Books and Films in Jane Austen July

[@readandre-read]

I just had to rewatch 1995 Pride and Prejudice this week. I love that adaptation.

[@sarahel19]

I've also read the Rory Muir book this month, and found it so interesting. He has a way of mixing the stories of Austen's characters and those of real life people which I found very engaging. I especially enjoyed the extracts from letters of the time. I read By the Book some years ago and remember enjoying it very much. The romance felt true to Austen's Persuasion, and the setting made the story endearing. About Georgette Heyer, The Grand Sophy is one of her most famous books but not the best one. I would recommend Sylvester (my favorite), Venetia and Frederica if you feel like giving her another try. I've been hugely enjoying Claudia Gray's books this month, The murder of Mr Wickham and The Late Mrs Willoughby. I didn't expect to like them so much. They are very well written, and it's so nice to follow some of Austen's characters together with a few others who are new.

[@JoshsBookishVoyage]

I can't say I'm a big Austen fan, but I do love hearing you talk about your love for it. It tempts me to give her another chance.

[@LaurieInTexas]

By the Book sounds very intriguing. I hope to read it someday. I reread Sense and Sensibility this month and loved it more than ever. It still doesn't jump ahead of P&P as my favorite, but it might be in second place now. I am reading an adaptation of P&P called Unequal Affections which picks up at Darcy's first proposal and continues the story with Elizabeth accepting him but with reservations. I'm enjoying it, but I'm not quite halfway so we'll see if I like it as well when I'm done.

[@tillysshelf]

Love the sound of Love and Marriage, must be great to have a deeper understanding of that. By the Book also sounds good - nice to have a retelling that isn't based on P&P. I didn't even know there was a 2024 S&S - will have to try it. Have been wanting to watch Scents and Sensibility for a while though it does sound a bit dire!

[@katiejlumsden]

You’ve had such a great Jane Austen July!

[@HannahsBooks]

@@katiejlumsden But not nearly as exciting as yours! I am waiting for my copy of your book to cross the seas right now!

[@HannahsBooks]

Katie-I was recently visiting Steve Donogue and we filmed a video together. We talk about both your new book and your channel at about the 36:25 mark.

[@elizabethaliteraryprincess]

You've sold me on By the Book! It sounds like a lot of fun. And I was so happy to hear your thoughts on Sense and Sensibility 2024. I haven't seen anyone talking about it, and I was wondering how it was.

[@bouquinsbooks]

No one can come close to Jane Austen. I read Heyer for entertainment only. When I made a video ranking my favourite Heyer novels, it was about a year after I had read The Grand Sophy, and I had completely forgotten the ugly antisemitic episode. When I reread it not long after, I was surprised that I could have forgotten such a scene. The mysoginy you mentioned bothered me more in other Heyer novels, where it shows at the beginning. In the case of the Grand Sophy, I interpreted his proposal and her answer as being tongue in cheek. My brain had no difficulty reading it as a love declaration.

[@TimeTravelReads]

I'd like to get to that book on marriage in Regency England. Modern adaptations of Austen can be very difficult to pull off. I like your thought that the 1950s were more blunt about misogyny and violence than the 18teens, who were more subtle, but not necessarily less violent.

[@MsPixieD]

Hi! This is my first year watching BookTubers, and my first year participating in Jane Austen July (I do not have a channel. Just had the intent to do a reading journal this year, and "the algorithm" started showing me stuff 😄). I'm also Gen X and studied primarily 19th century lit, English and American but not much Regency, so this July has been a chance to catch up on so much! I had never heard of Georgette Heyer and still haven't read her (google suggests Sophy is the best, but then some summaries made it sound a little annoying, so I was hesitating). But based on a Booktube recommendation I read Georgette Heyer's Regency World by Jennifer Kloester. Excellent! It feels like the bible and template for shows like Bridgerton (watched on Netflix), and enhanced my recent viewing of the 2020 adaptation of Emma with Anya Taylor-Joy (currently on Prime Video, along with other Austen adaptations and adjacent, such as Mr. Malcolm's List, which I also watched). Thanks to the Regency World book, I'm spotting all the clothes, leisure activities, carriages, customs, oh so many things that show up in all these movies! I didn't expect to like the Millennial pink+ Gen Z yellow version of Emma as much as I did, but I gave it 5 stars and consider it the best adaptation I've seen! Great actors, gorgeous production design, funny script (by Eleanor Catton -- Birnam Wood is on my tbr). I do plan to re-watch Clueless, and I Iistened to Emmett for the contemporary retelling of an Austen novel 👍 I'm taking full advantage of the "you get to choose" aspect of the prompts to pick what I feel like this month instead of Sense and Sensibility. I will read Sanditon etc. next, even though the Kate Beckinsale adaptation of Lady Susan didn't leave an impression (Prime also has two Emmas from the 90s, Beckinsale and Paltrow, but I don't feel the need to rewatch them). Sanditon/Susan/Watsons is already checked out from the library. Btw, my library's Link+ can borrow that Julia Lee book, so thanks for the rec and I'll look forward the "Vic-tober"! 😃 Earlier this year, before I'd heard of Jane Austen July, I read Northanger Abbey and felt the beginning was so hilarious that Austen could have been a top TV comedy writer if she were alive in our era. She is so sharp and gets the beats. I just finished Castle of Otranto (2014 Oxford World's Classics), loved the intro on "the Gothick," and in general am loving filling in those gaps, as I really didn't study much "Georgian" lit or history back in the 80s. Now it's a popular era because of Bridgerton, Hamilton (best George!), and even Highlander. So glad to have lived long enough to see new things, and new ways of looking at old things.

