Austen

The world isn’t short of audio versions of Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen’s first published novel, which follows the fortunes of sisters Elinor and Marianne Dashwood and their pursuit of love. Rosamund Pike recorded one in 2018 while Kate Winslet, who appeared in Ang Lee’s screen adaptation, did one in 2007. Juliet Stevenson recorded her version in 2004, though not before Prunella Scales and Glenda Jackson got theirs in.Now we have another, courtesy of Derry Girls actor Nicola Coughlan, which does seem superfluous to…

Nida Manzoor created We Are Lady Parts for Channel 4, a sitcom about an all-female, all-Muslim punk band; now, for her debut feature film, she brings serious levels of goof, wack and zane for a feelgood action comedy with a very incorrect adjective in the title. It stars newcomer Priya Kansara as a young girl from a British-Pakistani family: Ria, a year 11 martial arts enthusiast and wannabe stuntwoman on a desperate mission to sabotage her older sister’s marriage to a guy that somehow only she can see is a sinister…

“What might she have written next?” asked Margaret Atwood in her tribute to Hilary Mantel, after the Booker prize-winning novelist’s sudden death in September last year. “I don’t know, but I will miss it.” In this, she spoke for readers around the world, eagerly awaiting a new book from the author of the Wolf Hall trilogy. Aside from her Cromwell novels, Mantel had a habit of confounding expectations, with each new work so different from its predecessor.We now know the answer to Atwood’s question: Mantel was working on a…

Hilary Mantel, the celebrated author of the Wolf Hall trilogy, was working on a “mashup” of Jane Austen novels when she died suddenly, her literary agent told a packed memorial service at Southwark cathedral on Thursday.“She was having the greatest fun dissecting a literary icon,” said Bill Hamilton before a “fragment” of the unfinished novel, Provocation, was read by the actor Aurora Dawson-Hunte.Mantel was working on the book when she had a stroke at her home in Devon last September. The double Booker prize winner was…

A letter from Jane Austen to her sister, in which she shares domestic news and neighbourhood gossip, is to go on display at the author’s former home.Dated 1798, the letter is one of around 160 by Austen that survive, and one of the earliest in existence. It came to Cheffins Auctioneers through the estate of a Cambridge resident who acquired it in 2000.Consisting of four pages, written on a single large folio sheet folded three times, the letter will be displayed at Austen’s house in Chawton, Hampshire, where she lived for…

“I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book!” wrote Jane Austen in Pride and Prejudice.This weekend, 210 years after the publication of the second of her six novels, Austen’s work is providing as much enjoyment as ever – and to a younger audience than the author probably ever dreamed of.“We have seen an increasing number of young Janeites visiting,” said Alice Hodges, who works at the Jane Austen Centre in Bath. These include children as young as eight.Eden…

Earlier this year, Hulu released a movie called Fire Island, written by and starring Joel Kim Booster. It’s about a group of gay friends, but it was also inspired by Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Booster said he wouldn’t mind making a whole Jane Austen gay universe. In a recent interview with IndieWire, Booster revealed that he’d love to adapt more Jane Austen books into gay movies. Like a lot. So much so that he’s pretty much always thinking about it. “I love adaptation. Every time I read a Jane Austen book, I’m…

There are so many Jane Austen adaptations for film and TV that it’s hard to keep up. But which ones are any good?In 2020, Autumn de Wilde’s big-screen adaptation of Austen’s beloved novel Emma was released.It stars Anya Taylor-Joy as the high-spirited protagonist Emma Woodhouse, who is a relentless matchmaker in the romantic lives of friends and family.Also in the cast are Johnny Flynn as the dashing George Knightley, whom Emma eventually realises she loves, while Bill Nighy plays her father, Mr Woodhouse.Austen’s novel,…

Netflix’s new version of Persuasion is being called out for its “cringey” dialogue.The film, which stars Dakota Johnson in the lead role of Anne, was released on the streaming service on Friday (15 July).But, those who have seen the film, which is directed by Carrie Cracknell, are urging viewers to steer clear – and are highlighting specific lines of dialogue as evidence as to why they should do so.In the film, Johnson’s character can be heard saying: “Now we’re worse than exes, we’re friends.” She also describes herself…

By Lindsey Bahr | Associated Press The new adaptation of ” Persuasion, ” coming to Netflix Friday, does not seem to have been made for Jane Austen fans. Her book about the unmarried Anne Elliot, who at 27 is on the edge of spinsterhood and regretting having been persuaded to give up her true love years earlier because of his lowly status, was the author’s last before her death. It is notable and beloved for how it’s distinct from her more widely known and adapted books like “Pride and Prejudice” and “Emma,” with its…