Jennifer Petkus's Blog, page 16

The Muppets Pride and Prejudice #MuppetsPandP

I don’t often go off tilting at windmills. I’m more content to grumble and savor my disappointments like fine wine and friends still have to endure my moaning about J.J. Abrams ruining Star Trek, or why the powers that be can’t find a way to put Stargate back on TV. But I’ve limited my real [...]

The Muppets Pride and Prejudice #MuppetsP&P

I don’t often go off tilting at windmills. I’m more content to grumble and savor my disappointments like fine wine and friends still have to endure my moaning about J.J. Abrams ruining Star Trek, or why the powers that be can’t find a way to put Stargate back on TV. But I’ve limited my real [...]

Are the stories Watson wrote the ones we read?

Think about it for a second. In The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton, we read of Sherlock Holmes and his biographer Dr. John H. Watson breaking into the home of the master blackmailer, witnessing his murder, allowing the murderer escape and then their own near capture by the police. At the end of the story, [...]

Review of Charlotte — Pride and Prejudice Continues

It shows a great deal of charity to think kindly on the odious Mr. Collins of Pride and Prejudice. Sure, we all feel for Charlotte Collins née Lucas, who, knowing that her marital prospects are not good, accepts his offer of marriage. As Charlotte confessed to Elizabeth Bennet: “I ask only a comfortable home; and [...]

The Jane Austen Society Midlands: Autumn Tour to Worthing 7th – 9th October 2011

Here’s Christopher Sandrawich’s account of his tour in Worthing with the Midlands chapter of the Jane Austen Society. He learned of the “Library Passage” on this tour. Friday 7th October Keele University – Lichfield – Corley Services (M6) – Worthing – and a late Dinner Worthing, West Sussex (by the sea) whose motto is, “Ex [...]

Footnotes for My Particular Friend

If you’re reading the paperback version of My Particular Friend, you can’t just click on the # sign to go to the relevant footnote, so I present them here on one page, divided amongst the various chapters and affairs. These are a work in progress, so please feel free to comment if you find mistakes, [...]

Review of The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Titanic Tragedy

I have to admit I had low hopes for putting Sherlock Holmes and John H. Watson on the Titanic, but The Titanic Tragedy surprised me and I don’t think I was unduly influenced by the hoopla surrounding the 100th anniversary of the sinking … but it helped. William Seil’s novel was first published in 1996 [...]

Sherlock Holmes, the Brontës, the Austen portrait on Stuff You Missed in History Class

I am a fan of Stuff You Missed in History Class at HowStuffWorks.com and often listen to it while cleaning the house or on long car trips and there are two Holmes-related podcasts that should be of interest to Sherlockians. (NOTE: The link in the above paragraph says the page has a improper identity certificate [...]

Claude glass, Instructables and the Picturesque movement

I don’t normally expect to find Jane Austen related things when I visit instructables.com, where garage inventors exchange plans for homemade bio gas digesters or closed cycle airponics vegetable gardens/koi ponds. So imagine my surprise when I found this instructable for making a Claude glass (or black mirror). Many of you are probably unfamiliar with [...]

Christopher Sandrawich explains the importance of the Library Passage

Campaign to prevent the proposed closure of a right-of-way in Worthing, Sussex, England known as “Library Passage” which was in all probability used by Jane Austen and her family in 1805, and is therefore of historical and international literary interest. EDITOR’S NOTE: I’ll post the tour of Worthing article Chris mentions later; it’s quite informative [...]