Happy Birthday, Jane Austen!

Happy 235th Birthday, Jane Austen!

In celebration of December 16th, please visit the following sites:

• London Calling, in which Tony Grant offers his very own Jane Austen Birthday Post.
• Jane Austen em Portugues, in which Raquel Sallaberry discusses a letter Jane Austen wrote from Chawton on December 16, 1816. Translation device available.
• Jane Austen's World in which Vic celebrates Baby Jane Austen's First Two Years.
• Watch a five minute video: Jane Austen’s birthplace
• Adriana Zardini at Jane Austen Sociedad do Brasil
• Laurel Ann at Austenprose
• Katherine Cox at November’s Autumn
• Karen Wasylowski at her blog
• Laurie Viera Rigler at Jane Austen Addict Blog
• Lynn Shepherd at her blog
• Jane GS at Reading, Writing, Working, Playing
• Jane Odiwe at Jane Austen Sequels
• Alexa Adams at First Impressions
• Regina Jeffers at her blog
• Cindy Jones at First Draft
• Janet Mullany at Risky Regencies
• Meredith at Austenesque Reviews
• Maria Grazia at My Jane Austen Book Club

Leave comments on the blogs to win an assortment of fabulous prizes! Click here to see what they are!

Free Jane Austen eBooks in Honor of her Birthday on Thursday, Dec 16th

Update for those who had trouble getting free ebooks this morning! Sourcebooks apologizes for the mixup and inconvenience, and is extending the offer of free illustrated Jane Austen ebooks through Friday, December 17th! Click on this link to order the sequel ebooks. Unfortunately, the Jane Austen illustrated come with a charge of .99 each.


Thursday, December 16th is Jane Austen’s 235th birthday!

Sourcebooks, the world’s leading publisher of Jane Austen fiction, is offering a unique deal to readers who want to celebrate Jane by reading special editions of all six of Austen’s beloved novels in a 21st century format.

The free books come with Brock illustrations

Special e-book editions of Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion and Mansfield Park will be available for free for one day only. These celebratory editions include the full novels, plus the legendary color illustrations of the Brock brothers, originally created to accompany the books in 1898.

In addition to the Jane Austen classics, readers can also enjoy ten bestselling Austen-inspired novels for free on December 16th in honor of her birthday, including, Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife by Linda Berdoll, Mr. Darcy’s Diary by Amanda Grange and Mr. & Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy: Two Shall Become One by Sharon Lathan.

This is what blogger Tara Fly had to say about ordering the book:

I downloaded my copies for free this morning from http://BarnesandNoble.com and wasn’t charged any fees. :)

I followed the link provided by Laurel Ann on AustenProse in this blog post:

http://austenprose.com/2010/12/14/download-free-jane-austen-inspired-ebooks-on-her-birthday-december-16-2010/

B&N takes you through their standard check-out process, asking you to sign-in or register for an account (which includes providing a CC# and shipping address) … I already had an account with them, so I was asked to verify my information.

But when you reach the end of the “transaction”, the items on your bill are free.

I didn’t have an eReader for my PC, but B&N has free eReader downloads as well.

I’m so excited about this offer; it was really sweet of them. Cheers!

- Tara

Edward Morland's Unmistakable Smile

Whenever I see older movies with children I wonder if they continued their career as an actor, and if they are very different from that time, etc.

I know that not everyone appreciates the 1987 Northanger Abbey film version of Jane Austen's novel, but I find it amusing and I loved the boy who played Catherine's brother. They called him Edward, which is wrong, but never mind. I remember him smiling, looking a bit like a rodent, and yelling: "Cathy, Cathy!"

Well, I found the boy, I mean, the actor - Oliver Hembrough.

Now ... and then

His smile remains the same, does it not? Read more about him in this link: Oliver Hembrough, IMDb.
Links on Oliver Hembrough on Facebook.

Posted by Raquel Sallaberry, Jane Austen em Português

Silent Monday: Stylish Jane Austen Items

Just in time for the holidays, Longbourn's Laundry offers these Regency related items on Etsy.

Regency Writer Tee

Lady with Parasol bag

Jane Austen Duel

This week's post asks you to examine the weapon Willoughby would have preferred when Colonel Brandon challenged him to a duel. The practice was already out of favor when Jane Austen wrote Sense and Sensibility, and outlawed in England in 1840. Colonel Brandon was quite cryptic in his description of the event to Elinor:

Pistols being readied

... when he returned to town, which was within a fortnight after myself, we met by appointment, he to defend, I to punish his conduct. We returned unwounded, and the meeting, therefore, never got abroad."

Duels were fought in isolated areas at the break of dawn

And so we ask you, which weapons do you think Willoughby chose? Sword or pistol? Did he want closeness during the fight, or distance?

