More Giveaways

The list of giveaways is growing. I've already posted about a number of giveaways in June, most of which are still taking entries.

Now there are even more chances to win a copy of my new book, RUDE AWAKENINGS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT, at these fine blogs:

DATES ARE WHEN ENTRIES BEGIN. PLEASE CHECK EACH BLOG FOR ENTRY DEADLINES AND RULES:

Jane Austen Today (began June 25)

Historical Fiction (began June 25, with Q&A)

Brant Flakes*(begins June 29 with Q&A)

Austenblog (begins late June or early July; check Austenblog for details.)

Jane Austen Today (begins July 15, with Q&A)

Peeking Between the Pages (begins July 16, with guest post)

 Living Read Girl (begins July 20, with Q&A)

And coming up in early August (exact date TBD; check the Austen Addict homepage for further details):

Stephanie's Written Word (guest post)
 Stephanie is hosting the Everything Austen Challenge, which runs from July 1, 2009 to January 1, 2010. The challenge is to read, listen to, and/or watch six Jane Austen-related things. Check out Stephanie's Written Word for a list of suggestions. The challenge kicks off on July 1 with a review of RUDE AWAKENINGS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT. Stephanie's got lots of giveaways scheduled, so keep checking back.

AustenFest on BrantFlakes!

What does that mean, you might ask?

BrantFlakes is the blog of author Marilyn Brant, whose upcoming Austen-inspired book, ACCORDING TO JANE: A NOVEL ABOUT PRIDE, PREJUDICE, & THE PURSUIT OF THE PERFECT GUY, comes out October 2009. ACCORDING TO JANE is already a winner—it won the 2007 Romance Writers of America Golden Heart Award for Best Novel with Strong Romantic Elements.

So what is AustenFest?

AustenFest is a series of Q&A's and giveaways of Austen-inspired books and more on Marilyn's blog.

Here is the AustenFest lineup:

6/22/09: Syrie James, author of THE LOST MEMOIRS OF JANE AUSTEN, which was nominated for a 2008 Regency World Award for Best New Fiction; and her new novel, THE SECRET DIARIES OF CHARLOTTE BRONTE.

6/24/09: Kim Wilson, author of TEA WITH JANE AUSTEN and IN THE GARDEN WITH JANE AUSTEN, which is nominated for a 2009 Regency World Award for Best New Nonfiction.

6/26/09: Abigail Reynolds, author of THE PEMBERLEY VARIATIONS series of novels.

6/29/09: Laurie Viera Rigler (that's me), author of RUDE AWAKENINGS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT, which comes out June 25; and CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT, which is nominated for a 2009 Regency World Award http://www.janeausten.co.uk/awardsurvey.ihtml for Best New Fiction.

Although Marilyn Brant won't be doing a Q&A herself, she just received the ARCs of ACCORDING TO JANE and will be giving away at least one of them.

Each of these authors is giving away at least one book, so be sure to go to AustenFest to enter!

Win a Copy of RUDE AWAKENINGS and more

To celebrate the release of RUDE AWAKENINGS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT on June 25, there are lots of book giveaways coming up: 

June 21:  Lipstick Chronicles

June 25 (approx.):  Austenblog

June 25:  Historical Fiction

June 29:  AustenFest, hosted by Brant Flakes*

But wait, there's more!

Check back here on the Austen Addict Blog  and on the Austen Addict homepage  for more RUDE AWAKENINGS giveaways in July and August.

*Brant Flakes is hosting a series of giveaways and Q&As called AustenFest.  Check out  AustenFest starting June 22 to win books by Syrie James, Kim Wilson, Abigail Reynolds, Marilyn Brant, and me.

More details about AustenFest in my next post...

Skype an Author at Your Next Book Club Meeting

Ever thought about chatting with an author at your next book group meeting via Skype? That's what the reading group of JASNA (Jane Austen Society of North America), Southern Arizona Region, did with me last Sunday, complete with webcam.

I've done a lot of conference calls with book groups. Very simple. All the group needs is a speakerphone. But this time the group called me with a laptop. Or more precisely, their laptop called my laptop. And because each of our laptops had cameras clipped on or built in, we were able to chat face to face. Oh how I love modern technology.

For me, the Skype call with JASNA's Southern Arizona book group was a peak book club experience. There was a level of connection and immediacy in our face-to-face conversation that one can't possibly match on a speakerphone. Phone calls are fabulous, if that's all there is available. But if I can see who I'm talking to, and they can see me, the connection is that much more focused and intimate. It's the next best thing to being physically present in the room.  

For anyone who isn't familiar with Skype, it's a free program you can download. Super easy to use. The Skype website also sells clip-on cameras and headsets.

Book Club Girl, one of my favorite blogs, has a great piece about Skype author call-ins for book clubs.  Book Club Girl gives her perspective, and so does author Ami McKay. They love the idea as much as I do.

There is another thing to consider when using Skype, at least for this author; to wit: trading my pajamas or yoga clothes (my favorite writing attire) for grown-up girl clothes. And powdering my nose. Oh, yeah. And unpacking that stack of office supplies piled up behind me. One never knows what might show on camera.

It's well worth the effort, in my opinion. So next time you're thinking of inviting an author to your next book club meeting, ask if you can do it via Skype.

[JASNA-Southern Arizona Region:  Front Row, L to R: Judy, Angela. Middle Row: Pat, Melita, Jane, Linda. Back Row: Teri, Iris, Paula, Laurie, Mike.]

Win a Book on Austenblog

Another giveaway: Send an email to Austenblog (see rules here) by noon on December 21 to be eligible for a random drawing. The winner will received an inscribed copy of CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT.

Even if you don't win the book, you'll be happy you stopped by Austenblog, It's the perfect respite from holiday madness and one of my favorite spots in the Janeiverse.

Happy Holidays, and good luck!

 

Happy Birthday, Jane Austen (and another book giveaway)!

Check out my guest post at Book Club Girl, which is one of my absolute favorite blogs. I talk about giving books for the holidays and, in particular, giving a book by Jane Austen.

If you post a comment at Book Club Girl by Thursday, December 18, you'll be eligible to enter a drawing for one of two signed copies of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, which I'm giving away in honor of the holiday season and Jane Austen's birthday (that's today, December 16th).

Happy Holidays, and happy birthday, Jane Austen!

Q&A and a book giveaway

I've done a Q&A on a cool literary blog called Scobberblotch, which is the blog of Karen Harrington, author of the fascinating novel Janeology (nothing to do with Jane Austen).

Check out my Q&A for insights on writing, Austen, and Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict. Please post a comment on Scobberlotch if you'd like to be entered in the drawing for a signed copy of Confessions.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Another Book Giveaway!

Naida of The Bookworm, an excellent book blog I recently discovered, interviewed me for her blog and is giving away two personally inscribed copies of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict.

Click here to read the Q&A and enter the giveaway.

Winners will be announced Monday, September 15 by The Bookworm.

What Writers Read

"All this she must possess," added Darcy, "and to all this she must yet add something more substantial, in the improvement of her mind by extensive reading."

--Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

I've recently discovered a fascinating blog called Writers Read.

Each post features an author talking about what he or she is reading and why. What makes it most exciting is that the books are often what you'd least expect that author to be reading.

Last month, Writers Read asked me to talk about what I've been reading, and the post is up here. Do visit Writers Read and its related blog, Campaign for the American Reader, where you'll find a shorter version of my post.

If You Could Live In Jane Austen's World...

There's a fun giveaway going on at She Is Too Fond Of Books. To take your chance at winning one of two signed copies of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, here's what you need to do:

Click on this link to the post at She Is Too Fond of Books and enter, as a comment, what you would find most appealing and what you would find most challenging about living in Jane Austen's world.

Even if you don't win, it's a fascinating thing to contemplate what it would be like to ride in a barouche, dance at a ball, spend all day reading and taking turns in the shrubbery instead of answering emails...oh yeah, what would it be like to give up email, and movies, and my cellphone, and mascara, and...

Enter by midnight on Friday, September 5, 2008. Good luck!

Live Chat on Jane Austen Today--it's Tonight!

My live chat with Vic of Jane Austen Today will begin tonight at 7 p.m. Pacific time and 10 p.m. EST.

