION FROM JANE AUSTEN'S MOST ELIGIBLE BACHELOR

If I were a man, I'd ask him for advice in courtship, wouldn't you?  But since I am a woman, I'm  terribly curious to know what he would suggest to another man and what he really thinks about us.  Fitzwilliam Darcy has been so many women's dream man for 200 years now and he must know one or two secrets to  succeed with them.

Since the publication of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice in 1813, Mr Darcy has been the romantic hero par excellence, fancied by ladies of all ages all over the world. Who better than him could write a guide to the seduce the opposite sex?  

Now, in his Guide to Courtship,   he offers advice to make you successful in love but,  be warned, he wrote this book  before been mellowed by contact with Miss Elizabeth Bennet. So, please,  imagine the Darcy you met at Meriton Assembly, which means all pride and prejudice,  as the author of this little precious book.

AUTHOR GUEST POST - JANE LARK: JANE AUSTEN & ILLICIT LOVE - BLOG TOUR + HUGE GIVEAWAY

Jane Austen’s Visit To Her Ancestral Home and How It Inspired Her To Write By Jane Lark                                               Everyone knows Jane Austen had a family home at Chawton, few people know she was the descendent of an aristocratic family who had an amazing stately home called Stoneleigh Abbey, near Warwick. Jane’s mother had in fact married beneath her when she married a vicar and although she was happily married she regularly bragged about her aristocratic relations, and had brought Jane and her siblings up on tales of her ancestral family achievements. One of Jane’s ancestors had been the Lord Major of London in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. It was a family joke that Jane’s mother had an aristocratic nose that she was very proud of. So can you imagine, after Jane had experienced the worst time of her life; through the period of her father’s illness and death, as her mother ran out of money, sending them firstly into cheap lodgings in Bath, and then to hit the height of humbleness and accept that they must live on the benefit of relations; how Jane felt to have an opportunity to visit the luxury of her ancestral home. It happened unexpectedly. 

JANE AUSTEN, SPELLING, GRAMMAR & ME

I'm terribly bad at self - correction, especially when it comes to typos and spelling. This is why  I used Grammarly to grammar check this post.

If I am correcting and assessing my students' works or papers, I am almost impeccable, but if it is myself, my own writing  I have to check ... no way: I'm almost blind to my own mispelling. This is why I have been very happy when I discovered I shared this problem with my beloved Jane Austen!

Apparently Jane Austen was bad at spelling and grammar and got a lot of help from her editor, but the fact didn't prevent her from becoming a cult writer and one of English classic literature most beloved authors.

AUSTEN ON SCREEN: AUSTENLAND, COMING VERY SOON!

The official trailer of Austenland has just been released (see below). I've also embedded a short clip from this long awaited for movie which has been out for some while.
Are you ready to have some fun in Austenland?
Unfortunately, Jerusha Hess's debut movie, produced by Stephanie Meyer,   will only hit selected theatres on August 16.
 How many of us will really manage to see it on big screen?

I doubt I will, for instance,  but I will keep my hopes high anyway and go on with my fingers crossed. No news of its release in Italy, yet! Actually, I've even received an invitation to participate to a preview screening in California but ... you know, that's really too distant (and expensive!)  a trip to just watch I movie. As much as you may wish to see it and love the genre, if you are a poor teacher like me, you can just kindly decline.

WHAT WOULD JANE AUSTEN EAT?

  

(from guest blogger Virginia Cunningham)

Jane Austen, the author of Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Northanger Abbey and Emma has become something of a symbol for old England to many people. The time Austen lived in was actually known as the Regency period or Regency era.

While much of what we consider to be part of traditional English culture was formed in this era, many of the customs and traditions of the time bear little resemblance to anything we might think of as traditionally English. Some food items, like the still-prepared roast beef and vegetables, were introduced during the Regency period, while others have long been forgotten. In fact, they might even be considered strange by today’s standards.

Jane Austen, who lived a relatively modest life, often would have prepared her own meals along with her family. To shed some light on this version of England that no longer exists, let’s take a look at some of the foods Austen and others would have eaten during that time.

Why Every Relationship is Like Elizabeth and Darcy’s

(by guest blogger Ken Meyers)  I have read and reread Pride and Prejudice. I just love it. I love it so much that I have also read many of the fan fiction based on the classic story, have seen all the film adaptations, and even checked out the YouTube videos about it. There is just something so compelling about the relationship between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. I mean, by all rights in this modern era there should not be that same draw, but there is. I think the story still holds true because our modern relationships have not really changed that much from theirs. Although we might not be dating to find a rich mate who can take care of us, we still have the same misunderstandings and miscommunication snag up our relationship progression. Here are a few reasons why I think that every relationship is, in some ways, like the one between Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy:

SANDY LERNER IN AMSTERDAM TO CELEBRATE 200 YEARS OF PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

(by guest blogger Monica Cardinale) On June 23, at the Geelvinck Hinlopen Huis Museum in Amsterdam, Sandy Lerner gave a talk about her book "Second Impressions" (a Pride & Prejudice sequel she published as Ava Farmer), a book that took her 26 years to write, after a lot of reading and research. I particularly liked how she enlightened the audience about the theme of the immobility of women in Persuasion, something she understood after comprehending Austen's use of the noun "laundalette" at the end of the book.  

