#if this film had NOT been about Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth

[starlightandsunshine]

So I just finished watching the 2022 adaptation of Persuasion and like

It's a good film. It was fun and enjoyable.

It was also a TERRIBLE adaptation.

It would have worked so much better if they'd just used original characters. 'Inspired by Jane Austen' stories exist in the hundreds if not thousands. It wouldn't have been a reach to say "oh hey we took inspo from Persuasion for this new thing" and no one would have batted an eyelash and the film probably would have done better. Because it feels like an original story. It has the bare bones of Persuasion, yes. Also the character names. But so many of the characters feel so divorced from their novel counterparts that I kept forgetting that this was supposed to be Persuasion until someone got addressed by name again. Half of the motivations feel different, some of the changes to the storyline are baffling if you're making it an adaptation rather than just loosely inspiring it and the kitschy "talking to the camera thing" would have worked so much better if it had been literally any character other than Anne, like, say an original character. Also, the anachronisms would have been much more accepted in any film that was not an attempt at a Jane Austen Adaptation (see: the Bridgerton series as just one example)

If this film had been an original film that was only inspired by the plot of Persuasion it would have been well-loved. As an adaptation, I was cringing in minutes.

[eurekavalley]

Something I really love about Amanda Root's Anne is the series of conversations she has with men. Her Anne is so quiet during the first half of the film, going places according to the whims of others and listening to everyone’s complaints. And then she gets to Lyme, feels the sea air against her complexion, and for the first time she has a real conversation with Captain Benwick. The pacing of the film has been so deliberate that it feels like a real turning point, not only to see Anne finally standing up for her own personhood, which comes with a history that Benwick (like everyone else) doesn’t bother to consider, but also drawing him out, into conversation. This new company animates her. She’s no longer the saddest person in the room.

Except for a few exchanges with Sophia Croft and Mrs Smith, all of Anne's most interesting, animated conversations are with men. We see it again with Mr Elliot ("my idea of good company is the company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversation"), and in the famous dialogue with Captain Harville at the White Hart about men and women.

The movie takes a risk in not really explaining Wentworth and Anne's history (no voiceovers, no convenient disclosures, only a few references and an aborted attempt by Anne to confide in Lady Russell). Anne's interactions with Wentworth are thwarted, stilted, and filled with anxiety as they cannot really connect until they reach an understanding. But these other conversations help us imagine their past together, the kinds of conversations they might have had, and what Wentworth sees in Anne, something the action of the movie can’t directly address.

[drst]

So I was watching the 1995 adaptation of “Persuasion” last night, as one does, and I thought of something Alfred Hitchcock said about suspense. It seems incongruous to bring up Hitchcock in reference to this movie but hear me out.

When asked about the tension and suspense in his movies, Hitchcock said (paraphrasing from memory here) that suspense is just a function of information. Give the audience information the characters don’t have. If you show a scene of two people in a cafe talking and then the cafe blows up, there’s shock but no suspense. But if you show a bomb under the table that the characters don’t know about, that creates suspense, because the audience knows something the characters don’t.

What in the world does this have to do with “Persuasion”? It struck me again last night how completely oblivious every character in the story is to what’s actually happening. There are only 3 characters who know the full tale of what’s going on here: Anne, Wentworth, and Lady Russell (who doesn’t truly know the whole story, and is not present for the majority of the film). As far as everyone in Uppercross and Lyme knew, Captain Wentworth and Miss Anne Elliot had crossed paths briefly a number of years ago. It was an inconsequential acquaintance, and they have not had any long or visible interactions in the present. Their own respective sisters are totally clueless, even.

But we, the audience, know. The film shows us Anne’s state, her misery over the loss of Wentworth, that she still has memories and mementos of him. We  see her shock and then relief when Sophy Croft talks about her brother’s marriage and then adds it was the other brother. We see her grabbing the chair for support. Nobody else around Anne notices this, but of course the audience, being given pieces of information about Anne’s history with Frederick is looking for those moments and the film is focusing us on them. And then as Anne beings to regain her spirits, we see Wentworth’s feelings for her soften, then his jealousy starting to rear it’s head, and so on. 

That’s what all films do, of course, make us look at certain things, call our attention to moments, details, in order to bring us into the story. But I feel like this movie does it better than others and it feels to me quintessentially Austen to tell the story this way. Her books are much like this too, where you as the reader see the inner workings of the main characters that they don’t always reveal to the other characters. (We know Elinor is heartbroken at a level her family doesn’t realize until late in the book, we know Elizabeth’s opinion of Darcy has altered wildly while her family still thinks she hates him, etc.)

I think this is one of the reasons this adaptation is the one I keep coming back to. Watching it is basically being given insider knowledge. We get to see the reconciliation and romance between Anne and Wentworth even as all their friends and family don’t notice. It’s like being let in on a secret. Everyone around them has been oblivious to this romantic story unfolding in their midst, and at the end, Anne and Wentworth are so lost in each other they are oblivious to a literal circus walking past them.

