Let’s talk about talking. Not just any kind of talking but talking in Jane Austen’s novels to be precise. There are numerous ways authors use dialogue. The most obvious way is to drive the plot forward. Darcy’s overheard insult to Elizabeth at the Assembly Ball in Pride and Prejudice is an easy example of this.… more goodness …
In reviewing Pride & Prejudice, one thing stands out to me. Why wasn’t Elizabeth Bennet referred to, or thought of, as a bluestocking? She was, after all, an educated woman, although her education was a result of her own thirst for knowledge, and not because of any schooling, which would have been, in accordance with… more goodness …
While watching a video clip from The Devil Wears Prada the other day, I was struck with how powerfully the clothing of the characters provides visual insights into both the nature of the people and the internal arc of the protagonist, Andy. Having studied so many Austen adaptations over the past few years, I began… more goodness …
Spring has sprung here in Kentucky, even with the rain intermittently falling, so between the inevitable yard work and need to be active in the fresh, warming air, I have been busy and therefore find myself in a frivolous mood. Hence today’s blog being a series of trifles with nothing heavy or earth-shattering. And sorry… more goodness …
If you’re a regular reader of the Austen Authors blog, you know that for the past couple of years my posts have been primarily dedicated to Austen adaptations. I create a matched set for each title. I start with a “goofs” post, and four weeks later, the “trivia challenge” post on the same production. A… more goodness …
Some might say that the topic for this post is too soon. It hasn’t even been a year since Emma temporarily made it to the big screen. Its theatrical debut was cut short in the United States after seven days when theaters closed in the wake of the COVID-19 national emergency. It opened in February… more goodness …
Jane Austen celebrated Christmas, but much of what I say in this post could apply to other faith traditions, so if that applies to you, please interpret through the lens that suits you. 2020 has, by all accounts, been a strange year on a global scale. Here we are at the end of it, in… more goodness …
Austen’s pen was a fountain of wisdom full of insights on behavior told in her particular brand of satirical wit. Each tale includes cautionary revelations on character flaws and features the types of mistakes we humans make in the course of navigating life, love, and relationships. Today we’re going to extract twelve rules – a… more goodness …
If you can get past the oddities of this adaptation, there are plenty of fun and fascinating scenes and facts to enjoy. Jane Austen clearly enjoyed satirizing, nay, skewering, the Gothic fads of her day in Northanger Abbey, so perhaps it’s understandable that the screenwriter, Maggie Wadey, took the liberty of upping the Gothic ante… more goodness …
If you were alive in 1983, you probably recognize that other than being filmed on video, it seems that there is no trace of 1983 in this Austen Adaptation, something that can’t be said of many other adaptations of similar vintage. Reviews of Mansfield Park (1983) take note of both it’s historical accuracy and faithfulness… more goodness …
Mansfield Park is easily the most challenging of Austen’s novels to adapt to the screen. The character arc of the quiet and reserved protagonist, Fanny Price, is nuanced and internal. She already owns an “infallible moral compass,” and it is the revelatory arcs of the people around her that give the plot its momentum. It… more goodness …
Do you have your proposal ready? It is Leap Year, and according to tradition, a woman can ask the man to marry her. But from where does this legend come? According to the Huffington Post, “Legend has it that St. Brigid of Kildare, a fifth-century Irish nun, asked St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, to grant permission… more goodness …
Nearly fifty years have passed since this Austen adaptation of Persuasion debuted on the small screen. Filmed at a time when ITV drama productions were low-budget affairs, studio sets are obviously used for the interior scenes. The acting feels awkwardly similar a theatrical production, which is hardly surprising since most of the British actors of… more goodness …
