Everyone welcome avid Austenesque reader, Heather! Heather has been a long-time friend and participant on this blog these past years. 🙂 Like Elizabeth Bennet, Heather has some decided opinions, and I always enjoy hearing what she has to say about the books she reads!
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You: Tell us about yourself
My name is Heather M. I live in upstate NY, in a suburb of Albany. I’d love to find another JA fan nearby. So far, no luck; thank goodness for the internet. I have my own Mr. Darcy, although, I think I’m more Darcy-like than he is: reserved, serious and I don’t talk much around strangers. My husband is more like Mr. Knightley: ‘A sensible man … and had a cheerful manner.’ I have B.A. degrees in international economics and European history, and a masters in archives and record management. I’m not currently using any of them I once was a librarian, now I’m a stay at home mom to a little boy who is almost 4.
Your Induction:
When and how did you discover the Austenesque/JAFF genre? Indirectly, it is my husband’s fault. (Isn’t that a great thing to say?!) He’s a closet romantic and wanted to see the 2005 Pride and Prejudice movie. I was not about to see a movie based on a book without reading the book! So I checked it out from the library. And I fell in love. (the movie ended up disappointing me, but that’s a subject best left for another time).
I read Austen’s other novels, then every related literary criticism and essay I could find, I joined JASNA, and I own multiple copies of my Austen’s novels just for their unique introductions and annotations. What else is there for the fan of an author who has been dead for nearly 200 years? Desperation for more drove me to JAFF. I used to be a purist, a Janeite who thought the original 6 novels were trivialized by fanfiction. Needless to say I have seen the error of my ways.
- What was the first Austenesque novel you ever read? Pamela Aidan’s Fitzwilliam Darcy trilogy.
- What did you think of it? It was a gateway drug. I’ve since read ones that I’ve enjoyed more, but it was the beginning of my addictive downward spiral
Your Habits:
- About how many Austenesque novels do you read a month? About one a month/ every 6 weeks
- Around what percentage of your total reads a year are Austenesque novels? I’m a Goodreads user, so if we divide total books read by the total number of books on the Jane Austen related shelf that comes out to about just under 10%. But that includes books I’ve read over the course of my life, not just since I started to read Austenesque novels in 2008. I expect the percentage will get higher over time. If we counted the fanfic I read on the internet (not published) that number would skew higher. If we’re more generous and include regency historical fiction then it’s higher still.
- Where/how do you obtain the Austenesque books your read? I don’t buy a lot of books. I’m an
advocate for libraries and since I don’t read many books more than once (other than a few special faves that I like to revisit) I tend to borrow them rather than buy. My local library will sometimes buy the ones that I ask them to; when they don’t, I buy the e-book. As much as I like to hold the book in my hand, the portability, low price and nearly unlimited storage make me appreciate eBooks. I used to have a Nook and now I have an iPad so my nook and kindle app libraries are almost exclusively filled with JAFF. Also, blog giveaways feed my addiction very nicely.
- What is your favorite time of day to read? I usually read in the evening after my kid goes to bed while my husband watches TV or plays video games.
- What is your favorite place to read? How can you narrow it down to one place? My favorite place to read is any place where I have my book.
- What do you like to listen to when you read if anything? I prefer silence, but there’s often television or video game sounds in the background.
- What do you like to drink or eat when you read if anything? I’m a tea drinker. I’m not sure that I’ll remember how to read a book if there’s not a cup of tea on the table next to me.
- Do you read more than one book at a time ever? When I used to have free time (read: before child) I had books in several rooms and would simply read whatever book was there. 1 or 2 in the bedroom, 1 in the office, 2 or 3 in the family room 1 or 2 in the kitchen. Now I only have 1 or 2 at a time.
- Do you ever read the ending of a book first? Hahahaha yes! I am the worst. I always need to look at the end to see how Darcy and Elizabeth get together. I can’t handle the angst. It’s like a choose your own adventure where I skip around and read the end and skim parts and go back and forth until I finally sit down and read it beginning to end. It’s harder to do that with e-books, though. Those I’m usually forced to read from the beginning.
- Do you ever reread? On occasion I do, but as I said, I borrow more than I buy. Sometimes I go back and read just the parts that I like. Having so many as e-books makes it easy: with a few taps of my finger I can bring up a favorite passage, usually a part where our favorite couple is finally reconciled.