[siriusist]

What books are you currently reading? :)

Some of these I’m currently reading are books I’ve already read/ started reading, but had to put aside or haven’t reread in a long time. Others are books I’ve read for the first time, but I’m trying to catch up on as well. Lastly, I’ve got some books coming in the mail. I’ll note all categories below.

(Note: Books I’ve already read and rereading have an asterisk next to them, so you know they’re really good. xD)

Books I’m Currently Rereading:

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque*: ‘All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, a German veteran of World War I. The book describes the German soldiers' extreme physical and mental stress during the war, and the detachment from civilian life felt by many of these soldiers upon returning home from the front.’

Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller* (TW: As a novel and as someone who experienced underage sexual abuse, I acknowledge this could be very triggering and there are sections I have to skip by. However, the film starring Dame Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett is so fantastic, and the material provided here so dark and so twisted, it’s a fantastic example of a double-twist and a fucked-up unreliable narrator): Notes on a Scandal is a 2003 novel by Zoë Heller. It is about a female teacher at a London comprehensive school who begins an affair with an underage pupil. 

Jane Austen’s Persuasion* (Note: This is my favourite Jane Austen novel): ‘Of all Jane Austen’s great and delightful novels, Persuasion is widely regarded as the most moving. It is the story of a second chance. Anne Elliot, daughter of the snobbish Sir Walter Elliot, is woman of quiet charm and deep feelings. When she was nineteen she fell in love with—and was engaged to—a naval officer, the fearless and headstrong Captain Wentworth. But the young man had no fortune, and Anne allowed herself to be persuaded to give him up. Now, eight years later, Wentworth has returned to the neighborhood, a rich man and still unwed. Anne’s never-diminished love is muffled by her pride, and he seems cold and unforgiving. What happens as the two are thrown together in the social world of Bath—and as an eager new suitor appears for Anne—is touchingly and wittily told in a masterpiece that is also one of the most entrancing novels in the English language.’

Books I’ve Started Reading, But Had to Put Aside at One Point:

Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America by Beth Macy: ‘Dopesick is an unflinching look at the opioid crisis in the US, which is predicted to kill more Americans in a decade than HIV has since it emerged in the 1980s.'

Tesla: Inventor of the Modern by Richard Munson: ‘Nikola Tesla invented the radio, robots, and remote control. His electric induction motors run our appliances and factories, yet he has been largely overlooked by history. In Tesla, Richard Munson presents a comprehensive portrait of this farsighted and underappreciated mastermind.’

Me by Elton John: ‘In his first and only official autobiography, music icon Elton John reveals the truth about his extraordinary life, which is also the subject of the smash-hit film Rocketman.’

Circe by Madeline Miller: ‘In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child--not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power--the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves.Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from, or the mortals she has come to love.’

Intellectual Property by Siva Vaidhyanathan: ‘We all create intellectual property. We all use intellectual property. Intellectual property is the most pervasive yet least understood way we regulate expression. Despite its importance to so many aspects of the global economy and daily life, intellectual property policy remains a confusing and arcane subject. This engaging book clarifies both the basic terms and the major conflicts surrounding these fascinating areas of law, offering a layman's introduction to copyright, patents, trademarks, and other forms of knowledge falling under the purview of intellectual property rights. Using vivid examples, noted media expert Siva Vaidhyanathan illustrates the powers and limits of intellectual property, distilling with grace and wit the complex tangle of laws, policies, and values governing the dissemination of ideas, expressions, inventions, creativity, and data collection in the modern world.’

The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky: ‘The Brothers Karamazov is a passionate philosophical novel set in 19th-century Russia, that enters deeply into the ethical debates of God, free will, and morality. It is a spiritual, theological drama of moral struggles concerning faith, doubt, judgment, and reason, set against a modernizing Russia, with a plot which revolves around the subject of patricide.’

The Balkans by Mark Mazower: ‘Throughout history, the Balkans have been a crossroads, a zone of endless military, cultural, and economic mixing and clashing between Europe and Asia, Christianity and Islam, Catholicism and Orthodoxy. In this highly acclaimed short history, Mark Mazower sheds light on what has been called the tinderbox of Europe, whose troubles have ignited wider wars for hundreds of years. Focusing on events from the emergence of the nation-state onward, The Balkans reveals with piercing clarity the historical roots of current conflicts and gives a landmark reassessment of the region’s history, from the world wars and the Cold War to the collapse of communism, the disintegration of Yugoslavia, and the continuing search for stability in southeastern Europe.’

Books I’m Reading for the First Time:

Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel (This is a guilty pleasure basically because I’m a True Crime nerd: It’s basically that Blanchard case in a novel form): ‘For the first eighteen years of her life, Rose Gold Watts believed she was seriously ill. She was allergic to everything, used a wheelchair, and practically lived at the hospital. Neighbors did all they could, holding fundraisers and offering shoulders to cry on, but no matter how many doctors, tests, or surgeries, no one could figure out what was wrong with Rose Gold.Turns out her mom, Patty Watts, was just a really good liar.After serving five years in prison, Patty gets out with nowhere to go and begs her daughter to take her in. The entire community is shocked when Rose Gold says yes.Patty insists all she wants is to reconcile their differences. She says she's forgiven Rose Gold for turning her in and testifying against her. But Rose Gold knows her mother. Patty Watts always settles a score. Unfortunately for Patty, Rose Gold is no longer her weak little darling...And she's waited such a long time for her mother to come home.’

