Jane Austen July 2025 discussion

I finished 'The Jane Austen Project' by Kathleen A. Flynn a few days ago. I didn't think I'd enjoy it as much as I did, since most of JA related novels or retellings didn't really work for me so far. With this book I finished all the challenges.
Currently reading 'A Vindication of the Rights of Woman' by Mary Wollstonecraft and I'm tempted to reread 'Lady Susan'.

Here’s where I am:
1. Austen novel. P&P.
2. Other Austen work. “Catharine; or, The Bower.”
3. Book by contemporary author. Belinda by Maria Edgeworth.
4. Austenesque. So far, I’ve read A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth, which is described as Austenesque but since nobody can agree on which novel it’s really based on, I’d say it’s more Austen-inspired. If I have time, I’ll read a real Austenesque nearer the end of the month.
5. Modern film adaptation. Bridget Jones’s Diary.

So I still have to read a nonfiction book about JA or her period and need to watch Love and Friendship for my period adaptation.

@Abigail Bok, thankyou for the suggestions. I am currently reading The Watson and thoroughly enjoying it.

I must revise what I am reading. I became bored with Jane Austen retellings so I am no longer reading What Kitty Did Next and The Jane Austen Project. I will save them for next year.

I started The Murder of Mr. Wickham. I'm just here for the Chaos and absurdity.

So glad you like it, Lorraine! It’s my very favorite Austen story, and has been forever—I wrote my undergraduate thesis on it, and am writing stories set in the same place and time.

I finished Reading Austen in America. The introduction was a bit slow and sometimes it got a bit dense but I enjoyed reading about the people who read and loved Jane Austen's novels even before they were widely published and read in America. I especially enjoyed the first fangirls, Anna and Susan Eliza Quincy. I knew about Anna from A Woman's Wit and Whimsy: The 1833 Diary of Anna Cabot Lowell Quincy but not Eliza Susan. The others were all new to me.

https://www.mollands.net/etexts/other...

I finished my third reading of Sense and Sensibility. The introduction and endnotes by John Mullan helped me more deeply read and comprehend the contexts and text. Am I the last one to notice that two of the leading men fight a duel over the honor of a ruined lady? How very Sentimental and Romantic! Love this novel.

I also finished my first reading of Lady Susan. What naughty fun JA must have had in writing this and I had in reading it!

Currently, I'm making slow progress through Belinda : Contains the Complete Text of the Controversial Original First Edition. The writing style is breezy and witty but the plot is slow. The length of the novel is also much longer than indicated. Having said that, it reminds me of Evelina and I plan to finish it.

I just finished "A Sicilian Romance" by Ann Radcliffe to fulfil the prompt of "Read a novel by a contemporary of Austen" and I LOVED IT! It was so much fun & the twist at the end was just brill! :D I gave it 4 stars! I hope your all still enjoying your current reads :)

I've put The Murder of Mr. Wickham aside for now. If I'd realized it was going to be more Agatha Christie than Jane Austen, I would never have picked it up. I have been thoroughly enjoying the book The Year In Between by Christina Morland.

I love that book by Christina Morland! Such a thoughtful take on how Marianne came around to Colonel Brandon.

Just finished Persuasion and starting The Jane Austen Project by Kathleen A Flynn

Just finished Mansfield Park and I watched Austenland over the weekend. That was so funny. My husband and I both enjoyed that.

Hope to start The Emma Project by Sonali Dev this evening.

Abigail, I love how Colonel Brandon's reactions to Marianne are described in such a way that I can only picture him as if he were a stallion startled and ready to bolt. In the 2008 version Marianne was the wild horse needing to be tamed. Here it is Brandon often shying away or bolting and Marianne literally in some instances taking stances not unlike what one would do when approaching a spooked horse to calm it dow.

Lorri wrote: "Am I the last one to notice that two of the leading men fight a duel over the honor of a ruined lady? How very Sentimental and Romantic! Love this novel."

Andew Davies sure noticed.

Yes, yes he did, and gave Colonel Brandon an electric guitar as instrument of choice for his leitmotif to boot.

😂 Rebecca! Now picturing Col. Brandon whinnying and snorting!

Abigail, I've spent quite a bit of this book laughing at the mental images her descriptions of body language conjure in my mind alongside accurate pictures of the characters, laughing at how entertaining and frustrating Colonel Brandon and Marianne's courtship is, and convinced that this adorablely torturous courtship is the only way it could have happened and made sense. I'm glad you found the mental image equally amusing.