Your Collection:
Collectively around how many Austenesque works do you own? More than I need, less than I want. I just gave away about 75% of my print Austenesque books. We were cleaning house and I donated a very, very large box full of JAFF to the library book sale. The only print ones I have now are ones I won in a giveaway where the author inscribed a message to me. So my huge shelf is now down to 6 books. I have 13 nook books, 16 kindle books. So that’s 35.
If you add regency fiction and Georgette Heyer, th
at adds another 10. If you add ones that are about Jane Austen (nonfiction) or the Georgian/Regency era, that adds another 8 books.
So depending on how broad your definition of Austenesque is, I have either 35 or 54. Wow, I’ve never counted them all before. I think my Goodreads Jane Austen shelf must be missing a few books ….
- Where do you store your Austenesque collection? On my iPad 😉
- What format are most of your Austenesque books in – paperback, ebook, or audiobook?Most are ebook
- How many Austenesque books are currently in your TBR at this moment? Does Artemisia count? If so, then add that to my total number of Austenesque books, too. If that doesn’t count, then The Highbury Murders, The Subsequent Proposal, A Father’s Sins and Haunting Mr. Darcy. I don’t own any of them except The Subsequent Proposal, and my library won’t buy the others, so I’ll have to bite the bullet and buy them . . . unless anyone out there has the e-book and knows if it’s lendable 😉
Your Faves:
- Pride and Prejudice Variation: Mr. Darcy and the Secret to Becoming a Gentleman by Maria Hamilton. First Austenesque book I ever bought, so it has a special place in my heart.
- Pride and Prejudice Sequel: I can’t think of one, sequels aren’t my favorite. I like what-if variations better
- Pride and Prejudice Modern Adaptation: Compulsively Mr. Darcy by Nina Benneton
- Minor Character Story: My Dear Sophy by Kimberley Truesdale
- Non-Pride and Prejudice Sequel: Willoughby’s Return by Jane Odiwe
- Non-Pride and Prejudice Modern Adaptation: The Three Wiessmanns of Westport by Cathleen Schine (S&S)
- Reference/Nonfiction Work: Jane Austen: the World of Her Novels by Deirdre Le Faye and any original novel annotated by David Shapard.
- Austen-Inspired Original: Austenland by Shannon Hale or Murder at Longbourn by Tracy Kiely
- Original Character: Sarah from Longbourn Jo Baker (although the book overall didn’t make Elizabeth Bennet lovely enough for my liking)
- Austenesque Genre:P&P what-if variations are my absolute favorite, although I do admit a soft spot for Carrie Bebris’s mysteries. Regencies interest me a lot more than moderns do.
Your Desert Island 5: (You are about to be stranded on a desert island for unspecified amount of time you must select what you will bring)
- Five Austenesque/Jane Austen Movies
- Pride and Prejudice 1995
- Pride and Prejudice 1995 (no that’s not a typo; I really do want 2 copies of Colin Firth jumping in that lake and that Byronic, shy Darcy from P&P 2005 can stay off my island).
- Emma 2009
- Austenland
- Persuasion 2007
- Five Austenesque Books
- The Journey by Jan Hahn
- Mr. Darcy and the Secret to Becoming a Gentleman by Maria Hamilton
- Bitch In a Bonnet: Reclaiming Jane Austen From the Stiffs, the Snobs, the Simps and the Saps, Volume 1 by Robert Rodi
- Bitch In a Bonnet: Reclaiming Jane Austen From the Stiffs, the Snobs, the Simps and the Saps, Volume 2 by Robert Rodi
- A Dance with Jane Austen by Susannah Fullerton
Would You Rather?:
- Have Lady Catherine or Mrs. Norris as a mother? Yikes. Um, I’d prefer Lady Catherine. She’s arrogant, rude, and controlling, but her officiousness and compulsive desire to feel important by offering unwanted advice I could almost hope stems from affection to those she wants to be of use to. Mrs. Norris is a monster. She only wants to appear to do what is right; she is a selfish, cruel and abusive miser.
- Live in Bath or live in London? Bath is a scene of dissipation and vice (according to Jane). I’ll take London any day of the week.
- Be besties with Eleanor Tilney or Georgiana Darcy? I want Eleanor Tilney to be my best friend. Georgiana is nice, but so shy and eager to be guided by someone that we’d have an unequal relationship. I think once out from under her father’s thumb, Eleanor would really shine. She’s a loving sister and a generous friend.