Please join us for a fun discussion and a chance to win a book!

Here are the instructions Vic gave me for participating in the chat:

Please click on this link: You will see a page that looks like this: Enter your name. For example, you will see Vic's name listed as Vic, Ms. Place. You do not need to enter your profile. Then click on Chat! You will see this screen (and hear a knocking sound): The arrow points to a window/address bar. This is where you will type your questions or chat with the others in the chatroom. Click on enter to submit your discussion. You will see the dialogue in the large blank field on top of the address bar. You will see the names of the chatters on the top right, however, you will not see your name. This is normal. We are looking forward to meeting you and talking with you in the chat! If you live in other parts of the world or country, please check this time zone clock for conversions. Email Vic at janeaustensworld at gmail dot com if you encounter difficulties. Sincerely, Vic (Ms. Place)

Q&A on Booking Mama, and another chance to win a book!

Julie of Booking Mama, an excellent blog whose tagline is "Sharing ideas on books and book clubs (and occasionally other things)," interviewed me for her blog. Here is the post, which you can also read on her blog. Do visit Booking Mama if you're searching for something fabulous to read on your own or with your book group.

Booking Mama: I am absolutely thrilled that Laurie Viera Rigler, author of CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT, agreed to answer a few of my questions. I read her book back in June when I was fortunate enough to participate in Book Club Girl's BlogTalk Radio Show; and I really enjoyed both the book as well as the discussion with Ms. Viera Rigler (you can read my review here.) I highly recommend CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT, and I hope this interview will give you some insight into the book and entice you to read it!

Booking Mama: I love the concept for CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT – it’s such a unique idea to combine time travel with a historical fiction-type book. How did the idea for this novel come to you?

Laurie Viera Rigler: Hi, Julie, and thanks for asking me about CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT. The idea didn't come about deliberately; I wasn't trying to think of an idea for an Austen-inspired novel or an idea for any novel. I was just standing in my kitchen one day and saw, in my mind's eye, this twenty-first-century Austen devotee, Courtney Stone, waking up in that four-poster bed in 1813 England in someone else's body.

Booking Mama: To write a historical fiction book like this, you must have done a ton of research to make it “feel” authentic. What types of research did you conduct, and how much time did you spend doing the research for CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT?

Laurie Viera Rigler: I spent six years writing the book and did research throughout that entire period. I read many books and periodicals about the period, traveled to England, and made use of excellent Internet resources such as Google Books and the Jane Austen Society of North America's website, http://jasna.org. I also conducted some experiential research (not time-traveling, unfortunately) by taking English country dance lessons and going to a few balls, including one I attended with my husband in which I discovered that English country dance is indeed a very sexy thing to do with the handsomest man that ever was seen.

Booking Mama: Jane Austen is huge right now with so many books and movies out there! Why do you think she is so popular today, almost 200 years since she wrote her novels?

Laurie Viera Rigler: What makes Jane Austen timeless is her keen observation of human nature, and human nature has not changed at all in the past 200 years. That is why we can read about Elizabeth and Darcy and see ourselves in a heroine who thinks she knows everything about another person and realizes she's been blinded by the same pride and prejudice she ascribed to him. That is why we can see ourselves in Anne Eliot of Persuasion and relate to someone who has been misguided and unappreciated, and who finally gets a second chance to make things right. The other novels have equally resonant universal themes. Plus there is the pure delight of reading a well-constructed, funny, and touching story with a satisfying conclusion and so many layers of mastery that it can be read again and again with increasing pleasure.

The movies attempt to capture that mastery, and some succeed better than others. Emma Thompson wrote the best Austen screenplay, in my opinion, because she truly captured some of that Austen wit and genius. In any case, the movies are almost always fun escapist entertainments, providing a doorway to another time and place, an accessible and low-risk form of time travel. And they are an excellent way to introduce potential readers to Austen's novels.

Booking Mama: I found the ending to be very interesting, and I like how you left the ending open for different interpretations by your readers. As the author of the story, do you have a definite theory on the ending or does your opinion change?

Laurie Viera Rigler: What an intriguing question! The ending has a very specific meaning for me. However, once I started hearing various interpretations of the ending from my readers, I decided not to interfere with the individual reader's interpretation by imposing my own. Generally, the interpretations fall into two main categories, but to say any more might spoil it for those who have not yet read the book. I will only say that the ending is a truly happy one, and that my protagonist gets exactly what she wants.

Booking Mama: Your second novel is kind of being described as a sequel to CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT since it will have some of the characters who were in the first book– this time Jane finds herself in the body and life of a 21st-century woman. Did you always know that you wanted to write this book when you began CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT, or did you decide to tell this story after the success of your first book?

Laurie Viera Rigler: The sequel to CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT is more like a parallel story/sequel in that it follows the adventures of Jane Mansfield (the nineteenth-century character from CONFESSIONS, not the twentieth-century screen goddess) who has woken up in Courtney Stone's twenty-first-century life (and body). So basically, while Courtney is taking over Jane's life in the first book, Jane is taking over Courtney's life in the second book.

The idea for the second book came up while I was writing CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT. I did consider including Jane's twenty-first-century story in the first book; however, it just didn't feel right. Her journey is a very different journey, and it just didn't fit inside the first book. So I decided it would be my second novel, and I decided this way before I had a publisher.

Booking Mama: As I read this book, I could totally picture it as a movie. Is there any chance that CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT will appear on the big screen? Are there any specific actors/actresses you see in the roles?

Laurie Viera Rigler: I too would love to see CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT as a movie, and the rights are available if some clever producer would like to make me an offer I can't refuse. There are so many wonderful actors and actresses I admire that I couldn't possibly limit my fantasy choices. But I've certainly enjoyed reading and participating in the forum thread on my website that's devoted to casting the movie.

Booking Mama: I have to admit that I am not a huge “Jane Austen Addict;” but after reading your novel, I have to say that I want to re-visit some of her books. That has to make you pretty happy if you’re having that effect on your readers. Besides creating some new Austen fans, what else would you like for your readers to learn from or take away from this book?

Laurie Viera Rigler: I can't tell you how happy that makes me, Julie. It was my intention to write this book so that it would be completely accessible to those who had never read Austen or who had read a little Austen. And then there are all sorts of allusions to the novels that Austen addicts like myself would enjoy as well. It is tremendously gratifying to me that someone who reads my book would then become interested in revisiting Austen or reading her for the first time, which I have heard as well.

What I'd like readers to take away from this book, aside from the pleasure of a fun read, is a desire to explore some of the central questions that Courtney faces. One of those questions is: What makes up my identity? Am I who I am because of what I remember, or because of what people remember about me? Am I whoever people think I am, or am I someone else entirely? And what would I be willing to give up to live in a different time, and what would I gain?

Booking Mama: What is the best thing about being a writer? What is the strangest thing that’s happened to you since your novel was published?

Laurie Viera Rigler: The best thing about being a writer is being able to immerse myself in the world of my protagonists. It is a privilege and an adventure to see a whole new world through their eyes. I may not, in "reality," have time-traveled to Jane Austen's world and switched identities with a Regency gentlewoman, but thanks to Courtney I feel like I've shared her experiences.

The strangest thing that's happened to me since my novel was published was seeing my book in an airport bookstore, because back when I was fantasizing about being published I was traveling with my husband, and in an airport bookstore I said, wouldn't it be fantastic one day to see my book here?

Booking Mama: Besides Jane Austen (of course), who are some of your favorite authors and what are some of your favorite books?

Laurie Viera Rigler: I adore Zadie Smith. On Beauty is one of my favorite books and very much reminds me of Austen, even though it is an homage to E.M. Forster's Howard's End. I also love Nick Hornby, who also reminds me of Austen (About a Boy, High Fidelity, Long Way Down, How to Be Good). And I love Ian McEwan (Atonement, On Chesil Beach), Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (Vine of Desire, Sister of My Heart), Jhumpa Lahiri (The Namesake), and so many other authors. I'm an avid reader. A few novels I've recently read and loved: Keeping the House by Ellen Baker, Fifteen Minutes of Shame by Lisa Daily, Angelica by Arthur Phillips, The Jewel Trader of Pegu by Jeffrey Hantover. I could go on and on but will restrain myself!

