A friend sent me a link to this review about this book – of course I had to buy it. It just arrived in the mail and I haven’t read it yet, but it is next in line after All That I Am by Anna Funder.
Here are some other reviews …
A friend sent me a link to this review about this book – of course I had to buy it. It just arrived in the mail and I haven’t read it yet, but it is next in line after All That I Am by Anna Funder.
Here are some other reviews …
Filed under Criticism
I’ve been watching the 1980 version of Pride and Prejudice.
The screen play was written by Fay Weldon and it stars Elizabeth Garvie as Elizabeth and David Rintoul as Mr Darcy.
I thought it would be a bit dated like this version of Emma…
however, it’s fine. The costumes and setting aren’t as beautiful as modern adaptations, but it is very watchable.
I like Fay Weldon’s screen play. The script is true to the spirit of the novel. She has the characters say things that the narrator expresses in the book. For example, the famous opening lines …
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
Are expressed by Elizabeth while in conversation with Charlotte.
I thought the casting was good although I was a little but disappointed in David Rintoul’s Mr Darcy. He certainly looks the part – tall and handsome – and he does the proud disdainful stuff very well, but he doesn’t seem to change he still seems proud and disdainful at the end.
I think this adaptation is definitely worth watching (of course the 1995 adaptation is still my favourite). However, it is quite difficult to find. I eventually found a copy at amazon.co.uk.
More reviews …
http://elegance-of-fashion.blogspot.com.au/2011/08/review-pride-and-prejudice-1980.html
http://christysbooks.blogspot.com.au/2010/08/pride-and-prejudice-1980.html
Filed under Adaptations, Pride and Prejudice
I found this novel at the airport – heading home from a girls weekend away – and had to buy it despite my plan of only buying digital books from now on.
Here is the blurb …
‘No two views of a ball will be exactly alike. So many separate little worlds make up the whole (most of them whirling mindlessly about), and my own view of that Meryton assembly cannot help but be different from that of my sisters. For the first part of the evening, I was a mere onlooker—unmoving and unmoved. Nobody turned my head with compliments. Nobody asked me to dance.’
What if Pride and Prejudice were to be retold from the viewpoint of Elizabeth Bennet’s younger sister, Mary, the ‘odd one out’ of the Bennet family?
This is what playwright, author, and Jane Austen Society of Australia member, Jennifer Paynter, asked herself before writing Mary Bennet – the plot of which eventually transports the heroine all the way from Hertfordshire to Macquarie’s New South Wales.
The familiar and much-loved characters of Pride and Prejudice appear in Mary Bennet – though they may be a little altered when seen through Mary’s eyes. From her post in the wings of the Bennet family, Mary is well-placed to observe Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy, for instance, but while she is able to view him quite dispassionately (and as it turns out, accurately) Mary may not be quite so clear-sighted when she finally falls in love herself.
Mary Bennet is the story of a young girl, desperate for attention and approval, who at last learns to question her family’s values and to overcome her own brand of ‘pride and prejudice’.
The novel covers time before, during and after the action of Pride and Prejudice. The way this novel fits in with Pride and Prejudice is very clever – Ms Paynter even manages to make Mary sympathetic. All those pompous statements, like …
“Unhappy as the event must be for Lydia, we may draw from it this useful lesson: that loss of virtue in a female is irretrievable; that one false step involves her in endless ruin; that her reputation is no less brittle than it is beautiful; and that she cannot be too much guarded in her behaviour towards the undeserving of the other sex.”
don’t seem so silly when you have Mary’s point of view. Some of the minor characters from Pride and Prejudice are fleshed out – Mrs Long’s nieces for instance – and extra characters added. Although the style isn’t the same as Austen’s, it is well written and didn’t have any of those anachronistic moments, which remind you that you are reading a modern regency novel. This novel is different form the current spate of re-interpretations, re-tellings etc, in that it is more than just a romance – there is romance, but there is social commentary as well.
Other reviews …
http://readinginthebath.wordpress.com/2012/05/12/mary-bennet-jennifer-paynter/
http://thebennetsisters.wordpress.com/2012/05/20/book-review-and-qa-mary-bennet-by-jennifer-paynter/
Filed under Continuations, Pride and Prejudice, Re-Interpretation
The ring sold for 152,450 pounds – five times its estimate. It was bought by an anonymous private collector.
More information here …
Filed under Miscellaneous
This was in the discount bin at JBHIFI and I definitely thought it was worth buying.
It is a modern retelling of Sense and Sensibility. This is from Wikipedia …
From Prada to Nada is an American romantic comedy film directed by Angel Garcia and produced by Gary Gilbert, Linda McDonough, Gigi Pritzker and Chris Ranta. The plot was conceived from Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility.[2] The screen play was adapted by Luis Alfaro, Craig Fernandez and Fina Torres to be a Latino version of the English novel, where two spoiled sisters who have been left penniless after their father’s sudden death are forced to move in with their estranged aunt in East Los Angeles.
I enjoyed it – it is light and entertaining (focussing on the romantic aspects of Austen). I didn’t find the romance between Edward and Nora (the Elinor character) to be very convincing – she had a ten year plan and was focused on her career because she felt (after both her parents had died) that was all she could count on and so rejected Edward’s advances (the Lucy character comes later). The Mary (Marianne character) was probably handled a bit better – although Mary herself is an idle snob. The setting worked well – Beverley Hills to East LA is as big a shift as Norland to Barton Cottage.
It is probably not as good as Clueless (a modern retelling of Emma), but worth watching if you come across it while renting a DVD of perusing the TV Guide (i.e. don’t buy it).
Filed under Adaptations, Re-Interpretation, Sense and Sensibility
Those of you with a Kindle can download this for free here.
I haven’t read it yet, but here are some other reviews …
http://janeaustensworld.wordpress.com/2012/06/21/review-behind-jane-austens-door-by-jennifer-forest/
http://indiejane.org/2012/06/review-behind-jane-austens-door/
Filed under Miscellaneous