The Plague by Albert Camus: ‘A gripping tale of human unrelieved horror, of survival and resilience, and of the ways in which humankind confronts death, The Plague is at once a masterfully crafted novel, eloquently understated and epic in scope, and a parable of ageless moral resonance, profoundly relevant to our times. In Oran, a coastal town in North Africa, the plague begins as a series of portents, unheeded by the people. It gradually becomes an omnipresent reality, obliterating all traces of the past and driving its victims to almost unearthly extremes of suffering, madness, and compassion.’

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway: ‘A Moveable Feast is a memoir by American author Ernest Hemingway about his years as a struggling young expat journalist and writer in Paris in the 1920s. The book, first published in 1964, describes the author's apprenticeship as a young writer while he was married to his first wife, Hadley Richardson.’

Books Coming in the Mail:

The Outsider by Albert Camus: ‘L'Étranger is a 1942 novel by French author Albert Camus. Its theme and outlook are often cited as examples of Camus's philosophy, absurdism coupled with that of existentialism, though Camus personally rejected the latter label.’

Becoming by Michelle Obama: ‘Becoming is the memoir of former United States first lady Michelle Obama published in 2018. Described by the author as a deeply personal experience, the book talks about her roots and how she found her voice, as well as her time in the White House, her public health campaign, and her role as a mother.’

Things Fall Apart: A Novel by Chinua Achebe*: ‘Things Fall Apart is the debut novel by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, first published in 1958. Its story chronicles pre-colonial life in the southeastern part of Nigeria and the arrival of Europeans during the late 19th century.’

E.M. Forster’s Maurice* (I accidentally ordered a copy when I already own one I couldn’t find and thought I had to donate moving home from uni. Whoops xD (But seriously you can never have too many copies of this book): ‘Maurice is a novel by E. M. Forster. A tale of homosexual love in early 20th-century England, it follows Maurice Hall from his schooldays through university and beyond. It was written in 1913–1914, and revised in 1932 and 1959–1960.’

Howard’s End by E.M. Forster: ‘Howard’s End is a novel by E. M. Forster, first published in 1910, about social conventions, codes of conduct and relationships in turn-of-the-century England. Howards End is considered by many to be Forster's masterpiece. ‘

War and Peace by Tolstoy: ‘War and Peace broadly focuses on Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812 and follows three of the most well-known characters in literature: Pierre Bezukhov, the illegitimate son of a count who is fighting for his inheritance and yearning for spiritual fulfillment; Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, who leaves his family behind to fight in the war against Napoleon; and Natasha Rostov, the beautiful young daughter of a nobleman who intrigues both men.’

I’m also hoping to order The Skin We’re In by Desmond Cole and How to Be an Anti-Racist by Ibram Kendi next time I get some cash in my pocket; the fact that the library still isn’t open locally and shows no sign of opening soon is wrecking havoc with any budgeting I might usually do. xD But hopefully this gives you some ideas for books to search out! <3

[stewartry]

Persuasion - Jane Austen

I say this a lot, but it's been a very long time since I read Persuasion. I know the movie (Ciaran Hinds and Amanda Root, for me the only one worth watching) very very well, and it was a pure joy to be reminded of how utterly and beautifully faithful it is to the book, and another joy to be reminded of all of the elements that did not make it into the film. Karen Savage's reading was lovely and just enhanced my enjoyment of the story.

I wonder if the book's title came from the prevalence of the word throughout the text, or if Miss Austen went back and threaded different forms of "persuade" into it afterward. (Wikipedia's messy article on the book (really, if someone's read Austen I would have thought that meant they could use proper English) indicates that the book was untitled at Jane Austen's death and that her brother named it – therefore, I guess, the former.) It's a pernicious little word, and quiet in its poison. Nineteen-year-old Anne was not bullied into giving Frederick up, nor ordered to do so, nor forced – nothing so loud and against her will. No, it's worse: she was persuaded. Lady Russell poured poison into her ear and sweetly nudged and subtly herded and full only of concern for Anne and only in her best interests steered her away from him until Anne bent to her will, became convinced that such a marriage would be bad not only for her and her family but also for him, and she turned him away. I don't doubt but that was quite a bit less quiet.

I like Anne, a great deal. She was, I think, not so much weak as pliant and obliging when she was young; she retains some of that pliability, but the pain she has lived with for eight years has woken her up and steeled her spine. She is willing and content to do for others, even those who are tiresome or who require rather than request, but she has a mind of her own, and it's a good one.