- Dance every set at a ball or go horseback riding through the countryside with friends? Dance every set at a ball … assuming of course that I had several weeks of lessons beforehand and would not make a fool of myself.
- Marry Edmund Bertram or Edward Ferrars? Ugh. I choose option 3: become a chatty village spinster like Miss Bates. The potential for romance would be about the same. I guess if I had to pick I’d Edmund, only because I can imagine him being charmed by Mary Crawford and I don’t know what Edward saw in Lucy Ferrars.
- Attend a strawberry-picking party at Donwell Abbey or attend the theatre with the Gardiners? Hmm, considering I’d smack both Mrs Elton and Emma if I had to sit in the hot sun with them, I’d definitely choose the theatre with the Gardiners. They’re a fun, sensible couple and we’d have a good time.
- Go shopping with Lydia Bennet or have tea with Mrs. Elton? Shopping with Lydia, hands down. She’d want to buy horribly ugly bonnets and I’d tell her they’re hideous and she’d buy them anyway. Maybe we could tear them to pieces together. She could be fun in small, small doses. Mrs. Elton just shows money doesn’t buy class, or in her case, neither good manners nor common sense.
- Discover and read the finished manuscript (by Jane Austen) of The Watsons or Sanditon? The Watsons. She abandoned it rather than finish it, maybe because her father had died or she hadn’t had Susan (Northanger Abbey) published yet, or because its painful realism was too much for her to write at the time. I’d love to know that she returned to it and was able to complete it after all.
You Right Now:
- What Austenesque novel(s) are you currently reading at the moment? Just Jane by Nancy Moser
- What Austenesque novels are on your wish-list? Everything on my to-read list that I can’t borrow from the library.
- What Austenesque novel do you wish someone would write? Eleanor Tilney’s love story. Her happy ending is sort of a deus ex machine thrown into the end of Northanger Abbey. I want to know how lovely Eleanor managed to meet that worthy man who ended up inheriting a title and making it possible for both Eleanor and Henry to have their happy ever afters.
- What do you love most about Austenesque novels? Pride and Prejudice is my favorite book; I adored the dialogue between Darcy and Elizabeth, I loved Austen’s humor, her clever wit, and the romantic ending for two flawed characters who become better people and then find true happiness together. I’m not ready to let them go when the novel is over, so I love reading Austenesque novels because they let me keep Austen’s characters around a little while longer. I like to see how circumstances can be changed but in the end they still get the same happy ever after that they deserve.
- Where can we find you? Goodreads
- BOOK LENDING: Are any of you Austenesque readers eBook users like me? We can share books, too! Once upon a time, I was a librarian, so borrowing books and sharing books is something I hold very dear.
In the images below you will find the ebooks I have available to lend. Find me on Goodreads and email me so I we can swap email addresses and I can lend you a book. Maybe you have one that I haven’t read yet, too.
Not an ebook user? I have something for you, too. For everyone, really.
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GIVEAWAY TIME!!! I have a copy of Jo Baker’s Longbourn to giveaway … but there’s a catch … Whoever wins the book can’t keep it. It’s not meant to stay on your shelf. After you’re done reading it, it’s up to you to pass it on to someone else. We’re going to be on the honor system, but after you’ve read Longbourn once or twice, what I’d like you to do is to give it to another with the stipulation that they give it to someone else when they’re done.
It can be the person in the cubicle next to you, your friend who’s looking for a new book to read, or come back here and see who else entered and ask one of them if they’d like to read it next. Anyone who you think will enjoy it AND pass it on to someone else.
Let’s see if we can get a few more readers to enjoy Austenesque novels as much as we do! I’ll ship it anywhere in the U.S. Leave a comment if you’re interested and tell me who you would love to get hooked into reading JAFF.
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What a lovely idea, Heather!!! Helping more people find this amazing genre is something I’d love to support! Greatly enjoyed your thoughtful and entertaining answers to all my questions!! Thank you for taking the time to participate in this feature and share your love and admiration of Austenesque literature with us!!
To enter this giveaway, leave a question, a comment, or some love for Heather below!
- This giveaway is open to US Residents!! Thank you, Heather!
- This giveaway ends August 15th!
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Want to see some more Ardent Austenesqe Admirers? CLICK HERE!
