Miss Austen Regrets Images

I am certainly no expert when it comes to creating screen captures, and many of these images are dark or blurry, but I believe they are unique. The sequence starts with the family picnic towards the end of the movie.

Cassandra draws Jane

We'd have made each other laugh.

Tell me now that you regret it.

What would have been the point?

We'd have been too poor.

You're poor anyway.

I would not have prevented you from writing

I simply went off the idea of marrying anybody

Sequence of Jane's last illness

Everything I have ever achieved I owe to you

Because of you I chose freedom



Fanny understands Aunt Jane is ill

Cassandra burns Jane's letters

Cassandra and Mrs. Austen at Fanny's wedding after Jane's death

Fanny, last scene

Posted by Ms. Place

Imogen Poots as Fanny Knight in Miss Austen Regrets

In a recent article in You magazine in the Daily Mail, actress Imogen Poots discuses her career and the part of Fanny Knight that she portrayed in the new biopic Miss Austen Regrets.


Unlike Jane Austen’s twenty-year old niece Fanny Knight, 18 year old British actress Imogen Poots has no illusions about love.

"I don't believe in Mr. Darcy. Men like him only exist in fiction."

Miss Poots is of course referring to Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, that proud hero of Pride and Prejudice who women have been swooning over for close to two-hundred years. One wonders if playing Fanny Knight, the young ingénue desperate to be in love had any affect on her personal outlook to make such a profound statement.

There may be some explanation to young Imogen’s Charlotte Lucas-like unromantic view of love. Could it be from experience?

"I'm too young," she says, laughing. "I've done what Fanny does – met someone, thought, 'Oh my God, I'm in love!' and had those intense times where nothing else matters."

Life imitating art? She and Fanny appear to have much in common. Did Fanny’s romantic escapades toughen Miss Poots’ resolve about love? Or does she understand the realities of Regency life applied to today’s world?

"It's something we take for granted today – that we can earn our own living and marry whom we like," Imogen says. "But it was a harsh world then because women were reliant on men for their status."

As viewers, movies may seem to romanticize the past. To Imogen, becoming a Regency Miss had its challenges.

"The corsets virtually cut off your breasts. I can't imagine how women ever lived in those clothes,"

Regardless of the restrictions of Regency dress, Miss Poots is quite convincing as the naïve Fanny who blames her failed romance with hesitant beau John Plumtre on her aunt Jane’s influence. Like Fanny who thinks that she has missed her only chance at love, with a little life experience behind her, Imogen may change her mind about the reality of Mr. Darcy.

Posted by Laurel Ann, Austenprose

What Did You Think of Miss Austen Regrets?

Be sure to cast your vote on our Miss Austen Regrets poll in the left hand column, and then check the latest results. So far, it looks like 33% of our readers really enjoyed the new biopic on Jane Austen's life.

Would you like your own copy of Miss Austen Regrets for your DVD library? If so, then you're in luck. It will be included as an additional feature with the new BBC mini-series Sense and Sensibilty DVD. Both productions are available together for pre-orders and will be released for sale on April 8th.


All of the adaptations in The Complete Jane Austen series that have previously aired on PBS are available for purchase at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and the PBS Shop online. Persuasion, Northanger Abbey and Mansfield Park can be purchased separately. Their is also a Collector's set of Persuasion, Sense and Sensibility and Miss Austen Regrets available for pre-order, and will also be released on April 8th.

It will be interesting to see if those good folks at PBS combine all the productions in The Complete Jane Austen as a Collector's set in the future. That would be the ultimate Austenpalooza weekend!

Posted by Laurel Ann, Austenprose

Miss Austen Regrets Reviews: Around the Blog-o-sphere

The reviews and comments for the biopic of Jane Austen's latter years, Miss Austen Regrets keep rolling in. Here are some well written reviews and comments for your enjoyment.

Austen Regrets Becoming Jane?, by Arti of Ripple Effects

Any Regrets?, by Mags of AustenBlog

Miss Austen Regrets, by Kaye Dacus of Write Place, Write Time

Regretful Jane, by Lori Smith of Following Austen

Miss Austen Regrets Review: Rumination or Caveat?, by Laurel Ann of Austenprose

Miss Austen Regrets: A Bit too Much for Me, by Ms. Place of Jane Austen's World

Posted by Laurel Ann, Austenprose

Tea at Chawton & Miss Austen Regrets

Imagine sitting in Jane Austen’s kitchen at Chawton, sipping tea and chatting with an elegantly turned out English gentleman! Tough work if you can get it. Writer Gretchen Kelly of Single Minded Women had that incredible privilege recently, and this blogger is pea green with envy.