I don't know if I would love Wentworth without Ciaran Hinds's interference; I would like him, at least, and sympathize with him; I don't think it would be a Boromir-saved-by-Sean-Bean situation. He sounds like he was a bit free-wheeling when he was younger and courting Anne – he made a good deal of money and spent it, though Miss Austen declines to say on what. He does not seem to be a gambler of any sort; my semi-informed guess would be that he spent it on things he liked and on his sister and brother and friends.

I despise Lady Russell. I said so on a Goodreads Austen group, and was (genteelly, as befits an Austen group) jumped on for it and in all ways declared to be in the wrong. ("She stops the marriage with Wentworth because she cares so much for Anne and wants to protect her. Wentworth is penniless, was about to go to war and could have died.") I backed off, thinking my opinion must be faulty because it was based mainly on the film and not the book; the movie, I thought, must have slanted the character to encourage my dislike.

But it didn't. Listening to the book, I was a little surprised – and a little gratified – to find that while Lady Russell has to her credit a genuine affection and care for Anne, she is every bit as ludicrously snobbish and closed-minded as I thought – as much so, in fact, as Sir Walter himself. She. Ruined. Anne's. Life. Eight years of it, at least, and her interference was only remedied by chance. Also: Frederick's life, ruined. For eight years, both of them existed in some degree of misery because of Lady Russell. She took their love lightly, counted it as far less important than Anne's countenance and position, and never took into consideration the fact that in her concern for Anne's future security she was thoroughly sabotaging Anne's present and future happiness.

Was Lady Russell well-meaning? Of course. I never questioned that she honestly loved Anne. Was Lady Russell wrong? In theory, no. In practice, very much so. And in the end, criminally. The article I link there talks about how Lady R was trying to save Anne from making the same mistake as her mother – but she did not, apparently, trouble herself to determine that Frederick was very different from Sir Walter Elliot, nor that feeling ran deep on both sides. Anne might have had eight years of worrying over Frederick being injured or killed in the wars, but in the end …

Was Anne at fault as well? Of course. But she was nineteen years old. And it wasn’t a 19 comparable in any way to 19 years old today; it was a sheltered 19 used to being guided by her guardians, unused to having her voice heard or heeded. She relied on Lady Russell as she would have her own mother. And Lady Russell was dead set against Wentworth.

Put it this way: if she had continued to allow herself to be guided – to be persuaded – by Lady Russell at the age of 27 there's a damn good possibility she would have shortly found herself married to Mr. Elliot; that good lady despised him as much as Sir Walter in the beginning, and swung entirely over to his side with surprising quickness. Despite what she knew of his past, she saw an agreeable face and manners and an evidently decent fortune and set her persuasiveness to the end of pushing Anne toward him as she had pushed her away from Wentworth. If Wentworth had been married; if he had indicated he couldn't stand the sight of Anne; if Anne had fallen out of love with him; if she had not at that moment had Wentworth filling her eyes and heart Anne might have been once more persuaded. And that would have turned the story into a tragedy.

Another part of that discussion on Goodreads that completely shocked me was about how Wentworth victimized Anne – "8 years after what happened between them, Wentworth did not forget, he came back to avenge for his broken heart; 8 years is more than enough to forget and forgive! Wentworth was decided to hurt Anne. He was indulged with the Miss Musgroves though he had no intentions of going beyond flirtations. He did it to rub it in Anne's face" …

I didn't fight it then and there; I did protest, and happily was backed up by someone else; but, again, I didn't go into detail because I wasn't entirely sure of my ground, and my partisanship for Frederick Wentworth is obviously influenced by my infatuation with Ciaran Hinds in the role. Who knew but that the movie whitewashed Frederick a bit and slandered Lady R? Well. It didn't. Wentworth re-emerged into Anne's life because he had little choice in the matter. He could have shirked it, told his sister that he had to be elsewhere – but he's not that kind of man, and besides which they were renting the Elliots' house for an extended period. He had to know he wasn't going to be able to avoid the Elliots for the whole time, and – in keeping with his character indicated by his naval actions and advancement – he did not try to avoid it, letting very little time pass before he entered the fray and went to visit his sister. Was he rather cutting with her? Sure. It would take a saint to refrain completely from at least a few cutting remarks. She broke his heart eight years ago and he has not found anyone else in the intervening time to mend it. He genuinely loved her: "I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant." "Weak and resentful" – he admits it, he was unforgiving when they first met, and he has regretted it. But eight years is hardly "more than enough to forget and forgive" – anyone writing that has never had deep feelings for someone. She wronged him in such a way as to wreck both their lives. Eight years is nothing at all with that kind of pain.

