Your online source for Jane Austen and her legacy
From the desk of Laurel Ann Nattress: We are coming up on a significant anniversary next year in the Jane Austen film adaptation world. Sense and Sensibility (1995) will be thirty—an age in Austen’s Regency world when unmarried women were considered old maids, unworthy of serious consideration on the marriage market. Not so with this... Continue Reading →
From the desk of Laurel Ann Nattress: Great news for fans of the TV period dramas Downton Abbey, The Gilded Age, and Belgravia. Their writer & creator, Julian Fellowes, is now Executive Producer of the second season of Belgravia, with Helen Edmundson as screenwriter. Belgravia: The Next Chapter will premiere on Sunday, January 14 on... Continue Reading →
From the desk of Laurel Ann Nattress: With so much uncertainty and strife in the news, I am always ready for a feel-good, fairy tale getaway movie to escape to for a few hours. I have several favorites to call upon in my library: The Princess Bride (1987), Ever After (1998), and Pretty Woman (1990).... Continue Reading →
From the desk of Laurel Ann Nattress: For those of us who are fans of Jane Austen movie adaptations and binged the Netflix mega-hit Bridgerton, the announcement of a movie adaptation of Suzanne Allain’s popular Regency-era novel, Mr. Malcolm’s List, was the best news this period drama lover could receive. While our anticipation ran high,... Continue Reading →
From the desk of Laurel Ann Nattress: On Monday, September 19th I was glued to the TV watching the funeral service for HM Queen Elizabeth II. Since I live in the US and did not want to stay up all night, I recorded the 6-hour BBC coverage. It was a moving and awe-inspiring event; very... Continue Reading →
From the desk of Laurel Ann Nattress: What do we know about Jane Austen’s love life? Very little. The information that survives is found in her personal letters and from family recollections. Apart from the one proposal by Harris Bigg-Wither, no other known romances or love affairs were documented. For someone who wrote so perceptively... Continue Reading →
From the desk of Laurel Ann Nattress: A new, glitzy, star-studded movie adaptation of Agatha Christies 1937 novel Death on the Nile opens in theaters in the UK & US today. This high society mystery-thriller reunites the film-making team behind the 2017 adaptation of another Christie favorite, Murder on the Orient Express. Returning in the... Continue Reading →
From the desk of Laurel Ann Nattress: It’s time to brush up on your etiquette period drama fans. The Gilded Age premiers on Monday January 24th on HBO. We shall soon be immersed in the 1880s New York social whirl of Mrs. Astor’s elite, “Four Hundred,” along with some of those social climbing upstarts, the... Continue Reading →
 From the desk of Laurel Ann Nattress: The new film adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Johnny Flynn opened in general release in the US on March 6th. This enchanting and visually stunning interpretation of Austen’s classic tale of Miss Emma Woodhouse as the misapplying matchmaker of Highbury has received raves... Continue Reading →
Welcome to Sanditon, an 1819 Regency seaside community in Sussex England—the fictional site of the new ITV/PBS television adaptation/continuation of Jane Austen’s final unfinished novel. For those who are watching the eight-part series currently airing in the US on PBS, The World of Sanditon, by Sara Sheridan will be catnip to heighten your addiction. A... Continue Reading →
From the desk of Laurel Ann Nattress: A new Jane Austen adaptation/continuation written by Andrew Davies (Pride and Prejudice 1995) debuted last night in the US on Masterpiece PBS. Inspired by an unfinished novel that Austen began shortly before her death in 1817, Sanditon, the original novel, the television series, and the novelization by Kate... Continue Reading →
UPDATED 12/16/19 - in honor of Jane Austen's birthday today, Focus Features has premiered the second trailer. Scroll down to view. There are some amusing lines. This new adaptation just gets better and better. Janeites are all aflutter over the forthcoming release of the new Focus Features movie adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic novel Emma,... Continue Reading →
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