Happy Anniversary! And Quiz extended!

Happy Anniversary for Becoming Jane Fansite and all of us! One year young, and lots of things to do to explore the chaste love and camaraderie between Jane Austen and Tom Lefroy!

And we’ve decided to extend the deadline of BJ Anniversary Quiz to 31 May 2008, to give more people chance to participate in our becoming. That’s it: Saturday, 31 May 2008 at 24:00 GMT (the midnight between Saturday and Sunday). It is equivalent to Saturday, 31 May 2008 at 8pm for New York, USA. It is also equivalent to Sunday, 1 June 2008 GMT+1 for UK, GMT+8 for central Indonesia time, GMT+10 for Sydney Australia, and GMT+12 for New Zealand.

How to join? Just answer the two questions down here and send the answers to Icha (tara_parvati@yahoo.com) AND Rachel (rachkingston@aol.com). DON’T reply to the comment section, unless you want your answers copied by others. The winner will be announced on 2 June 2008 at the latest and he/she will get a BJ DVD shipped to his/her address wherever that is (thanks to Michelle Molloy for the DVD donation!).

Now the questions:

1. What was Jane Austen’s last letter that directly referred to Tom Lefroy? (Answer style: Letter Date Month Year)

2. Choose two places of BJ movie locations that have association with Tom Lefroy

a. Carrigglas Manor

b. King's Inn, Dublin

c. Mt. Jerome cemetery

d. Higginsbrook, Co. Meath

e. Bray, Co. Wicklow

Don’t forget to give us your full name (real one, for postage) and postal address (including ZIP code) along with the answers.

Have fun with the easy quiz, and thanks a lot for your support! We’re one year young, and we can’t do it without you!

Jane Austen Quote of the Week – Week 6

I admire many aspects of Jane Austen. But one of them that I admire the most is her persistence. Why, she was bombarded with many problems in her life; financial, love, loved ones passed away, silly publisher rejecting her manuscript… but she stood still and proud. And she did not lose her sense of humour at all. It seems that she was becoming more and more alive with each trial in her life.

So now, I want to present you a quote – no, a passage, rather – from Sense & Sensibility (Penguin edition). It’s not too serious, it might even prove her sharp tongue, but it also showed her sense of humour.

Mrs. Palmer’s eye was now caught by the drawings which hung round the room. She got up to examine them.

‘Oh! Dear, how beautiful these are! Well! How delightful! Do but look, mama, how sweet! I declare they are quite charming; I could look at them for ever.’ And then sitting down again, she very soon forgot that there were any such things in the room. (p. 105)

That was very funny, I remembered laughing myself out loud when I read it for the first time. And indeed it was true; how many of us actually gave compliments just for the sake of having a conversation, and then would forget about it the next minute? And then we made the exactly same compliment again after another 15 minutes of meaningless conversation? Sometimes… humans are so funny…

Pic: Cover to Sense & Sensibility, Penguin edition

Missing James McAvoy? See this news!

Thanks to SK Barn, we learned that James McAvoy (swoon....) made an appeal to prevent cutbacks at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD). The news is found in BBC here, and the excerpt is below. Ooohh....

Salmond responds to actor's plea

The news comes after the Scots actor James McAvoy joined a campaign to prevent cutbacks at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD).

First Minister Alex Salmond has written to Mr McAvoy saying the government is committed to maintaining "world class drama provision".

A number of high-profile stars have become involved in the RSAMD campaign.

Among those who had put their names to a letter to the first minister were Bill Patterson, Billy Boyd and Alan Cumming.

Doctor Who star David Tennant, who also attended the academy, has already given his support to the campaign.

Mr McAvoy, a former student, described the academy as a "treasure".

He said that without Scotland's only conservatoire, students would be forced to find training south of the border.

Pic: Jane Austen Regency World Magazine, March/April 2007

Jane Austen Quote of the Week - Week Five

This week my quote of choice is from my favourite Austen novel, Emma. (And of course it gives me an excuse to post a picture of the gorgeous Knightley, which cannot be a bad thing...)