"…He had no intentions of going beyond flirtations". Nonsense. He had built himself a successful career, and now in this time of peace all he hears is "you'll be finding yourself a wife soon, of course!" He had been severely hurt by Anne, and my guess would be that he had no intention of even thinking about considering the least notion of courting her, ever again. She was never demonstrative, and was still working her way through her own feelings, so she could not and would not and did not offer him any sort of encouragement. And there at the Musgroves' and most certainly in Lyme, with two pretty girls flinging themselves at him (literally, in the case of Louisa) and Anne very much not flinging herself at him, how could he not entertain the idea that one of these girls was a possibility? He was expected to settle down; he had a desire to settle down. He was … persuaded … that he ought to choose a wife and, since he could not apparently have the love of his life it might as well be the bright and vivacious Louisa, not least because everyone around him (including Louisa) took it as read. Then silly Louisa fell, and he saw how Anne reacted in the crisis – both the immediate emergency and in the trying days after – and gauged her reactions to him, and doesn't seem to have given Louisa, much less her sister, another thought. I believe he gave some serious thought to the Musgrove sisters – which is my belief if for no other reason than that it would be a rather repulsive man who would toy with two young girls just to get back at an old flame, and Anne would not continue to love an ugly-spirited man.<br /><br />What, I wonder, would have happened if Frederick Wentworth had returned to Anne's life under different circumstances? As a lowly lieutenant or commander, not having caught the luck and bounties that Captain Wentworth could rejoice in? Would Anne have been strong enough to see that he still loved her, and to accept a renewal of his courtship?

In the end, Lady Russell does redeem herself. She is forced to face the fact that she was wrong – about Wentworth, about Elliot, about Anne.

The only one among them whose opposition of feeling could excite any serious anxiety was Lady Russell. Anne knew that Lady Russell must be suffering some pain in understanding and relinquishing Mr. Elliot, and be making some struggles to become truly acquainted with, and do justice to Captain Wentworth. This, however, was what Lady Russell had now to do. She must learn to feel that she had been mistaken with regard to both; that she had been unfairly influenced by appearances in each; that because Captain Wentworth's manners had not suited her own ideas, she had been too quick in suspecting them to indicate a character of dangerous impetuosity; and that because Mr. Elliot's manners had precisely pleased her in their propriety and correctness, their general politeness and suavity, she had been too quick in receiving them as the certain result of the most correct opinions and well-regulated mind. There was nothing less for Lady Russell to do, than to admit that she had been pretty completely wrong, and to take up a new set of opinions and of hopes.

One note I can't resist making in counterpoint to the article in defense of Lady Russell:

When Lady Russell objects to Frederick’s having “no connexions to secure even his farther rise in” the navy, we should not interpret this as an example of her “value for rank and consequence” (11). (It is interesting to speculate that Frederick must have never mentioned to anyone other than Anne during his initial visit to Somersetshire that he had a naval “connexion” in his sister, the wife of Admiral Croft. Mrs. Croft says in 1814 that she has been married for fifteen years and thus would have been married to the admiral for seven years by 1806.)

He wasn't necessarily an admiral as yet in 1806.

If for no other reason, Persuasion is one of my favorite books because it contains one of my favorite passages, one of my favorite letters, fictional or non.  

Frederick: I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant. You alone have brought me to Bath. For you alone, I think and plan. Have you not seen this? Can you fail to have understood my wishes? I had not waited even these ten days, could I have read your feelings, as I think you must have penetrated mine. I can hardly write. I am every instant hearing something which overpowers me. You sink your voice, but I can distinguish the tones of that voice when they would be lost on others. Too good, too excellent creature! You do us justice, indeed. You do believe that there is true attachment and constancy among men. Believe it to be most fervent, most undeviating, in F. W. I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall return hither, or follow your party, as soon as possible. A word, a look, will be enough to decide whether I enter your father's house this evening or never.

Such a letter was not to be soon recovered from.

I imagine not.

~View all my reviews~

[morganbelarus]

Jane Austen’s worldwide fan club – BBC News

Image caption The BBC 1995 adaption of Pride and Prejudice spawned a new generation of Austen fans

Almost 200 years after Jane Austen's death, the English writer is still adored around the world. BBC News spoke to some of the fans for whom a love of Austen's work has evolved into a way of life.

John and Aylwen Gardiner-Garden - Australia

Image copyright Aylwen Gardiner-Garden

Australia may still have been a penal colony when Jane Austen was writing her novels, but two centuries on, Austen fans Down Under get together each year to recreate Regency England in Canberra.

Aylwen Gardiner-Garden and her husband John have run the annual Jane Austen Festival for 10 years.

The event grew out of their love of Regency dancing and now more than 300 people come from all over Australia and New Zealand for promenades, grand balls, talks and dance workshops.

"Jane Austen is very popular in Australia - especially after the BBC series aired here in the 1990s - Colin Firth just did it for everyone. And it's generational - there was another whole new set of fans after the Keira Knightley film," she explained.

"I don't think it's harking back to the old country - it's more the sense of romance and escaping from reality. It's not the seedy side of England, like Dickens.

"At the festival, the women can dress up, feel feminine and elegant, and the guys are gentlemen. Teenagers grow up overnight on the dance floor - their manners are fantastic.

"It's people coming together to learn about the costumes, the books, the dancing. It's become part of people's lives, so I keep doing it for the love of it."

Debra Miller - USA

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Media captionUS Jane Austen performer Debra Miller

In Chicago, Deborah Miller performs her own one-woman show based on the books and letters of Austen.