Hi Heather – nice to meet you and I loved reading all about you too. Your little boy is so cute! My favourite book too is Mr. Darcy and The Secret of Becoming a Gentleman but the author does not appear to have written another novel which is such a shame. I also agree about the ending of the 2005 P & P movie but for me no-one can ever beat Firth/Ehle and D & E. Unfortunately I cannot take part in the giveaway as I live in the UK but it is great idea. I do not have ebooks or even a kindle as I refuse to have them as I adore books and to date so holding off for as long as possible! Liked your comment about you would rather become a spinster like Miss Bates I think I would too rather than marry Edmund or Edward!
Nice to meet you, too, Michelle! Isn’t Maria Hamilton’s book great? She’s got a few shorter unpublished fanfics on the internet, but I’d buy another novel of hers in a heartbeat.
I love physical books too, but the when my choices are have fewer books due to space limitations, or have unlimited electronic books …. the ebooks start to look a little better 🙂
Thanks for saying hello!
I’ll chime in also and join this Maria Hamilton fan club! Would do the same, Heather! I’m very sad that she hasn’t published any more of her stories. Do you know if she is still writing?
I emailed her once after it was published to say how much I liked it and tell her that I would eagerly await another novel by her, but she never replied. I remember when she did the blog tour to promote the book that her author bio mentioned that she had another P&P variation in the works, but I’ve not heard anything about it since.
Thanks for sharing Heather! I too was introduced to the world of Austenesque novels by reading Pamela Aiden’s trilogy. Reading Darcy’s perspective and thinking about the power of Elizabeth’s words to him literally blew my mind. A gateway drug is an excellent analogy! I loved what you had to say about Eleanor Tilney as well, perhaps you could write that book for us!
Hello Betsy! I would love to write Eleanor Tilney’s story. I’m surprised no one has given her a voice; I see a lot of potential there. Maybe because Northanger Abbey lacks the same romantic appeal that P&P or Persuasion has?
So nice to meet you!
Loved your answer for that question, Heather! The genre is sorely missing some works that feature Eleanor Tilney (sequel or retelling)! It probably is as you said about though, NA doesn’t have the outpouring of JAFF as do P&P and Persuasion, but I think if Caroline Bingley, Lydia Bennet, Jane Fairfax, and Elizabeth Elliot get their own novels, surely Eleanor Tilney deserves the same!
What a beautiful family you have, Heather. Congratulations. I love to lend books and I love to borrow. My favorite college class? Library Science, so your interests in supporting your local library is awesome. I can certainly help you with A Father’s Sins. Just email me at jdawnking@gmail.com and I will gift you a copy. I have not read Jo Baker’s book yet but it’s on my list.
Thank you, Joy! I’m always pleased to meet someone who can appreciate a library science course 🙂 they’re few and far between.
You’re very kind to offer me a copy of your book. If there’s a book of mine you’d like to borrow, please let me know!
You are most certainly welcome. I’m not taking any more reading until I am done with Mr. Bingley. I have just a few more chapters to type. Then I will be ready to again take up a book again.
Fun interview, Heather! Some of them are tough choices aren’t they? Haha! I like option three for that marriage question. That is so neat that you shared all your books with others only keeping a few. I need to read more annotated versions just to get all the delicious details I didn’t notice.
Hi Sophia, it’s nice to meet you. I highly recommend David Shapard’s annotated versions. Very readable but still full of extra details to give you more context. I’m eagerly awaiting his MP that should come out by he end of his year.
Hi Heather, I’ m Teresa, nice to meet you. Thanks for telling about you and you love for JAFF world. Pamela Aidan’ s trilogy was one of my first lectures, I liked very much the portrait of Darcy Aidan did as well as the characters she created like his butler Fletcher and his best friend Brougham. The second book was a new adventure in a friend’ s castle and it was very intriguing.
I agree with you in the subject of Mrs Norris… She’ s a monster!! I can’ t bear her!.
You’ re lucky to have a library where to get some of Austenesque books ;).
Thanks for the giveaway but don’ t put me for the contest because I’m from Spain.
A big hug!
Mucho gusto, Theresa! estudié español durante años, pero nunca viajé a España.
Most of the Austenesque books at my library are the ones I’ve asked them to buy. I’m pretty sure there’s a picture of me behind the reference desk with the words ‘crazy Jane Austen lady’ across the top.