Towards the end of chapter nine, Emma is chatting with her father, and she comments:

"One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other."

(Emma, Penguin Edition 1996, p. 64)

This line 'gets me' every time. I love it! I always stop, and re-read it several times - taking me out of the novel for a moment, certainly, but it's too rich not too. I don't think any explanation will do this justice - but how well Jane knew human nature, and how succinctly she expressed it! It is so true that, "one half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other", and I suppose this is partly where our uniqueness, misunderstandings and beauty lie. Love it.


Pic: Mark Strong as Mr Knightley in A&E's Emma from: Jim's Blog

WINNERS: The Jane Austen Regency World Awards

The results for the Jane Austen Regency World Awards have been announced!!


You can see the results on The Giftshop Page kindly spotted by Linda but I am pleased to announce that Becoming Jane won:

Best New Film Award

Best Actor for James McAvoy

Best Acress for Anne Hathaway

It is clear from the site that other winners include:

Mr and Mrs Darcy by Alexandra Potter for Best New Fiction- click here for our review

Andrew Davies for The Outstanding Contribution Award

Pics: http://www.annie-hathaway.com/

BJ Fansite 1st Anniversary Quiz!!

Dear friends, ladies and gentlemen,

To commemorate our 1^st anniversary on 24 May 2008, Becoming Jane Fansite is holding a quiz for all Becoming Jane lovers.

How to join? Just answer the two questions down here and send the answers to Icha (tara_parvati@yahoo.com) AND Rachel (rachkingston@aol.com). DON’T reply to the comment section, unless you want your answers copied by others. The winner will be announced on 28 May 2008 at the latest and he/she will get a Becoming Jane DVD shipped to his/her address wherever that is (thanks to Michelle Molloy for the DVD donation!).

Deadline: Saturday, 24 May 2008 at 24:00 GMT (the midnight between Saturday and Sunday). It is equivalent to Saturday, 24 May 2008 at 8pm for New York, USA. It is also equivalent to Sunday, 25 May 2008 GMT+1 for UK, GMT+8 for central Indonesia time, GMT+10 for Sydney Australia, and GMT+12 for New Zealand. If you’re not sure, visit http://www.timeanddate.com/ or http://www.timezoneconverter.com/ to check your time zone.

Now the questions:

1. What was Jane Austen’s last letter that directly referred to Tom Lefroy? (Answer style: Letter Date Month Year; don't have to include letter number)

2. Choose two places of BJ movie locations that have association with Tom Lefroy

a. Carrigglas Manor

b. King's Inn, Dublin

c. Mt. Jerome cemetery

d. Higginsbrook, Co. Meath

e. Bray, Co. Wicklow

Don’t forget to give us your full name (real one, for postage) and postal address (including ZIP code) along with the answers.

Have fun with the easy quiz, and thanks a lot for your support! We’re one year young, and we can’t do it without you!

Pic: www.annie-hathaway.com

Book review: Lydia Bennet’s Story

First, I want to apologise to our dearest friend Jane Odiwe for I am so late in giving this review. Second, I want to thank her for sending me the beautiful Lydia Bennet’s Story, which I finished two weeks ago with a feeling of ‘why didn’t I read it sooner?’

Indeed, dear friends, for although I was late in reading Lydia, I finished her in only two reading days. And I arrived at the conclusion that Lydia Bennet’s Story a beautiful story worth a special review, albeit short due to my time constrain.