Which weapon did Willoughby choose to fight Colonel Brandon in a Duel?
	Sword
	Pistol
pollcode.com free polls

A Happy Jane Austen Birthday Event With Free Gifts! Coming December 16th

It wouldn't be fair to neglect someone as important and dear to us as Jane Austen on her birthday. She was born on 16th December 1775, it’ll be 235 years next week . We owe so many immensely pleasant moments to her that we decided she deserved a great B-day celebration. My Jane Austen Book Club and other bloggers and Austen dedicated writers are going to have a blog party in her honour. You are all invited to join us on our “HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JANE!” event next Thursday December 16th. Who will be there? Where is the party going on?

My other blog, Jane Austen's World, will be joining in on the celebration! As well as these other fine authors and bloggers:

• Adriana Zardini at Jane Austen Sociedad do Brasil 
• Laurel Ann at Austenprose
• Katherine Cox at November’s Autumn 
• Karen Wasylowski at her blog 
• Laurie Viera Rigler at Jane Austen Addict Blog 
• Lynn Shepherd at her blog 
• Jane GS at Reading, Writing, Working, Playing 
• Jane Odiwe at Jane Austen Sequels 
• Alexa Adams at First Impressions 
• Regina Jeffers at her blog 
• Cindy Jones at First Draft 
• Janet Mullany at Risky Regencies
• Meredith at Austenesque Reviews
• Maria Grazia at My Jane Austen Book Club 

You’ll find Happy Birthday posts and tributes to Jane Austen on all these blogs on December 16th with the HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JANE logo created by Adriana Zardini (JASBRA) just for the occasion. Lovely, isn’t it? Visit all the blogs on December 16th and leave your comments + e-mail address to have lots of chances to win one of the wonderful gifts we are giving away:


The books include - 1 signed copy of…

• Willoughby’s Return by Jane Odiwe
• Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler
• Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler
• Murder at Mansfield Park by Lynn Shepherd
• Intimations of Austen by Jane Greensmith
• Darcy's Passions: Fitzwilliam Darcy's Story by Regina Jeffers
• First Impressions. A Tale of Less Pride and Prejudice by Alexa Adams
• Jane and the Damned by Janet Mullany
• Bespelling Jane Austen by Janet Mullany

Other gifts:

• Austen bag offered by Karen Wasylowski
• DVD Pride & Prejudice 2005 offered by Regina Jeffers
• Package of Bingley's Tea. (flavor "Marianne's Wild Abandon" ) offered by Cindy Jones
• DVD Jane Austen in Manhattan offered by Maria Grazia
• 3 issues of Jane Austen Regency World offered by Maria Grazia

Giveaways will end on December 23rd . Winners will be announced by Maria Grazia, organizer of this celebration, on My Jane Austen Book Club.

Friday Follow: Amanda Vickery's Georgians

Gentle Readers, Mary Ellen Foley from the excellent blog, ME Foley's Anglo-American Experience, forwarded this PDF document of a Radio Times article on Amanda Vickery's BBC2 specials on Georgian houses. Tonight BBC2 aired the second of three installments, A Woman's Touch, which unfortunately was available only in the British Isles.

Click on image to read the article

Read my review of Episode One: At Home With the Georgians, A Man's Place on Jane Austen's World.

Snow at Chawton and Chawton Cottage

Gentle readers, Tony Grant from London Calling and contributor to this blog and Jane Austen's World shot these beautiful images during last week's snow in England. We see so many pictures of Chawton and Chawton Cottage in spring and summer with tourists all around. One can hear the silence in this waning light. Just lovely.

Village street (with Chawton Cottage at left). Image @Tony Grant

Chawton Cottage side door. Image @Tony Grant

Chawton Cottage sign. Image @Tony Grant

Across the fields. Image @Tony Grant

Chawton grounds in snow. Image @Tony Grant

Chawton fields with Chawton House in the distance. Image @Tony Grant

Chawton House grounds. Image @Tony Grant

To Chawton House. Image @Tony Grant

Chawton House in golden light. Image @Tony Grant

Read more:

• Jane Austen's House Museum
• Chawton House Library
• Chawton House on Twitter
• Reading, writing and Emma, by Dr. Gillian Dow of the Chawton House Library

A Husband's Funny Take on Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy

I adore Scott Herhold, although I have never met him. But a man with a sense of humor and fifteen years of  patient tolerance towards his wife's crush on Colin Firth must be adored and cherished. According to Scott:

"My wife can cue to exactly the point on our DVD where Mr. Darcy, beset by his love for Elizabeth, dunks himself at Pemberley.

The repetition of this scene has injected continuing life into the Colin Firth iconography in my household."

