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Celebrating Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice: 200 Years of Jane Austen’s Masterpiece By Susannah Fullerton

Posted in Austenesque novels, Book review, Jane Austen's World, Popular culture, Pride and Prejudice, tagged , , , on October 19, 2012| 13 Comments »

Celebrating Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice: 200 Years of Jane Austen’s Masterpiece, By Susannah Fullerton, published by Voyageur Press, USA 2013 (Published in the UK as Happily Ever After: Celebrating Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice) Available in January, 2013

200 Years of Pride and Prejudice: The Beginning

I was asked by Frances Lincoln, the UK publishing firm who published A Dance with Jane Austen (read review here),  if I would write a book about 200 years of Pride and Prejudice. I had barely finished Dance and knew it would be difficult to meet the tight deadline, but how could I resist? What better way to celebrate 200 years of that wonderful novel than to write a book about what it has meant to me and to so many people and about the extraordinary afterlife it has enjoyed. And so I set to work and I can honestly say that no book has given me such joy to write. For months I was deeply immersed in the world of the Bennets, Mr Collins, Lady Catherine and Mr Darcy. I have always adored the novel, but as I wrote my own book about it, I came to appreciate it even more, to be more fully aware of its intricacies, skill and its amazing power to charm and enchant again and again and again.

Susannah Fullerton at JASNA AGM 2012 with her new book, A Dance With Jane Austen

My book looks at many aspects of the novel. We all know that it was originally turned down, but for how long did it languish before its author again tried to get it into print? It was not a best-selling book, but from the beginning it had its admirers – who were they, and what did they say about it? I loved writing a chapter about the first sentence. Would I find enough to say, I wondered, as I sat down to write – a whole chapter about a few lines?? Could it be done? In the end, the problem was having almost too much to say, and I hope that chapter will make my readers see clearly just why that first sentence has achieved such fame.

I then turned to the characters. Every reader loves Elizabeth Bennet (I think there must be something wrong with anyone who does not fall in love with Elizabeth!), but why do we love her so, and in what ways is she so radically different from every heroine who had come before? How does her creator skilfully introduce her to us, show her growing and learning as the novel progresses, and endear her to us so greatly? And what of Mr Darcy, that archetypal romantic hero, progenitor of so many tall, dark and handsome men in romantic novels? I loved writing chapters on heroine and hero. I also explore their families and relatives – the Bennets and Mr Collins on her side, Lady Catherine, Anne, Georgiana and Colonel Fitzwilliam on his. How is each character revealed to us and what have 200 years done for them in the way of sequels and further careers?

Pride and Prejudice Translations

In the same year that Pride and Prejudice was published, the first translation appeared. It was published in a Swiss journal, written in French. Jane Austen never knew about it and received no money for it, which is probably a good thing – her own characters would have been almost unrecognisable to her in that Swiss ‘bastardisation’. Generally Pride and Prejudice fared badly for many decades in European translations, but things slowly improved and the non English-speaking world is now catching up on the delights of reading Jane Austen.

Pride and Prejudice, 1813 edition. Image @Sotheby’s

They say you should not judge a book by its cover, but many people still do, and Pride and Prejudice has had an extraordinary range of covers over 200 years. From the first edition, to the modern Chick-Lit covers, and much in between, it has been ‘packaged’ in a myriad of different ways. And as for illustrations, they range from the positively ugly (where Elizabeth isn’t handsome enough to tempt anyone at all!) to the gorgeously decorative. My book includes many of these illustrations from the familiar Hugh Thomson ones, to some that will be very new indeed to my readers.

Film Adaptations of Pride and Prejudice

We all know about the Greer Garson film version, the lovely Elizabeth Garvie TV series and the hugely popular Colin Firth BBC series, but did you also know about the Dutch TV version, the Italian one with a Mrs Bennet rather like Lucrezia Borgia, the Israeli version (modernised), and several old BBC adaptations? My chapter on the various films will tell you about those, plus modernisations such as Lost in Austen and Bride and Prejudice. And there’s a chapter on sequels. I knew there were lots of them out there, but until I began my research for this chapter I had no idea quite how many, or to what lengths some of them go. There are sequels, prequels, continuations which mix characters from all the Austen novels, modern re-tellings, zombie-infiltrated versions, and even pornographic sequels. You will be amazed at the afterlife of Darcy and Elizabeth in the minds of some sequel writers!!