She still remembers 10 September 2009 - the day she first read Austen's biography and instantly "fell in love". Within a year she had read all her novels and written the stage show she has been performing ever since.

"Her work is so well written - every time I read it I find something new - her concise use of language and its elegance is so beautiful," she said.

In researching her show, Ms Miller visited the Smithsonian Institution to find the earliest audio recording of a Hampshire accent and listened over and over again to find the correct stage voice.

"I do have to slow it down a bit - they are not used to a Hampshire accent on the south side of Chicago."

With more than 5,000 members of Jane Austen societies in the US and Canada, there is an eager audience for her shows.

"People have read the novels, but not the letters. People at the shows cry and say that I am Jane Austen.

"It's the ease and geniality of the time, the romance and the reassurance - in the current political climate, a Jane Austen novel has integrity and truth."

Adge Secker - Bath

Image copyright ECT Travel

Adge Secker is a full-time police officer in Bath who is also a tour guide for ECT Travel's Strictly Jane Austen tours - one of the companies chasing the bonnet bucks - tapping into the market of Austen enthusiasts keen to learn more about their heroine.

He described his clients as "just mad crazy" about Austen with Americans in particular "absolutely nuts for her".

"We take them to where she lived, where she danced, the places that inspired the stories and just immerse them in the history. I get people enthused and at the end tell them what they've done is walk in her footsteps.

"It's just good fun to do - they love to soak up the history and the culture."

Tour-goers get to visit places in the city where Jane Austen lived for five years from 1801. Locations include the Gravel Walk - where Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth were engaged in Persuasion - or visitors can have Regency experiences like tasting the spa water or attending a grand ball.

"Many Jane Austen experts come on the tours to see the places in her life. I'm like a sponge - always learning new stories. But you have to get your facts right, otherwise Jane Austen fans will find you out."

Mara Barbuni - Italy

Image copyright Mara Barbuni

Austen's work was first published in Italy in the 1930s, while films and dubbed BBC dramas have boosted her popularity in recent decades.

Venetian Mara Barbuni first saw Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility in 1995 and immediately borrowed the book from her local library.

Since then she has written extensively on the author - her most recent research project is into how houses and homes are represented in Austen's novels.

In the course of her research, she has travelled to many of the "Austenland" sites - including Winchester, Bath and Lyme Regis.

Austen's work is "really popular and much loved" in Italy, she explains.

"Many Italian readers of Jane Austen declare they love her settings, the old-fashioned but fashionable flair of her novels, and the love stories of her characters."

More than 300 academics and devotees are in the Jane Austen Society of Italy which was founded in Bologna in 2013. It is holding a "Grand Tour" of conferences around Italian cities this year, based on each of Austen's novels.

Nicole Kang and Margy Supramaniam - Singapore

Image copyright Nicole Kang/Margy Supramaniam

Nicole Kang and Margy Supramaniam are members of Singapore's Jane Austen Circle, enthusiasts who regularly meet for balls, tea and dramatised readings in costume.

UK-born Mrs Supramaniam, who moved to Singapore in the 1980s, said: "I'm no seamstress but I do enjoy dressing bonnets to look authentic and finding Indian trimming to make dresses look Regency.

"I have also used saris for dresses, the muslin ones with borders are the best. In the late 18th and early 19th Century cloth was imported in large quantities from India as it was in great demand in England for clothes, so some of it works really well in achieving a period look.

"Many older Singaporeans, who had a fairly British-style colonial education, were brought up with Jane Austen but the younger generation are less familiar, and often their first introduction may have been watching a film adaptation. It is exciting to see Jane Austen's popularity spread.

"The largest group of followers that we have are millennial Chinese Singaporeans who can somehow relate to Jane Austen across culture and centuries."

One of those younger members, Nicole Kang (pictured above left, in the dress), gives Regency dance lessons in Singaporean schools.

"I first read Northanger Abbey when I was 15 years old as I had more or less finished reading most of the 'teen' books in my school library and I think I had fancied a bit of a challenge in my reading.

"I love Austen's work because she writes about familiar subjects - not just about love - but she had such a keen insight into human nature that I believe that her characters still exist in real life today."

Image copyright National Portrait Gallery London/PA Wire

Jane Austen

Born on 16 December 1775 in the Hampshire village of Steventon, where her father was the local clergyman

Began writing as a teenager and published Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Mansfield Park and Sense and Sensibility based on her observations of middle and upper-class Regency England

Lived in Bath from 1801 before moving to Southampton and then the Hampshire village of Chawton after her father died

Her books were published anonymously during her lifetime

Died in Winchester in 1817 at the age of 41 and was buried in the cathedral

Persuasion and Northanger Abbey were published posthumously and a final novel was left incomplete

More From this publisher : HERE

=> *********************************************** Originally Published Here: Jane Austen’s worldwide fan club – BBC News ************************************ =>

Jane Austen’s worldwide fan club – BBC News was originally posted by 16 MP Just news

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Persuasion--and Anne Elliot!--Comes to Kansas City

The 2018 annual general meeting of the Jane Austen Society of North America in Kansas City focused on Persuasion, Jane Austen’s last and most poignant novel. The AGM featured numerous insights into both the book and issues related to it, including my own talk on the influence of Jane Austen’s naval brothers on the text.

