Fellow Janeites, it’s happened.

The reviews are being reviewed: Alert Janeite Kirsty sent in this post by a blogger who has had enough.

As deeply fond as I am of Jane Austen’s novels, and of Pride and Prejudice in particular, I don’t pretend that they’re without their flaws. Austen’s romances are cerebral and mostly passionless, and her characters’ world is no wider than her own limited, proscribed existence. The wonder of Austen’s fiction is the fact that she took these coldly moral tales, combined them with her warm wit and keen powers of observation, and came up with a miniature of humanity in all its glory and silliness. Some things, some aspects of human existence, are missing, but in much the same way that we don’t turn to Tolkien for complicated and flawed characters, and we don’t read George Eliot when we’re after a barrel of laughs, it’s wrong to try and impose those aspects on our reading of Austen. For better and worse (but mostly for better), she is what she is–one of the finest authors in the English language, and well worth a first, second, and third look.

Now this is the type of Gritty Realism we AustenBloggers like to see!

Down in New Zealand, English professor Joanne Wilkes waxes poetic on the enduring appeal of Witty Jane.

Alert Janeite Claire sent in this snarking article from the New York Times, in which an inanimate object’s love for Keira Knightley is declared:

In “Pride and Prejudice,” the latest movie version of the Jane Austen classic, out next month, the camera follows her around like a besotted puppy. It flings itself out of windows and over furniture and through walls just to be close to her. When she’s not there, it frantically rushes around whimpering, sliding off the rest of the cast in anticipation, and when it finally gets her on the sofa or backs her into a corner, it just licks her all over, in an ecstasy of devotion.

Sorry Mr. Camera, I think Miss Knightley (as well as most other people of the feminine persuasion) prefers significant others with a noticeable heartbeat.

The Pace Press, however, is not so easily infatuated as Mr. Camera:

I’d love any excuse to encourage the public to see and become familiar with a Jane Austen tale, particularly one that is so revered, I’d have to tell everyone; instead of wasting your $10 to see this drained and cheap Hollywood imitation, go rent the ’95 BBC mini-series. You can’t go wrong there. Can you truly tell me that you want to go see a movie where the tag line is, “Sometimes the last person on earth you want to be with is the one person you can’t be without”?

Um . . . no comment.

Alert Janeite Cinthia wrote to us about the Spectator’s opinion on the film, which finds a comfortable balance between obsessive admiration and downright snark:

Overall, fans of the book and mini-series should be generally pleased with the film. It was a good adaptation of the classic novel and will help any Austen fan get past their prejudice and be filled with pride.

And that, dear readers, is diplomacy in action.