Susannah Fullerton discussing Dirty Dancing in Jane Austen’s Ballrooms at the JASNA AGM 2012 Brooklyn, NY

Today Pride and Prejudice is big business. There is the tourism it has engendered – theme tours, sightseeing in houses where films were made, swimming in a certain lake, and travel to Jane Austen museums and centres. And there is marketing – you won’t believe what items Pride and Prejudice has inspired, from soaps to clothes pegs, skateboards to romper suits. Pride and Prejudice sells things, and manufacturers have given full vent to the fancy in creating literary merchandise from the novel.

And, finally, what of Pride and Prejudice in the future? In this age of kindles and Ipads, audio versions and information on the internet, what will the future of this adored novel be? I had to speculate of course, but see if you agree with me?

Celebrating Pride and Prejudice: 200 Years of Jane Austen’s Masterpiece is, if I say so myself, a very beautiful book. The illustrations are just gorgeous and were chosen with great care, and the book is a pleasure to hold. I hope you will also love its content! I am thrilled that it has also been published by Voyageur Press, an American publisher and that I have been invited to do a lecturing tour in the USA next year to talk about it. I wrote this book for every person who has fallen in love with Pride and Prejudice , who has read and re-read it, discussed all the film versions, and who feels that Elizabeth and Darcy are a part of their lives. I do hope you will want to read it and will join me in celebrating the fact that Pride and Prejudice has lived ‘happily ever after’ for 200 years!

Susannah Fullerton
President, Jane Austen Society of Australia

Preorder the book at Amazon.

Hardcover: 240 pages
Publisher: Voyageur Press (January 1, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0760344361
ISBN-13: 978-0760344361

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A Dance With Jane Austen by Susannah Fullerton – A Review

Posted in Austenesque novels, Book review, jane austen, Jane Austen Novels, Jane Austen's life, Jane Austen's World, Music, Regency Life, Regency World, tagged , , , , on September 15, 2012| 29 Comments »

A Dance with Jane Austen: How a Novelist and her Characters went to the Ball, Susannah Fullterton

“Ah”, I said, when I saw Susannah Fullerton’s book in my mail box. “Here’s just the book I need.” Some of the biggest gaps in my Austen reference library concern dance and music. Whenever I wanted to find out more about the social customs of balls and dancing, how ladies and gentleman conducted themselves, the food served at supper balls, the etiquette of a gentleman’s introduction to a lady before he could dance with her, precisely when the waltz became acceptable not only among the racy upper crust but with villagers in the hinterlands as well, and the difference between private balls and public balls, I had to consult a variety of books. This was time-consuming, and a bit frustrating, for there were variations in details that each source offered.

And now Susannah Fullerton has come to my rescue! Readers who have visited the Jane Austen Society of Australia (an excellent site) know that Ms. Fullerton is its president, and that she has written a previous book, Jane Austen and Crime. A Dance With Jane Austen is a compact illustrated book crammed with information, but written in a relaxed and accessible style. Topics include: Learning to dance, Dressing for the dance, Getting to and from a ball, Assembly balls, Private balls, Etiquette of the ballroom, Men in the ballroom, Dancing and music, ‘They sat down to supper’, Conversation and courtship, The shade of a departed ball, and Dance in Jane Austen films.

Ms. Fullerton culls information from Austen’s letters, novels, and historic texts, such as The Complete System of English Country Dancing, by Mr. Wilson, a dancing master of some renown and decided opinions. She also describes how Beau Nash, the influential master of ceremonies and taste maker in Bath, laid down a set of rules for Society to follow. Nash single-handedly changed a small, sleepy city into THE playground for the smart set with his dictums and innovations, which lasted well beyond his death.

The Five Positions of Dancing, Wilson, 1811

Jane Austen was no stranger to Bath’s public assemblies, or to dancing in private settings. She loved to dance and rarely said no when a man approached her for a set. Jane danced as often as she could, wryly observing to her sister when she was in her thirties and when partners became scarcer: “You will not expect to hear that I was asked to dance, but I was.”