Traditional promenade on Saturday night featured the usual assortment of lovely gowns and officers’ uniforms

Hazel Jones gave a fascinating lecture on Steel’s List of the Royal Navy and the Naval Chronicle. These were the publications that people at home would follow as to the location, leadership, and activities of naval vessels during the long war with France. Frank and Charles, the naval officers who were Jane’s brothers, show up from time to time for their exploits and postings.

Jones also showed several notations, including the loss of a sloop, that would have rated the bare mention that Captain Wentworth speaks of, had he gone down in the weather-beaten, nondescript Asp. I’d wondered before why the Royal Navy allowed so much information to be published about its warships, as it provided the French—and later, Americans—detailed description of military dispositions. It was not until 1813 that the Navy got wise and began to reduce its public information.

A lady on her evening stroll with her gallant captain

Janine Barchas gave a well-illustrated talk on the importance of the cheapest and most overlooked editions of Jane Austen. Most of these were printed under new and sometimes garish covers with the general idea of “new and improved!” But most of them went back to Richard Bentley’s early editions, using the same plates, and sold for much less than the “authoritative” editions. The cheap offspring would sell for three to six shillings—eventually even less—compared to eighteen to twenty-one shillings for a “proper” book.

Bentley’s page plates lasted as the source for most Austen editions for at least fifty-eight years! The takeaway from Barchas’s talk was that the cheap editions were in fact responsible for Austen’s growing popularity, as they were the source for most of the books that the general public read. And also that various editions can be traced back to the original plates by the wear shown on the printed pages. Like fingerprints, each of Bentley’s plates suffered unique wear and each printed copy was traceable to its source.

So Jane Austen was a major part of the original pulp fiction.

John Mullan gave his usual charming, funny, and innovative take on a particular topic. His plenary was about the self-delusion shown by all the characters. Sir Walter deludes himself about his self-worth, but Anne also deludes herself—at least, suppresses herself and her reactions to the world, and Wentworth. The Captain, of course, deludes himself at first that he no longer has any feelings for Anne.

Erna Arnesen and Jeanne Talbot of the San Diego region enjoy the promenade

James Nagle provided all that anyone would want to know about prize money for naval captains, including a fact I did not know—that if someone died, his share went not to his family but to the Crown for a naval hospital.

The most emotionally satisfying talk was not by a scholar but by an actress–Amanda Root, who played the quintessential Anne Elliot in the 1995 movie of the novel. First there was a filmed interview of her by Gillian Dow of Chawton House (in case Amanda could not attend because of her work schedule), then there was Amanda herself. She read some of the most memorable excerpts from the book as well as her own journal from the 1995 filming, when she would write, as Anne, responding to things Austen had written in the novel. In between, she answered questions from the audience.

The youngest attendee with her proud mother

Amanda in person came across very much like Anne Elliot–thoughtful, self-effacing, and quiet (until she laughed). The conference was proclaimed as the largest JASNA AGM in history. It was certainly a very well-organized event under Julienne Gehrer and her team. The hotel conference area was sufficiently large but reasonably compact, so that it was easy to move from session to session. The emporium was also in one room, which was nice for the shoppers and vendors both.

  —

The Marriage of Miss Jane Austen, which traces love from a charming courtship through the richness and complexity of marriage and concludes with a test of the heroine’s courage and moral convictions, is now complete and available from Amazon and Jane Austen Books.

  The Trilogy is also available in a single “boxed set” e-book.

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Image caption The BBC 1995 adaption of Pride and Prejudice spawned a new generation of Austen fans

Almost 200 years after Jane Austen’s death, the English writer is still adored around the world. BBC News spoke to some of the fans for whom a love of Austen’s work has evolved into a way of life.

John and Aylwen Gardiner-Garden – Australia

Image copyright Aylwen Gardiner-Garden

Australia may still have been a penal colony when Jane Austen was writing her novels, but two centuries on, Austen fans Down Under get together each year to recreate Regency England in Canberra.

Aylwen Gardiner-Garden and her husband John have run the annual Jane Austen Festival for 10 years.

The event grew out of their love of Regency dancing and now more than 300 people come from all over Australia and New Zealand for promenades, grand balls, talks and dance workshops.

“Jane Austen is very popular in Australia – especially after the BBC series aired here in the 1990s – Colin Firth just did it for everyone. And it’s generational – there was another whole new set of fans after the Keira Knightley film,” she explained.

“I don’t think it’s harking back to the old country – it’s more the sense of romance and escaping from reality. It’s not the seedy side of England, like Dickens.

“At the festival, the women can dress up, feel feminine and elegant, and the guys are gentlemen. Teenagers grow up overnight on the dance floor – their manners are fantastic.