Her travel to Jane Austen’s home in the village of Chawton found her discussing our favorite authoress' life and flirtations as a guest of the Curator.

"She basically never found anyone good enough for her," Tom Carpenter, Curator and Trustee of the Jane Austen House Museum at Chawton. But it wasn't for lack of trying," he adds mischievously, pointing to a stack of Xeroxed letters in a back office. "Those are all letters to and from her…well in those days they called them gentlemen callers, but you would say, "boyfriends," wouldn't you?"

It is quite interesting to have an inside view of Jane Austen’s home and her social life from such a venerable source as a precursor to tonight’s biopic on Jane Austen’s life, Miss Austen Regrets, presented by Masterpiece Classic on PBS at 9:00 pm. You can read the entire article here.

For Ms. Place's review of Miss Austen Regrets, go to Jane Austen's World. For Laurel Ann's review, go to Remotely Connected. We are most anxious to read your opinions, so be sure to leave your comments.

Posted by Laurel Ann, Austenprose

Olivia Williams, the New Jane Austen

Olivia Williams, the beautiful, brassy, and talented actress who plays Jane Austen in the last two years of her life in Miss Austen Regrets, is ranked quite high by AskMen.com Giving her a rank of 82, they evidently appreciate her classic beauty and brains. In many respects, Olivia is the perfect actress to play a 39-year-old Jane. Her face shines with intelligence, and her looks, though striking, have begun to show the fine lines of age, which is perfect for an actress asked to play a famous author towards the end of her life. In fact, I found Olivia's portrayal of Jane to be more true to my image of this vivacious and independent-minded author than Anne Hathaway's perky role in Becoming Jane.

Olivia has played in a movie adaptation of Jane Austen's novels before: as Jane Fairfax opposite Kate Beckinsale's Emma. She also played Bruce Willis' widow in The Sixth Sense and Kevin Costner's love interest in The Postman. The mother of two girls, Olivia began her acting career on the stage. She vowed to work until the age of 30 or until she hit it "big." She accomplished this when Kevin Costner hired her for his Apocalyptic movie. The role in this bomb did not end her career as an actress and she's worked steadily ever since.

• Biography and Filmograpy

• Go to Jane Austen's World for my review of Miss Austen Regrets on Jane Austen's World.

• Emma photo from Jim and Ellen Moody's blog.

Miss Austen Regrets Preview

The premiere of the new biopic on Jane Austen's later years, Miss Austen Regrets, is quickly approaching on Sunday, February 3rd. at 9:00 pm. Presented by Masterpiece Classic, it is a co-production of WGBH/BBC and is highly anticipated by many Janeites. The story line focuses on the last few years of Jane Austen's (Olivia Williams) life, as she advises her niece Fanny Knight (Imogen Poots) on courtship and marriage, and attempts to help her navigate her choice of the correct match.

After Last summers biopic Becoming Jane, and the controversy surrounding the producers promoting the story with tag lines like "Jane Austen's Love Story Was Her Own", I admit to being a bit gun shy of further biographies of Jane Austen's life story. From the PBS press release, it appears that the writer Gwyneth Hughes has closely based the story on Jane Austen's letters, and family memoirs. That's a relief. You can read further details on the production at my other blog, Austenprose.

Did you know that in addition to Becoming Jane, there are several documentaries available on Jane Austen's life and world? You may want to check out these DVD's and put them in your Netflicks que, or order them for your own library.

• Biography: Jane Austen , A&E Home Video (2006)
  
  
• Great Women Writers: Jane Austen, Kultur Video (2000)
  


• The Famous Authors Series: Jane Austen, Kultur Video (1996)
  


• Jane Austen's Life, Arts Magic (2005)
  


• Jane Austen's Society, Arts Magic (2005)
  


• Jane Austen's Work, Arts Magic (2005)
  


• Becoming Jane, Miramax (2007) pre-order (release February 12th 2008)

Posted by Laurel Ann, Austenprose

Seen on the Blogosphere

Becoming Jane Fansite features a lovely 2008 Jane Austen calendar you can download month by month.

OMG, Davied Wiegand of SFGate.com actually liked this version of Mansfield Park. His only quibble? Billie Piper as Fannie, and here I quote:

With her hair arranged in what must be an early 19th century version of "bed head," it's not just that Piper doesn't really look as if she belongs in the movie, she doesn't convey the sense of secret wisdom that informs Fanny and other Austen heroines. She seems like a street urchin most of the time, to be honest.

High resolution photos of Miss Austen Regrets are now available. Click here to download them or click here to download them at the PBS Press room.