The event was organized by the Jane Austen Society of The Netherlands to celebrate 200 years of Pride & Prejudice.

I'm glad to share some of my pictures with you Janeite readers of My Jane Austen Book Club. I hope you'll 

like them!

MY OWN MR DARCY BY KAREY WHITE - COVER REVEAL & GIVEAWAY

After being dragged to the 2005 movie Pride and Prejudice by her mother, sixteen-year-old Elizabeth’s life changes when Matthew Macfadyen’s Mr. Darcy appears on the screen. Lizzie falls hard and makes a promise to herself that she will settle for nothing less than her own Mr. Darcy. This ill-advised pledge threatens to ruin any chance of finding true love. During the six intervening years, she has refused to give any interested suitors a chance. They weren’t Mr. Darcy enough.

Coerced by her roommate, Elizabeth agrees to give the next interested guy ten dates before she dumps him. That guy is Chad, a kind and thoughtful science teacher and swim coach. While she’s dating Chad, her dream comes true in the form of a wealthy bookstore owner named Matt Dawson, who looks and acts like her Mr. Darcy. Of course she has to follow her dream. But as Elizabeth simultaneously dates a regular guy and the dazzling Mr. Dawson, she’s forced to re-evaluate what it was she loved about Mr. Darcy in the first place.

TALKING JANE AUSTEN WITH ... VICTORIA GROSSACK & GIVEAWAY OF THE HIGHBURY MURDERS

Victoria Grossack studied Creative Writing and English Literature at Dartmouth College, and is co-author with Alice Underwood of the Tapestry of Bronze series, novels based on Greek myths and set in the late Bronze Age. She is also the “Crafting Fabulous Fiction” columnist at www.writing-world.com. Visit her website at www.tapestryofbronze.com, or contact her at tapestry (at) tapestryofbronze (dot) com.

Welcome on My JA Book Club, Victoria ! I’m very happy you’ve joined our on line club and you accepted to talk Jane Austen with me.

Your Austen-inspired novel, The Highbury Murders,  is  a  mystery  set it in Emma Woodhouse’s village.  Why Highbury and not Mansfield Park or Longbourn? Is Emma your favourite Austen novel?

First, why Highbury?  I chose Highbury for several reasons. Emma has been described as a detective story without a body – however, there actually is a body, and hence the potential for a mystery. Second, Emma’s active imagination makes her a natural detective. 

Secondly, is Emma my favourite Austen novel? That’s extremely difficult to answer. There’s a maturity in Austen’s three later works – Emma, Mansfield Park and Persuasion – which you don’t find in the three that were written earlier – Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Northanger Abbey. On the other hand, there’s a joy in both Pride and Prejudice and Emma that is absent from the other novels. So, yes, Emma is my favourite but the competition is fierce.

JANE AUSTEN ON STAGE – PROMISE AND PROMISCUITY

Breeches, Bonnets and Big Balls – Interview with Penny Ashton

Penny Ashton is New Zealand’s own global comedienne who has been making a splash on the world stage since 2002 and she has sold out shows from Edinburgh to Adelaide to Edmonton. She has four Best NZ  Female Comedienne nominations, three Adelaide Fringe People’s Choice nominations, a Winnipeg Best in Fringe for Hot Pink Bits and won best performance by an International Poet at the London Farrago Awards.

Penny has represented New Zealand in The World Cup of Theatresports in Germany and Australasia in a Performance Poetry Slam Tournament Tour of the UK. In 2010 she performed by invitation at The Glastonbury Festival and reported from the Miss Universe Pageant in Las Vegas. 

Hello and welcome to My Jane Austen Book Club, Penny. Can we start saying how you came to discover Jane Austen and her work, first of all?

I must confess to being forced to read Pride and Prejudice in my first year of High School and finding it pretty dull. I, like many others, had a change of heart upon watching 1995’s Pride and Prejudice but even more so because of Ang Lee’s beautiful adaptation of Sense and Sensibility.  I simply adored that film, particularly the character of Marianne. So I am afriad I am  one of “those” people who love her screen adaptations where to my mind they bring to life her best feature, which is her sparkling dialogue.

