RUDE AWAKENINGS out in paperback April 27

Don't you love the new cover?

CONFESSIONS is now in paperback in the UK

AND it got reviewed in The Independent.  Bloomsbury, you rock!

What You Don't Know Can Help You

Check out my guest post on the wonderful blog, Journeys in Ink, where I talk about how to use what you don't know to go from the state of being blocked to the state of flow.

NORTHANGER ABBEY, Twitter Version, Chapters 13-14

When last we left Catherine, she was "one of the happiest creatures in the world," having assured Henry Tilney that nothing less than being abducted by the evil John Thorpe could have prevented her from keeping her engagement of going for a country walk with Henry and his sister Eleanor.

 

[JJ Feild and Felicity Jones in the 2007 film adaptation of Jane Austen's NORTHANGER ABBEY]

CHAPTER 13: 

James & the Thorpes try to guilt Catherine into another excursion, but she refuses: She's made plans with Eleanor.

James calls Catherine unkind and obstinate. " If I am wrong," she says, "I am doing what I believe to be right."

"I suspect," says Isabella, "there is no great struggle." Ouch. Poor Catherine.

It gets worse: Thorpe announces he has cancelled Catherine's plans with Eleanor. WTF? Off Catherine goes to set things straight.

Her parting words: "If I could not be persuaded into doing what I thought wrong, I never will be tricked into it."

Bypassing the Tilneys' servant, Catherine rushes into their drawing room and breathlessly explains what happened.

All is forgiven; she even meets Henry's father, General Tilney, who walks her to the door & admires "the elasticity of her walk."

"Catherine…proceeded gaily" home, "walking, as she concluded, with great elasticity, though she had never thought of it before."

CHAPTER 14:

Walking next day w/Tilneys, Catherine talks of her love for gothic novels. "But you never read novels…?" she asks Henry.

Henry: "Why not?" Catherine: "Because they are not clever enough for you -- gentlemen read better books."

Henry: "The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid."

Catherine: "But I really thought before, young men despised novels amazingly."

Henry: "…it may well suggest amazement if they do -- for they read nearly as many as women."

Catherine: "Do not you think Udolpho the nicest book in the world?"

Henry: "The nicest; --by which I suppose you mean the neatest. That must depend upon the binding."

"Henry," said Miss Tilney, "you are very impertinent. Miss Morland, …The word `nicest,' as you used it, did not suit him…"

"I am sure," cried Catherine, "I did not mean to say any thing wrong; but it is a nice book, and why should not I call it so?"

"Very true," said Henry, "and this is a very nice day, and we are taking a very nice walk, and you are two very nice young ladies."

Henry: "Oh! it is a very nice word indeed! -- It does for every thing…every commendation on every subject is comprised in that one word."

"While, in fact," cried his sister, "it ought only to be applied to you, without any commendation at all."

"Come, Miss Morland, let us leave him to meditate over our faults…, while we praise Udolpho in whatever terms we like best."

Talk turns 2 history. Cath: "I read it a little as a duty, but it tells me nothing that does not either vex or weary me."

"The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars or pestilences, in every page…"

"...the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all -- it is very tiresome…"

"…yet I often think it odd that it should be so dull, for a great deal of it must be invention."

And as for historians: "to be at so much trouble in filling great volumes, which...nobody would willingly ever look into…"

"...to be labouring only for the torment of little boys and girls, always struck me as a hard fate…"

Henry disagrees, for historians "are perfectly well qualified to torment readers of the most advanced reason and mature time of life."

The Tilneys began talking about drawing, and "Here Catherine was quite lost. She knew nothing of drawing."

"She was heartily ashamed of her ignorance. A misplaced shame. Where people wish to attach, they should always be ignorant."

"To come with a well-informed mind is to come with an inability of administering to the vanity of others."

And "an inability of administering to the vanity of others" is something "which a sensible person would always wish to avoid."

"A woman especially, if she have the misfortune of knowing any thing, should conceal it as well as she can."

"To the larger and more trifling part of the [male] sex, imbecility in females is a great enhancement of their personal charms…"

However, "there is a portion of [men] too reasonable and too well informed themselves to desire anything more in woman than ignorance."

"But Catherine did not know her own advantages."

For "a good-looking girl, with an affectionate heart and a very ignorant mind, cannot fail of attracting a clever young man."

A lecture on drawing follows. From there, Henry segues to politics. And "From politics, it was an easy step to silence."

Then Catherine offers this comment on current affairs. "I have heard that something very shocking indeed will soon come out in London."

Eleanor is alarmed; Henry amused. Says Catherine: "I shall expect murder and everything of the kind."

Eleanor says that the government will of course take matters in hand. Henry, "endeavoring not to smile," disagrees.