Scott even knows which sequels and prequels are in his wife's library:

"We've got the whole oeuvre of Darcy books: "The Second Mrs. Darcy" and the "Darcy Connection," both by Elizabeth Aston, and "Mr. Darcy's Diary," by Amanda Grange."

And he recalls with evident humor the time she went to the Santa Barbara Film Festival expressly to see Colin:

On the red carpet

In our case, Colin-mania has gone further yet. My wife, her sister and a friend went to the Santa Barbara Film Festival last spring to meet the British god himself.

Prevailing on her contacts at a party rental service that was contributing to the reception, my wife wheedled an invitation to a private meet-and-greet with Firth.

And yes, he was everything he was advertised to be -- tall, thin, handsome, impossibly charming and willing to pose for pictures.

Click on Colin, go jump in the lake. Wait, don't! to read Scott's charming, tongue in cheek homage to his wife's continuing crush on Colin Firth.

Google's eBook Store and Jane Austen

Google has launched its ebookstore on Dec 6th, and it comes with free books on the "shelf".

Must I say which is the first?

Posted by Raquel Sallaberry, Jane Austen em Português

Silent Monday: Jane Austen and Anna Chancellor

Cassandra's portrait of Jane Austen

Today's Silent Monday is not so silent:

Anna Chancellor, the actress who portrayed Caroline Bingley in 1995's Pride and Prejudice is related to Jane Austen. (Jane is 8 times her great aunt through Jane's brother, Edward.)  I was particularly struck by the family resemblance when these icons appeared side by side below a previous post. Both women are described as being tall and slender and having high cheekbones and striking eyes. Viewing Frances Austen's portrait below (he is Jane's brother), one sees the similarity of eyes, mouth, and chin.

Jane Austen Character Throwdown

Three characters in Jane Austen's novels are seventeen when their stories begin: Marianne Dashwood, Kitty Bennet, and Catherine Morland. In your estimation, which of the three girls will grow into the sort of mature woman you would like to befriend?

Kitty Bennet, at age 17, follows her younger sister, Lydia, who at 15 is flighty and silly and dangerously reckless. After Lydia runs off with Wickham, forcing a shotgun marriage, the Bennets oversee Kitty's upbringing more closely. After Jane and Elizabeth marry, they teach Kitty better social graces and provide a world for her outside of Meryton.She eventually settles down and demonstrates a modicum of common sense.

Catherine Morland prefers to roll down hillsides rather than pursue the ladylike activities of sewing, learning foreign languages, painting, or reading anything more strenuous than novels! Henry Tilney is charmed by her artless ignorance and enthusiastic preference for his company. Young as Catherine is, she is no dummy, seeing through General Tilney and John Thorpe. After the general banishes her from Northanger Abbey, she demonstrates a great deal of courage, integrity, and maturity.

Marianne Dashwood's uber romantic sensibilities blind her to Colonel Brandon's superior qualities and Willoughby's less than sterling ones. She not only survive love's disappointment but she slowly comes to the realization that her own behavior led her down the wrong path of romance. After her illness, she begins to open up to Colonel Brandon, and allows herself to fall in love with someone she has learned to esteem.

Which of these 17-year-old Jane Austen heroines will grow into the sort of woman you would like to befriend?
	Kitty Bennet, Pride and Prejudice
	Catherine Morland, Northanger Abbey
	Marianne Dashwood, Sense and Sensibility
pollcode.com free polls

Another Fabulous Regency Era Gift for Your Consideration

John Rose Coalport Old English Trio Pattern, c. 1825

I drool. I sigh. These rose and green colors echo those in my dining room and living room. I MUST have this wonderful china. Then again, can my humble budge afford the $325 USD of this trio? I fear not. Plus I would not dare to use this china in fear of damaging the delicate edges.

If money were no object, I would click on the Ruby Lane antiques site, which offers these beautiful items for sale, and order the lot.

Friday Follow: Costume Chronicles

The latest edition of Costume Chronicles is out. Click on this link to download the PDF document.

In this issue: The Modernization of Jane Austen, Persuasion, Bride and Prejudice, Dashwood Sisters, First Impressions, and many more!

A Lady Reading, Marguerite Gerard, 1795-1800

Gentle Readers, I have been without internet service for 30 hours, which is the reason for no posting early this Thursday. To assuage your desire for all things Regency, please enjoy this image of A Lady Reading by Marguerite Gerard, 1795-1800. Read more about this remarkable painter in Versailles and More.

Jane Eyre 2011 Trailer

Jane Eyre 2011

Read more about the film at Oh, No, They Didn't!

Read more about the production at this link, courtesy of Enchanted Serenity of Period Films.

Michael Fassbender as Mr. Rochester

Mia Wasikowska as Jane Eyre