Thanks again for asking me about CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT. It's been a lot of fun talking to you, Julie, and I hope to do it again soon!

Booking Mama: A huge thanks goes out to Ms. Viera Rigler for this interview. If you would like to learn more about CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT, you can visit the book's website. I have had almost as much fun playing around on this website as I did reading the book! The site is very interesting (as well as entertaining) and has tons of information for the "Jane Austen Addict" in all of us.

There is also another great opportunity to "talk" with Ms. Viera Rigler on August 12th. She will be joining Jane Austen Today for a live chat, and you can ask her some of your questions about the book. Click here for more details about how to participate - you could even win a copy of the book.

Not only has Ms. Viera Rigler been extremely gracious in answering all of my questions, but she has also offered to give away two signed copies of CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT! If you are interested in winning a copy of this book, please leave a comment with the name of your favorite Jane Austen book (or movie). Don't forget to leave an e-mail address so I have a way to contact you. If you'd like to double your chances to win, blog about the contest (and the interview) with a link to this post. You have until August 8th to enter. This contest is open to citizens of the United States and Canada only.

Chat with me on August 12 and win a book

Vic and Laurel Ann of Jane Austen Today, two of my favorite bloggers, have asked me to participate in a live chat on August 12th. We'll be talking about my novel, Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, and this is your chance to ask me questions about the book, the great author who inspired it, about writing and publishing, and about the sequel. Please join me!

How to participate:

Just before the scheduled chat, which is on Tuesday, August 12,  from 10 PM - 12 AM EST, and 7 - 9 PM Pacific time, go to Jane Austen Today, where you will see the link to the chat room. Simply click on the link and join in our chat.

And maybe even win a book:

You could win one of five autographed copies of the new paperback edition of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict.

There are two ways to enter this giveaway:

1. Post a question for me at Jane Austen Today. If you have questions about the book and its inspiration, the research, writing techniques, or the publishing process, please post your question as a comment on Jane Austen Today's post about this upcoming chat.

On August 12th, Jane Austen Today will draw the winning name. In the meantime, I will do my best to answer your questions.

2. Be the first in the chatroom or the last to leave. The first two people to sign into the chatroom and begin talking will win books. So will the last two people in the chatroom.

Don't forget to mark your calendars for Tuesday, August 12, 10 PM - 12 AM EST, and 7 - 9 PM Pacific time.

I'll be looking forward to chatting with you!

A Feline Austen Addict

Jane Austen didn't write much about cats. In fact, the only reference I can find in her major works is a single line in Sense and Sensibility, in which Mrs. Jennings complains to Colonel Brandon about losing Elinor and Marianne as guests:

"Ah! Colonel, I do not know what you and I shall do without the Miss Dashwoods;"… Lord! we shall sit and gape at one another as dull as two cats." [Vol. III, Chapter III (39)]

I don't think my lively little feline, Phoebe Georgiana (after Georgiana Darcy of Pride and Prejudice) would approve of being characterized as dull. But then again, this did come from Mrs. Jennings, who clearly did not have the good fortune to cohabitate with a kitty.

For life with a cat is anything but dull. Phoebe is always surprising me by taking up new pursuits. For example, just the other day she embarked on her summer reading program, which commenced with her cracking my book.

Which she then devoured in a single sitting.

To top it off, Phoebe was chosen today by one of my favorite publishing industry blogs, GalleyCat, for the Galleycat Summer Cat competition. Please click here to vote for Phoebe before 12:01 a.m. (Eastern) Monday morning.

And If you'd like to read the Galleycat piece about Phoebe, click here.

If you'd like to see more photos of Phoebe, click here.

Phoebe and I thank you for your vote!

And many thanks to Deborah Zeitman, fine writer and Phoebe's personal wildlife photographer, for snapping these pictures.

Blog Talk Radio, part 2

For those of you whose browsers don't show the Blog Talk Radio widget from my last post, here is the link to the show.

Potential spoiler alert: For those of you who haven't read the book, I start talking about the ending around halfway through.

Thanks again to Book Club Girl and everyone who called in and listened!

Book Club Girl and I Talk Austen on BlogTalkRadio

I had such a fun and stimulating conversation with Jennifer Hart of Book Club Girl and all the readers who called in. Click on the widget above to listen. (Or if the widget doesn't show up on your browser, click here.)

Thanks, Book Club Girl!

Make that an Austentini. Shaken, not stirred.

One of my favorite bloggers, Laurel Ann of Austenprose and Jane Austen Today, posted the other day about the Sex and the City movie, and in that post she casually mentioned a drink called an Austentini.

An Austentini!? As an Austen devotee with a taste for vodka (no wonder my protagonist sought refuge from her romantic woes in an Austen-and-Absolut-induced haze), I had to have the recipe. 

And so here, with Laurel Ann's compliments, is something you might like to imbibe (in moderate doses, of course) to cool off in the midsummer heat. As Laurel Ann says, the Austentini is "sweet and sour like our Jane!" 

The Austentini:

2 ounces of Vodka
2 ounces of sweet and sour mix or margarita mix
splash of framboise
lemon twist

Pour into a chilled martini glass, open volume one of Pride and Prejudice. Or Persuasion or Emma or Sense and Sensibility or Northanger Abbey or Mansfield Park. Sip. Turn pages. Smile.

If you do not drink alcohol, here is a suggestion for an alcohol-free Austentini:

2 ounces Pellegrino or your favorite sparkling water
2 ounces sweet and sour mix or margarita mix
a few crushed raspberries or a splash of raspberry juice
lemon twist                                                                                        

Warning: Falling asleep after reading Jane Austen and drinking too many Austentinis in bed may result in your waking up, as my heroine did, in Regency England. Not to mention raspberry stains on your sheets.   

Calling All Book Clubbers!

One of the things I love most is talking to book groups. I've done conference calls, visited book groups in person,  and now I am happy to announce an upcoming book club call-in event on Blog Talk Radio.

Here are the specifics:

Wednesday, June 25, 2008
7 PM EST
Live call-in show on Blog Talk Radio.
Hosted by Book Club Girl (a must-read blog for book clubbers everywhere)

So if you and/or your book group would like to discuss Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict with me, do call in!

Here is the link to the show, which enables you to set a reminder for yourself:

Your call-in number for June 25 at 7 pm EST is:
(347) 945-6149.

In the meantime, feel free to check out my reading group guide.

Looking forward to talking to you!

Celebrate the One-Year Anniversary of the Becoming Jane Fansite--with a contest

The Becoming Jane Fansite, an entertaining and informative site that celebrates Jane Austen and Tom Lefroy,  the world they inhabited, and, of course, the film, is celebrating its one-year anniversary with a quiz/contest.

The site has extended its deadline to enter the contest to May 31, 2008. The prize is a DVD of Becoming Jane.

Click here for details.

Win a collection of Austen-inspired books, and a DVD

Book Club Girl, which is a fabulous resource for book clubbers and solo readers alike, is running a contest for all of us who've been watching the Masterpiece Complete Jane Austen extravaganza on PBS. All you need to do is go to Book Club Girl and vote for your favorite Masterpiece adaptation of Jane Austen's novels. Then, post a comment to Book Club Girl's blog saying why you chose that particular film, and you'll be entered in a random drawing. The prize is a collection of Austen-inspired books: Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by yours truly, Lost in Austen by Emma Campbell Webster, The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen by Syrie James,  an advance copy of Cassandra and Jane by Jill Pitkeathley, and Darcy's Story by Janet Aylmer, plus the DVD of whichever is the favorite Masterpiece adaptation of Austen’s novels as chosen by voters on the Book Club Girl blog.

By the way, I've met two of the authors of the prize books: Emma Campbell Webster, author of Lost in Austen, (we were on a panel together at Book Expo); and Syrie James, author of The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen, at a JASNA meeting yesterday. They're both lovely women.

And speaking of being inspired by Austen, at yesterday's JASNA meeting (a regional meeting of JASNA-SW), a highlight of the program was a tour of the Michael Sadleir rare book collection at UCLA. Among the treasures in that collection was a gorgeous first edition of Pride and Prejudice, the third volume of which I held in my hands. That was a moment I will never forget.

