Other positive reviews of 'Becoming Jane'

Thanks to Joely_snowflake, I got another positive review from Empireonline.com. Here's the link, but I cannot open it from here. It stubbornly keeps sending me to the Australian site. Hope you guys can open it.

Another one is from NPR by Bob Mondello here (Jane Isn't Quite Austen, but It Is Becoming). Bob said that 'biographical purists will doubtless complain that that flirtation with the real Mr. Lefroy (who later became Lord High Justice of Ireland) is referred to exactly twice in all of Austen's hundreds of letters.' Hmmm... I hope Bob will read our blog soon; I think we have enough posts of Tom Lefroy and Jane Austen to make a decent medium-sized book, including leads and possibilities yet uncovered so far.

Next one is by Deidre Lynch (See Jane Elope: Why are we so obsessed with Jane Austen's love life?) from Slate.com. Among others, Deidre said:

Becoming Jane is based on a chapter in Jon Spence's 2003 critical biography, Becoming Jane Austen. In the book, Spence does identify Tom Lefroy as the love of Austen's life and her relationship with him as the origin of her genius. But he never suggests that there was an aborted elopement (much less subsequent reading sessions with any of Lefroy's children). And he is careful, as the filmmakers are not, to clarify that in speculating about Austen's romantic experience he is reading between the lines of the family records and of the three rather opaque Austen letters that are his principal sources.

Other scholars have been more skeptical than Spence about whether this pair were ever "a couple." They see a flirtation that terminated without fuss when Tom ended his visit to relations in the Hampshire countryside where Jane lived and returned to the London law courts. True, when well on in years, Tom is reported to have answered yes to the question "Were you ever in love with Jane Austen?" "With a boyish love," he said. But at that point the old man might have been eager to play up his connection with the famous writer.

Hmmm… with all due respect, I don’t think that the old Tom Lefroy played up his connection with the famous writer. He could do that before Jane’s death in 1817. No, I think he was being sincere to admit that he had a relationship with Jane in the past, albeit it was ‘a boyish love’. I don’t even translate the ‘boyish love’ as such. There’s more to Tom Lefroy than meets the eye, and this blog just started to dig the surface.

Also, thanks to Michelle, here's the latest news from NZ Stuff about Anne Hathaway. As Michelle said, not much new, but it's nice to see New Zealand still keeping up. What about Canada, everyone?

Pic 1: The young Tom Lefroy, from Carrigglas Manor site

Pic 2: James McAvoy's Tom Lefroy from Jane Austen's Regency World March/April 2007