Zuzana's Challenge Log 2023

[Zuzana]

Jane Austen Yearly Challenge 2023
Duration : TBA
Category: Elizabeth Bennet: 35+ points, you have to use each of the categories at least once

Current Total = 0 points, 0/6 Categories



I. Original: 2 points per book

II. Sequels & Re-tellings: 1 point per book

III. Setting: 2 points per book pre 1900, 1 point per book 1900+, 1 point per movie, 2 points per TV series

IV. Plain Facts: 3 points per book, 1 point per documentary/lecture

V. Jane Austen's Library: books written before JA's death or by her contemporaries. 2 point per book, +1 bonus point for author or book mentioned by JA

VI. Adaptations: 1 point per movie or (radio) play, 2 points per TV series

VII. Jane Austen's Literary Successors: books written by a female author published in the Victorian era. 2 points per book




📚 books
🎧 audiobooks
🎬 movies
📺 TV shows
📻 radio plays, audio dramatizations
🎭 theatrical adaptations
💡 documentaries
👨‍🎓 lectures
👨‍🎓👨‍🎓 debates
🧑🏻‍🎤 podcasts

[Zuzana]

So far in 2023...

1/ I continue to listen to The thing about Austen podcasts as soon as they come out. Excellent as usual. ★★★★★


https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...

Some of my favorite 2023 episodes:
Episode 62: The Thing About Lucy's Filigree
Episode 61: The Thing About Speculation with guest Dr. Regulus Allen
Episode 59: The Thing About the Bath Assembly Rooms

2/ I am reading The World of Jane Austen by Nigel Nicolson (very slowly)


3/ Rewatched a bunch of YT vids:

John Mullan's Hay Festival lecture on Mansfield Park (I really really love it): https://youtu.be/vi3lQz7d-dU ★★★★★

Parts of Intelligence squared Jane Austen vs Emily Brontë: The Queens of English Literature Debate (again one of my favorites): https://youtu.be/mP8dllTkpEg ★★★★★

4/ Watched some new YT vids:

Several 2023 Febregency videos (TBRs, recs and summaries)- BookishPrincess and other YouTubers who hosted the challenge.

David Shapard's Book Review of John Mullan's What Matters in Jane Austen: https://youtu.be/e4b5OqD5Xns ★★★
"What Matters in Jane Austen: Twenty Crucial Puzzles Solved" by John Mullan is reviewed by David Shapard, author of "The Anotated Versions of Jane Austen's Novels". (5-23-2013)

5/ Watched

Pride & Prejudice: A Latter Day Comedy (2003). ★★

Imdb link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0366920/...
This was a dud. A Mormon take on P&P without addressing any issues in depth, e.g. the social pressure for Young Mormon women to marry as soon as possible (the younger the better) and to pump out babies. A silly teenage comedy with dull script and terrible amateurish acting (with the exception of Kam Heskin - she did what she could with the role of Elizabeth)
You can watch it on YT before it's taken down: https://youtu.be/ddgwpTjzJQQ

[Zuzana]

note to self:

check out Jane Austen tag on Literary Hub: other Jane Austen articles on Literary Hub: https://lithub.com/tag/jane-austen/

[Zuzana]

In preparation for my reread of Northanger Abbey:

I have started The Monk by Matthew Gregory Lewis. Mentioned by John Thorpe. Thematically fits well with the theme of Gothic fiction.


I also want to read The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe. I did order the book but it's been delayed.

[Zuzana]

Just finished watching Pride and Prejudice: A Musical by Paul Gordon. I was not really thrilled with the libretto. Maybe the modern language would fit better if they set it in more recent times.



If musical theatre is your thing you can watch it on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/sZC6-u13-dM

[Zuzana]

Finished Tea with Jane Austen by Kim Wilson

More in the Book of the Month thread.

[Zuzana]

Finished A Hazard of Hearts by Barbara Cartland

Well, this was so much fun. Don't get me wrong, it's a cliched trashy Regency romance and yet the plot is so bonkers that I couldn't help but like it. All of the genre cliches thrown into one book: a pure virginal yet spunky heroine, a mysterious hero with a dark secret, a crazy mother, gamblers, highwaymen, smugglers, abductions, balls, a gothic mansion with secret passages, laudanum addiction, fake deaths and the list goes on. Somehow the book was all the more enjoyable as a companion piece to my re-reading of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey. This is the kind of trash I imagine Catherine and Isabella would love to read.

I came across this book (and the author that was totally unfamiliar to me) thanks to the movie adaptation A Hazard of Hearts (1987) starring a very young Helena Bonham Carter, Diana Rigg, Christopher Plummer, Edward Fox and others. What a cast!



You can watch the movie on YouTube: https://youtu.be/etdrBKw3v1o

[Laurie B]

Ooh, with that cast, I will have to at least check out the film! I love how you approached rereading Northanger Abbey with these companion pieces. I need to do that at some point!