Sense and Sensibility: The Final Chapter in Masterpiece's Complete Jane Austen

by Laurie Viera Rigler, author of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict (http://janeaustenaddict.com)

[This is the latest in my series of guest blogs for About.com's Classic Literature Blog.]

How do I love the panoply of Austen film adaptations? Let me count the ways. I love the women in empire-waisted gowns and the men in form-fitting knee breeches. I love the clip-clop of horse-drawn carriages and the turns and figures at Regency balls. Most of all, I love seeing Jane Austen's brilliant words (or at least, one hopes, a reasonable approximation of them) come to life on the screen.

I admire that anyone even attempts to brave the minefield of adapting my favorite author. Although it is a truth universally acknowledged that the book is always better than the movie, a good movie often inspires those who haven't read the book to do so. And the more Austen readers there are out there, the closer we Janeites come to world domination.

Just kidding. But would that be such a bad thing?

In any case, the latest and final installment in Masterpiece Classic's Complete Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility, does Miss Austen proud. Why, you might wonder, should anyone bother to adapt this beloved book again, when the Oscar-winning Ang Lee/Emma Thompson film did such a marvelous job? Turns out there is always something new to say. Or show.

PBS asked me to guest-blog about the new Sense and Sensibility on Remotely Connected, their guest-blogger project. I have a lot to say about what I admire about this new film, how it deviates from and stays true to the novel, and how it complements the Emma Thompson movie. Check out my review here.

[Photos: Hattie Morahan as Elinor and Charity Wakefield as Marianne; Dan Stevens as Edward Ferrars.]

Emma; or How Jane Austen Revealed My Inner Know-it-All

by Laurie Viera Rigler, author of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict (http://janeaustenaddict.com)

[This post continues my series of guest posts on About.com's Classic Literature Blog.]

Yes; I'll admit it. There have been times when I've acted a bit like Emma, the eponymous heroine of Jane Austen's novel. There have been times when I have, shall I say, ventured into the unsolicited advice department. Times when I've been so convinced of what I knew about others that no one could convince me my assumptions were absolutely wrong.

I haven't always seen myself in Emma. In fact, there was a time when I would have been offended at the very suggestion. After all, Emma is the heroine that Jane Austen said "no one but myself will much like." But the older I get and the more I re-read Austen's works, the more I begin to see myself not only as Elizabeth Bennet (and who doesn't want to see herself as "dearest, loveliest Elizabeth"?), but also as some of Austen's more flawed characters.

These "a-ha" experiences are high on the list of reasons why I love Austen. I have this theory that if you read her works enough times and really contemplate the life lessons therein, you can pretty much give up your psychotherapist. You can even reduce your library of self-help books to Austen's six novels. They are so much fun to read, so satisfying, so full of dramatic tension and hilarious commentary, that you hardly know you're getting a life lesson at all. Which is exactly how I like my life lessons delivered.

When we first meet Austen's heroine Emma Woodhouse, she is enjoying the "triumph" of what her truth-telling friend (and only critic) Mr. Knightley dismisses as Emma's "lucky guess." Said "lucky guess" is the marriage of Emma's dearest friend (and former governess) Miss Taylor.  Emma, however, gives herself more credit for the match than Mr. Knightley chooses to do. Emboldened by the success of her first foray into matchmaking, and lonely for the newly married Miss Taylor, Emma takes on a new project, Miss Harriet Smith. Determined to make over the trusting and subservient Harriet into Emma's own idea of perfection, Emma decides that Harriet's current romantic interest is too low on the social scale for her new friend. Emma, in all her social consequence and omniscience, will elevate Harriet on the social scale. Emma, in all her generous solicitude for the well-being of others, will bestow upon the vicar, Mr. Elton, the perfect wife. For he would be just the right man for Harriet.

Never mind that Mr. Elton has plans of his own and that the worshipping Harriet would follow wherever Emma leads. For Emma, those around her are pawns, and she their queen. Emma, of course, fancies herself a benevolent ruler. And thus she embarks on a series of misguided adventures into high-stakes meddling in the lives of others while having not the slightest doubt of her own sagacity. Challenged by no one but Mr. Knightley,  she willfully misreads and misinterprets everyone's actions. She is, in short, a character we might heartily dislike, were it not for the genius of her creator.

Austen's brilliance is about making us see the  universal humanity of all of her characters. Even if we cannot see ourselves in a particular character, we most certainly have known someone like that character. From the very beginning, we cannot truly dislike the high-handed, I-know-better-than-you Emma, for she has sacrificed her own domestic comfort to her best friend Miss Taylor's interests. Mr. Knightley may call the marriage of Miss Taylor to Mr. Weston a "lucky guess," but it was Emma who encouraged Mr. Weston to visit her friend, in hopes that he would eventually propose—and take that best friend away. Thus we see that under her meddling is a warm, affectionate heart. And we cannot truly dislike Emma because she patiently and without complaint—even to herself—ministers to the comfort of her hypochondriacal, self-centered, childlike father.

Most of all, we cannot truly dislike Emma because she becomes ensnared in her own machinations. And thus Mr. Knightley's wish that he "should like to see Emma in love, and in some doubt of a return " comes to pass.

(Be careful about what you wish on others, Mr. Knightley. It may just come back to kick you in the hindquarters.)

And that is all I shall say. If you have not read the book, I urge you to do so. You might just recognize that you, like Emma, find the idea of arranging someone else's life to be so much more appealing than looking at your own.

By the way, all of you who are jonesing for Austen since Masterpiece Theatre cruelly took a hiatus from its Complete Jane Austen extravaganza are in for a treat: the 1995 adaptation of Emma starring Kate Beckinsale. It airs on PBS in two parts, beginning Sunday, March 23. The Kate Beckinsale Emma is also available on DVD, as is its worthy companions, the splendid adaptation starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Amy Heckerling's contemporary take on Emma, the delightful Clueless.

Pride and Prejudice: Once upon a time, before there was Colin Firth…

by Laurie Viera Rigler, author of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict

[This post continues my ongoing series of guest posts for About.com's Classic Literature blog]

There's something terribly exciting about taking part in a national event, be it the presidential debates or the weekly Austen-related offerings from PBS's Masterpiece. And although we Austen addicts love grumbling about the film renderings of our beloved author's work almost as much, or perhaps more, than we adore grousing over the incivilities of presidential hopefuls, one would be hard-pressed to find fault with the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice, which airs in three parts beginning Feb. 10, 2008.

Yes, my friends, there is much cause for rejoicing, for not only is the 1995 P&P longer than any of the new upstart adaptations (five hours as opposed to the scant 90-plus minutes allotted to Northanger Abbey,  Mansfield Park, and Persuasion, and even those were lopt and cropt for the US broadcast), it is gratifyingly faithful to text. Of course, this beloved version of P&P has five hours to do so. And let's not forget the famous Wet Shirt Scene (though truth be told, I find the Fencing Scene infinitely hotter).

Some have posited that Colin Firth and Keira Knightley (in the 1995 and 2005 P&P films, respectively) have done more to fuel these two decades-worth of Austen-mania than the books themselves. In all fairness, we must consider the relative positions of books and movies. The books, like Anne Eliot in Persuasion, live at home, quiet and confined, on shelves and nightstands, while their cinematic pretenders preen on red carpets and grab the headlines. Nevertheless, Emma Thompson said it best when she accepted the Golden Globe for Best Screenplay (Sense and Sensibility): "Everybody involved in the making of this film knows that we owe all our pride and all our joy to the genius of Jane Austen." Indeed. Were it not for the genius of Austen, there would be no Darcy and Elizabeth to play.

Pride and Prejudice is the most famous and popular of all the Austen novels. It is also arguably the most adaptable to the screen. The reasons are manifold.

On a surface level, Pride and Prejudice is a fairytale. Poor (relatively speaking) girl ends up, against all odds, living happily ever after with the rich, handsome prince. This fairytale attribute is universally appealing, as is the brilliant wit with which Austen delivers her story.

