Your online source for Jane Austen and her legacy
The Austen book sleuth is happy to inform Janeites that Jane Austen inspired books are heading our way in May, so keep your eyes open for these new titles.  Editor’s note: This month’s selections are comprised of re-issued, re-titled and re-written selections. Shocking! Has the economic recession finally hit Austen bookland?  Fiction (prequels, sequels, retellings, variations,... Continue Reading →
Jane Austen’s novel Mansfield Park really gets a bum rap from critics and readers. Sometimes I think that I am its only advocate, campaigning to an empty room. Granted, it is not as emotionally charged as Sense and Sensibility or as light, bright and sparkly as Pride and Prejudice, but it does have an admirable... Continue Reading →
The harp arrived, and rather added to her beauty, wit, and good-humour; for she played with the greatest obligingness, with an expression and taste which were peculiarly becoming, and there was something clever to be said at the close of every air. Edmund was at the Parsonage every day, to be indulged with his favourite... Continue Reading →
When her two dances with him were over, her inclination and strength for more were pretty well at an end; and Sir Thomas, having seen her walk rather than dance down the shortening set, breathless, and with her hand at her side, gave his orders for her sitting down entirely. From that time Mr. Crawford... Continue Reading →
When a book written twenty five years ago is reissued as confidently as Mansfield Park Revisited: A Jane Austen Entertainment by a publisher who specializes in Jane Austen sequels, you hope that it is laudable. Of all of the past sequels to select, (and there are more than a few), why choose one based on Jane... Continue Reading →
"Jane's got more adoring female fans than Brad Pitt, and my guess is they're more intelligent too!" Terrence Hill Given the choice of reading Pride and Prejudice or watching a football game, which do you think the average all American male would choose? If this is a no brainer, you have recognized the male/female divide... Continue Reading →
Newby Hall, Yorkshire In Defense of Fanny Price Even after the conclusion of Mansfield Park Madness, I am still ruminating over the novel and the characters. In order to put them to rest, I must get one thing off my chest! My journey to understand the novel has lead me to several insights and one... Continue Reading →
 THE SEQUELS  Since Austen-esque author Amanda Grange first gave us Darcy's Diary, the retelling of Pride and Prejudice from Mr. Darcy's perspective in 2005, she has been dutifully working her way through all six of Jane Austen's heroes with her books; Mr. Knightley's Diary, Captain Wentworth's Diary, Edmund Bertram's Diary and the latest hardcover... Continue Reading →
THE SEQUELS A recent review at the venerable on-line periodical Publisher's Weekly of the re-issue of Mansfield Park Revisited by Joan Aiken gave me quite a good chuckle. It's amazing how a small typo can change the whole direction of a book! It appears on first glance that this reviewer thinks that Jane Austen's heroine from... Continue Reading →
THE SEQUELSÂ What happens when you mix the classic novelist Jane Austen with mystery writer Anne Perry? Author Carrie Bebris's delightfully funny and fresh Mr. and Mrs. Darcy Mystery Series. Avid readers of Ms. Bebris will be happy to learn that the fourth book in the series, The Matters at Mansfield: Or the Crawford Affair... Continue Reading →
THE SEQUELSÂ In this third book in "The Jane Austen Series" from author Debra White Smith, the story of Jane Austen's early 19th-century novel Mansfield Park is retold in contemporary New York city with the famous public Central Park as its axis. Prolific author White Smith has had great success with her series of retellings... Continue Reading →
THE NOVEL Good sense, like hers, will always act when really called upon; and she found that she had been able to name him to her mother, and recall her remembrance of the name, as that of "William's friend," though she could not previously have believed herself capable of uttering a syllable at such a... Continue Reading →
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