Six Degrees of Separation: Pride and Prejudice

This month’s book is: Pride and Prejudice!! It’s Jane Austen’s 200th birthday this summer so why not feature her? She’s on a new bank note in the UK–move over Your Majesty, it’s “Queen” Jane now…..

Source (click to see source)

 

Plus, this month I went to my first-ever Jane Austen Festival at Locust Grove in Louisville, Kentucky, Yes, the city with the Kentucky Derby. That’s right. I attended a fascinating talk on “Dressing Mr. Darcy,” and no, Colin Firth didn’t emerge from the pond. A very nice young reenactor did a great job explaining a gentleman’s clothing in the Darcy’s Day.  The other wonderful talk I heard was the “Eulogy That Jane Austen Should Have Had.” That one was excellent. You can read more about the festival here on its website. And, how cool that a friend’s daughter was one of the reenactors!

But enough about me. On to the Six Degrees of Separation!

 

 

The Chain of Books

 

 

 

 

 

 

This month’s chain lacks any spark of originality! I have to here confess that I prefer WATCHING Jane Austen to reading her. I’ve read Pride and Prejudice, listened to Emma, Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey and watched various  BBC/PBS Masterpiece versions over the years.

But I also love to poke fun at a stuffiness and there’s a lot of that surrounding poor Jane Austen! So, I picked some fun titles like Austenland (both the book and the movie) and P & P Zombies (I haven’t read it, but its the only publication with the word “zombie” that I’d consider reading so it’s included). There’s a new series of re-tellings out as well. I’ve read two–Sense and Sensibility and Emma (to read my reviews click on the titles). Neither did much for me, so I’m not planning on reading Eligible which is the P & P retelling. You could really just lump all the fun ones together, right?  Afert all Texts From Jane Eyre really only contains a few fun texts from P & P characters.

The idea of Jane as radical is a great one so I’ve included that biography.

I love fictional diaries and have been meaning to read Mr. Darcy’s Diary for some time. I had to include it. I did. I had to.

 

Now the Extras: My Favorite Jane-ish Movies

 

 

 

 

 

I’d own all three of these if I could spare the few bucks each. Austenland is so fun! I’d so want to do a vacation like that if it was the Edwardian Era, but of course, I, too, would get the Crappy Copper Package! The other two are lovely. Hugh Bonneville is so sweet in Miss Austen Regrets and everything about Becoming Jane is great.

Need more Austen in August?

 

Here’s One post that caught my eye:

 

The Many Sides of Jane Austen at Booker talk.

 

And now for the essential question:

My Favorite Austen Guy?

 

 

Colonel Brandon

 

You can read all of this month’s chains of Six Degrees of Separation