For a start, I have to admit that although I admire Elizabeth Bennet, and of course, Mr. Darcy, they are not my favourite couple (everybody: gasp!). Indeed, they are romantic, interesting, etc, and I do have a particular fandom towards Jennifer Ehle/Colin Firth pairing, though I admit that Keira Knightley/Matthew Macfayden were also very pleasing to watch (MM created this sensitive Mr. Darcy that was different from CF’s Darcy). My favourite couple is actually – strangely – Emma/Mr. Knightley, tailed by Marianne/Brandon, with Lizzy/Darcy and Fanny/Edmund as the third winners. Blasphemy! Yes, guilty as charged! :-D

Now, it is the truth universally acknowledged that Pride & Prejudice is one of the best-selling classical books ever written. Yet, it stopped there, with Lizzy/Darcy’s and Jane/Bingley’s weddings, leaving a vast imaginary land where many writers have dwelled and creatively written PP sequels. The sequels were mostly about Lizzy and Darcy though, and I could only recall one ‘sequel’, Miss de Bourgh’s Adventure, casting a non-Lizzy/Darcy character as the main spotlight. Instead, that book cast Anne de Bourgh, daughter of Lady Catherine de Bourgh, as the main heroine (Should have that on my pull list as well, the excerpt is very entertaining!). So, I was naturally interested when I learned that dear Jane Odiwe wrote a sequel about Lizzy’s sister. And the Lydia Bennet, of all people!

That being said, I enjoy re-reading Lizzy and Darcy in Lydia Bennet’s Story, for Jane Odiwe (herewith abbreviated as JO to differentiate with our Jane Austen) wrote their character to resemble the Lizzy/Darcy I have in mind when reading Pride & Prejudice. But I have to say that I dislike, dislike, dislike Lydia Wickham nee Bennet.

Why, no wonder. For I never liked her either when watching/reading PP. I think she’s a brat in need of a spank, and my opinion remained during the first half book (Part One). I don’t say that JO did not write Lydia well. In fact, she wrote Lydia so well, that she reminded me why I don’t like this character. What a brat indeed! But I am also intrigued to find out what will happen to the classical Austen brat, and if she ever going to grow up. So, bearing in mind that JO would definitely have a good story stored for me instead of ‘merely’ writing about a worth-spanking brat, I resumed reading.

I have to admit again that I read Part One pretty fast; with the very reason of disliking Lydia. But in between my speed reading, I still managed to admire JO’s way of bringing Lydia back to life. JO wrote the first few pages in a diary style, so it was Lydia’s voice that I heard. The diary was filled with dates as well, so JO must have done pretty thorough research on the PP diary to match Lydia’s diary with events in JA’s PP.

Later, JO switched to third-person style, and Lydia was merged with other characters as well. Part One was basically telling plots and scenes that we have already known from PP, but JO explored it further to fill in gaps and holes of Lydia that our dearest JA did not write of. Hence, we learned of the elaborate day-to-day adventure of Lydia in Brighton and how she eventually fell head over heels to the dazzling (ick!) George Wickham. By the way, I can understand clearly how Mr. Bennet’s feeling was when he saw his silliest daughter in action. I pity him, indeed.

Part One ended with Lydia’s impatience to arrive at Newscastle, to show her husband off to every living creature in town, to be admired as a gorgeous pair of newly-wed. Lordy lordy, how she was going to be surprised! For dearest Mr. Wickham still prevailed to prove that he was a nasty basta – I mean, a very disagreeable gentleman who did not only hold a particular fondness of gambling; he did not hesitate to date and neck women other than his wife! Finally fed up with Wickham’s insolent attitudes, Lydia dispatched herself back to south England, to be with her sisters and family once more.

After about a month staying in Pemberley (and was treated with some new clothes and bonnets by Lizzy), Lydia went to Netherfield (aahhh… Netherfield!) and stayed there for a while. In Hertfordshire, we were introduced to another character. Mr. Alexander Fitzalan, brother of Isabella Fitzalan, a dear friend of Lydia. Mr. Fitzalan was a reserved clergyman who seemed to dislike Lydia so much every time they met. That was okay for her, for she also thought of him as the most boring and disagreeable clergyman – and man in general – ever. Just don’t think of him as Mr. Collins II. I can picture him as a rather sexy reverend. Ahem.