[@karlalikestoread]

I really enjoyed Love & Marriage In the Age of Jane Austen too. So much that I picked up Gentlemen of Uncertain Fortune after and have now finished it. I really enjoyed that one too. I struggled with the modern fiction based around or inspired by Jane Austen I tried. She has set my standards too high! Also, I love that Jane Eyre made it into your Jane Austen July and you didn't even plan it!

[@HannahsBooks]

I am looking forward to reading Gentlemen of Uncertain Fortune! I feel just as you do about modern retellings of Austen. I think it is going to take a really strong recommendation to try another one!

[@davidnovakreadspoetry]

My sister was a big Heyer fan - I never heard about that aspect of the stories and wonder how prevalent it was throughout. I may have tried reading one back then but didn’t get far. (I read a Barbara Cartland through but no longer remember it.)

[@clarepotter7584]

Having just finished 'By the Book' I wonder how much authors are influenced by their publishers: the book group section at the back etc. I know the parent of a fantasy writer whose book was requested to be 'spiced' up before publication, or at least that's what he told his Dad! I enjoyed it in parts, the book references, the rich sister and her friends. Pam seemed very Mrs Jennings to me. The villain seemed more Wickham than Mr Elliot, I thought the reveal of what he'd done, seemed remarkably implausible, it would have to have been something more obscure not to have been picked up sooner. The academic book sounds interesting.

[@HannahsBooks]

I agree with everything you say. I mentioned in my video that there were surprising links to P&P, and you pegged exactly what I was referring to. I was as frustrated here even more than I was there: why wouldn’t the main character make things public? (I understood why with Darcy, even though I think he was wrong to hide the info.) I had not thought about Mrs. Jennings-but how perfect!

[@clarepotter7584]

FYI: Regarding Julia Sun-Joo Lee's 'The American Slave Narrative and the Victorian Novel' - I have received my copy. It's 143 pages, excluding notes, so shorter than I thought it might be, it was quite expensive, as you mentioned. I think it's going to end up being a project beyond Victober - because various books are referenced and think it might be better to read them first: 'Jane Eyre', 'Great Expectations' and 'North and South' I wouldn't need to read. 'The Grey Woman' and 'Lady Ludlow' (Gaskell), 'Pendennis' (Thackeray) and 'The Dynamiter' (RL Stephenson and his wife) I haven't read. Just something to take into account if you manage to find a library copy.

[@HannahsBooks]

@@clarepotter7584 Thank you so much, Clare. I will try to find it on interlibrary loan!

[@michellehyland3675]

Hi Hannah. I have found this kind of behaviour in some of Heyer's novels. That ending might suggest something sinister.

[@MsPixieD]

I think back then they thought the violent, even rapey, vibe signalled passion and animal abandon. I think of that scene in GWTW where they're both drunk and Rhett lays hands on Scarlett and threatens to squeeze in her skull, but the next thing you know he's sweeping her up that staircase to exercise his marital "rights" whether she likes it or not, and the next morning she's as pleased as can be. It doesn't read the same now as it did for the original audience.

[@michellehyland3675]

@@MsPixieD Most likely.🤮

[@HannahsBooks]

Yes! That portrayal of women needing to be assaulted (or at least forced to do what a powerful man wants them to do) in order to discover the pleasures of sexuality angers me, but it was an incredibly common plot line for a while. It seems to have been a way to signal sex in a clear way-showing the lead-up and the afterwards but not the forbidden middle. That glowing afterwards was key in film. Personally, I like the earlier style of showing the closed door!

[@clarepotter7584]

The Fay Weldon adaptation is the closest to the book, keeps a lot of the dialogue etc, I love it for that reason, the Andrew Davies version creates a better impression (deliberate choice of word 🙂) of Darcy because the audience know more than Elizabeth, he would argue that he added more sexual tension as well, that's great but I personally could live without men stripping off and diving into lakes, can't see Austen approving and it meant a number of adaptations followed suit. I will be interested on what I think about 'By the Book' Thanks for the recommendation of Muir book.

[@HannahsBooks]

I either dreamed it or saw a biopic of Austen herself seeing a drenched man coming out of a lake and frowning in disapproval and disinterest!

[@clarepotter7584]

@@HannahsBooks 'Lost in Austen' is an interesting watch. The idea of a reader falling into a novel and characters falling out of it is entertaining. I have issues with the ways some of the characters behave out of character but it's clever at times. Our reader works at a company called 'Sanditon' and one point she reader asks Darcy to walk into a lake!

[@HannahsBooks]

@@clarepotter7584 I really must watch that! I feel like I must have seen it at some point, but I have absolutely no memory of it...

[@TheLinguistsLibrary]

**adds 'By the Book ' to cart

[@HannahsBooks]

I hope you will enjoy it. It is just light silliness, but it was full of pleasant surprises for me.