I’m ending my Jane Austen July with a viewing of Love and Friendship (tomorrow night) and a wrap-up of The Emma Project by Sonali Dev. This book was in some ways my favorite and in other ways my least favorite of this series, but I landed on a four-star rating—reviewed here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show.... I am not going to get to the secondary study I meant to read, there were just too many books in July over all my different groups.

Stayed up last night to finish Austenland (great fun, though think i preferred the film--must rewatch it :D), and today was supposed to read some non-fiction, but I'm not in the mood, so I'm starting a Georgette Heyer, Charity Girl (I hope it's set in the Regency, at least the book cover has a girl that could be from that period).
[Edited for a typo. Grrrr.]

Meriyou wrote: "Stayed up last night to finish Austenland (great fun, though think i preferred the film--must rewatch it :D), and today was supposed to read some non-fiction, but I'm not in the mood, so I'm starti..."

Yes Charity Girl is one of Heyer's Regencies. One of the last books she wrote before she died.

I will try not to throw things at the TV while watching Persuasion tomorrow and finish up the novel and Lady Susan.

I'm trying not to defenestrate the book The Murder of Mr. Wickham. Its bleak, not very funny, tries to do too many things, and has all my least favorite elements of an Agatha Christie novel. I'd dnf it but am 2/3 of the way through it and feel obligated to finish it.

Because I won't be able to finish another book today, this is where I ended up on the challenges. Finished all of the prompts. I really really enjoyed Belinda. My biggest disappointment was the Persuasion 2022 adaptation (which I hated because it didn't include Anne Elliot as a character in the movie). I also wasn't a fan of Longbourn by Jo Baker, but I think it's because my expectations were too high.

✔ 1. Main Novel:
Pride and Prejudice -- my 3rd reading
Persuasion -- also my 3rd reading

✔ 2. Other:
Lady Susan
History of England

✔ 3. Non-fiction:
A Jane Austen Education by Deresiewicz
What Matters in Jane Austen by Mullan

✔ 4. Retelling or Historical Fiction:
Longbourn by Jo Baker

✔ 5. Contemporary:
Belinda by Maria Edgeworth
(started The Female Quixote by Charlotte Lennox but won't finish in time -- not completely contemporary but an inspiration for Northanger Abbey)

✔ 6. Direct Screen:
Pride and Prejudice miniseries
Emma 2020
Northanger Abbey BBC version
Northanger Abbey 2008
Love and Friendship
Persuasion 2022

✔7. Modern Adaptation
Clueless

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You’re not alone, Michael, I disliked Longbourn as well—both the way it changed Austen characters and in how it meandered in the second half. When authors change the essential nature of Austen characters, I always think they’re using Austen references just to sell more books, so I might have liked it somewhat better if it had been simply historical fiction.

Today, I finished The Life and Works of Jane Austen from The Great Courses. Devoney Looser is the creator and lecturer. The course included a 190-page guidebook and 24 lectures totaling 12hrs. Looser provides contextual information and scholarly insight into Austen’s life, works, time period, and enduring reputation. Looser gave me more to contextualize JA and her work.

Over the last 2 evenings, my husband and I rewatched the 1995 Emma Thompson and the 2008 Hattie Morahan adaptations of Sense and Sensibility. We enjoyed both. It seems to me that the 1995 version brings out the romantically tender while the 2008 version brings out the Gothicaly sensational and sexual.

Wow, that was a serious commitment of time and effort, Lorri! You really did Jane Austen July proud.

Abigail wrote: "Wow, that was a serious commitment of time and effort, Lorri! You really did Jane Austen July proud."

And yet I am disappointed I will have to postpone Hadlow's The Other Bennet Sister until a future JAJ. I also intended to read Morland's The Year in Between. I may try to squeeze this one in this year while SS is still fresh in my mind.

And now, back to some more juvenilia.

My first Jane Austen July is officially over. I planned to complete 5 points and I did! This journey was a blast!

1. JA main novel: Pride and Prejudice ✅💛💛💛
2. Not a main novel: Lady Susan ✅
3. Non-fiction about JA: Jane Austen at Home ✅
6. Direct adaptation: Pride & Prejudice BBC series ✅; Love & Friendship ✅
7. Modern screen adaptation: Bridget Jones's Diary ✅

Abigail wrote: "You’re not alone, Michael, I disliked Longbourn as well—both the way it changed Austen characters and in how it meandered in the second half. When authors change the essential nature of Austen char..."

