Reading

Jane Austen fans are thrilled with A Dance with Jane Austen, the new book on dancing and balls by Susannah Fullerton, the President of the Jane Austen Society of Australia. Her book takes us from wishing for a ball, through dressing, practicing, taking the carriage, flirting, noshing, through to talking over beaus the next day. We join both Jane and Cassandra and Jane's characters in their many private and public balls. Written in a sprightly tone, this book prepares every reader for her next Regency dance.

New Media Jane Austen

• BBC article
• BBC video
• Guardian
• Telegraph
• New York Times

If you are sure of your Pride and Prejudice knowledge, take the Quiz from the Telegraph.

All of Jane Austen's novels are now available for download in several formats from Google: The Complete Project Gutenberg Works of Jane Austen by Jane Austen

Our Library

Our very own JASNA Calgary scribe, Samantha Adkins, has published another Jane Austen themed book, Suspiciously Reserved, A Twist on Jane Austen's Emma. This tantalizing novel helps us imagine the story of Jane Fairfax, who is shabbily treated by Frank Churchill and by Emma Woodhouse. Samantha invites us to imagine her tale as set in present-day Canada.

Strathmore author, Samantha Adkins wrote Expectations, a sequel to Pride and Prejudice, for her sister's birthday. Expectations is set six months after Pride and Prejudice ends, in the style and voice of Jane Austen. It begins at Longbourn with Mrs. Bennet exhorting Mr. Bennet to write his married daughters, Elizabeth Darcy and Jane Bingley, telling them they must provide male heirs for their new husbands. Find out more about Expectations and make a purchase online.

Reading Notes

• Local Fame: Swerve magazine interviewed Elizabeth Marshall about the attraction of the Jane Austen Society.
• Murder Mystery: Great author PD James has combined her expertise in writing thrillers with her love of Jane Austen in Death Comes to Pemberley. Also listen to a video interview with PD James.
• Arsenic Poisoning?: Crime writer, Lindsay Ashford, has reviewed Jane Austen's letters and postulates she died of arsenic poisoning. Don't think it is possible? Perhaps her novel The Mysterious Death of Miss Austen will persuade you.
• Austen Every Day: For a calmer mind, consult A Jane Austen Devotional.
• Old News: Read about Jane Austen's growing fame in The Literary World, August 23, 1889. The full publication is available on Google Books (requires sign-in to Google).
• Her Fault: Newly released Jane Austen Made Me Do It is a collection of new short stories inspired by Jane Austen.
• "Jane" on screen Samantha Adkins JASNA Calgary member and author has created her own promotional video for her novel, Expectations. Enjoy her acting on Youtube.
• Stovel Book of Essays: The University of Alberta Press has published a collection of essays, Jane Austen and Company by Bruce and Nora Stovel. We come to know Jane Austen by the company she keeps: her predecessors Fielding, Sterne, Lennox, and Burney, her contemporary Scott, and her successors Waugh and Amis. Juliet McMaster wrote the introduction, and our own Isobel Grundy wrote the afterword.
• Personal Meditations: JASNA Montreal sent us the link to Deb Barnum's great blog for JASNA-Vermont on Rachel Brownstein's Why Jane Austen and William William Deresiewicz's A Jane Austen Education.
• Watsons Manuscript Bought by Bodleian: On 2011 July 14 the Bodleian Library purchased at auction the last privately-held manuscript written by Jane Austen. The Watsons is an unfinished novel and will be part of a public exhibition in the fall. These links tell the story of how the manuscript remained in Britain.
  • Auction video on BBC
  • News report from the Guardian
  • Canadian reaction on CBC
  • Bodleian news release
• Experience: For those of us who dream about "what happened after", Experience, a sequel to Pride and Prejudice, entertains with a delightful story. Read a review by local author and JASNA Calgary member, Samantha Adkins.

Gala Links

Rowland McMaster has provided a reading list for those who want to know more about Women on Men-of-war.

Views on Jane Austen

Jane Austen's Family and Friends

Sir Walter Scott

Charlotte Bronte

Local Authors

• The Bath Novels of Lady A~

  New reading pleasures are to be found in The Bath Novels of Lady A~. The first, Merits and Mercenaries, is available online from the author's Regency-style web site.

  Merits and Mercenaries/ ‘Classic Companion I’™, The Bath Novels of Lady A~’s debut novel, is a dashing tale about the perplexing pursuit of love and self-discovery, which races for resolution— upon comedy and drama— across both town and country. As the protagonists William Halford and Katherine Huntley seek some happy end, a host of vivid villains strive to perilously prevent it— while the shadow of a most menacing secret relentlessly stalks the story’s entire cast.

• Expectations

  Strathmore author, Samantha Adkins wrote Expectations, a sequel to Pride and Prejudice, for her sister's birthday. Expectations is set six months after Pride and Prejudice ends, in the style and voice of Jane Austen. It begins at Longbourn with Mrs. Bennet exhorting Mr. Bennet to write his married daughters, Elizabeth Darcy and Jane Bingley, telling them they must provide male heirs for their new husbands. Find out more about Expectations and make a purchase online.

  

Links to Books and More