"Government…neither desires nor dares to interfere in such matters. There must be murder; and government cares not how much."

"The ladies stared. He laughed… 'Come, shall I make you understand each other, or leave you to puzzle out an explanation as you can?'"

Henry: "Miss Morland has been talking of nothing more dreadful than a new publication," i.e., a gothic horror novel.

Henry: "Miss Morland -- my stupid sister has mistaken all your clearest expressions…but she is by no means a simpleton in general."

Eleanor warns that Catherine will think Henry "intolerably rude" 2 his sister "and a great brute in [his] opinion of women in general."

Eleanor: "Miss Morland is not used to your odd ways." Henry: "I shall be most happy to make her better acquainted with them."

Henry: "Miss Morland, no one can think more highly of the understanding of women than I do."

Henry: "In my opinion, nature has given [women] so much that they never find it necessary to use more than half."

Eleanor: "We shall get nothing more serious from him now, Miss Morland. He is not in a sober mood."

Eleanor: "But I do assure you that he must be entirely misunderstood, if he can ever appear to say an unjust thing of any woman at all."

Eleanor needn't have worried, for "it was no effort to Catherine to believe that Henry Tilney could never be wrong."  

[This Twitter presentation of NORTHANGER ABBEY is brought to you by The Upper Rooms, where there is always a bit of a crush.]

Valentine's Day Sucks, but Northanger Abbey Doesn't.

Which is why I'm spending my Valentine's night watching JJ Field, Felicity Jones, Carrie Mulligan (she of the Oscar nomination for AN EDUCATION), and the rest of the brilliant cast of NORTHANGER ABBEY , which airs on PBS Masterpiece Classic tonight.

Don't get me wrong. I'm a romantic who is happily in love with my wonderful husband. But let's face it, Valentine's Day is a holiday designed to make single people feel bad about themselves (and I spent many years in the state of singledom) and people in relationships disappointed in one another.

Sure, I loved Valentine's Day as a child, because it meant cute little cards and candies for everyone in class. But once childhood is over, we enter the stage of adult expectations. And expectations always mean disappointment.

You know, the kind of disappointment where you told yourself your loved one was going to buy you expensive flowers at the florist's instead of supermarket flowers. Or dinner at that restaurant you told him about instead of bringing home burgers from the diner down the street. Or a piece of jewelry instead of something with an electrical cord.

See what I mean? Suddenly love is measured in dollars and cents and units of thoughtfulness and degrees of mind-reading and catering to neediness. Is that anywhere a thinking/feeling/loving person wants to be? Not to mention the fact that if you don't have a special someone to put to the test of true love every February 14, you feel even worse. Which is why I swore off Valentine's Day long ago. And I haven't had a glimmer of one of those disappointing V-Days ever since.

Which is why I'm celebrating love with the perfect antidote to the Valentine's Day blues: It's called NORTHANGER ABBEY, and it's a lovely adaptation of Jane Austen's delightful, witty, and very romantic coming-of-age story. NORTHANGER ABBEY airs tonight on PBS Masterpiece Classic. Check your local listings, settle in with something and/or someone yummy, and treat yourself to a date with Henry Tilney. If you don't know who he is, you soon will.

And if you really want to have fun, join the NORTHANGER ABBEY Twitter party and tweet away with other Austen fans during the broadcast. We had so much fun tweeting during the EMMA broadcasts the past three weeks that we can't resist doing the same for NORTHANGER ABBEY. We'll be using the same hashtag: #emma_pbs .

See you at the Abbey. And on Twitter. And don't forget to be really good to yourself and read the book!

Fiction to Film Interview

Please check out Fiction to Film's interview with me, where I answer reader questions and provide advice for authors seeking a publisher, discuss my love of Jane Austen, the idea of bringing my Austen Addict novels to the screen, and much more.

EMMA on PBS Masterpiece Classic

Are you as excited as I am about the new EMMA miniseries on PBS Masterpiece Classic?

If so, please read my post on PBS's Remotely Connected blog, and let me know your thoughts!

Victoire Sanborn of Jane Austen's World and Jane Austen Today has also posted about EMMA.

How about watching EMMA as a communal experience with fellow Austen fans? If you've got a Twitter account, join the live Twitter party during Sunday's broadcast, 9-11 Eastern AND 9-11 Pacific time.

Along with PBS and Masterpiece, Jane Austen's World and Austenprose are co-hosting the East Coast Twitter party. I'll be co-hosting the West Coast Twitter party with Kali Pappas, a fellow Austen blogger.

To join, sign up with TweetGrid or your own Twitter aggregator, and use the hashtag #emma_pbs. And you don't have to wait for Sunday to start tweeting about EMMA.

See you in Highbury! (And don't forget to take the quiz!)