Those who see only a light comedic romance in Pride and Prejudice do, alas, miss the most important reasons for its enduring appeal. Jane Austen herself, in a letter to her sister Cassandra following the publication of P&P, comically presaged this popular misconception: "Upon the whole... I am well satisfied enough. The work is rather too light, and bright, and sparkling; it wants shade; it wants to be stretched out here and there with a long chapter of sense, if it could be had; if not, of solemn specious nonsense, about something unconnected with the story: an essay on writing, a critique on Walter Scott, or the history of Buonaparté, or anything that would form a contrast…"

A discerning reader will find that this story is also a story of empowerment, of control over one's destiny, and of an emerging meritocracy. For the heroine of P&P and her hero, their rewards come not merely through any advantages of birth and inherited wealth, but rather through the hard work of self-examination, revelation, and voluntary shifts in attitudes and behavior. Imagine the appeal of such a story back in Austen's class-stratified day. Consider its appeal today, in our world of make your own destiny, re-invent yourself, and hard work wins the day.

For if we, like Elizabeth Bennet, see that the very flaws that annoy us in others (in her case, the vanity and pride of Mr. Darcy) are merely reflections of our own failings, we will be rewarded. Elizabeth's vanity causes her to trust the wrong man. Her pride makes her blind to the merits of the right man. Her ultimate self-revelation and humility are painful but highly rewarding. If we, like Elizabeth, engage in the hard work of honest self-examination (as in her famous line, Till this moment, I never knew myself), the rewards are immeasurable, though they may not necessarily take the form of Mr. Darcy and Pemberley.

As for Mr. Darcy's hard work and consequent reward, is there anything more satisfying than watching "the proudest, most disagreeable man in the world" humbled by the realization that it would take a lot more than a big bank balance to win the girl? Says Darcy to Elizabeth, "You shewed me how insufficient were all my pretensions to please a woman worthy of being pleased." Hearing his confession gives us hope that maybe, just maybe, there is justice in the world.

So yes, we can let the Mr. Darcys of the world waltz into town and buy their way into our heart or business or country, or we can own our power to make them prove that their worth goes deeper than their wallet. We can be like Elizabeth's best friend Charlotte Lucas, who sells out for money and security by marrying a man she does not love. Or we can be like Elizabeth Bennet, who, like Jane Austen herself, held out for more. Did Austen regret accepting, then turning down, the proposal of Harris Bigg-Wither, a man who was, according to JASNA past-president Joan Klingel Ray, three times wealthier than her fictional Mr. Darcy? Could Austen have seen herself in Elizabeth Bennet's thoughts when, after turning down Mr. Darcy's first proposal, she tours his great estate with her aunt and uncle? "And of this place," thought she, "I might have been mistress!"

The recent PBS offering, "Miss Austen Regrets," has a great deal to say on that score. I believe that if Austen had any regrets, they were of short duration. I believe that the satisfaction of sending four of her six great novels into the world (two were not published till after her death) and maintaining a close, lifelong relationship with her sister Cassandra more than compensated for the wealth and social consequence she gave up. As Claire Bellanti, Coordinator of JASNA-Southwest points out, it is unlikely that being the mistress of Harris Bigg-Wither's great estate (well, actually three great estates) and the mother of his children would have left any time for writing.

There is something else about Pride and Prejudice that gives it timeless resonance: the human propensity to make snap judgments (and often erroneous ones) about our fellow creatures. In the novel, Darcy's coldness and reserve at a public dance results in universal agreement on the part of Elizabeth and her neighbors: He is the proudest, most disagreeable man that ever was seen.

By the time Wickham appears in the story with his tale of ill-usage at the hands of Mr. Darcy, everyone, including the reader, is eager to believe it. But like all "truths universally acknowledged," this one tends to be as false as the rest.

The parallels between the prejudices in Pride and Prejudice and our enduring predisposition to prejudge individuals and entire races of people are staggering. From our eagerness to believe gossip overheard by the school lockers to our willingness to take as received wisdom the latest rumors in the break room, we are voluntary dupes of our own, and others', false judgments. We hear about the latest celebrity meltdown or trip to rehab, and we decide we know everything there is to know about that person. We hear one presidential candidate accusing another of misconduct, and we decide we know the whole truth.

Pride and Prejudice, and its creator, Jane Austen, know better.

"A Ball? I Long for a Ball!"

by Laurie Viera Rigler, author of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict (http://janeaustenaddict.com)

(This post also appears as a guest post on About.com's Classic Literature blog.)

It was only about six years ago when I looked at pictures of empire-gowned members of the Jane Austen Society of North America and said, "I'll never be one of those people who dresses up in costume and goes to a Regency ball. Isn't that a bit like going to a Star Trek convention and wearing Vulcan ears?"

Lesson #1: Whenever you say, "I'll never be one of those people," what it really means is that you already are one of those people. You just don't know it yet.

Lesson #2: It all starts with English country dance lessons. You know how they talk about gateway drugs? Well, English country dance lessons, my friends, is the gateway drug.

I went to my first dance lesson at the 2004 Annual General Meeting of the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA AGM) , which took place in my part of the world, i.e., Los Angeles. Learning English country dance was, after all, part of my research for my novel, Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, which is about a modern L.A. girl who wakes up one morning as a woman in Austen's time. Dance lessons were as legitimate a pursuit as attending the various lectures. Or so I told myself. How could I, in all good conscience, write a dance scene if I had the opportunity to dance and passed it up?

[Here I am dancing with my friend Ron at the 2008 Jane Austen Evening.]

Then came the JASNA ball itself that Saturday night in 2004. Sure, I didn't wear a costume; lots of people didn't. But I danced every dance and not only did I have a blast, I also discovered that English country dance, which in the movies looks like people are merely parading about and posing like peacocks, is actually quite a workout. I also found that when I looked at the women in their gowns this time, I experienced costume envy. I too wanted to wear a dress and pretend I was Elizabeth Bennet dancing with Mr. Darcy. Wouldn't my turns and steps look ever so much more elegant in a Regency ball gown than in black velvet pants? No, I told myself, I won't give in. Costumes are where I draw the line.

Since then I have attended two more JASNA AGMs and two more JASNA balls. Still in contemporary dress. But the turning point came when I attended something last year called the Jane Austen Evening, which is not a JASNA-sponsored event. At the Jane Austen Evening, which is organized by the Society for Manners and Merriment,  almost all of the attendees are in costume. Unlike the JASNA balls, where everyone is there because they are Jane Austen readers, the attendees of the Jane Austen Evening appear to be a mixture of Jane Austen readers, period-dance aficionados, people who are into historical re-enactments, and combinations thereof.  You can imagine the costumed glory of these folks.

["A whole campful of soldiers!"]

Lesson #3: No one is immune to the costume bug. Case in point: At this year's Jane Austen Evening, I was in the powder room where a number of women were primping. One of them, who was in her early twenties, said to a friend, "I can't believe I'm doing this. I'm actually a t-shirt-and-jeans kind of girl." Another woman, who was perhaps forty and in a gorgeous bright green gown, said, "How about me? I'm an airline mechanic."

You can't make up that kind of dialogue.

Lesson #4: English country dancing can heat you up in more ways than one. The best thing about going to the Jane Austen Evening last year was the fact that I went with my husband Thomas, he who had previously informed me that Regency dancing was the most fundamentally uncool activity he could imagine, and that it would be a cold day in hell…you get the picture. But when the girlfriend who was supposed to go with me couldn't make it, Thomas gallantly offered to take her place. Even took English country dance lessons with me. And that's when I realized that not only is English country dancing a good workout, it's also pretty hot.

It's one thing to dance with one of your girlfriends or some random guy you're not interested in. It's quite another to stand up with the man you find most agreeable in the whole world, the handsomest man who ever was seen, the man who has a noble estate in Derbyshire, I mean, Pasadena. It was then that I truly got why all that serious courting went on at balls in Jane Austen's novels, and why women longed for a dance. Not only was it pretty much the only genteel outlet for vigorous exercise, aside from walking and horse riding; it was the only place that a young man and woman could spend lots of seriously flirtatious face-time with each other. All that eye contact and hand touching and display of bodies was highly charged, and all done with the full sanction of society. No wonder the women were fanning themselves. It was after going to that ball with Thomas that I expanded the ballroom scene in Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict. As for Thomas, he had such a good time that this year he decided to invite a group of friends to go with us.

