No Entries

Well the contest has been up for a week and no one has entered. So I have this gift to give away and no one to give it to. Sad.

I read that the BBC is making a new Emma. I love the Gwenyth Paltrow Jeremy Northam version. I think it's perfect. But I'm intrigued by the casting. Romola Garai as Emma. Jodhi May as Miss Taylor. Johnny Lee Miller as Mr. Knightley. Michael Gambon as Mr. Woodhouse. Romola and Jodhi were in Daneil Deronda together and both were vying for the attentions of Mr. Deronda. So I'm intrigued. Plus Johnny Lee Miller has already been an Austen hero. He played Edmund in the 1990s version of Mansfield Park. He was also in the 1980s version when he was a child. He played one of Fanny's little brothers.

Some of my friends think Jane Austen has been done to death, but I like to see the different versions. Each one offers something new. Some new twist.

I would like to see a new version of The Great Gatsby, but it never lives up to the book. I will say the ballet done in Pittsburgh was beautiful and it lived up to the book.

We'll wait and see what else will happen in Jane Austen casting.

An E-mail I Just Received

I just received this e-mail:

Hi, Jane Austen

We are contacting you because we have seen references about your work online.

We would like to include you in our directory of interviews with creative professionals and artists.

We invite you to take part in this interview. It is free.
You will also be able to include any web links to samples of your work on the internet.

To start the interview just go to this web address and start responding to questions:
http://www.whohub.net/interview/WRITING

Here, you can find some examples from other professionals:
http://www.whohub.net/en/authors.php

Best
Elsa Wide

Whohub is a directory of interviews with professionals in the fields of communication, arts, technology, and marketing.


Too funny! They think I'm alive!!!

I Repeat! A Pride & Prejudice Contest

And yes! There is a prize!!

So first off, Dan I'm breaking the rules. I'm making more than five posts this week. However since I have already completed 28 posts I feel this will be okay. I am not trying to make up any I am trying to listen to your lectures by only asking my readers to identify 7 quotations a day (Okay, so I'm using the long bit on the whole 5 +/- 2 memory scale).

Here's how the contest works:
You must identify 49 quotations from 7 Pride & Prejudice movies.
E-mail me you answers at mrdarcyatpemberley@gmail.com (And yes, that really is my e-mail address....obsess much Jane?)
There will be a bonus question.
Only one person will win.
The person with the most correct answers wins.
You will win a copy of the book "The Making of Pride & Prejudice" if you have this I will send you another Jane Austen prize!
I will post 7 quotations at once. E-mail me the seven and then continue as such. You must identify the movie and the year it was made. If you really want to impress me tell me who said it, but that won't count toward the prize. It will definitely count to your own Jane Austen and P & P pride.!

Here are you movie choices:

Pride & Prejudice starring Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier (1940)
Pride & Prejudice starring David Rintoul and Elizabeth Garvie (1980)
Pride & Prejudice starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle (1995)
Bridget Jones's Diary starring Colin Firth and Renee Zellweger (2001)
Pride and Prejudice starring Kam Heskin and Orlando Seale (2003)
Bride and Prejudice starring Aishwarya Rai and Martin Henderson (2004)
Pride and Prejudice starring Keira Knightly and Matthew MacFayden (2005)

Bonus Question

1. In what version or adaptation does Mr. Darcy lose his pants?

Seventh Set of Seven Quotations

1. "Perhaps we're very lucky we didn't drown any of them at birth, my dear."

2. "You should be stirring your husband's dinner, not trouble."

3. "Let us not say fairwell, but as the French have it au revoir!"

4. "As much as I love being insulted by you; I think you'd be much happier at a table for one."

5. "Lizzy don't sit there. Your nose will peel and your cheeks will burn and Mr .Wickham will not like that."

6. "Though she may well perish with the shame of having such a mother."

7. "Off they run. Weeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Sixth Set of Seven Quotations

1. "I am most seriously displeased."

2. "I find mountains to be very dull. They lack refinement."

3. "I guess your guitar playing can't really compare to your sister's snake dance."

4. "Tricky. Very tricky."

5. "Oh if you want to be really dignified you must be dead."

6. "I can't help thinking that at some point someone is going to produce a piglet and we'll all have to chase it."

7. "Sometimes being alone is my only chance of good company."

Fifth Set of Seven Quotations

1. "Oh, I forgot. Wicky, Papa."

2. "But as Gloria Estefan says the rhythm is gonna get you."

3. "First I must tell you, I've been the most unmitigated and comprehensive ass."

4. "I do not think I can be very sensible."

5. "Elizabeth, we've been commanded to multiply and replenish the earth."

6. "I was sure you could not be so beautiful for nothing."

