Following Austen

World Magazine review & interview

There's a lovely review and interview in World Magazine this week.  Unfortunately, you can't read the whole thing online (although you can subscribe for just $5.00):

A Jane Austen Valentine:  Author Lori Smith on what the great writer can teach us about life and love
Bookstores are glutted with books concerning Jane Austen. Many of them are bad, which means the occasional jewel risks being overlooked. A Walk with Jane Austen is a jewel. It combines genres—a bit of spiritual memoir, travel diary, and examination of Austen's life and work—to raise questions about grace, romance, family, community, and calling. Not a bad Valentine's Day gift for a woman who follows Jane. (...)

Regretful Jane

I watched Miss Austen Regrets last night.  I think I liked it.  I'm not entirely sure.  The truth is, it's stressful to me to see someone attempt to put Jane on screen--I feel a bit protective of her. 

I have a hard time believing that Jane lived with that level of regret.  I love Olivia Williams, and I think she did a great job, but I didn't think the production captured the great energy and joy that I see in Jane's letters.

There was much that was accurate, although I need to go back and review the details.  Harris Bigg-Wither did propose, and Jane did accept him and then change her mind the following morning.  He was apparently awkward and stuttered, and there wasn't any love there.  He went on to marry someone else and have a large family, and the whole thing seems to have been largely forgotten.  Jane and Cassandra went on being dear friends with his sisters.

The character of Brook Bridges was based on Brook-Edward Bridges (who would have gone by Edward).  He was the younger brother of Jane's brother Edward's wife Elizabeth.  We don't know much about Edward Bridges, except that he was an Anglican priest, and Jane ran into him a bit when she visited her brother's family.  There's a reference in one of Jane's letters that makes it seem like he could have proposed at one point, but all we know for certain is that he ordered "toasted cheese" one evening for dinner "entirely on [Jane's] account."  Austen expert Deirdre Le Faye believes that if there was a proposal, Jane "had no difficulty in politely rejecting" it.  [Jane Austen: A Family Record, 150]

There are references in Jane's letters to Charles Haden, the doctor, but I don't believe there's any indication of serious feelings or of a rivalry between her and Fanny.  (Of course, as they depicted, Cassandra burned most of the letters, so much of this is conjecture and imagination.)

They used so many quotes directly from Austen's letters and writing, which was wonderful and also a bit distracting. I kept thinking about where the quotes came from.  I felt like they were taking lots of little gems and stringing them all together in a way that wasn't entirely natural.  And many of the conversations just wouldn't have happened.  Jane was so incredibly reserved with her brother Edward (appropriate to the time).  I don't think he would have chastised her--at least not openly--for not marrying Harris Bigg-Wither.  Edward was known, as well, for being incredibly kind.  I think, if anything, he would have grieved the added stress to his family as a result of the lawsuits (which were eventually resolved in his favor after several years) rather than striking out at them.

Dashing Henry (who was actually tall and good looking) did go bankrupt, and all of this was happening at the same time.  It's presumed that the stress made Jane's illness worse, and most now believe that she had Addison's disease, though no one knows for sure.

I'd love to know what you thought.  My biggest complaint is that Jane comes across as so much happier than that in her letters.  I don't think her energy and joy for life was so diminished by past regrets.

Endorsement from Today's Christian Woman

Just got this lovely endorsement for A Walk with Jane Austen from Today's Christian Woman:

For anyone who wishes chick-lit favorite Jane Austen had written just one more novel or that moviemakers would hurry in producing another adaptation of her beloved works, this memoir of love and travel, food and faith will satisfy.  Austen-lover and acclaimed singles writer Lori Smith weaves her own romance and personality into analysis of Austen's characters and biographical information on Austen's rarely discussed spirituality.  In these eloquent musings on Smith's journey to London, Derbyshire, and other key locations in Austen's life and works, Austen's 19th-century novels come alive in ways no silver-screen rendition has ever accomplished.

Wow...

Some thoughts on Mansfield Park

I was debating about whether to post this now or wait until Sunday, but my thoughts on Mansfield Park have been posted over on the PBS.org blog, Remotely Connected.  I was thrilled to be asked to do this.  Check it out now, or wait until Sunday night and weigh in with your own opinion.

Fanny Price is a ninny.  (Forgive me, dear Jane.)  I’ve tried to like her and I can’t.

When I was first asked to blog about Mansfield Park, the editor mentioned that she saw “such similarity” between me and Fanny. I had to stop to consider whether or not that was an insult. (...)

Interview at JonalynFincher.com

Jonalyn Fincher has posted a two-part interview on her blog.  She's a sweetheart, one of those people I wish lived close by so we could just chat over coffee.  We met at the Calvin Festival on Faith & Writing two years ago (which I highly recommend -- I'm planning to go back this year).  She's also the author of Ruby Slippers: How the Soul of a Woman Brings Her Home.  Here she is with her little Welsh Corgi named Lady Jane.

I know that you live with the daily labor of living with Lyme’s disease alongside the work of continuing your writing and daily blog. How have you learned to embrace lament and honest painful expression within the often stifling milieu of sunshin-ey, smiley Christianity? As a woman what gives you courage to be      a woman of lament?

