For Fellow Jane Austen Fans
H.E. told me about this a couple of days ago. PBS will be airing The Complete Jane Austen stories, one every Sunday through April, starting January 13.
Not only am I big fan of Jane Austen, I’m a big fan of Masterpiece Theater. I love the period pieces they play, like Tess of the D’Urbervilles (Thomas Hardy), Bleak House (Charles Dickens), and Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte). Some movies they produce themselves; others are produced by A&E or BBC.
When we moved and had to reprogram the new DVR to record our shows, we forgot to add Masterpiece Theater, so I can’t imagine what period movies I’ve missed all this time. But I am not going to miss the Jane Austen collection. I’ve already seen the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice—hell, I have the DVD set—but I’d watch it again. And while I’ve seen the Hollywood versions of Emma (I have the DVD for this one, too) and a part of Sense and Sensibility, I have not seen the versions to be played on Masterpiece Theater.
Is it so wrong for me to read and reread these books and watch all the different versions of the movies?
Damn it, Jane Austen. Write, for goodness sake! Write!
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6 thoughts on “For Fellow Jane Austen Fans”
Honey, Jane called the other day while you were out. I forgot to tell you. Something about “Do you know a good agent?” I hope you have the number in the UK. I think I lost it. It was on a tiny piece of paper here somewhere…
Hey, that’s my leg you’re trying to pull!
There was an article in the paper today about it. I guess they are showing Persuasion tonight. It’s only an hour and a half show. I may try to tape it and watch it later this week. I did enjoy the Pride and Prejudice movie from a couple years back that had Kiera Knightley in it.
Well … Persuasion is one of her lesser known novels, and the heroine (Anne Elliot) might seem a little meek compared to P&P’s Elizabeth Bennet, but I thought it was very well done! I like who they cast as Captain Wentworth.
So, I still haven’t gotten around to watching my tape of Persuasion but I did watch Northhanger Abbey this morning on tape (thank you MLK day!).
It was a cute story. I guess it was her first novel? Probably not quite as grand a story as some of her other work but still pretty good. The girl lead was adorable. I really liked her, very pretty too.
I did think they kind of dropped the storyline with the brother of her best friend who was trying to mislead her early on.
I also like movies where the character starts believing these impossible fantasies. I find that type of storyline in movies very honest.
Yeah, I loved their presentation of Northanger Abbey! I thought the casting was excellent. I knew from the book that the heroine was sweet and naive, but the actress they chose just made her absolutely adorable. 🙂
I don’t remember that anything happened to her brother after his engagement with the friend was broken off, so I wasn’t concerned about that part of the story not being addressed. He was saved from a potentially disastrous marriage, and that was all that seemed to matter to Austen.
Also, in the book, I didn’t get the notion that the friend was really so completely ruined by sleeping with Captain Tilney. I thought only her reputation was ruined, so this take in the presentation seemed a little extreme … but also somehow right. It made the engagement break a little more justified in our more modern point of view.
There were a few other tweaks, like in the argument between the hero and the heroine over her suspicions, as well as the reason Tilney’s mother died, but I actually think it made the story BETTER, which is odd because I usually like the original Austen story to be untouched.
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