[Zuzana]

I hope you'll enjoy it, Laurie. Just be prepared for a totally bonkers plot. It's like 5 Regency romance novels put in one. :D

[Zuzana]

Finished The Monk. Crazy plot. Written by a young author (M. Lewis was only 19 when he finished it.) and it showed. Threw in everything and the kitchen sink. Unlike other books from that time period (1796) it is NOT boring. Read a fantastic Broadview critical edition - lots of interesting additional materials.

Listened to: Joanna Trollope and Fay Weldon discuss Jane Austen - books podcast https://www.theguardian.com/books/aud...
Joanna Trollope wrote Sense & Sensibility & Fay Weldon adapted Pride and Prejudice for the 1980 BBC series and wrote Letters to Alice: On First Reading Jane Austen.

What the Austen podcast has a great new episode discussing Frank Churchill. Loved it. https://youtu.be/S2kqI1Nrwgs

I am in the middle of Northanger Abbey and A Charming Place: Bath in the Life and Times of Jane Austen.

[Zuzana]

- Watched Pride and Prejudice: Lasting Impressions (2006 TV Documentary). A retrospective of the 1995 television series with the cast and crew about its success ten years later.
Quite interesting. Has lots of Sue Birtwistle (producer) and actors: Cristin Bonham-Carter (Mr Bingley), Lucy Briers (Mary), David Bamber (Mr Collins), Adrian Lukis (Mr Wickham), Benjamin Whitrow (Mr Bennet) and Alison Steadman (Mrs Bennet).
YT link: https://youtu.be/Iz7_Fc7h5LQ



- Watched The Making of Pride and Prejudice (BBC 1995) - a short documentary on making the miniseries. Unlike the above this was shot while they were making the series in 1995.
YT link: https://youtu.be/cn9EThh1xQw

- Watched a great fan-made documentary "Pride & Prejudice: A Novel, A Literary Analysis" by Mountains of Books YT channel. This is a lovely video companion to reading the novel.
YT link: https://youtu.be/ScR2gCJzS8o

- Watched another great video made by a fan/JA expert Why Do We Think Jane Austen Was Boring? Victorians Ruin Everything by LizCapism. "In this edition of "The Victorians Ruin Everything", we learn why we think of Jane Austen as a boring, mild-mannered authoress whose satire and wit was moderate and always on the proper side of things. We'll learn about the decades of purposeful misinformation and exclusion of details that led to the current image we have of the Jane Austen, and why it was done. Spoiler alert: It's her family's fault."
YT link: https://youtu.be/iDcnyu92VEQ

- Watched a stage adaptation of JA's Juvenilia short story Evelyn: https://youtu.be/fel-zBz8y8M

[Zuzana]

- Watched Nesmrtelní: Miluje Nemiluje (Original title: Lúbí Nelúbí). 2010 TV Movie.
It's a modern Slovak adaptation of Sense and Sensibility. Made for TV but the cast is excellent.
Three sisters, Elena, Mariana, and Meggi, are forced to move out of their father's house after his death. Their step-brother Honzo and his terrible Czech (lol) wife, Fany, inherited the house. Fany invites her brother, Edo, an architect, to oversee the house's remodeling. Elena is an elementary school teacher; she finds a job in a faraway Eastern Slovakian village. Mariana just graduated from an art school; she wants to be a musician. She's about 23-24 years old, without a job and not looking for one, stroppy because of the unwanted move to the country, and a selfish, self-centered brat determined to be a burden to her elder sister. Her mood changes after she meets young attractive Vilo, who takes care of his father's horses on a nearby farm.
The country setting works. By eliminating Mrs Dashwood, the plot fits the modern setting really well.
The runtime (75 minutes) is too short, and the screenwriters had to make extensive cuts. The story while streamlined was mostly left intact. Unfortunately, they cut most, if not all, of the humor and Austen's wit. What is left is a solid melodrama but a poor Austen adaptation.

Original summary: "Elena, Mariana a malá Margaréta sú sestry. Po smrti otca sa v dôsledku dedičského konania musia vysťahovať z domu v meste a prenechať ho svojmu nevlastnému bratovi a jeho nepríjemnej manželke. Presťahovanie sa na vidiek, zvykanie si na novú realitu, ale i riešenie prebúdzajúcich sa vzťahov zvláda každá zo sestier po svojom: kým Elena sa snaží pristupovať k životu pragmaticky a pokiaľ sa dá s rozumom, Mariana sa riadi viac emóciami a citom. Každá z nich však miluje a túži byť milovaná... (STV)"



[Mariana and Elena]


[Edo] ---------------[Mariana]


[Elena]


Cast:
Elena (Elinor): Stanislava Pazmányová
Mariana (Marianne): Katarína Šafaříková
Edo (Edward): Pavel Baťek
Boris (Brandon): Pavol Višňovský
Vilo (Willoughby): Roman Poláčik

IMDb link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9668342/
trailer: https://youtu.be/FB6t1tfIfeM

[Zuzana]

Finished reading
Black Sheep by Georgette Heyer and The World of Jane Austen by Nigel Nicolson.

