Margaret C. Sullivan's Blog, page 5

Jane on Jeopardy

This article popped up in our Google Alerts and made us quite cross, for several reasons. Jerry Slowik came in third place Thursday on “Jeopardy!”, but the 28-year-old from Arlington Heights still took home more than $122,000 from his five wins on the television game show. Thursday’s show was rough for a number of reasons, […]

Around the Web

Many of you no doubt have already seen these posts, but we found them interesting and wanted to share! Deborah Yaffe sent us this article and begged us to turn the Cluebat upon it; we planned to oblige, but with one thing and another, never got to it; and then Deborah did it herself, so […]

In which Jane Austen converses with the King under the Mountain

Thorin Oakenshield: Miss Austen? Jane Austen: Yes, your majesty? Thorin: You could just call me Thorin, you know, and I’ll call you Jane. Jane: You shall call me Miss Austen, your majesty. Thorin: *mutters* deep cleansing breath…be cool, Oakenshield, be cool… Jane: I beg your pardon? Thorin: Nothing, madam. Only that I thought, since we […]

Some videos for your Christmas entertainment

First, a preview of yet another version of P&P1995–this time, a Blu-ray edition with extras. Sadly, can’t embed it, apparently, but you can pop over to the Entertainment Weekly site to watch. In addition to the classic story, the new version will include extras such as a featurette celebrating the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen’s […]

Happy Birthday, Jane Austen!

I’m a little late in the day with my remembrances, but they are nonetheless heartfelt. For these birthday posts, I usually post a quotation that has directly to do with Jane herself. This year, I had a hard time thinking of something that felt satisfactory. I’ve long felt (and perhaps this is projection) that Jane, […]

Quotable

“You’ll be fascinated to learn (from me that hates novels) that I finally got round to Jane Austen and went out of my mind over Pride & Prejudice which I can’t bring myself to bring back to the library till you find me a copy of my own.” – Letter from Helene Hanff to Frank […]

Death Comes to Pemberley Trailer

Our reaction after the jump: Thanks to Alert Janeite Lisa for the link.

Quotable

“The process by which academic critics deprecate Austenian admirers outside the academy is very similar to the way…trekkies, fans, and mass media enthusiasts are derided and marginalized by dominant cultural institutions bent on legitimizing their own objects and protocols of expertise.” – Claudia L. Johnson, “Austen cults and cultures,” The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen

Countenance

Once again the Janeite world (and the Muggle press that insists on blowing these things all out of proportion) are creating a controversy out of nothing over images of Jane Austen. Sotheby’s is auctioning a fake portrait of Jane Austen next month. As fake portraits go, this one is probably slightly less fake than some […]

REVIEW: Sense and Sensibility (2013 Rewrite) by Joanna Trollope

Early in Joanna Trollope’s modern-set rewrite of Sense and Sensibility, Fanny Dashwood sweeps into Norland, which she is going to run as a commercial concern (a B&B), and tosses out the rumpled, genteel, shabby-chic furnishings, replacing them with shiny sleek modern decor. And they say irony is dead. When we first heard about what Harper […]