FATHERS IN JANE AUSTEN

(by guest blogger Victoria Grossack)  

As Father’s Day comes around, celebrated on the third Sunday in June in most, although certainly not all, countries around the world, Jane Austen devotees can contemplate the rich array of fathers portrayed in the author’s works.

By all accounts, Jane Austen had a wonderful relationship with her own father.  He believed in her abilities and encouraged her to read anything and everything in his library.  Despite the excellence of her own father, Jane Austen, by exercising her powers of observation and her lively imagination, created a completely different set of fathers and father figures in her six novels.

The Fathers of the Heroines

Mr. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice.  Mr. Bennet has five daughters.  He loves them, especially the heroine, Elizabeth, but not so unconditionally that he is unaware of their shortcomings.  He is witty and insightful but also indolent.  As a father he has been deficient, as he did not save money to buy them husbands, worthless or deserving.  He had not reigned in the excesses of his wife or his younger daughters. Mr. Bennet, perhaps because he is older and therefore wiser, shows more insight into people than do many of the people around him.  He is not taken in by Mr. Wickham, for example; whereas Elizabeth’s mistrust of that officer only occurs after she learns more information.

Best Gifts To Get A Jane Austen Fan

(by guest blogger Marcela de Vivo)

The most difficult aspect of shopping for a committed Jane Austen fan is that they have probably already read all of the Austen books and have seen all of the movies that have been inspired by her work.

There are, in fact, only six books, so it’s probably not a good idea to try and re-gift something that they probably already own or have at least already read through a couple of times.

For the Jane Austen super fan, you’ve got to get a lot more creative than that, and luckily for you, the life and work of Austen has inspired a lot of trinkets, memorabilia and themed products that make great gifts for someone who is a fan of her life and work.

You might have to do some digging, but usually it’ll just take a few minutes online to find some of these products and pinpoint the perfect solution for your Austen fan.

EMMA, MR KNIGHTLEY AND CHILI-SLAW DOGS - DOUBLE GIVEAWAY WINNERS

Brief posting to announce the winners of the two copies of  EMMA, MR KNIGHTLEY AND CHILI-SLAW DOGS, generously provided by the author, Mary Jane Hathaway. 

bn100  wins the paperback

Ceri  will get the kindle e-book version

Congratulations to winner and many grateful thanks to the author for being my guest!

EMMA, MR KNIGHTLEY AND CHILI-SLAW DOGS - INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR MARY JANE HATHAWAY + DOUBLE GIVEWAY

Mary Jane Hathaway is the pen name of an award-nominated writer who spends the majority of her literary energy on subjects un-related to Jane Austen. A homeschooling mother of six young children who rarely wear shoes, she’s madly in love with a man who has never read Pride and Prejudice. She holds degrees in Religious Studies and Theoretical Linguistics, and has a Jane Austen quote on the back of her van. She can be reached on facebook at her regular author page of Virginia Carmichael (which is another pen name, because she’s just that cool). She is here today to meet the readers of My Jane Austen Book Club and present her new " Emma, Mr Knightley and Chili-Slaw Dogs" . She has kindly accepted to answer some of my questions and to grant you a paperback of  Pride, Prejudice and Cheese Grits or an e-book copy of her new Emma - inspired novel! (check the giveaway details below the interview)

Hello and welcome back to my little corner in the blogosphere! Here's my fist question for you: you seem to be rather appreciative of both Jane Austen and typical Southern  dishes,  Mary Jane. How does this odd pair came to your mind for a series of book?

SPOTLIGHT ON ... LADY HARRIETTE: FITZWILLIAM'S HEART & SOUL BY P.O. DIXON + GIVEAWAY

From the Author

__________________________________________________________

As the story goes in To Have His Cake (and Eat It Too) and its sequel, What He Would Not Do, Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam enjoyed making light of his younger cousin Fitzwilliam Darcy’s deep affection for Miss Elizabeth Bennet in what seemed destined to be an unrequited love. After Darcy won Elizabeth’s heart and made her his wife, Richard continued his wont of taunting his love-sick friend.

Now, the proverbial shoe is on the other foot. It’s Darcy’s turn to make light of Richard’s struggles to prove himself worthy of pleasing the woman in his life. Can Richard stay true to his purpose or will the worrisome winds of ill fate intervene?

The Book

Lady Harriette: Fitzwilliam’s Heart & Soul

Past is Prologue …

After his father threatened to cut him off financially for what the Earl of Matlock deemed his son’s debauched, heedless way of life, Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam set his cap at young Lady Harriette Middleton. A second son whose habits of taste demanded he marry a woman of substantial means, Richard’s sole intention was securing her dowry. Having entered her bedchamber under the cover of darkness, he set upon his course. He promised to court her, to win her heart, to marry her.