First Impressions: Why All the Austen Haters Are Wrong

Gentle listeners, this year marks the 20th anniversary of Joe Wright's film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, which released in 2005 and stars Kiera Knightley and Matthew MacFayden. Join Kristin, Maggie and our dear friend Adrienne Garcia-Specht to discuss what we love and hate about this beloved, controversial, and wildly successful adaptation! As you probably guessed, Kristin still hates it. By the way, you must check out the recent edition of Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South by unnamed press, which features a section with Adrienne interviewing Morgan Spector!

Gentle listeners, for those of you who were entranced by Hallmark's Loveuary series this past February, we finally have an episode about it! Friend of the podcast and Hallmark-movie-enjoyer Priya has joined us for a breakdown of the charming Paging Mr. Darcy movie, and high praise of this entrancing version of Sense and Sensibility!

Greta Gerwig's 2023 Barbie movie incorporated several seconds of the 1995 Firth/Ehle Pride and Prejudice miniseries, which officially makes this movie part of Austen's extended cinematic universe. In this podcast we discuss our takeaways from this thought-provoking movie, and ponder the parallels between the evolution of Barbie vs. Jane Austen's own heroines. Some see Austen's characters as regressive today, but does Jane stand still so we can see how far we've come?

Gentle listeners, join us as we finally review this 1999 movie adaptation of Mansfield Park, written and directed by Patricia Rozema. We delve into the artistic choices made by the director and weigh in on their merits in a very calm and evenhanded manner until about halfway through when Kristin gets shouty. This movie is undoubtedly an important acheivement in Austen filmmaking. Rozema makes the slavery subtext in the book explicit, challenging the way Austen stories are usually told on screen. She also takes a "prismatic" approach to the book's much-maligned heroine Fanny Price, infusing her with elements of Austen's own life to create a character that is more relatable to modern audiences. The results provide Much To Think About. Special thanks to Arnie Perlstein for directing us to his useful literature review on his blog, the Sharp Elves Society! Read it here: Jane Austen's Dead Silence: The History of Slavery Subtext in Mansfield Park

We are overjoyed to bring you a special holiday episode discussing A Christmas Carol, the novel by Charles Dickens, and A Muppet Christmas Carol, the finest adaptation of Dickens' work ever to grace the silver screen. The novel is an absolute delight, and extremely readable - it's a great time for a read (or re-read)! And a sing-along! With a glass raised to toast your health! (Glass raised to toast your health!) and a promise to share the wealth! (Promise to share the wealth), yes every night will end, and every day will start, with a grateful prayer and a thankful heart! For you, our listeners! Happy holidays!

Just in time for Halloween, we're back with our guest Natasha Junor (who you may remember from our Clueless episode!) to discuss Gothic literature and the ways it intersects with Austen's world and works. Tash is an Australian academic and Jane Austen scholar who is doing a deep dive into this topic in preparation for a possible dissertation on the subject, and she's stopping by to share her expertise with us! Join us for a fascinating exploration of how Gothic literature was received in Regency-era England, how it allowed women of that era to explore otherwise forbidden topics, and how Austen interpreted the Gothic in her novel Northanger Abbey. And I promise to finally release Ep 6 of our P&P commentary very soon! I know I said it was coming next! But I lied! -K

Gentle listeners, join us as we review the storm-tossed 2022 Netflix adaptation of Persuasion starring Dakota Johnson and Cosmo Jarvis and directed by Carrie Cracknell. Described as "Bridget Jones meets Bridgerton," this unconventional take on Austen's contemplative, autumnal source material certainly made some waves in the Austenverse. But if you can manage to forget about the source material for a few hours, this is a beautiful and highly entertaining movie to enjoy with a glass of wine or four. Join us as we process both our agony and our hope: despite some reservations, we genuinely enjoyed this movie (but I wish they hadn't messed with the letter-K).

Alert! There is an excellent virtual conference on Persuasion happening August 13th-14th 2022 (this coming weekend!) Our guest Sarah Rose Kearns joins us to tell us about the event's fantastic programme, and we briefly discuss our thoughts on the new Netflix Persuasion movie as well. Join us to hear more, and to catch up with Rose! For more about the conference, see https://theholytheatre.betterworld.org/donate where you can make a donation in any amount you wish in order to register for the conference! This event is a benefit for The Holy Theatre and features special guests Lakshmi Gandhi, David Fernandez, Jocelyn Harris, Tabrizia Jones, Wendy Jones, Sarah Rose Kearns, Noreen Mughees, Janet Saidi, Damianne Scott, David Shapard, and Lena Yasutake. The event program, with speaker bios, can be accessed here — https://bit.ly/3SukIrk You can also find Rose on Twitter at @Persuasion_JA

Check out our review of Being Mr. Wickham, a one man show co-written by Adrian Lukis (who played Mr. Wickham in the 1995 Pride and Prejudice miniseries) and Catherine Curzon for the Original Theater company. It's available to stream online through April 30th, so don't miss out! We loved this charming show and the way it brought the Pride and Prejudice characters' future to life with hilarious anecdotes and historical details. You'll especially love the future of Mr. Bennet. You can stream Being Mr. Wickham online through April 30th, 2022 at https://originaltheatreonline.com/productions/28/being-mr-wickham Note: the original epsiode description omitted that the show was co-written by Catherine Curzon. You can find her work at madamegilflurt.com.

THREE AND A HALF YEARS AFTER PART 4, we present installment 5 of our commentary on the Pride and Prejudice 1995 miniseries starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth. You don't have to watch the movie along with us as we riff on what's happening - in fact, due to some buffering errors, that might be hard. But lots of listeners find these fun to listen to as standalone episodes! For our first commentary track, go back in our episode list to 2018. Yes, we never finished this series. We're a mess.

We're delighted to welcome our guests Maya and Christian of Manners and Madness, a Jane Austen and David Lynch podcast, to join us for this movie review episode! This time we're tackling the recently released movie Modern Persuasion, starring Alicia Witt and Shane McRae as our stand-ins for Anne and Wentworth. Despite some hiccups with the pacing and chemistry, overall we enjoyed this adaptation as some fluffy summer fun. Check out our thoughts, and be sure to give Manners and Madness some love by checking out their Persuasion episodes! You can also find Christian and Maya at @MannersandMadnesspod on Instagram and @MannersMadness on Twitter!

In this episode we welcome special guest Bianca Hernandez-Knight to talk about current affairs in the Jane Austen fandom, including the push that dedicated Janeites are making to foster inclusion in our online community. Join us to hear about the barriers that BIPOC and other marginalized Janeites continue to encounter in Austen fan spaces, and why representation in Austen adapations is so important to growing a diverse Janeite community. Finally, learn about her upcoming Virtual Jane Con event on May 1-2, 2021! You can find Bianca online at Bookhoarding on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, and check out her new patreon!