From the desk of Shelley DeWees: Tell me. Do you think this sounds like a Jane Austen novel? “Gawain!” he screamed as he pulled himself free at the sound of his dog’s cry. From the corner of his eye, he could see his assailant grab the other man’s cane out from under him and raise... Continue Reading →
Jane Austen’s Cults and Cultures, by Claudia L. Johnson – A Review
From the desk of Aia Hussein-Yousef: In chapter five of Claudia L. Johnson’s new book Jane Austen’s Cults and Cultures, she notes that in the first Jane Austen Society Report for the years 1943 – 46, a memory belonging to an elderly village woman named Mrs. Luff was recorded in which she remembers watching Jane... Continue Reading →
The World of Downton Abbey, by Jessica Fellowes – A Review
Season two of Downton Abbey has concluded and we are left in limbo until it returns next Fall in the UK and January 2013 in the US. *deep sigh* For those like myself, who have watched and re-watched every blessed minute, yet, just can’t get enough of the award-winning ITV/PBS television mini-series and are in... Continue Reading →
The Journey, by Jan Hahn – A Review
From the desk of Christina Boyd: At last, at last. It’s arrived at last. Fans of Jan Hahn, author of An Arranged Marriage, winner of 2011 Best Indie Book award by Austenprose, have been all anticipation for the release of The Journey. This Pride & Prejudice twist begins shortly after the Netherfield Ball. After Miss... Continue Reading →
The Garden Intrigue: A Pink Carnation Novel (Book9), by Lauren Willig – A Review
From the desk of Jeffrey Ward: Eloise Kelly is in England researching her dissertation on English espionage during the Napoleonic Wars; especially a shadowy figure known only as the Pink Carnation. Eloise’s friendship with Colin Selwick (whose ancestry included spies who worked with this secret agent) has permitted Eloise access to the family’s carefully guarded... Continue Reading →
Top 20 Jane Austen-inspired Books of 2011
Happy New Year Janeites! 2012 promises to be a glorious Jane-packed reading extravaganza for Austenesque and Regency fans. In the next few months we are looking forward to several novels: the debut of Austentatious, by Alyssa Goodnight (January 31), a new mystery, Midnight in Austenland, by Shannon Hale (Jan 31), and Jane Vows Vengeance: A... Continue Reading →
6 Jane Austen-inspired Holiday Stories
Tis the season to ring in the holiday spirit, and what better way to do so with than with a Jane Austen-inspired Christmas story? Here is a selection of novels and short stories from the past year that you might consider cozying up to with hot tea and festive holiday cookies on a cold evening... Continue Reading →
The Unexpected Miss Bennet, by Patrice Sarath – A Review
From the desk of Jeffrey Ward: Mary Bennet, that plain, pedantic, priggish, middle sister from Jane Austen’s classic novel Pride and Prejudice, who gave us deadpan lines such as, “I admire the activity of your benevolence…but every impulse of feeling should be guided by reason; and, in my opinion, exertion should always be in proportion... Continue Reading →
Jane and the Barque of Frailty: Being a Jane Austen Mystery (Book 9), by Stephanie Barron – A Review
Here we are at the ninth novel in the Being a Jane Austen Mystery series, Stephanie Barron’s sagacious slant on “our dear Jane” as a sleuth! The spring of 1811 finds Jane in London staying with her banker-brother Henry Austen and his sophisticated wife Eliza at their residence on Sloane Street preparing her first novel,... Continue Reading →
The Mysterious Death of Miss Austen, by Lindsay Ashford – A Review
Jane Austen’s personal life is a bit of an enigma. We know a bit about her day-to-day life from her remaining personal correspondence; of which a few snippets allude to her beaux and friends. Readers are often puzzled how a spinster wrote so perceptively about romance and the human heart. One would think that first-hand... Continue Reading →
Jane Austen Made Me Do It, edited by Laurel Ann Nattress – A Review
From the desk of Christina Boyd: “It is only a novel… or, in short, some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour are conveyed to the world in the... Continue Reading →
The Deception at Lyme (Or, The Peril of Persuasion), by Carrie Bebris – A Review
From the desk of Christina Boyd: In Jane Austen’s Persuasion, the famed seawall of Lyme is perilous to the heedless, naĂŻve Miss Louisa Musgrove, whose fall is a critical turning point in the original novel. But in award winning author Carrie Bebris’ new Austen-inspired mystery, The Deception at Lyme (Or, The Peril of Persuasion), the... Continue Reading →