Dear Readers,


I now consider this blog to be my Juvenelia. Have fun perusing the archives, and find me at my new haunt, here.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Saying A Fond Farewell

I've decided to put this blog on semipermanent hiatus. With a regular political blogging job and another gig blogging for VCFA about to commence, I just don't have the energy to maintain something like this project.

So the time has come to say my adieux for the time being. It's been well over four years, and they've been wonderful years. But all of our favorite novels have to end sometime, hopefully with a tasty marriage banquet (mine did!) and in a feminist world, with the heroine going back to school and landing new work. I love happy endings!

The nice thing about this chapter closing is that thanks to social media, I am now acquainted with most of my RSS subscribers and followers and regular commenters (there have been a whole lot of you at various points, thanks to Un-Becoming Jane and various liveblogs of Masterpiece Classic) on twitter, facebook and the like, so we will see each other with great frequency.

And a lot of you have started your own blogs--looking at you, most accomplished young lady. So I'll visit you there, and leave my calling card. When the time comes to let you know where my thoughts on reading and writing will next be seen, I'll do so either here or on twitter...Well, actually, I'll tell you now. It will be a blog attached to my website.

Lastly, here's a quick plug for my regular writing career: For an RSS feed of my bylines (approx 3-4 per week) click here. For a newsletter with highlights, (approx 2-3 times a year) click here.

Thanks for reading. It's been so much more than esteem and admiration on my end, readers. As EBC patron saint Andrew Davies once put in the immortal Wickham's bombastic mouth: "Let us not say goodbye - but as the French have it - Au Revior!!""

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Downton Abbey: What Did You Think of Episode 1?

Readers, I loved it. An occasionally pat line of dialogue aside, I thought it was a splendid first episode and definitely made me eager for next Sunday night. I don't understand all this talk of "jobs" and "week-ends" however.

Leave your thoughts in the comments. They will not be entailed away to the nearest male heir, I assure you.

Here are some roundups from around the web.

Downton Abbey: My Top 5 Favorite Characters from Episode 1: "Masterpiece fans are hailing Downton Abbey as the greatest thing since Bleak House (high praise, indeed!) and Amy and I are in complete agreement so far. "--from Kim at Romancing the Tome.


Oh, and be sure to check out The Daily Beast's roundup of the best Masterpiece shows, in honor of the venerable series' 40th anniversary.



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Jane Around the Web...

Was Jane Austen Edited? Does It Matter? : NPR via Numero Cinq

Iconography: Jane Austen, a Contemporary Kind of Lady: Bitch Magazine blogs (feminist consideration of Jane FTW).



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Thursday, December 23, 2010

Revisiting Franzenfreude, and A Roundup of Female Writers

This Year Female Writers Kicked Up Literary Dust
is my annual year-end literary wrap up at Women's eNews, with a twist of Franzenfreude.

"(WOMENSENEWS)--The year's biggest literary controversy was set off by two women who write "women's fiction:" Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Weiner.

The two complained on Twitter and in a joint interview on the Huffington Post about a culture of "white male literary darlings" who mesmerize influential critics at publications such as The New York Times Book Review and leave female authors--particularly commercial ones-- out in the cold..."


read more!

And happy holidays, readers.





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Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Buy Books for the Holidays, or the World Will End Up This Way

Books for Christmas? at the New Yorker's "Book Bench" blog.

"



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Tuesday, December 21, 2010

"Hidden Gem" Books of 2010

Weird And Wonderful Books: 2010's Hidden Gems : NPR lists a few books that are too offbeat to make it onto year-end lists.

Speaking of year-end lists, more on that tomorrow...

HAPPY SOLSTICE, readership.



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Goodbye, Poetry in motion

Literary Quotations on Subway Trains Come to an End, by my good friend Mike who covers transit for the Times.

"The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has decided to discontinue a program featuring signs with poetry and other literature on the city’s subway trains."
This is a nice elegy for a program I loved. My little "Poetry in Motion" book was one of my favorite, well-curated anthologies. Like a "Rattle Bag" for the modern age.



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Friday, December 17, 2010

It's Never The Wrong Time for Some Feminist Readings of Jane Austen

Happy belated birthday, Jane Austen! at feministing, by Chloe Angyal, who includes these tantalizing lines:

"If Caroline Bingley is a bitch, it’s not her fault. Society made her that way...

... resist the urge to hate on Caroline Bingley. Remember: don’t hate the player. Hate the game. Jane Austen did, and it made her one of the most adored authors of all time. "


Read on...


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Thursday, December 16, 2010

Literary Birthday: EBC Patron Saint #1 Jane Austen


They never made 'em like her again, as best expressed in a chat between me and my twin brother, after he had read "Emma" followed by "Ethan Frome."

Daniel: finished ethan frome
me: whatdjoo think? no "emma" right"
Daniel: no emma.


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Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Downton Abbey Trailer


Masterpiece is sooooo back.



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Monday, December 06, 2010

Jane Austen and the Youth in the WSJ

Jane Austen's Popularity Grows With Young on the Web - WSJ.com

What these articles always neglect to mention is that young people love Jane not just because she's like, totally relevant to our man problems, but because she's you know, profound and a genius.

Still, the article is good and it quotes lots of friends of this blog, including folks from my local JASNA chapter and Laurie Viera Riegler, author of "Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict."

So click on through!

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Tuesday, November 09, 2010

JANE EYRE TRAILER (be still, my heart)

Back from blog-hibernation to squeal over this one.
It looks Gothic, and overwrought and hollywoody, and AMAZING. Yes, we've already seen three or four adaptations but this is Jane freaking Eyre we're talking about here. Too much is never enough.



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Friday, October 15, 2010

NBR Finalists Include 13 Women. Yay?

The Fruit of 'Franzenfreude': "

The National Book Award finalists were announced yesterday. And for the first time ever, 13 of the 20 finalists were female. They included Lionel Shriver, (acclaimed Jewish novelist) Nicole Krauss, and most wonderfully, alternative punk rocker Patti Smith for her recently published memoir. Jonathan Franzen, subject of so much acclaim and backlash in recent weeks, was notably not on the list.


Read the full blog post here.


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Wednesday, October 06, 2010

Two Literary (Re) Discoveries

Good morning, readers! two interesting literary "discoveries" on the internets yesterday:

*Jezebel reminds us of an unpublished excerpt of Edith Wharton's sexually explicit erotica--but maybe it was unpublished because it was, erm, about incest? Warning: this content is NSFW, even though it was written by Edith Wharton (I always said that her novels simmered with thwarted desire)