A Marvel Idea: PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, Graphic Novel

When Paula Dacker, a librarian friend (whom I wrote about here in a previous post), gave the Marvel PRIDE AND PREJUDICE graphic novel the thumbs-up, I knew I had to get a copy. And it did not disappoint. From the girlie-magazine-like cover with headlines like "Bingleys Bring Bling to Britain" and "How to Cure Your Boy-Crazy Sisters" to the scrumptious illustrations by Hugo Petrus, it was a blast. Adapter Nancy Butler did a fine job of retaining the sense and integrity of Austen's inimitable prose while at the same time condensing and compressing the action to fit within the graphic novel form.

         
The bottom line? PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, Marvel version, is a fine and fun way to introduce new readers to Austen, a gateway to the full book that will crack the code of Austen's language for contemporary readers who can't quite penetrate the style--or fear that they can't.

And for those of us who feel at home with Austen's texts in their pure form, this Marvel version is nevertheless pure fun. Some may ask--if they haven't already objected to the inherently abbreviated form of a graphic novel--why another PRIDE AND PREJUDICE? Do  we really need another movie, another play, a Broadway musical (fingers crossed), and now a graphic novel?

To which I reply, Can there ever be enough ways and forms to say "I love Jane Austen"?

 

 

A magical new year to you all!

Many delightful surprises on the very first day of 2010:

Two of my favorite book bloggers included RUDE AWAKENINGS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT in their best-of lists for 2009.

Historical-Fiction.com named RUDE AWAKENINGS "MOST ENTERTAINING" of 2009:

AND Peeking Between the Pages included it in its 10 Favorite Books of the year.

Apart from that, there were giant bulldogs, fairies on horseback, origami creatures, and all manner of wondrous beings roaming the streets of my town. In others words, the Rose Parade! Well worth dragging myself out of bed at the crack of dawn to see.

   

May the new year bring you much happiness, health, prosperity, and MAGIC!

Laurie

Librarians Rock--Especially When They Spread the Word of Austen

I've said before on this blog (and to anyone who'll listen), librarians are my heroes. That's because libraries were the sanctuary of my childhood. Growing up in a home with few books, libraries were magical places that opened doors to unimaginable worlds. I always left the library and bookmobile with armloads of books that I devoured. And there were always more. For a kid like me, it was absolute heaven.

Today, I have the honor of meeting librarians all the time—through the research I do for my books, through readings and talks that I give at libraries, and through the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA), of which I am a Life Member. Not surprisingly, JASNA attracts people who love books—go to any JASNA meeting, and you're sure to meet librarians, educators, writers, and avid readers of all professions.

One of my favorite JASNA friends is Paula Dacker, a high school librarian whose enthusiasm for Austen is only exceeded by her passion for turning her students into avid readers. "Ask me if there's anything you don't understand," she tells her kids when they check out PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, or any of Austen's novels. "I'll explain it to you."

But Paula's no Austen purist. From my Austen Addict books (she made my day by sending me the pictures below) to  PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES, if kids are reading, that's a good thing. At our JASNA reading group's annual Jane Austen Birthday Tea last week, Paula was telling our group about a boy who checked out PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES from her high school library. How did he hear about it? she asked, to which he said that some of his friends were talking about the book, and it made him want to read it.

"Boys talking about books," said Paula, glowing with pride. "It doesn't get any better than that."

Librarians. They don't get any better than Paula Dacker.

[Students of Charter Oak High School, where Paula is a librarian.]

 

 

 

Jane Austen: 234 years old, and as young as ever

December 16 is Jane Austen's birthday, and I wish that I could give her a present. I wish that I could thank her for all the joy her work has given me. For every time I re-read one of her novels, I revel in the pure pleasure of a well-loved tale. But along with the familiarity is ever-unfolding discovery, for these are stories that are all about human nature, its beauties as well as its follies.

And isn't there always something new to learn about ourselves and those around us? That's the beauty of Jane Austen. As she put it herself via her heroine, Elizabeth Bennet in her most famous book, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, "...people themselves alter so much, that there is something new to be observed in them for ever." The same is true for her novels. There is something new to be observed in them for ever.

What would Jane Austen say, I wonder, if she knew that at the age of 234, she would be as young and fresh and relevant to her devoted readers of the twenty-first century as she was when her first published novel, SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, delighted readers in 1811? I imagine she would be pleased with her immortality, for who among us has never had a wish to live forever? I do believe, however, that Jane Austen has achieved something far greater than immortality: She has made millions of people happy.

What better way is there to celebrate this day than to spread some of that happiness around? That, and maybe curling up with one of her novels.

Enjoy. [Oh yes, and you might want to watch one of your favorite films, too. This is Ciaran Hinds in the excellent 1995 PERSUASION, directed by Roger Michell.]