A few odd items that I thought you Austen fans might find interesting

For starters, here's the Pride and Prejudice comic book, by no less than Marvel Comics!

There's a whole line of these things from Emma to Sense & Sensibility!

And then of course, for those Austen fans nostalgiac for the return of the original GI Joe cartoon and the billions of toys that were advertised on the series, comes the Jane Austen action figure!

No word on if she has a kung-fu grip. If you think she's pale check out Edgar Allen Poe's action figure.

And if the faceplate of your light switch has taken a dive recently and needs replacement, just get a Jane Austen light switch one to replace it.

Enjoy!

That P&P comic book cover is pretty much pwnage compared to the bogus Twilightesque covers.

So tell us... why do you love Jane Austen? Or (I must be fairminded here ) why don't you? Which novels have you read? Which adaptations have you seen? Have you read any continuations by other authors? Let's discuss!

Oooh cool topic, thanks wisewoman for hosting this!
I first learned about Jane Austen by watching parts of the 1979 BBC TV production of Pride and Prejudice with David Rintoul (Darcy) and Elisabeth Garvie (Elizabeth). I then went on to read the actual novel of Pride and Prejudice, pretty much in a few days and I was hooked on what was going to happen to Elizabeth and Darcy. Later in college I took a Jane Austen course as one of my English Lit classes and we read all of her novels that entire semester.

I love Jane Austen because of her witty writing and true-to-life characterizations of families going through trials. Pretty classic family sagas...involving entails, inheritance, marriage, scandals. Each of her heroines and heroes have problems that readers can relate to and identify with. She could be satiric as in Northanger Abbey poking fun at reading gothic novels or showing the trials of poor Fanny Price at Mansfield Park, or second-chance romance with Anne Eliot and Captain Wentworth in Persuasion, or Lizzie Bennet finally seeing beyond her prejudice of Mr. Darcy, or Elinor and Marianne--sisters with opposing personality-types in Sense and Sensibility, or meddling Emma Woodhouse in Emma.

And even though all of her novels seem to revolve around family dynamics, customs and mores of the Regency period and marriage , each book was "fresh" in its own view/setting and one never gets the thought that she is merely painting by the numbers when she writes. Everything is well-developed and the characters are so fun and relatable that all of her books are fun reads.

My favourite out of all of the P&Ps that have been made is the 1995 one as it seemed the most "together" adaptation of the book, though 1979 is pretty faithful too.

My favourite Emma is the 1996 film adaptation with Gwyneth Paltrow and with my favourite Mr. Knightley as well.

My favourite Persuasion is the 1995 film adaptation with Amanda Root (Anne Eliot) and Ciaran Hinds (Captain Wentworth). The most recent one with Sally Hawkins was promising, but there were some ridiculous moments in it that I won't mention for those who haven't seen it yet.

My favourite Mansfield Park is the 1983 version with Sylvestra LeTouzel (Fanny Price) and Nicholas Farrell (Edmund Bertram) as it's the most faithful to the book. The 2 most recent MP remakes were awful but laughable and I hope the BBC has another go at it again to hopefully improve upon the 1983 version...someday....

My favourite Northanger Abbey is the recent 2007 version with JJ Feild (Henry Tilney) and Felicity Jones (Catherine Morland). Scripted by Andrew Davies it's pretty faithful to the book with a few liberties taken and the leads are bright and amusing.

My favourite Sense and Sensibility is the recent 2008 version with Dan Stevens and Hattie Morahan as Edward and Elinor and a great supporting cast. It brought the book more to life than the 1971 version.

I was going to read the continuation of Sandition (an unfinished novel of Jane Austen's before she died), but I never really finished it.

My favourite novels are: Persuasion and Mansfield Park. Sense and Sensiblity and Northanger Abbey come next. And then Emma and Pride and Prejudice.

The little bit of the mashups I've seen excerpts of...i.e. Jane Austen and Sea Monsters or Zombies make me laugh because they're obviously poking fun with the originals for those who like that sort of thing.

And if anyone wants a good site that is all about Austen there's the Republic of Pemberley at: http://www.pemberley.com

I think I was referring to the '80s Pride and Prejudice though.

Of course you were. I totally misread that. Of course, several other people hereabouts have seen that P&P, including myself. I certainly think the story works best as a miniseries, but I'd have to re-watch both the 80s and 90s versions to know for sure which one I preferred. I remember thinking that Garvie was a particularly fantastic Elizabth, though, and that David Rintoul really looked the part as Darcy (although he didn't "unbend" quite enough near the end). I also recall Lady Catherine's boudoir being rather overwhelmingly pink, more the sort of thing room I'd expect to see in an Oscar Wilde play.