I love an idea of a new novel covering the same timeframe as an earlier one and giving a backstory that one couldn't know from the original. A coincidence in the original that turns out to have been orchestrated by another character, for example. Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Shadow" is a great example of how it can work well, even as it somewhat subverts "Ender's Game".

But, honestly, I didn't like the main character, Sarah. And the revelation of the additional connections -- trying not to give many spoilers -- felt more like destruction of the original (a la "Love Never Dies" for "Phantom of the Opera" or how the new Star Wars trilogy broke Luke, Leia, and Han Solo) rather than adding depth.

And I agree that the 3rd "book" of the novel had an uneven writing style compared with the first 2 parts.

But just my personal opinion. I'll be up for trying other retellings for next Jane Austen July. This one just didn't work for me.

When major publishers first discovered the Austenesque market, they want for anything Austenesque written by a “name” author, with some fairly disastrous results (Alexander McCall Smith and Joanna Trollope, I’m looking at you!). But there are some more serious Austenesque novels written by writers of quality. I’d refer you to Molly Greeley, Christina Morland, Sonali Dev, even Pamela Aidan’s trilogy retelling P&P from Darcy’s point of view (at least the first and third books; the second is fairly shippable). There are more, but Goodreads is not letting me link right now.

Wrapping up JAJ..
1. Read the Annotated Pride and Prejudice - the annotations were a huge help, and I felt I could get more out of the book.
2. Lady Susan- she was a piece of work!
3. 33 Great Writers on Why We Read Jane Austen. Just an okay book, with more literary criticisms than the actual 'why.'
4. Love & Fury - I wasn't a fan.
5. A Vindication of the Rights of Women - Mary Wollstonecraft -Not a fan of this one either.
6. Pride & Prejudice 2005 & 1995. #teamMatthewMcfadyen
7. Bridget Jones' Diary

Overall, a wonderful month and I look forward to next July. I ended up buying all the annotation books. It was like Christmas in July :)

We have all of the annotation versions as well and I used them in last year’s readathon. Another great benefit to the layout is that it gives enough space for me to add my own annotations.

I tried Persuasion on Netflix and had to go out to run an errands. When I got back, my mom was on Netflix at their other house (she has COVID) so I didn't get too far into it. It's about as bad as it looks as an adaptation of a beloved novel. However- as a romcom about the social issues of the day but using modern language, it might appeal to the uninitiated. My dad just said it looked cute from the trailer. (He likes Sanditon). The first 5 minutes were fine. Anne's talking to the camera mirrored Austen's free indirect discourse. Then it dereails from there and Anne becomes a sad drunk. Frederick is all Byronic and brooding. Their past relationship is acknowledged and Louisa knows what she's seeing and asks Anne's blessing to fall in love with Frederick.

Anne is mean to her sister. She speaks Italian in front of Mary knowing Mary can't understand. Um what the heck? They both went to school, presumably they had the same governess and learned the same smattering of Italian to understand music. Anne is good with her nephews who are a little older than they are in the book. That's sweet. Then her talking to the camera (herself) gets silly. She also talks to her pet rabbit.

I don't mind the color blind casting. Lady Russell and the Musgroves are played by Black actors and the Crofts look like people of color too but the characters are not specifically West Indian or African. They're the same characters.

Haven't gotten to the Lyme section yet.

In addition to Lady Susan, these are the Juvenilia titles I read this July: “Love and Friendship,” “An Unfinished Novel in Letters: Lesley Castle,” “The History of England,” “Collection of [fictional] Letters,” “The Beautiful Cassandra,” “Amelia Webster,” and “The Three Sisters in four letters.” These somewhat silly stories are filled with snarky dialogue, sharp observations, and devastating social satire.

QNPoohBear wrote: "Yes Charity Girl is one of Heyer's Regencies. One of the last books she wrote before she died. ..."
Yes, confirmed! I like buying books and then letting time pass so that I forget what they are about. I enjoy them more that way.
And Heyer is always a good choice :)

I'm almost done watching Persuasion, which is both a historical and modern Jane Austen (ish) movie. It's dreadful as an adaptation of the novel, not a great historical piece either. It's fluffy with a tiny bit of weight. The emphasis is on marrying for love. (view spoiler)[Mr. Elliot is honest with Anne about why he's come to Bath. The misunderstanding comes from Lady R spreading gossip about Louisa and "her captain." She assumes and Anne assumes that Louisa is engaged to brooding Frederick. Mr. Elliot makes matters worse with Wentworth. UGH typical rom com business. (hide spoiler)]