Of course, Netherfield is not Netherfield without dances and parties, so dear Jane and Bingley held another ball while Lydia was there. Naturally, Lydia was very excited about the ball. But never she thought that the ball would be the most unforgettable ball in her life for several unpleasant surprises. First, Caroline Bingley was there, and along with her caustic comments, she brought uncomfortable news that Mr. Wickham was seen in Bath with a girl he claimed as his sister (Wickham did not have sister!). As if it was not enough for the former brat girl Bennet, she met her husband herself a few minutes afterwards, him begging her to return back to him and basically forget everything that had happened before.

Knowing not what to do, Lydia decided to hide Wickham in her room upstairs while she thought of the best strategy to deal with the uproar. But before she told her trusted sister Jane about what had taken place, a young woman barged into the ballroom, demanding to see Wickham at once. This woman (her name was Molly) would later reveal the most despicable truth of all about Wickham.

So shocked about the latest truth she learned about Wickham, Lydia decided to hunt down the information to the very first source. But alas, Wickham himself had run away earlier, possibly after detecting Molly’s presence in Netherfield. What a former brat like Lydia should do then?!

Dear friends, I won’t spoil more now of the ending of the book. Suffice to say that although I was not a fan of Lydia Bennet in Pride & Prejudice, I grew to like her in this book. Lydia grew to be an interesting mature woman here; she combined her ability to enjoy life to the fullest with a new talent to take a deep look into life and decided what was more important: rank, the title of Mrs. Wickham Captain of the Regiment, and dresses… or something more subtle yet more important, like maturity and finding true, undeterred, love.

Bottom line: pick the book if you have not, and join me to thank Jane Odiwe for bringing us a fresh take of the Pride & Prejudice sequel that does not evolve around Lizzy and Darcy alone.

There is a second edition of the book here, with longer sub-title (‘A Sequel to Pride and Prejudice/The continuing adventures of Mrs. Darcy's youngest sister’), still in paperback. It’s a very lovely cover too.

And I’m sorry to be so unaware of a new competition held by Jane Odiwe about Lydia to commemorate Mother’s Day tomorrow (11 May), for the competition is closed today. But here’s the link for the competition, and the result later.

Pic 1. Cover to Lydia Bennet’s Story, Amazon.com

Pic 2. Lydia’s elopement by Jane Odiwe

Pic 3. Jena Malone (left) as Lydia Bennet, PP 2005, from the Movie Photos

Pic 4. Second edition of Lydia Bennet’s Story, Amazon.com

JA Quote Week Four by Linda

The following is Linda’s choice for Jane Austen quote for the 4^th week. Thanks so much dear Linda for the lovely quote!

-xxx-

One of my favorite quotes is this passage in Persuasion where Anne…:

“….ventured to recommend a larger allowance of prose in his [Benwick's] daily study; and on being requested to particularize, mentioned such works of our best moralists, such collections of the finest letters, such memoirs of characters of worth and suffering, as occurred to her at the moment as calculated to rouse and fortify the mind by the highest precepts, and the strongest examples of moral and religious endurances.”

Persuasion, Chapter 11

This passage made me curious about the writings that Jane Austen might have read, so I began collecting the works of Addison, Steele, Johnson, etc of periodical fame, plus all the other literature I could find.

I have only found a few minutes of time to glance at these, but I was amazed at what I found. Then I stumbled onto “The Memoir of Chief Justice Lefroy” where I got the shock of my life on page 2 of the Preface. The Chief Justice states that:

"I had from the year 1795, more or less, read the Scriptures, but not with faith - nor as a little child - but in the pride of a Socinian spirit, and consequently I remained long in the dark."

-- Now what on earth happened to him in the year "1795" -- He met Jane!