Forgot to add here, that earlier this summer I read The Watsons from Lady Susan, The Watsons, Sanditon and JA's juvenilia in The Beautiful Cassandra



Watched
WHY DID MR WICKHAM ‘ELOPE’ WITH LYDIA BENNET? Jane Austen PRIDE AND PREJUDICE character analysis by Dr Octavia Butler: https://youtu.be/lrnzf8Ezmk0

[Zuzana]

Watched Pride & Prejudice 1995 | 15 years later| Documentary
https://youtu.be/5f2E0h2iLYM
I prefer this shorter documentary to Lasting Impressions. This has more Andrew Davies and other crew, which I find more interesting than some of the actors spilling beans about getting drunk before shooting.

Watched an interesting vid One of Jane Austen's Most Read Books? by Beatrice Scudeler aka Lady Disdain Reads: https://youtu.be/JDpwhimxHGY
The book mentioned in the title is A Companion to the Altar by William Vickers.


Finished A Charming Place: Bath in the Life and Times of Jane Austen by Maggie Lane

[Zuzana]

Watched BEFORE YOU READ PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by Tristan and the Classics. https://youtu.be/mB1WS-yN5v0
"Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is a particularly beloved classic book. It is also a remarkable work full of nuance and wittiness. Sometimes we can inadvertently miss a lot of the brilliance of classic books because, like all ages, we often consider a book from the dominant perspectives of our day.

In this video we will consider some elements of Pride and Prejudice that are well worth considering when reading the book for a first time or for a re-read. Pride and Prejudice challenges the reader to approach the book without their own prejudices or with a superior pride in our own viewpoints which we may not even be fully aware of."

Listened to a podcast episode on Devoney Loser's book The Making of Jane Austen (podcast First Impressions: Why All the Austen Haters Are Wrong)
The hosts discuss interesting information from the book.

[Zuzana]

Okay, so what did I read/watch September-December?

In October I watched

Northanger Abbey

&
Love and Friendship


Enjoyed both of them. Young Felicity Jones and Carey Mulligan were both delightful. And Kate Beckinsale has been a favorite of mine since Emma.

Interesting changes:
Northanger Abbey
Catherine's fantasies are based not on The Mysteries of Udolpho but rather on The Monk. And as a result they are much "spicier". But that Andrew Davies for you. The conflict between Catherine and Henry after he discovers Catherine's suspicions is exagerated in the movie. Would have liked to see more of General Tilney (Ser Davos).

Love and Friendship
Why muck with the title? Lady Susan would have been better. Kate Beckinsale is so charming that you're willing to forgive her her evil ways. (And that's the point.)

[Zuzana]

Watched several episodes of What the Austen? Podcast on You Tube. Interesting topics. Recommended but some episodes are way too long (due to fangirling).

[Laurie B]

I need to watch Love and Friendship at some point. I enjoyed Lady Susan much more than I thought I would! But it's Austen, so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised.

[Zuzana]

Laurie B wrote: "I need to watch Love and Friendship at some point. I enjoyed Lady Susan much more than I thought I would! But it's Austen, so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised."

It's quite stylized but fun. I enjoyed it and as I said earlier I like Kate Beckinsale. Hope you'll like it too, Laurie.

[Zuzana]

I forgot to mention that in October I also watched

Jane Austen in Manhattan (1980 Movie).



It's an odd movie. It deserves a review. I'll get back to it sooner or later.

Casting is fine. There's Anne Baxter, Robert Powell, and a very young Sean Young. It's just a strange concept. The film concerns competing theatrical productions in late 70s New York, of a recently discovered early Austen work (a torso of the play "Sir Charles Grandison"). You have a snobby youngish modernist director Robert Powell, whose troupe works more like a cult (his cult), and a traditionalist older actor/former mentor of aforementioned director/socialite Anne Baxter. There's a former love affair, a failed marriage, and (too) deep discussions of what consists art in there somehere next to Austen's juvenile incomplete play. We see actors replaying one scene from the play in different context and in different styles throughout the movie. In all this, Austen takes a back seat.



A better summary:
"Rival theatre groups compete to produce their own unique versions of Jane Austen's childhood play, "Sir Charles Grandison", in this delightful film by *Merchant Ivory Productions. George Midash (Michael Wager) buys the plays manuscript at Sotheby's for Pierre (Robert Powell "Jesus of Nazareth" 1977), the head of an avant-garde theatre cult/group. Another troupe, lead by Liliana Zorska (Anne Baxter), strives to produce its own version of the play.

In her first film role, Sean Young, (Ariadne) co-stars as a young actress being manipulated by Pierre to leave Victor (Kurt Johnson) and dedicate herself to join his financially strapped company. But when Liliana decides to match wits with Pierre and steal Ariadne for herself, events in real life mirror those occurring within the play. "

You can watch this scene from the movie on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/9E_L_-l9Nxc?si=C6nXi...