Living with Lyme disease, which means I deal with constant exhaustion, pushed me to depths I didn’t know existed. I could no longer pretend to be okay, I simply wasn’t. It took living through that experience for me to begin to understand lament, and I still think I have a lot to learn about how to process it and how it should be experienced. I’m comforted by the fact that there’s a long tradition of lament in Christianity, that David and the prophets felt no need to be smiley. I was struggling the other day, wavering between accusing God and trusting him, and I thought, “I wonder if that qualifies me to be a psalmist?” (...)       

A Deliciously Clean Read

This week we were featured on the blog Deliciously Clean Reads.  Very cool!

A Walk with Jane Austen is a quiet ride through Jane Austen’s world.  It is a soft memoir. Smith’s talented writing weaves countless connections between the life of Jane Austen and her own. (...)

Interview at She Plants a Vineyard

Tina Ann Forkner has posted an interview over at her blog, She Plants a Vineyard, part of a whole series they're doing on Austen-related things.  Tina is author of the novel Ruby Among Us, which will be available in May from WaterBrook.  Can't wait to read it.

SPV: Why did you choose to write a memoir at this point in your life?

Lori: I’m not sure if I chose to or if it just happened. I originally expected to be writing a book about Austen, and was surprised when I started writing and my own stories started coming out. There’s more of me in it than I expected. (...)

Review from Mindy Withrow

So much to catch up on here on the blog.  Mindy Withrow, author of the History Lives series of church history for little ones, posted a lovely review on her blog:

The Amazon reviewers who think there is too much Lori Smith and not enough Jane Austen didn’t read the book description very closely. This is not a biography of Austen but a memoir of Lori’s travels to Austen-related sites, an account of Lori’s search for physical and spiritual recovery as she retraces the steps of a favorite novelist. She writes with a light hand, vulnerable, just this side of silly at times but in the manner of kicking back with a buddy, and balanced with moments of great maturity and thoughtfulness. (...)

Sweet Northanger

So what did you think of Northanger Abbey?  I have to confess that I watched a screening copy last week, along with Mansfield Park (which I'll be blogging on this week for PBS's Remotely Connected), and now they're all getting confused in my little brain. 

I loved it, though.  Catherine was sweet, Henry was sweetly sarcastic, Isabella was sweetly evil, Eleanor Tilney was elegant and good, and John Thorpe was absolutely creepy and horrid.  If everything didn't exactly follow the book, I thought they kept the spirit of it, and I'm thrilled to have an adaptation of this little-adapted novel.

Of course, Andrew Davies wove in a bit of latent (and at times not-so-latent) sexuality.  Catherine seemingly longing to be ravaged by outlaws and villains was a bit silly.  In the book she has an air of complete innocence, and is silly enough on her own.  Apparently there was a bath scene which was cut out of the PBS version -- not entirely sure about that.

Anyway, I look forward to seeing it again. And I hope it will introduce tons of people to this fun little book, which they likely haven't read. Would love to know your thoughts.

Seems like we all had the same reaction to Persuasion.  And yes, I thought that, too, that Anne's sister Mary reminded me of Molly Shannon.  Did a bit of a double-take.

This week -- my absolute least favorite Austen novel:  Mansfield Park.

Felicity Jones as Catherine Morland.  ©ITV plc (Granada International) for Masterpiece™

Were you Persuaded?

Ack!  I don't know how it's been two months since I posted.  (Actually, it was the holidays, and a relapse of that darn Lyme disease, and having some work done on my house...)

There's so much I want to tell you, but I have to start with PBS's Persuasion last night.  What did you think?

I have to say, I can't imagine anything more fun than a whole series of Austen films on Sunday nights for months to come.  (In case you didn't know, I'm a complete Austen nerd.  As if the book and blogs don't give that away.) So, kudos to Masterpiece for giving us this Austen celebration in the midst of a particularly barren tv season.

I really wanted to love this new adaptation, but didn't.  I was watching with a bad headache, so perhaps that's partially to blame, but I think my biggest complaint was simply how rushed everything was.  There were big pieces of the story that were only hinted at as a result.  I think the thing is, I love the one with Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds so much, it would have taken a lot to shift my loyalties.

I'm particularly difficult to please when it comes to Austen, I guess.  And I think it may not be possible to do justice to Persuasion in an hour and twenty minutes.  Kudos to them for filming so much in Bath, rather than finding another location to substitute.  I liked Rupert Penry-Jones, and thought the cast was fine (if Mary was a bit annoying I thought it was an interesting portrayal of her ridiculous self), I just would have liked more of a chance to get to know them as their characters.

On the other hand, I heard from a friend who's new to Austen that they were moved by it, which made me happy.  The whole series could help attract a new generation of Austen fans to her writing.  As Martha would say, that's a Good Thing.

How about you -- were you Persuaded?  Check out Ms. Place's review on the PBS blog Remotely Connected.

Looking forward to next week and Northanger Abbey.

Sally Hawkins as Anne Elliot. ©Nick Briggs/Clerkenwell Films for Masterpiece™