[The handsomest young man that ever was seen...]

At last year's Jane Austen Evening, I wore a long skirt under a knee-length, empire-waisted dress, in a sort of poor man's imitation of a Regency gown. This year, I decided, I would cross the line for good. And so I had a gown made for the occasion. I even had my hair done (admittedly more like big prom hair than authentic Regency hair, but more of a period look than my usual flat-ironed style).

Bring it on, I said. There's no difference between me and those guys who speak Klingon to a friend of mine whenever she ventures into the sci-fi section of her local bookstore. I may not speak Klingon, but I can dance Mr. Beveridge's Maggot like Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle did in the 1995 Pride and Prejudice. Yes, I am a Jane Austen addict, and my version of Vulcan ears is a scarlet silk-taffeta empire-waisted gown.   

If you'd like to learn English country dance and you live in Southern California, visit lahacal.org  for lessons near you. (You can also link from there to the Jane Austen Evening site.) If you're in another part of the U.S., you can try the English Country Dance Webring; or just do a Google search with the keywords "English country dance" and your geographical area, and you're sure to find something nearby.

And if you'd like to join a warm and welcoming community of fellow Austen addicts, visit the Jane Austen Society of North America at http://jasna.org and find out where your local region meets and what events are going on throughout the year. As for the AGM (and that famous Saturday night ball), this year's event will be held in Chicago.

By the way, the most important thing that the JASNA AGM balls and the Jane Austen Evening have in common, aside from dance and costume, is the abundance of warm and welcoming people. So if you're shy with strangers or don't have a partner to accompany you to these events, never fear.

If you'd like to see my photo album of this year's Jane Austen Evening, visit the Many Charming Views / Scrapbook  section of my website, janeaustenaddict.com.

(I came across a YouTube video of folks dancing the Sir Roger de Coverley at the Jane Austen Evening, and there I am in the foreground dancing with my friend Alice. Video by Larry Buckel. He and his lovely wife Carin helped organize the event:)

Mansfield Park: Jane Austen's Most Controversial Novel

by Laurie Viera Rigler, author of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict (http://janeaustenaddict.com)

(This is yet another of my series of guest posts for About.com's Classic Literature blog.)

Discuss Mansfield Park in your book club, and your friends, like most readers, will tend to differ over a variety of points. The most typical one is this: Is the heroine, Fanny Price, a model of moral integrity, or a self-righteous prude? Is the marriage that ends the story (and Austen's stories always end with a marriage) between the right two people? And what's up with that part about the play?

The story begins when nine-year-old Fanny Price is taken from the home of her impoverished parents and moved to the estate of Mansfield Park to be brought up by rich relatives. This is no clear-cut Cinderella story, however. Although there are a couple of mildly wicked stepsisters (Fanny's cousins Maria and Julia) and a stand-in for a wicked stepmother in the form of her Aunt Norris, teenaged Fanny's central nemesis—and rival in love--is the saucy, sassy anti-heroine Mary Crawford.

The object of both Fanny's and Mary's affections is Fanny's cousin Edmund (I know, I know, but in Jane Austen's day one could marry one's cousin without anyone batting an eyelid). Edmund loves Fanny like a cousin, but he is in love with Mary.

Did you ever feel jealous of someone, and at the same time also felt you didn't have the right to be jealous? Fanny, being in an inferior position in the Mansfield Park family and unloved by her birth parents, has deeply rooted self-esteem issues. Mary, on the other hand, walks through life with a serious sense of entitlement. Shouldn't that be enough to put us squarely in the pro-Fanny camp?

Perhaps, but Fanny challenges us at every turn. For example, there is the famous section of the book in which Fanny disapproves of and refuses to participate in a play that her cousins and neighbors are putting on at home for their own amusement. For this part of the story to make the least bit of sense to a modern reader, one needs to understand that this particular choice of home theatricals would be the modern equivalent of a group of teenagers voting to have a wild, high-risk party in their strict parent's house while said parent was out of town.

Despite Fanny's balking at participating in said wild party, we cannot quite dismiss her as a buzz-killing Miss Perfect. After all, she is eaten up with jealousy for a great deal of the book, and as we all know, jealousy is not a pretty emotion. She is also not one to obey those in authority at all costs. In fact, she stands up to the biggest authority figure in her life by refusing to do what she knows in her heart would be wrong, and I'm not talking about acting in a play. (I'll say no more, lest I spoil the book for those who've yet to read it.)

If you've ever had an opinion that your friends considered uncool, and you stuck to it despite ridicule and pressure, you'll find a kindred spirit in Fanny Price, and you'll want her reward to be the man she loves. However, if you're still doing shots with your inner bad girl, you'll be rooting for Mary Crawford to win the object of her, and Fanny's, affections. (By the way, Austen scholar Emily Auerbach pointed out at one of the Jane Austen Society of North America's annual meetings, that several of Mary Crawford's lines of dialogue are astonishingly similar to lines from Jane Austen's own letters.)

To make things more interesting, some readers will want Fanny to be won by Mary's rakish, heartbreaker brother, Henry Crawford, who finds himself unaccountably in love for the first time in his life. Henry doesn't seem to stand a chance with Fanny, who is not only in love with another man, but also has watched in contempt and pity while Henry toyed with Fanny's cousins, the above-mentioned Maria and Julia. It's one big love triangle. Or square. Or heptagon.

Could there possibly be a better Austen novel for book clubs to chew on? And I haven't even touched on the theories about Mansfield Park's antislavery subtext.

In Mansfield Park, Jane Austen is clearly at the height of her storytelling mastery, deftly playing with reader loyalties and expectations while serving up the delicious social satire and suspenseful plotting that keep us coming back for more.

Nevertheless, Mansfield Park presents clear challenges to filmmakers who wish to adapt it, which is perhaps why director Patricia Rozema turned the heroine of her 1999 adaptation  into a synthesis of Fanny Price, Mary Crawford, and Jane Austen herself. As for the latest adaptation of Mansfield Park, which airs on PBS's Masterpiece Classic on Sunday, January 27, I am all anticipation. Let's see what the filmmakers have got up their sleeves this time.

Read more about Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict,  and surrender to your Austen addiction at http://janeaustenaddict.com.

Northanger Abbey: Austen’s Coming-of-age Story for All Ages

by Laurie Viera Rigler, author of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict (http://janeaustenaddict.com)

(This is part of a series of guest posts I am doing for About.com's Classic Literature blog.)

"The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid."
            --Henry Tilney, in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey   

When Henry Tilney speaks these words in Austen’s funny and touching novel, Northanger Abbey, the story’s heroine, Catherine Morland, gets a serious crush. (Truth is, Henry had her at hello.) Still, Henry’s declaration is a bold one, for in Austen’s day novels were considered low art, especially if they were penned by a woman and consumed by women. Catherine favors the lowest of the low--scary Gothic novels written by women and featuring abduction, seduction, supernatural horror, and/or murder—the kind of novels that teens (and many an adult) could not get enough of.

Every era likes to marginalize certain forms of art. In Austen’s day, it was the novel (and not just the Gothic ones). Today, it might be graphic novels or romance or so-called "women’s fiction" or "chick lit" or science fiction or horror. Take your pick. Despite the snobbery, Jane Austen and her whole family were, in her own words, "great Novel-readers, & not ashamed of being so." Nevertheless, Northanger Abbey is a hilarious send-up of just the kind of horror-and-romance-fest that Catherine Morland—and Jane Austen—liked to read. The difference between the heroine and her creator is that Catherine Morland kept expecting real life to play out like one of her favorite novels, while Jane Austen thought real life had its own set of fascinating stories to tell.

Seventeen-year-old Catherine Morland’s story unfolds as she leaves home for the first time, bound for the fascinating city of Bath. She falls in love, is whisked off to the romantic-sounding estate of Northanger Abbey, witnesses betrayal and deception, suspects murder, and takes a dangerous journey alone. Ultimately, Catherine learns self-reliance in more ways than one. No t only does she cease to be, in her mother’s words, "a sad little shatter-brained creature," she also learns to distinguish between her own wild imaginings and her intuition, between fantasy and reality, between false friends and true.