If there’s an ebook you’d like to borrow, feel free to ask.
LOL! Heather! I think they should thank you for paying such diligent attention to the Austenesque section of the library! But how cool to know that your library bought books because you asked them to.
Thanks for sharing Heather. it’s fun to get to know others. I too live in NY, but a few hours south near NYC. I too like Aiden’s books. I do like the 1995 BBC series, but I like the Darcy in 2005 as both my son and husband are very much like him. There are also no JAFF fans here, but I too have made friends through the Austen sites. I am happy for those and glad to be getting to know others.
Hi Deborah! Nice to meet another NY native, even if you’re several hours away. Thank goodness there’s an online community of friendly people to share our interests with.
Hi Heather! My grandson is 3 years old and has such a darling mischievous face like your little boy! I too am not a fan of the 2005 version of P&P (though I do own the DVD). I actually have two movies of the 1996 P&P (one VHS and one DVD). I recently started reading Aidan’s trilogy and now have to get the 3rd volume. Thank goodness for our Jane Austen on line community so we can all keep fueling our addiction!
Pleased to meet you, Carole! My mother is from Hamilton, ON, so I’ve been a frequent traveler to Canada. I am so grateful that I’ve found people online to connect with.
I think there must be something inherently mischievous about little boys, I can’t explain it! 🙂 I wonder if it will still be charming when he’s a teenager?
Hi Heather! It’s lovely to learn more about you and put a face to the name. I love your giveaway idea, it’s so apt for a former librarian. I wish I could lend you some of my kindle books but lending is not possible for those of us in the UK and we can’t gift kindle books either for some reason.
I am very interested to see the ‘Bitch in a Bonnet’ books in your list, firstly because I didn’t realise there was more than one, and secondly because although this has good reviews I’ve always been put off a bit by the title. Maybe I should overcome my prejudice and give it a go!
Hello and nice to meet you, too Ceri!
If you’re curious about Bitch in A Bonnet, check out the author’s blog http://bitchinabonnet.blogspot.com
The books are edited versions of his blog posts. Only his review of the first few chapters of each novel remain since they’ve been published, but I think you will be both impressed by his insight and amused by his sense of humor. Vol 2 isn’t available as ebook yet, but the print version is. I hope you give it a chance, because it made me laugh until I cried.
I started with Pamela Aidan’s books as well. My entire kindle library is JAFF. Great idea to pass on the good reads.
Thanks for stopping by to say hi. I love your icon picture!
I’m an avid giver-away-of-novels, so I love this concept for your giveaway. 🙂
I’ve never read Longbourn and would love to. As for who I’d love to get hooked into JAFF….my boyfriend (although that’s highly unlikely to happen). It’s my dream to get him as much a fanboy as I am a fangirl, so we can attend some reenactment events in garb. More realistically, I have a coworker who is a romantic and could use some JAFF to get her dreaming right properly.
Nice to meet you, Beth! I’m happy to meet someone else who loves to share books.
I feel your pain: I’ve been trying to get my husband to at least read Pride and Prejudice, but I’ve had no luck. I remind him of all the Steinbeck and Hemingway I’ve read for his sake and all the football games I watch with him, but he has yet to read any Austen. I would love to go to a JASNA conference with my husband and dress for the ball, but at the rate I’m going, I’ll be attending alone.
Hi Heather,
It’s so great to get to know you and see your beautiful family! I have never read the “Bitch in a Bonnet” series but will have to check it out based on your recommendation. Thanks!
Hello Katie! I’m so so so glad you stopped by to visit me here! Yes, check out Bitch in a Bonnet, I’ll bet it will make you laugh out loud. Admittedly, the author doesn’t think too highly of Austen spin-offs or the labeling of Jane Austen’s novels as regency romance, but give him a chance because I think his analysis of the original novels is spot on.
I share your frustration, Heather. My wife of 43 years is a voracious reader. Yet I cannot get her to read even a page of Jane Austen. She has watched nearly all of the excellent film depictions of Miss Austen with me and enjoyed them but still will not open up to reading Jane. How did this get so backward? Normally, it is the lady of the house who reads Jane Austen while the male of the house reads anything else. Even my 14 year old granddaughter has struggled through Sense and Sensibility! We swap Kindle books on a regular basis and she out-reads both of us! Oh, and our local library gets ALL of our surplus books too. PS: “Go Canada!”