7. "Ding dong. Maybe this time mom had got it right."

Fourth Set of Seven Quotations

1. "She's been 80 for the past 50 years."

2. "Are you...are you laughing at me?"

3. "Do you know who I am?"

4. "Marry him. Then divorce him right away and then give me half."

5. "Circulate, oozing intelligence."

6. "Lydia, there's perspiration on you nose. Don't get too hot; it's very unladylike."

7. "The first wish of my heart is to never be in the company of Mr. Bingley or Mr. Darcy again."

Third Set of Seven Quotations

1. "Wait a minute. Nice boys don't kiss like that."

2. "Shelves in the closet. Happy thought indeed."

3. "It's against the principles of the Magna Carta."

4. "It's been many years since I had such an exemplary vegetable."

5. "I am sure I wish I smiled more, but at what? Life is so dull."

6. "I'm a good looking, relatively disease free animal."

7. "No life without wife."

Second Set of Seven Quotations

1. "Jane has beauty. Elizabeth has... well. And Mary has intelligence."

2. "You have bewitched me, body and soul, and I love, I love, I love you. I never wish to be parted from you from this day on."

3. "Pride, let's just say it's contagious and someone in our congregation has a fever."

4. "He may prefer a stupid wife as others have before him."

5. "It looks like you pat the dog with one hand and screw in a light bulb with the other."

6. "If you ask me there isn't enough blue food."

7. "If the dragon returns, St. George will know how to deal with it."

First Set of Seven Quotations

1. "You cannot expect turtle soup until the engagement is announced."

2. "Precisely. As it is I wouldn't dance with him for all of Derbyshire, let alone the miserable half."

3. "Fuck me. I love Keats!"

4. "If Mr. Darcy were not such a quite tall fellow I would not pay him half as much deference."

5. "Do you have something against books?"

6. "Leave. Now."

7. "They have arms and legs enough between them and are three of the silliest girls in England."

A Pride & Prejudice Contest

And yes! There is a prize!!

So first off, Dan I'm breaking the rules. I'm making more than five posts this week. However since I have already completed 28 posts I feel this will be okay. I am not trying to make up any I am trying to listen to your lectures by only asking my readers to identify 7 quotations a day (Okay, so I'm using the long bit on the whole 5 +/- 2 memory scale).

Here's how the contest works:
You must identify 49 quotations from 7 Pride & Prejudice movies.
E-mail me you answers at mrdarcyatpemberley@gmail.com (And yes, that really is my e-mail address....obsess much Jane?)
There will be a bonus question.
Only one person will win.
The person with the most correct answers wins.
You will win a copy of the book "The Making of Pride & Prejudice" if you have this I will send you another Jane Austen prize!
I will post 7 quotations at once. E-mail me the seven and then continue as such. You must identify the movie and the year it was made. If you really want to impress me tell me who said it, but that won't count toward the prize. It will definitely count to your own Jane Austen and P & P pride.!

Here are you movie choices:

Pride & Prejudice starring Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier (1940)
Pride & Prejudice starring David Rintoul and Elizabeth Garvie (1980)
Pride & Prejudice starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle (1995)
Bridget Jones's Diary starring Colin Firth and Renee Zellweger (2001)
Pride and Prejudice starring Kam Heskin and Orlando Seale (2003)
Bride and Prejudice starring Aishwarya Rai and Martin Henderson (2004)
Pride and Prejudice starring Keira Knightly and Matthew MacFayden (2005)

Next post will be your first seven quotations and so on and so forth. I hope you enjoy and participate!

Is Your First Pride & Prejudice Movie Automatically Your Favorite?

I'm doing some homework this weekend for my final graded blog post. I am still undecided as to whether or not I will continue once the class is over. I am watching all the Pride & Prejudice movies...all seven of them that can be purchased on DVD that is.

I have sat through the 1940 version and the 1980 version and am now on my favorite version: 1995. I will openly admit that this is the first movie that made me love Jane Austen. When I was a senior in high school I read Mansfield Park and was very disappointed. I thought it was an awful love story. Austen was a thing of the past. Then I watched the BBC/A&E version and fell in love. I wanted to know what happened. I was riveted for five nights. I read TV Guide to see what the next episode would bring. I thought surely the trouble was Lizzy's father died and could not imagine it was Lydia running off with Wickham. It was delightful. The music. The costumes. The actors. I adored it all. While I was studying in Wales I am almost ashamed to admit how many hours I spent watching this film with my two good friends. I will whole heartily admit though that Colin Firth on the big screen is amazing. When he proposes to Lizzy the first time it is almost like he is proposing to you.