Northanger Abbey is the perfect coming-of-age story, for it is in no way about giving up our youthful fancies and zest for living. Quite the opposite. Through Catherine’s innocent, exuberant embrace of what is fresh and novel (no pun intended), we the readers remember the first time we traveled to a new city, danced with the person who made us feel valued for who we are, or "learnt to love a hyacinth."

I can’t wait to see the latest adaptation of Northanger Abbey that airs on Masterpiece Theatre’s Complete Jane Austen Sunday, January 20.

 

Persuasion: Jane Austen's Story About Second Chances

by Laurie Viera Rigler, author of  Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict.

(This is my first guest post for About.com's Classic Literature Blog.)

Bringing in a New Year is all about second chances. This year, we vow, we will do it right. We have a second chance to take better care of ourselves. We have a second chance to be kinder, wiser, and better human beings. It is therefore fitting that Masterpiece Theatre’s Complete Jane Austen ushers in this New Year with the Austen novel that is all about second chances, Persuasion.

If you haven’t yet read Persuasion, you now have a second chance to do so. If, like me, you’re already a Jane Austen addict, then you’ve probably read the book several times and will no doubt do so again. If you’re not already an admirer of Austen, then you may be under the misguided impression that Austen wrote fluffy romances that were all about who got to marry the rich guy and where the stories were as archaic as the characters’ horse-drawn carriages. Not so. Granted, Austen novels always include a love story, and yes, her books do predate the four-door hybrid. Nevertheless, her characters are as real and relevant as the people sitting across from you at the dinner table, in the office, and at your favorite dance club/bar/coffeehouse/bookstore/hangout. Jane Austen was as keen an observer of human nature as you’ll ever come across in life or literature, and human nature hasn’t changed a bit since women wore bonnets and men knee breeches.

If you’ve ever felt like your family didn’t treat you the way they should; if you’ve ever been misunderstood, misled, or misguided in any way, then Persuasion will speak your language. If you’ve ever yielded to the opinions of others over what your heart told you to do, if you’ve ever given up someone because you were told you had to, if you’ve ever wasted even a tiny bit of this short life holding onto resentment instead of opening up to forgiveness and love; then you will get your second chance to make things right with Persuasion.

Persuasion is the story of Anne Eliot, who has never got over a romantic disappointment she had when she was 19 years old. She has little support from her ruin of a family, which consists of a vain, widowed father and a self-centered, caustic older sister. Eight years before, Anne had fallen in love with and got engaged to Frederick Wentworth, a bright, earnest young man whose lack of money and career prospects set Anne’s status-conscious family against the marriage. Her surrogate mother, whose advice Anne trusted above all, persuaded Anne that the only right thing to do was to give up the engagement. Now, eight years later, Anne’s family is in financial trouble, and Frederick Wentworth, now Captain Wentworth, is back in town and rich from the spoils of the Napoleonic Wars. Problem is, he’s never forgiven Anne for breaking his heart. In fact, he proceeds to flirt with other women right in front of her.

Is it man’s nature to forget the woman he loves sooner than woman forgets man? Is an invariably determined person any wiser than an easily persuadable one? And most important, will Anne and Frederick ever get what they really want? Persuasion is a page-turning, heart-stopping story that I’ve read at least twenty times, and I find something new and illuminating in it with every reading. It is also, like all of Austen’s novels, filled with delicious social satire and wickedly funny moments.

Still not persuaded? How about this suggestion: If the latest Persuasion film doesn’t send you running for your nearest bookstore (and I hope it will), then rent the 1995 version directed by Roger Michell and starring Ciarán Hinds and Amanda Root. If you do, I guarantee you will not be able to resist having that book in your hands. And as an added bonus, the book has the best love letter of any novel you’ll ever read. So good you’ll want to commit it to memory. (“Tell me not that I am too late…”)

It’s not too late to read Persuasion. Take your second chance. And Happy New Year!

Surrender to your Austen addiction at janeaustenaddict.com.
 

My Guest Post on Book Club Girl

[You can read my guest post here or on Book Club Girl.  In any case, check out Book Club Girl, a  priceless resource for anyone who has a book group, wants to start a book group, or just loves to read. ]

Laurie Viera Rigler, author of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, Reports from Her Visit to the Pulpwood Queens Book Group!

I was en route to Jefferson, Texas to give a reading of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict to the Pulpwood Queens Book Club when the flight attendant announced that he wasn't quite sure our landing gear was working. There probably wasn't anything to worry about, he said, though I later learned that the Shreveport Fire Department was out in full force to greet us just in case. Hands gripping the armrest, I turned to the woman sitting next to me and said, "Why did they have to tell us that?" She shrugged. And so I said some prayers and then went back to my book; I was reading Emma. If those last twenty  minutes of flight time were to be my last twenty minutes alive, I would go down reading Jane Austen. Sure enough, Austen took me out of myself, out of my fears, and into Highbury, where Emma danced with Mr. Knightley at the Crown. And before I knew it, the plane was safely on the ground.

Like the protagonist of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict , I use Austen as comfort, guidance, and a cure for a host of ills that come with modern living. Unlike her, I found myself transported not to Regency England, but to Beauty and the Book, the headquarters of the Pulpwood Queens, and the only beauty salon/bookstore in America. Their motto? "Where tiaras are mandatory and reading good books is the rule!" At Beauty and the Book, bookshelves lined with must-reads face racks of RedKen products, and stacks of the club's monthly picks are flanked by hairdryers. Tiaras and other rhinestone goodies are also on offer. One thing that struck me was the absence of gossip magazines, the typical reading fare of hair salons. Then again, there is nothing typical about Beauty and the Book. If you want to read while you're getting your hair done, there are plenty of choices, but they don't include accounts of celebrity divorce and who made a fashion faux pas on the red carpet.

At the meeting, book club members, most decked out in tiaras, some sporting the club's signature hot pink T-shirt, seat themselves in hairstyling chairs to tuck into fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, and other Southern delights they've cooked specially for the occasion.  Kathy Patrick, the original Pulpwood Queen and author of the upcoming Pulpwood Queens' Tiara-Wearing, Book-Sharing Guide to Life, is the charismatic and benevolent ruler, making announcements, encouraging everyone to fill a plate and get comfy. This group is here to have fun, but first and foremost it is there to fulfill Kathy's mission, which is "to get the world reading."

And so the readings and discussions began. This month there were two selections, and so I not only got to read and discuss Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, I got to meet Masha Hamilton and listen to her read from her wonderful novel, The Camel Bookmobile, as well as hear about the real Camel Book Drive she's launched as a result of writing her book.

When the last bite of chocolate pie had been consumed and the last of the tiara-wearing Queens filed out the door, Masha and I were in for yet another treat: hair tips from Kathy, who showed us some cool tricks for last-minute special looks. As I left this enchanted place, I wondered, What would Jane Austen think of Beauty and the Book and The Pulpwood Queens? I'm convinced she'd love them. For one, the Pulpwood Queens live up to what Anne Eliot said in Persuasion: "My idea of good company... is the company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversation." The Queens are definitely my  idea of good company--truly a delightful group of women who were full of  questions and stimulating ideas. As for their Jefferson, Texas venue, I am reminded of the circulating libraries of Austen's day, often fashionable places where patrons could borrow books for a fee, and   which also sold jewelry and other trinkets. If they had offered hairstyling, too, they might have been nearly as perfect as Beauty and the Book.

Book Club Girl Here: Laurie, this sounds like it was great fun and I'm glad you got to meet Masha Hamilton too! I grabbed some photos from your site and here's a link to all the rest of them.

 

I was en route to Jefferson, Texas to give a reading of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict to the Pulpwood Queens Book Club when the flight attendant announced that he wasn't quite sure our landing gear was working. There probably wasn't anything to worry about, he said, though I later learned that the Shreveport Fire Department was out in full force to greet us just in case. Hands gripping the armrest, I turned to the woman sitting next to me and said, "Why did they have to tell us that?" She shrugged. And so I said some prayers and then went back to my book; I was reading Emma. If those last twenty  minutes of flight time were to be my last twenty minutes alive, I would go down reading Jane Austen. Sure enough, Austen took me out of myself, out of my fears, and into Highbury, where Emma danced with Mr. Knightley at the Crown. And before I knew it, the plane was safely on the ground.