I’m pleased to meet you, Jeffrey. And may I show this post to my husband and say, “Look! Look! This gentleman has read Austen and lived to tell about it!”? I think I may just have to hide the tv remote and the video game controller and start reading it aloud.
I love that you share books with your granddaughter. I’m starting early with my son and read him the cozy classics pride and prejudice in the hopes that in ten years when he is 14 maybe he’ll give our dear author a chance. Right now he just thinks it’s funny when Elizabeth walks across the field and gets her dress muddy, but it’s a start.
So cute! That would be the part that appeals most to little boys, wouldn’t it?
Hello, Heather, I began reading this last week when it came up but had to go off and babysit my share of four days while my daughter & her husband were in Jamaica. And you know how e-mail piles up while you go away. Anyway I have some e-books which I would be happy to lend to you. My e-mail was published two editions of this blog ago but, again is: odara7rox[at]rcn[dot]com. I don’t have the Highbury Mystery one but do have the other 1 you wanted, “Haunting Mr. Darcy” and I see Joy is sending you her “A Father’s Sins”. (I have that in both formats.) I do go on Goodreads but don’t really have a page where you could reach me. Stanley Hurd does send me comments from there and I have all three of his books on my kindle. He, like P. Aidan did a Darcy POV for P&P and I did post reviews on Amazon.
Your little boy is adorable. I have a 2 (on Saturday) year old grandson, Jackson, and an 18 month old granddaughter, Tessa, for whom I babysit regularly.
I have not read Longbourn so count me in on that…please. And I would be willing to mail it to anyone else if I were so lucky as to win it. Maybe we could then send it to the next person who didn’t win and everyone would eventually end up a winner… except our dear friends overseas. We used to belong to a larger library in Bethlehem PA but our township dropped the membership and we now belong to the small town library which does not have the funds to buy on request…so you are very fortunate there.
So nice meeting you.
So nice to speak with you again, Sheila. A 2 year old and an 18 month old grandkids! Are they ever with you at the same time? That sounds like it would be a handful. A joy, though, but a handful. My parents live near by, and I know how delighted they are that they get to see their grandson on a regular basis. I also know that they’re happy to spoil him and then give him back.
Thank you for offering to share Haunting Mr. Darcy with me, but in between the time I wrote these answers and when it was posted, I broke down and bought the book.
I am very curious about the Stanley Hurd series from Darcy’s POV. Are all the volumes published yet? I’m the worst sort of angst-weenie and even though, obviously, it all works out, I’d hate to wait months or years to see how it all plays out.
I think it’s a great idea for whoever wins the book to come back here and, if they’re willing, to ship it to someone else who was interested. I’m thinking about putting a note in the front of the book with the ‘instructions’ to share it, so maybe at the bottom I’ll write the link to this post.
That’s such shame you library isn’t part of a consortium any more. It always surprises me how many people never consider borrowing a book for free from the library, would never request them to purchase materials,or if the library is part of a larger system, would never ask your library get a book from another member library. When I was working, part of my job was to arrange for the borrowing of books that were not held by our library system. They’d come in from all over the country and it was free. I should step off my library soapbox before someone comes over and pushes me off of it.
Thank you for stopping by to say hello!
Yes, Stanley released the third volume this month. He is on Goodreads. And I have borrowed from other libraries in our state through that type of system but never inquired about JAFF, as I thought it was a limited community interest. Maybe I have to look into that but have a lot on my plate with purchases on my kindle at the moment. Haunting Mr. Darcy reminds me of the modern day film with Reese Witherspoon & Mark Ruffalo, Just Like Heaven. I know you will enjoy the book.
Where have I been great post Heather! I really enjoyed reading your answers, I have the book Longbourn it was bought for me on mother’s day and I still haven’t read it. Only today I was talking to someone abut the library, I only use it for studying purposes but doubt they would have JAFF but hey you never know. Although I read often at night and can read my Kindle at night, a paperback I wouldn’t be able too 🙁 Thanks for sharing.
Hi Tamara! I’m glad you stopped by to say hello! Maybe your local library will surprise you and be a bastion of of JAFF. Okay, probably not, but they might have a few, you never know 🙂
Hi Heather! I feel as if I really know you now, besides enjoying your comments in the past. It constantly amazes me to realize how different the ages, life circumstances, etc. of Janeites and Ardent Austenesque Admirers are, but at the same time have so much in common.