When I returned from Wales I contacted my godmother and let her know about my Austen love. She too loves Austen and it is because of her that I am such an avid reader. I raved about the 1995 version and she said I had to watch the 1980 version. David Rintoul was amazing as Darcy and his facial expressions could not be touched. So I spent 4.5 hours watching it with her and could not help but compare it to my first P&P. I found fault with everything. It was not as I wanted it to be.

I have even heard older women say that there was no Darcy like Laurence Olivier, who starred in the 1940 version. Do the youth of today prefer Keira Knightly to Jennifer Ehle? Do they want Matthew McFadyen instead of Colin Firth? Are they bewitched body and soul?

What about those that were introduced to Austen through means that did not keep the book in Regency England? Do some women prefer the Bridget Jones update? Are some women keen on Darcy singing and dancing like he does in Bride & Prejudice, the Indian musical version of P & P? Or do people like the Darcy from Pride & Prejudice: A Latter Day Comedy. Do they find that whimsical update to be what they need? I do find that their Mr. Collins is wonderful. Very Mr. Collins like.

So my godmother and I are at an impasse. I love Colin Firth and she David Rintoul. I love Bride & Prejudice, Bridget Jones's Diary and Pride & Prejudice: A Latter Day Comedy, but the 2005 version I find fault with. It cannot live up to the 1995 version.

Do you have a favorite version? I am interested to see what Lost in Austen has to bring and that will be available the day before taxes are due. I must buy it and see. Another four hours of my life gone to Austen. I do not miss them though or think that they were not well spent. Regardless of which verison I am watching I enjoy the timelessness of the characters and the costumes (except for the 1940 version). I will always prefer the 1005 version, but five hours is sometimes too long to commit to Austen.

So my 16.5 hour Pride & Prejudice marathon continues. I hope I shall finish it all this weekend, but fear I will not. I can always continue it into the next week. Keep reading to see my final graded post....it will be a contest and if you win, you will get a prize! A Jane Austen prize. So look forward and have your own marathon. I must admit you will need it in order to win.

I am excessively diverted.

Other Blogs That Might Be Helpful

Here are two blogs that might be of some use to readers of this blog:

http://historyhoydens.blogspot.com/

http://riskyregencies.blogspot.com/

I am not sure if I will continue this blog once the assignment is over, so I hope these two blogs will help readers keep up on their readings.

Torn Between Two Sets of Sisters

Last year Masterpiece Theatre remade four Jane Austen novels. They did not redo Pride & Prejudice or Emma. I watched the remakes and found them enjoyable. I actually thought I liked the new Sense & Sensibility better than the Emma Thompson Sense & Sensibility for which she won an Oscar. Then a few days ago Emma's S & S was on and I thought "No, I like this one better."

It's a tough decision. I really liked Hattie Morahan as Elinor and I liked Charity Wakefield as Marianne. I also really liked Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet in the same roles. I found both Edwards to be good and like both Colonel Brandons. So I think that each one has its place. I'm not sure which one I would watch if I just wanted to watch Sense & Sensibility. I can see myself picking the Emma version because it is only around two hours while the Hattie version is four hours. That would obviously play a part in my decision. However I watch the four hour 1971 version of Persuasion because it is my favorite and I watch the 5 hour and 1 minute 1995 version of Pride & Prejudice because it is my favorite.

So I guess I am at an impasse. Occasionally I will watch the Emma version and occasionally I will watch the Hattie version. I have not seen the 1981 version of Sense & Sensibility even though I have it on DVD. I wonder if that will throw another wrench in my plans where I like it just as well as the other two.

Truly Tacky

Trust and Triumph is probably one of the most ridiculous books I've ever read. It has a seven-foot detective, an exorcism of a ghost of Pemberley (performed by Mary and Kitty), and a trip to Georgia during the War of 1812. Oh and did I mention the mirrors on the ceilings of Colonel Fitzwilliam's palatial Southern belle plantation? This book, which is touted, by the author, as the BEST Pride & Prejudice sequel available. And you know, it might just be right. It's not really the best out there, I've read better. But for a quick laugh and a "I can't believe this book was published" moment it really is the perfect book. I have given it to some Pride & Prejudice fanatics and they couldn't finish it. They felt that it was so off they just couldn't read it. I think you can't take Pride & Prejudice so seriously. I know I'm sort of contradicting myself because earlier I said I hated to read sex scenes between Darcy and Elizabeth, but you know when it's just ridiculous without the whole sex thing, it can actually be sort of funny. One thing I'd like to know though: why does the detective have to be seven feet tall? And the mirrors? And how did the Darcy's make it to Georgia during the War of 1812? Okay, so there's a lot of things I want to know, but that doesn't mean I didn't laugh.