Getting to a ball might be problematic for those who had no means to keep horses or carriages. It made little sense to walk miles in fancy garb over dirt roads to a social event, and so arrangements needed to be made for those who were going to a dance to piggy-back with individuals who were willing to take them. This meant arriving and leaving a dance on someone else’s schedule. Catherine Morland did not walk to the Assembly Rooms, but took a sedan chair, for private carriages were seldom used within Bath proper. Her journey from “Great Pulteney Street to the Upper Rooms would have cost her between one shilling and six pence and two shillings (one way) – an expensive luxury at the time.”

A Modern Belle Going to the Rooms at Bath, Gillray caricature

The dancing ritual was one of courtship, and Jane Austen took full advantage of a ball to set the stage for character development. In each novel she takes a different approach. Lizzie and Darcy tense relationship began at the Meryton Assembly Ball, a situation that was not helped at the private ball at the Lucas’s house nor at the Netherfield Ball, where Lizzie’s family behaved abominably. The dances in Mansfield Park serve to show how selfish the characters are, and to point out Fanny’s isolation from the neighbors. Dancing masters taught children to dance properly, and they received further practice at children’s balls, but Fanny had few opportunities for practice, and she felt tense when she was prominently displayed at her birthday ball. Jane Austen masterfully used the dances in Emma to show how Emma never quite loses sight of Mr. Knightley even as she dances with Frank Churchill, and one gets a good sense of the frustration Catherine Morland feels at not being able to dance at her very first ball in Bath, for there was no one to introduce her and Mrs. Allen properly, or the utter irritation she feels when John Thorpe ruins her well-laid plans to dance with Mr. Tilney at a later assembly ball. Austen also uses balls to demonstrate how outrageous Marianne Dashwood’s behavior is towards Willoughby, breaking many rules of etiquette and decorum.

A Broad Hint of Not Meaning to Dance, James Gillray, published by Hannah Humphreys

Ms. Fullerton sets aside a few pages to discuss dances in films. These elaborately staged scenes are highly popular with film buffs. The costumes are beautiful, as is the music, and the settings are often quite lavish. But be aware that most of the dances and music are often inaccurate and chosen for cinematic effect. (As an aside, I was glad to note that Susannah’s take on Pride and Prejudice 1940 was similar to mine.)

Susannah Fullerton

Insights such as these make this book a sheer pleasure to read. A Dance with Jane Austen will be a valuable addition on the book shelves of any Regency author, Janeite, and history buff. As Susannah Fullterton says about her book:

Dances in the Regency era were almost the only opportunity young men and women had to be on their own without a chaperone right next to them, and dancing provided the exciting chance of physical touch. ..Dances were long – one often spent 30 minutes with the same partner – so there was plenty of opportunity for flirtation, amorous glances, and pressing of hands. After the dance was over, there was all the pleasure of gossip about everything that had happened.”

A Dance with Jane Austen will be available in October. Readers who are lucky enough to go to the Jane Austen Society Annual General Meeting in New York in a few weeks will have the opportunity to meet Ms. Fullerton! I give this book 5 out of 5 Regency tea cups.

Preorder the book at this Amazon.com link or at Frances Lincoln Publishers
Hardcover: 144 pages
Publisher: Frances Lincoln (October 16, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0711232458
ISBN-13: 978-0711232457

Please note: The blue links are mine; other links are supplied by WordPress. I do not make money from my blog. I do, however, receive books from publishers to review.

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Murder Most Austen by Tracy Kiely – a Review

Posted in Austenesque novels, Book review, jane austen, Jane Austen's World, Popular culture, tagged , , on September 12, 2012| 11 Comments »

Gentle readers, My dear friend Lady Anne has reviewed Tracy Kiely’s latest mystery, Murder Most Austen. As always, you will enjoy her take on a new book. I make my politest curtsy to her and thank her kindly for her services and for her elegant writing style. (Please note: the blue links are mine; other links are WordPress Ads I do not make money from this blog, but I do receive books from publishers for review.)