Shadowlander, I've coveted that Austen action figure for some time now! Thanks for being a good sport and sharing all the goodies with us, considering that you're not a fan yourself.

On the other side of the spectrum from the comic book version...

I present to you the P&P board book!

Personally, I am not quite pleased with the illustrations; the faces are too creepy for my taste. But the idea is cute, even if the execution does not meet my exacting standards.

Those are great, SL! I should have Winter get the action figure of Austen at least (she doesn't like Poe) to populate one of the many doll houses she builds.

Interesting, Mel. It looks rather amusing. I'm not overly sold on the illustrations, either, though they look a little like rag dolls. The girl with the "I (heart) Darcy" shirt on the front cracks me up, though.

Valia: there's a Dickens one too, I believe.

I thought the houses were cute, at least, Mel. They look like something off of a sampler.

Wow. I'm not sold on the board book idea. That seems a little early for Jane Austen's stuff. I must admit though that the page 4 marriage proposals cracked me up.

I've gotten to the parts of S and S where the story starts getting more interesting.

I think a sampler style would have suited a Jane Austen presentation, that or something more like a fashion plate from the time. Even a slight change to the faces would have made the whole thing vastly more appealing, because the clothes and houses are cute.

Which part of S&S is that, Twigs?

I really enjoy Jane Austen, she has a nice style of writing that I really love to read, my favorite of her books are Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, though Emma was great too and Persuasion was awesome, I saw the movies to all her books (the BBC series for P&P as well as the recent one, the 199something S&S, Emma and Persuasion, and other two ones who's names I have forgotten and am to lazy to look up ) and read Emma, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion
.....I also really loved the movie Becoming Jane

What a fantastic topic!! I've seen so many movie adaptions of Jane Austen's books but I've only recently started actually reading her books.

The first book of Jane Austen's I tried reading was Mansfield Park. I wanted to read it first, because I hadn't seen any of the movie/TV adaptions to it, so I thought it would be more interesting for me. I thought it was good, but I wasn't a huge fan of any of the characters. I definitely think it's not one of Austen's best.

The next book I read was Emma. And I loved that one! It was entertaining, though after watching BBC's adaption, my mental vision of Emma is fixated as Romola Garai. She did an excellent job, I thought, at portraying Emma. And BBC's mini series is definitely my favorite version of Emma.

I'm currently reading Persuasion now and it might end up being my favorite Austen book, up there with Emma, though I have yet to read Pride and Prejudice (I love the A&E version ). I think I like Emma so much because I am so like the character Emma. Perhaps not as ridiculous, but still very silly in many of the same respects that she is.

My favorite adaptions of the books are the BBC Emma, BBC Sense & Sensibility, and the 1995 A&E's Pride and Prejudice. I have yet to see an adaption of Persuasion or Mansfield Park.

#-o Of course you were. I totally misread that. Of course, several other people hereabouts have seen that P&P, including myself. I certainly think the story works best as a miniseries, but I'd have to re-watch both the 80s and 90s versions to know for sure which one I preferred. I remember thinking that Garvie was a particularly fantastic Elizabth, though, and that David Rintoul really looked the part as Darcy (although he didn't "unbend" quite enough near the end).

No worries. I agree that Mr. Rintoul's version of Mr. Darcy did not quite change enough in the end, I suppose though the character is a hard one to play well.

I also recall Lady Catherine's boudoir being rather overwhelmingly pink, more the sort of thing room I'd expect to see in an Oscar Wilde play.

And don't forget Mr. Collins' hat- the waterproof one with a flotation device in case of near drowning, that Lady Catherine urged upon him. I thought that was highly amusing, I wonder if it worked...

Please note that this Special Feature will be closing on Monday, January 9, after which you may discuss Austen's works and their adaptations in the relevant Books or Movies topics.

I haven't read any of Jane Austen's novels, but I've seen many of the movie adaptions (Sense and Sensibility with Kate Winslet, Emma with Ewen McGregor, Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightly and the Pride and Prejudice TV series (yeah...I remember them by actors, not years...pretty lame) I started reading Pride and Prejudice, but wasn't able to get through it. I really liked the movie version of it, though - both of them.

Which part of S&S is that, Twigs?

I believe I was at the part when Willoughby leaves and Edward comes. I couldn't remember