It sounds like he began an earnest reading of the Scriptures in 1795. To be perfectly clear, let’s place the Chief Justice’s words in context from the Memoir:

“…written by himself (the Chief Justice) under the date 10^th Aug., 1822:

The papers in this parcel were written at different times from the year 1816, when I first began to have any view of God’s true method of salvation for a sinner. I had from the year 1795, more or less, read the Scriptures, but not with faith - nor as a little child - but in the pride of a Socinian spirit, and consequently I remained long in the dark. As truth began to dawn I was enabled to see many things, but darkly, and therefore in these papers will be observed more or less of error; but I have preserved them, and mention the circumstances, as a testimony to the great benefit of applying with constancy to this source of all truth, and to glorify the long suffering, the tender mercy, and grace of our Lord God, and at the same time to show what it is that hinders us from reaping the blessed fruits with which the Scriptures abound, as soon as we otherwise should do – namely, leaning on our own poor though proud understandings.”

The situation could be so similar to the events with Anne's advice to Benwick in Persuasion, namely, to read more of the scriptures and how to read them, in addition to his secular studies at school. Also, his words “our own poor though proud understandings” reminds us of whom? “Proud”, oh no, not Mr. Darcy!

After reading the Memoir in its entirety, I couldn’t help but notice all the lovely and touching religious passages. I am going to stick my neck out and say that during the conversations at those country dances, Jane might have suggested to Tom the same advice that Anne gave to Benwick. For me, at least, I see a lot of “real life” in Jane’s writings that others might classify as “made up or fanciful” stuff. In my opinion, she wrote what she knew.

Linda the Librarian

Pic 1. Sally Hawkins as Anne Elliot, Persuasion, ITV 2007, from Daybookery

Pic 2. DVD cover to the 1995 Persuasion, Wikipedia

Alessia's beautiful wallpaper!

Thanks so much for Alessia for the gorgeous wallpaper! It's here for people to download, and it's very gorgeous that I shall put it on my laptop right away!


Thanks so much for all of you readers. Becoming Jane Fansite is meaningless without your attentions. Truly.

Maria's lively and fun BJ music video!

Maria has a new BJ music video. I like this one very much, Maria! Not only it has one of my favourite songs ever (Accidentally in Love), but it's lively and definitely not sad. Though we know how it ends... but it's okay isn't it to pretend they have a happy ending?



It might get my vote for favourite BJ music video...

Reminder: JA Regency World Awards and BJ Fansite 1st Anniversary

Dear ladies and gents,

I would like to kindly remind you all of the upcoming deadline of the Jane Austen Regency World Awards for the favourite actor, actress and film of 2007, which is this Saturday, 10 May 2008. If you have not voted for Becoming Jane, Anne Hathaway and James McAvoy, it's time to click this link and vote for our favourites!

In addition, the 1st anniversary of Becoming Jane Fansite is coming up this 24 May, the very date Jane Austen moved to Winchester with Cassandra in 1817, where less than two months later she would leave this world for good. Hence, to celebrate the 1st birthday of our fansite, I would like to ask the opinions of all of you, of what we can do. Some ideas are:

1. Vote for the most popular Becoming Jane music video so far (linked to YouTube) for we have at least a hundred of them out there

2. A fan-art exhibition. I don't think voting for the best one will do, for we have only but a few fan-arts floating around

3. Article submission from fans on the ever-hot topic of Jane Austen and Tom Lefroy (so far, only Mariana has been a regular contributor here outside the Team Jane; thanks, Mariana!)

Any more ideas? Please don't hesitate to drop a comment, and we shall try to accommodate it.

Jane Austen Quote of the Week- Week Three

Mr Darcy has always remained one of my most intriguing Austen characters and from the first time I picked up Pride and Prejudice, the following line has made me chuckle and has remained imprinted on my brain:


"I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle."

- Mr Darcy, Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 58

Mr Darcy declares this near the closing of the novel when Elizabeth and himself reveal their true feelings for each other. Lizzy continues to thank him for his involvement in the Lydia situation and he is honest with her when he tells her that he loves her. I love this chapter!

I do not have an analysis of the quote; it is simply a representation of one of Jane Austen's lines that has touched me. Her characters are so superbly developed and we as readers become so passionate about them; forming opinions, feeling and bonds with them. I think that this quote just encapsulaes the misunderstood Mr Darcy that we all know and love.



Pic: Daily Mail webpage