News for Austen Enthusiasts: August 2022

Welcome back, as usual, to your monthly Jane Austen news wrap up. September is a very exciting month here at the Centre, with the Jane Austen Festival coming to Bath this month (UPDATE: Changes to the Festival in light of the passing of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II). For those who can't be with us in person, you can come back to our website to immerse yourself in the world of Austen. 

In a world where new Austen adaptations are always in the works, we sometimes hear of some truly innovative ways of adapting her work. Dimension 20's new A Court of Fey and Flowers brings Austen to Dungeons and Dragons via RPG game Good Society. If you're a fan of Austen and fantasy, it's worth checking out. 

We at the Austen Blog are big fans of the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice - you'd have to be superhuman not to be! If you're an Austen fan currently on the house hunt and have £6 million to spare, the Wiltshire home that was used as Longbourne in the BBC adaptation is on the market. Though the Bennets were quite hard up, the pictures show a house most of us would be delighted to move into.

Though the summer Regency news has been dominated by Persuasion, there's another film hot on its heels. Mr Malcolm's List follows a young woman as she helps her friend get revenge on a suitor who rejected her after she failed to meet all the criteria on a 'list' of qualities his wife must meet. With a star studded cast including Freida Pinto, Ṣọpẹ Dìrísù, Theo James (of Sanditon fame!) and Zawe Ashton, this movie has generally been impressing, garnering an 82% Rotten Tomatoes score at time of posting. The Austen Blog review is imminent - stay tuned!

If you're down with the kids, you may have already heard of Tommy Lefroy already. If not, it's time to jump on the bandwagon. The London-based duo are on the road to success, already having conquered TikTok with their considered, reflective lyrics, and pop-rock sound. In an interview with NME, Tessa and Wynter discussed their Austen-inspired name choice, which takes its inspiration from Tom Lefroy, the lawyer sometimes suspected to be Austen's real-life Mr Darcy.

 

As Austen fans, we are also, more generally, reading fans. We look up to the great readers of fiction too - Lisa Simpson, Matilda, Elizabeth Bennet, and maybe even Rory Gilmore. The lattermost is now at the centre of a new reading trend. Some brave soul has assembled a list of every book Rory reads in every episode of Gilmore Girls, and it comes to a cracking 339 volumes (though there is disagreement between different sources). Do you think you could read that much? 

For the first time ever, the number of students electing to take English Literature at A Level has fallen so far that the subject has dropped out of the top ten most popular subjects. Once seen as a staple part of our educations, English has recently found itself playing second-fiddle to STEM subjects, which have gained the reputation of being the more 'employable' subjects. What do you think? Is this a disaster waiting to happen, or a natural part of the ebb and flow of interest in our young people? 

As always, we would love to know if we have missed anything, as well as all your thoughts on the news!