Murder Most Austen is the fourth book in Tracy Kiely’s series featuring Elizabeth Parker, a twenty-something Janeite who channels Kiely’s love and knowledge of Jane Austen’s books.  Elizabeth and her Aunt Winnie, who was featured in the first of the series, often converse by trading quotes from Jane’s books.  Readers with a good knowledge of Jane’s output will enjoy this indulgence in Austenology.

In this outing, Aunt Winnie, a former financier turned innkeeper, treats Elizabeth to a trip to England for the annual Jane Austen Festival in Bath.  Elizabeth, who had been underemployed as a fact checker for a weekly newspaper, has quit her demeaning job, is considering and reconsidering moving in with her boyfriend Peter, and seems to have matured some from the preceding books.  While on the plane to Heathrow, she and Aunt Winnie, who is an outspoken and flamboyant contrast to her niece, meet two other travelers bound for the Festival, Richard Baines, a professor with some perverted views on Austen and his newest graduate student protégé, Lindsay.  The odious Baines has taken the slenderest details of what he considers evidence and what most Austen readers call satire, and decided that Jane is anti-clerical, a non-believer, and further, that she was sexually profligate, early Communist and died from syphilis.  Needless to say, most of the Janeites who hear him expound are upset, none more so that Aunt Winnie’s old friend Cora, one of those tiresome women who cannot leave an argument alone.  So when Baines is found stabbed outside the ballroom where one of the Festival balls is taking place, Cora, who had argued too loudly and drunk too much, is the prime suspect in his death.  Thus  Elizabeth, along with Aunt Winnie, try to discover who really killed the arrogant Baines.   There is no shortage of suspects:  the ex-wife, son and daughter-in-law of Baines have strong motives, as do his current wife, his assistant, and that adoring graduate student.

Kiely is an engaging writer, who draws the reader in quickly, and keeps her pace brisk.  She has a good ear for dialogue, which serves her well in establishing her characters and keeping her readers’ interest.  Unfortunately, she is not as strong in setting her scenes.  While she minutely describes the lobby and hotel room at Claridge’s, the iconic hotel in London, she has Aunt Winnie make reservations for high tea for the afternoon.  Mistake!  High tea, which sounds more elegant than tea, is not.  It usually consists of baked beans on toast, perhaps an egg and fish paste sandwiches; it is a working class or nursery supper.  Tea involves crumpets, scones, clotted cream, strawberries and other delights.  That is presumably what the ladies had at Claridge’s, but we don’t get to join them.

               Elizabeth and Winnie take a quick tourist turn through London and then proceed to Bath, but we do not get a good view of either place, which is disappointing to those of us who enjoy local color in our mysteries, or who have been there and look forward to experiencing those places through the characters’ eyes.   This story could have equally well taken place at any of the regional Jane Austen celebrations in the U.S.,  for all the good Kiely made of being in Bath and London.      

Mysteries turn on details; when well-done, they provide a clear picture of the lives of the characters: where they live, where they eat, what they do.  These must be accurate and consistent.  In Murder Most Austen, everyone uses cell phones throughout the book; in fact, the plot turns on the use of phones, and the cover illustration features a character in period dress talking on her cell.  But as everyone who has traveled knows, American cell phones do not work abroad.  The tourist needs to purchase a new phone and also get the appropriate sim card to hook into the networks in Europe.  World-traveler Winnie would know this; Elizabeth would find it out.  While they were out seeing the usual sights, they should have taken care of that necessary detail.  Kiely could simply have included a little conversation among the cell phone users about getting their international phones.   She does do a good job on the arrogant professor who tries to turn Jane 180 degrees from her usual perception by his mischaracterized “evidence.”  It’s a nice poke at those academic furors that can rage for years, but it would have been another good skewer at him to associate him with an outlandishly named University.  His unnamed school is another missing detail.

There is a certain amount of piling-on with the bad guys in Murder Most Austen, but Elizabeth solves the mystery with some good insight, and acquits herself nicely in a bit of swordplay as well.  It is nice to see that she is not as flustered and unsure of herself as she appeared in previous books in the series; a smart and capable woman makes a good detective and is fun to continue to read.  Readers who enjoyed Elizabeth’s earlier successes at crime-solving will like this one as well.  Someone not previously acquainted with Elizabeth and her problem-solving skills – she does have an excellent memory for tiny details – will enjoy getting to know her.