I’m glad to hear that someone else doesn’t like the 2005 P&P movie. Too many dramatic licenses were taken with the period, dress, characters, manners (on and on) of this beloved book. I was even more offended when I realized that some writers of sequel JAFF were actually writing sequels to this movie!!
Wish I could stop by and have a cuppa with you, but alas I’m way out in the Pacific Northwest!!
I noticed that you have copies of the annotated books by David M. Shapard. He does such an excellent job.
Best wishes and thank you for sharing!
Thank you, Meredith, for this series of Ardent Austenesque Admirers. You’re the best.
Hello Catherine! Thank you for saying hi, and thanks for telling me I’m not alone in disliking P&P 2005. I was afraid a bunch of MM fans were going to come after me with torches and pitchforks. To me, nothing is worse than starting a JAFF only to find a reference to the movie’s proposal in the rain. Argh!
Of course, it is so much more pleasant to think about all the things we Janeite and Ardent Admirers have in common. I guess I should just be happy so many people are there love Mr Darcy, too.
I love David Shapard’s editions; I can’t praise them enough. I’ve stopped and started from various points MP several times, but when his edition comes out this fall I am determined to complete it beginning to end. I met him once at a JASNA meeting and he was so very nice . He said I could call him Dave. Yeah right! I was quite the fan girl. He signed my copy of Persuasion and I only just refrained from nervous giggling.
Enjoy the Pacific Northwest. I was in Seattle once years ago and loved it!
I too enjoy David Shapard’s books. They are so informative and I love his explains everything. I tries using the Ebook editions but they are very difficult to navigate. The paper are much easier because annotations face the writing. Love that we all have Jane Austen in common.
You’re so right about the ebook edition! I downloaded a sample and it’s a disaster. Definitely need the print version!
Hi Heather, it’s lovely to get to know you a bit better. This is such a good idea of Meredith’s. We all see familiar names commenting in and on various blogs so it’s great to know more about you. As with many other people I’ve met in this wonderful community, some who’ve commented already, I’m very much on my own when it comes to the world of Jane Austen and JAFF where I live. I had to go to see P&P 2005 by myself while husband and son saw something else. It was rather comforting to see that I wasn’t, by any means, the only woman sitting by herself! The only friend I had who has any interest lives hours away and we kind of fell out over her failure to return things, including books, that she’d borrowed, not returned and then denied having had in the first place.
Like you, I’m more Darcy-like than my husband. He’s more like a cross between Mr. Bingley and Mr. Knightley, gregarious and outgoing, without being too impulsive.
I wish I could use the library more myself but local government cuts here in the UK have seen quite a lot of local, suburban libraries have their hours cut or close completely. Ours is only open a few half days each week, usually when I’m working, and will close unless private funding is found locally. The big library in town is great, but has limited parking nearby and although there is public transport, the return bus fare comes to more than the cost of many Kindle books. Do the maths on that one!
Ceri has already said above that those of us on this side of the pond aren’t able to borrow or lend books from/to other Kindle users. We can borrow from Amazon if we have an Amazon Prime subscription (£79:00 per year) but only ONE book per month. As our TV doesn’t have the capability to stream content from the internet and we’re quite happy to wait several days for our Amazon deliveries, again it’s a question of doing the maths!
I’m another, like yourself and Betsy Hagan, whose intro into this world was Pamela Aiden’s trilogy (loved Fletcher and Brougham) but then I moved away again for reasons which, several years later, escape me. Was I crazy or what? What time I wasted! You’ve also given me some more authors/books that I haven’t yet come across yet.
P.S. I drafted this comment one lunchtime at work, last week, when I was offline. I only just realised, this morning, that I’ve never got around to posting it. So here’s a bit more waffling following the additional comments since.
For me, the 2005 film has it’s pluses (cinematography and score) but the more I see it, the more I tend to pick holes in it. If you haven’t read Cassandra Grafton’s Lizzie Bennet’s Diary over at Austen Variations, give it a try. She’s filled in some of the holes and continuity problems with logical explanations from Elizabeth’s POV.
I have all thres volumes of Stanley Hurd’s books and can highly recommend them, I haven’t come across David Shaphard’s books but they sound to be rather interesting.