Friday Bookblogging: Happy Endings Edition
Alert Janeite Kelley let us know that NPR’s “Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me” last weekend featured a question about P&P and Zombies during the “Bluff the Listener” segment. You can listen to the show online or download the podcast.
Author Nora Roberts (you may have heard of her) has opened a B&B in an 18th-century inn in Boonsboro, Maryland, that features several rooms named after famous literary couples–but only those who lived happily ever after.
Having written more than 170 novels under her name as well as J.D. Robb, Roberts knows how to set the scene for romantic interludes.
“The whole idea was the rooms’ themes had to be linked to literary couples who ended up with happy endings,” says Roberts, who says she was challenged to find enough couples to fill the bill. “Romeo and Juliet? Dead. Tristan and Isolde? Dead. Not happy. Dead, dead, dead. Rhett Butler and Scarlett? He didn’t give a damn. You try finding seven of them.”
Hee hee heeeeeee! One of the rooms is named for Elizabeth and Darcy, of course. And we guess this qualifies La Nora as an F.O.J. She has definitely hit upon one of the reasons why Janeites love Jane.
But sometimes we can love Jane not wisely but too well. Remember the tidbit from the Times article last weekend? Alert Janeite Aad found a listing for the book, Jane Austen: An Unrequired Love. We’ll wait while you all stop throwing up in your mouths a little.
Jane Austen is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in the English literary canon, and recent film and television adaptations of her works have brought them to a new audience almost two hundred years after her untimely death. Yet much remains unknown about her life, and there is considerable interest in the romantic history of the creator of Elizabeth Bennett and Mr Darcy. Andrew Norman here presents a new account of her life, breaking new ground by proposing that she and her sister, Cassandra, fell out over a young clergyman, who he idenfities for the first time. He also suggests that, along with the Addison’s Disease that killed her, Jane Austen suffered from TB. Written by a consummate biographer, Jane Austen: an Unrequited Love is a must-read for all lovers of the author and her works.
A spork! A spork! Our kingdom for a spork! It’s out next month in the U.S. We shall retire to Bedlam, O Gentle Readers.
That’s it for Friday Bookblogging, as the Editrix toddles off in search of Dorothy and a pot of soothing vanilla rooibos. Until next time, Gentle Readers, always remember: Books Are Nice!
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Was it a Freudian slip that in the link you give the title of the book as An UnrequiRed Love, instead of UnrequiTed?
Ooh, that’ll be a great movie, with Jane and Cassandra in a muddy, hair-pulling, semi-corseted catfight…
He’s not the first to suggest TB. TB can result in Addison’s disease. I just can’t recall which biography or article I read that mentioned this. Anyone else remember?
Ooh, that’ll be a great movie, with Jane and Cassandra in a muddy, hair-pulling, semi-corseted catfight…
Yes!!! And it can star Jennifer Anniston and Angelina Jolie having their smackdown over the right Reverend Brad Pitt!
And to make our day complete, maybe they can screen it in a double bill with the Sam Mendes Lost in Austen redux–with complementary empty popcorn containers to use as barf bags.
He’s not the first to suggest TB. TB can result in Addison’s disease. I just can’t recall which biography or article I read that mentioned this. Anyone else remember?
Possibly the Jane Austen Handbook! Addison’s disease can be secondary to TB, as I mentioned in there. However, I believe there are different kinds of TB, not just the romantic cough-up-a-lung variety that make authors so interesting.
I am willing to bet he attributes Jane’s high coloring to TB fever. Anyone want to take that action?
And oh, dear, my Freudian slip is indeed showing! ha ha!
Yes!!! And it can star Jennifer Anniston and Angelina Jolie having their smackdown over the right Reverend Brad Pitt!
Calling the zombies to the set, STAT! (Crunch crunch, slurp slurp!) There, the zombies solved another problem!
I have a really bizarre idea. What about a movie where Jane goes visiting, gossips, and writes novels, while the rest of her family battles Napoleon, flees the guillotine, gets arrested, and hides from creditors? (There’s bound to be some sex in there somewhere, they had enough kids…)
The unrequited love had a sad ending. I understand it took place in my locality in Devon. It is a dreamy place and full of purposeful endearments.
‘…proposing that she and her sister, Cassandra, fell out over a young clergyman…’
Aha! At last, an answer to the question of why Cassandra made our delightful Jane look like such a crabby old b**** in that one-and-only-authentic-portrait-of-JA-that-we-have. Cassandra’s revenge – mystery solved!
Valerie, there is already a great short story, to be found in an annual collection of Science Fiction (??!!) that features an England conquered by Napoleon, with the Bennet girls joining the resistance movement. I particularly remember the image of Lydia Wickham, with her chemise unbuttoned far more than it should be, a pistol in each hand and a knife between her teeth, exhorting the troops to rise & fight. Can’t remember the title, alas, but perhaps our Editrix will know.
“Resolve and Resistance.” I read it a while ago and found it rather awesome.
P.S. http://www.steelypips.org/weblog/2003/06/dyer_sn_resolve.php
I visited the good doctor’s website at http://andrew-norman.com/ and found very little of use, except that he has been a very, very busy writer. Goodness, does he have access to the letters The Formidables are guarding from public scrutiny in Jane Austen Ruined My Life?
Ooops, I forgot to add this little tidbit from his website: “My Jane Austin biography was inspired by seeing some of her personal possessions displayed on the Antiques Roadshow!”
Note how he spells Jane’s last name.
I doubt I’ll be reading a book which confuses such a simple thing as who/whom –”who he idenfities” should, of course, be “whom he identifies.” Either the author or his editor do not understand basic grammar. Irksome!
Speaking of Napoleonic wars alt-history, there’s a recent series of fantasy novels by Naomi Novik that suppose England and France to have an air force of dragons. Very like the Patrick O’Brian books. Surely if we can have P&P with zombies, we can have O’Brian with dragons.
valerie;
would the semi corseted catfight be half on or half off-(the corsets-or stays?). give em each boxing gloves!
Peter
I’d rather give the French F-14′s.The British I’d give them sopwith camels and Benny Hill