  • Hardcover: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Minotaur Books (September 4, 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1250007429
  • ISBN-13: 978-1250007421

Order Murder Most Austen at Amazon or at MacMillan. (Vic adds her extreme disappointment at the cost of the Kindle edition. $12.00 is a steep price, when so many other Kindle books are listed for around $7-8. )

My blog’s reviews of all of Tracy’s murder mysteries: Click here

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Celebrating 5 million visits with a Kindle eBook give away of Searching for Captain Wentworth

Posted in 19th Century England, Austenesque novels, Book review, jane austen, Jane Austen's World, Popular culture, tagged , , , on September 7, 2012| 88 Comments »

You’ve supported Jane Austen’s World since 2006, now it’s time to give back. Inquiring readers, I have enjoyed your comments and been most humbled by your visits. On the day that the 5 millionth reader visits my blog, I am giving a gift certificate of a Kindle mobi file from Amazon.com U.S. of Jane Odiwe’s Searching for Captain Wentworth. Who will it be?

Note: Contest Closed! Congratulations, Ruth!! Just leave a comment as to why you think that Persuasion is the best of Jane Austen’s novels. Or not. I am not picky. I just want your opinion. Click here to read my review of this time travel book.

The random generator drawing will be held on the day that my counter shows the magic number of 5 mill. (Estimate 1-2 weeks.)

Thank you, thank you for your interest and support. I intend to answer each comment, but will not include my replies in the drawing!

(Sadly, my offer only applies to U.S. readers. I do apologize to my foreign readers. Once again you are left out of the loop.)

Note: the green links lead to WordPress ads. The blue links are mine. I do not make money from my blog.

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Review: Searching for Captain Wentworth by Jane Odiwe

Posted in Austenesque novels, Bath, Book review, jane austen, Jane Austen's World, Popular culture, tagged , , on September 6, 2012| 17 Comments »

Searching for Captain Wentworth, by Jane Odiwe.

Time travel has always presented a logical difficulty for authors: How to make such a romantic notion seem plausible? I have a way of dealing with time travel stories – suspend disbelief and enjoy the ride. Jane Odiwe’s new book speaks directly to one of my fantasies – to meet Jane Austen and to get to know her as a friend. Oh, if that were only possible!

I’ll admit that I have a fondness for Ms. Odiwe’s books. In this new endeavor she has outdone herself. After finishing Searching for Captain Wentworth I felt as if I had taken a trip to Bath and Lyme Regis, met Jane Austen, and been treated to a wonderful romance.

Not everything about the book is perfect. While the love affair between Charles and Sophia had me engrossed, the one twixt Josh and Sophie left me somewhat cold. The ending seemed rushed, and although loose ends were tied, much of the details didn’t make sense, as with all time travel stories. But logic is not the point of a time travel book: it is fantasy and wish-fulfillment.

This book has fantasy aplenty, backed up by history and Ms. Odiwe’s intimate knowledge of Jane Austen’s life and the environs of Bath. I had the privilege of visiting Bath and staying in a hotel near Sydney Gardens just off Great Pulteney Street, and the book kept conjuring up memories that I thought I had forgotten. Vividly described is the arduous but ultimately rewarding climb up Beechen Cliff. Ms. Odiwe uses this walk as a marvelous plot device while taking us on a guided tour of that famous J.A. landmark. She takes her characters to Lyme Regis as well, and has a knack for writing an original story while admirably following Persuasion’s plot.

I could write a longer review, but I don’t want to reveal too much of the plot. Well done, Ms. Odiwe. This is one of the few review books that I read from start to finish. I give Searching for Captain Wentworth five out of five regency tea cups with this caution: If you are not a fan of romance novels, Austen sequels, or time travel tales, then you will wonder at my gushes.

This book can be purchased as an eBook as well as in the traditional format.

Jane Odiwe’s blog

Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Paintbox Publishing (September 7, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 095457222X
ISBN-13: 978-0954572228

Note: Green links are WordPress ads. The blue links are mine. I make no money from this blog.

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