Like the protagonist of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict , I use Austen as comfort, guidance, and a cure for a host of ills that come with modern living. Unlike her, I found myself transported not to Regency England, but to Beauty and the Book, the headquarters of the Pulpwood Queens, and the only beauty salon/bookstore in America. Their motto? "Where tiaras are mandatory and reading good books is the rule!" At Beauty and the Book, bookshelves lined with must-reads face racks of RedKen products, and stacks of the club's monthly picks are flanked by hairdryers. Tiaras and other rhinestone goodies are also on offer. One thing that struck me was the absence of gossip magazines, the typical reading fare of hair salons. Then again, there is nothing typical about Beauty and the Book. If you want to read while you're getting your hair done, there are plenty of choices, but they don't include accounts of celebrity divorce and who made a fashion faux pas on the red carpet.

At the meeting, book club members, most decked out in tiaras, some sporting the club's signature hot pink T-shirt, seat themselves in hairstyling chairs to tuck into fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, and other Southern delights they've cooked specially for the occasion.  Kathy Patrick, the original Pulpwood Queen and author of the upcoming Pulpwood Queens' Tiara-Wearing, Book-Sharing Guide to Life, is the charismatic and benevolent ruler, making announcements, encouraging everyone to fill a plate and get comfy. This group is here to have fun, but first and foremost it is there to fulfill Kathy's mission, which is "to get the world reading."

And so the readings and discussions began. This month there were two selections, and so I not only got to read and discuss Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, I got to meet Masha Hamilton and listen to her read from her wonderful novel, The Camel Bookmobile, as well as hear about the real Camel Book Drive she's launched as a result of writing her book.

When the last bite of chocolate pie had been consumed and the last of the tiara-wearing Queens filed out the door, Masha and I were in for yet another treat: hair tips from Kathy, who showed us some cool tricks for last-minute special looks. As I left this enchanted place, I wondered, What would Jane Austen think of Beauty and the Book and The Pulpwood Queens? I'm convinced she'd love them. For one, the Pulpwood Queens live up to what Anne Eliot said in Persuasion: "My idea of good company... is the company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversation." The Queens are definitely my  idea of good company--truly a delightful group of women who were full of  questions and stimulating ideas. As for their Jefferson, Texas venue, I am reminded of the circulating libraries of Austen's day, often fashionable places where patrons could borrow books for a fee, and   which also sold jewelry and other trinkets. If they had offered hairstyling, too, they might have been nearly as perfect as Beauty and the Book.

Book Club Girl Here: Laurie, this sounds like it was great fun and I'm glad you got to meet Masha Hamilton too! I grabbed some photos from your site and here's a link to all the rest of them.

My Guest Post on Booksquare

I was delighted to guest post for one of my favorite blogs, Booksquare (see my Jane's Addictions page). You can read the full post here or on Booksquare:

Jane, Now More Than Ever

September 13th, 2007
by Laurie Viera Rigler

[BS: The great thing about Jane Austen fans is the myriad of reasons they come to Jane. Some come for the clothes, stay for the satire. Others seek the social skewering but discover the empathy. And, yeah, there a few who figure if it's good enough for Colin Firth... Today, we welcome Laurie Viera Rigler, whose novel Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict captures the beauty of loving Jane while indulging in the ever-tantalizing "what if"]

The decision to write Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict wasn't exactly a decision. It happened like this: I was standing in the kitchen of the house I used to rent in the Highland Park area of Los Angeles, and I saw, in my mind, the opening scene of my book unfold. I saw a twenty-first-century woman who, like me, reads and rereads Jane Austen's six novels. Unlike me, she wakes up one morning in the body and life of an Englishwoman in Austen's time. I couldn't stop thinking about her, and finally I decided to write down what I saw. Once I opened that door, there was, of course, a good deal more to her story.
   
It wouldn't take a quantum physicist to figure out why Courtney Stone made her appearance in my head. After all, she embodies all the "what if's" I posed in many an idle fantasy indulged after yet another reading of Pride and Prejudice or another viewing of the 1995 BBC adaptation. What if I could hang out in one of those drawing rooms in Jane Austen's world, pretending to do needlework ("pretending" being the operative word for someone who cannot sew) while stealing glances at some hottie in tight knee breeches? Would it be a dream come true to inhabit that world, or a case of be-careful-what-you-wish-for? What exactly do Austen's books tell me about her world, and what do they not tell me? What is invisible to me as a contemporary reader? Just how sanitized are even the most "faithful" of the film adaptations? Why do I, with all my freedom and choices as a contemporary woman, fantasize my way into the world of Jane Austen? Writing this book was an opportunity to explore those questions.
   
There is another question I keep hearing, and it concerns the current spike in the popularity of all things Austen. That question is "Why now?" It is difficult to imagine topping Devoney Looser's hilarious answer (here). Nevertheless, I'll venture a couple of theories.

Here is the first: Quite simply, it's score one for the snowball effect of the collective consciousness. Like Austen's "one shoulder of mutton, you know, drives another," one could say that "one Austen movie drives another quickly through the development process." It is, after all, the films that are sexy enough to grab most of the headlines. And there are at least six of them, two in theatrical release (Becoming Jane and the upcoming Jane Austen Book Club) and at least four coming up on PBS. The books then gratefully hitch a ride on the pop culture express.

Here is another theory, which came out of something my husband said to me the other day when I was obsessing over something of no consequence whatsoever. "The mind," he said, "is an unreliable narrator." His comment led me to ponder whether we are now living in the era of the unreliable narrator--from our widespread distrust of traditional media and Washingtonian mouthpieces to our own overly analytical and self-helped-to-death minds. Perhaps our need for the reliable narrator is stronger now than ever.
   
For me, there is no narrator more reliable than Jane Austen, the keenest and funniest observer of human nature of any author I know. It is her all-knowing, all-seeing narrator who holds up a mirror to our human failings as well as our capacity for magnificence. It is she who guides us to distinguish truly trustworthy behavior from the posings of those who have nothing to recommend them but a handsome face and an agreeable manner. It is she who shows us how to spot greed, jealousy, arrogance, and vanity at a hundred paces, regardless of how smartly dressed it is. Most of all, it is she who shows us how to laugh at all of it and not take ourselves so seriously. That is why I can't (and wouldn't want to) stop reading and rereading Austen. For me, her six novels constitute the most reliable set of self-help books I could ever want to own. Add to that her gift for storytelling twists and a love story with a satisfying ending, and you've got the perfect recipe for a much healthier sort of addiction than those in which we humans usually indulge.
   
Austen's hilarious skewering of the follies and flaws of human beings is what makes her novels timeless. Human nature, after all, hasn't changed at all since Austen's day. Nevertheless, I, like many Austen addicts, do find myself drawn to the period details of her world, the window dressing, if you will. What makes these details attractive has little to do with their inherent qualities. After all, empire-waisted gowns are not as well-suited to my figure as they are to say, Gwyneth Paltrow's. And given the choice between spending five hours in my car driving from San Francisco to Los Angeles, as I did the other day, to four bone-jangling days in a horse-drawn carriage, I'd take the car any day. Nevertheless, I am attracted to those details precisely because they are of her world, because they give me greater access to her stories.
   
And so in writing Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict I was able to indulge another aspect of my addiction, immersion in the details of Austen's world. And yes, when seen through the Hollywood-tinted lenses of postmodern nostalgia, spending four days on the road in a horse-drawn carriage doesn't sound that bad after all. Especially if at the end of your journey you get to sleep in a four-poster bed in a sumptuous mansion and rest up for the ball where you dance with Jeremy Northam and look just like Gwyneth Paltrow in your empire-waisted gown.   
   
Still, I'd venture to say that our deepest yearning isn't merely to escape the noise of modern technology for the bonnets and balls and carriages of Jane Austen's world. We, like our favorite protagonists, long to escape the unreliable narrators of our minds for an omniscient guide who writes our own story, the one with the happy ending.

[BS: Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict is available at bookstores right now, and Laurie Viera Rigler's website is a treasure trove for fans of Jane, ready-to-become fans of Jane, or just people who understand the value that comes from wasting time on a really fun site. Laurie is also making appearances in support of her novel.]