“It’s people coming together to learn about the costumes, the books, the dancing. It’s become part of people’s lives, so I keep doing it for the love of it.”

Debra Miller – USA

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Media captionUS Jane Austen performer Debra Miller

In Chicago, Deborah Miller performs her own one-woman show based on the books and letters of Austen.

She still remembers 10 September 2009 – the day she first read Austen’s biography and instantly “fell in love”. Within a year she had read all her novels and written the stage show she has been performing ever since.

“Her work is so well written – every time I read it I find something new – her concise use of language and its elegance is so beautiful,” she said.

In researching her show, Ms Miller visited the Smithsonian Institute to find the earliest audio recording of a Hampshire accent and listened over and over again to find the correct stage voice.

“I do have to slow it down a bit – they are not used to a Hampshire accent on the south side of Chicago.”

With more than 5,000 members of Jane Austen societies in the US and Canada, there is an eager audience for her shows.

“People have read the novels, but not the letters. People at the shows cry and say that I am Jane Austen.

“It’s the ease and geniality of the time, the romance and the reassurance – in the current political climate, a Jane Austen novel has integrity and truth.”

Adge Secker – Bath

Image copyright ECT Travel

Adge Secker is a full-time police officer in Bath who is also a tour guide for ECT Travel’s Strictly Jane Austen tours – one of the companies chasing the bonnet bucks – tapping into the market of Austen enthusiasts keen to learn more about their heroine.

He described his clients as “just mad crazy” about Austen with Americans in particular “absolutely nuts for her”.

“We take them to where she lived, where she danced, the places that inspired the stories and just immerse them in the history. I get people enthused and at the end tell them what they’ve done is walk in her footsteps.

“It’s just good fun to do – they love to soak up the history and the culture.”

Tour-goers get to visit places in the city where Jane Austen lived for five years from 1801. Locations include the Gravel Walk – where Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth were engaged in Persuasion – or visitors can have Regency experiences like tasting the spa water or attending a grand ball.

“Many Jane Austen experts come on the tours to see the places in her life. I’m like a sponge – always learning new stories. But you have to get your facts right, otherwise Jane Austen fans will find you out.”

Mara Barbuni – Italy

Image copyright Mara Barbuni

Austen’s work was first published in Italy in the 1930s, while films and dubbed BBC dramas have boosted her popularity in recent decades.

Venetian Mara Barbuni first saw Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility in 1995 and immediately borrowed the book from her local library.

Since then she has written extensively on the author – her most recent research project is into how houses and homes are represented in Austen’s novels.

In the course of her research, she has travelled to many of the “Austenland” sites – including Winchester, Bath and Lyme Regis.

Austen’s work is “really popular and much loved” in Italy, she explains.

“Many Italian readers of Jane Austen declare they love her settings, the old-fashioned but fashionable flair of her novels, and the love stories of her characters.”

More than 300 academics and devotees are in the Jane Austen Society of Italy which was founded in Bologna in 2013. It is holding a “Grand Tour” of conferences around Italian cities this year, based on each of Austen’s novels.

Nicole Kang and Margy Supramaniam – Singapore

Image copyright Nicole Kang/Margy Supramaniam

Nicole Kang and Margy Supramaniam are members of Singapore’s Jane Austen Circle, enthusiasts who regularly meet for balls, tea and dramatised readings in costume.

UK-born Mrs Supramaniam, who moved to Singapore in the 1980s, said: “I’m no seamstress but I do enjoy dressing bonnets to look authentic and finding Indian trimming to make dresses look Regency.

“I have also used saris for dresses, the muslin ones with borders are the best. In the late 18th and early 19th Century cloth was imported in large quantities from India as it was in great demand in England for clothes, so some of it works really well in achieving a period look.

“Many older Singaporeans, who had a fairly British-style colonial education, were brought up with Jane Austen but the younger generation are less familiar, and often their first introduction may have been watching a film adaptation. It is exciting to see Jane Austen’s popularity spread.

“The largest group of followers that we have are millennial Chinese Singaporeans who can somehow relate to Jane Austen across culture and centuries.”

One of those younger members, Nicole Kang (pictured above left, in the dress), gives Regency dance lessons in Singaporean schools.

“I first read Northanger Abbey when I was 15 years old as I had more or less finished reading most of the ‘teen’ books in my school library and I think I had fancied a bit of a challenge in my reading.

“I love Austen’s work because she writes about familiar subjects – not just about love – but she had such a keen insight into human nature that I believe that her characters still exist in real life today.”

Image copyright National Portrait Gallery London/PA Wire

Jane Austen

Born on 16 December 1775 in the Hampshire village of Steventon, where her father was the local clergyman

Began writing as a teenager and published Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Mansfield Park and Sense and Sensibility based on her observations of middle and upper-class Regency England

Lived in Bath from 1801 before moving to Southampton and then the Hampshire village of Chawton after her father died

Her books were published anonymously during her lifetime

Died in Winchester in 1817 at the age of 41 and was buried in the cathedral

Persuasion and Northanger Abbey were published posthumously and a final novel was left incomplete

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