So, I was also dreading Miss Austen Regrets, the most recent of the PBS series “The Complete Jane Austen.” I was afraid it would be simplistic and reductive, overemphasizing early flirtations and making overt connections between her life and the novels, like the recent movie Becoming Jane. However, it was nothing of the kind. By [...]
Archive for the ‘Literary Links’ Category
Life of Jane
Posted in Literary Links, movies on February 5, 2008 | 2 Comments »
MP – I liked it!
Posted in Literary Links, books, movies, tagged movies on February 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I was dreading this version of Mansfield Park (aired on “Masterpiece” on Sunday, January 27), but it was good. What a relief. I was thinking it was impossible to do a good job with MP because so many people (not me!) dislike Fanny Price. In Patricia Rozema’s 1999 version, she conflates Fanny’s character with that [...]
Andrew Davies does it again
Posted in Literary Links, movies, tagged movies on January 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Thankfully the new adaptation of Northanger Abbey was done by Andrew Davies who hits all the right notes. Admittedly, this book has not been adapted as much as the others, so there is nothing stellar to compare against, but he makes excellent use of Austen’s own dialogue (not every director is able to do this), adroitly showing the [...]
Persuasion – ouch!
Posted in Literary Links, movies, tagged movies on January 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I hated the new version of Persuasion, which aired on PBS last week as Masterpiece Theatre becomes “Masterpiece Classics” and an all-Jane Austen slate of programs is kicked off. Sally Hawkins is no Amanda Root, who played Anne in the 1995 movie version. She has a slumping, shuffling way of walking, gapes constantly like a fish out of water and [...]
Audio Austen
Posted in Audiobooks, Literary Links, books, tagged books on January 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
While on a roadtrip to Virginia (11 1/2 hours with minimal stops), I listened to an audio version of Sense and Sensibility, read by Nadia May (Blackstone Audiobooks; 2000). At first I thought her voice was too strident, but that impression evaporated almost immediately. She does a fine job with the different voices, crucial with [...]
Teaching Company Lectures
Posted in Literary Links, Teaching Company, The New Yorker, books, movies on October 31, 2007 | 2 Comments »
I’ve embarked on a new learning adventure – listening to courses on CD. The first one I am trying is called “Books that have Made History; Books that Can Change your Life,” taught by Professor J. Rufus Fears. So far, I really like it. The first lecture was about a German pastor named Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was [...]
A modern-day “Persuasion”
Posted in Literary Links, books on March 27, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Jane Austen in Sarasota by Paula Marantz Cohen has the plot of Persuasion, with Anne Eliot transformed into Anne Ehrlich, a high school guidance counselor at a wealthy Westchester school. Having just gone through the college search and selection process, I found it absolutely hilarious. She is witty and insightful about the parent/child tensions and [...]
