October Meeting Announcement

Our next meeting is scheduled for October 27, 2009 at 6 p.m. at Title Wave Books in Anchorage. This month's book, in celebration of Halloween and all things dark and spooky, is "Northanger Abbey."

The book follows seventeen year old Gothic novel aficionado Catherine Morland and family friends Mr. and Mrs. Allen as they visit Bath, England. Catherine is in Bath for the first time, and is excited to spend her time visiting newly-made friends, such as Isabella Thorpe, and going to balls.

Catherine finds herself pursued by Isabella's brother, the rather rough-mannered dandy John Thorpe, and by her real love interest, Henry Tilney. She also becomes friends with Eleanor Tilney, Henry's younger sister. Henry captivates her with his view on novels and his knowledge of history and the world. General Tilney (Henry and Eleanor's father) invites Catherine to visit their estate, Northanger Abbey, which, from her reading of Ann Radcliffe's gothic novel The Mysteries of Udolpho, she expects to be dark, ancient and full of Gothic horrors and fantastical mystery.

You can find a free online version here.

Hope to see you at the next meeting...we're going to feature special era-appropriate door prizes and holiday (Halloween?) discussions as it relates to Jane Austen.

It's official!

We recieved word today that Alaska has been recognized as an official region of the Jane Austen Society of North America. Congratulations to us!

Meeting Tonight!

at Title Wave Books at 6 p.m. See you there!

A magazine worth your time...

I get so many great ideas and articles from the Vermont Region's Web site, Jane Austen in Vermont.

The latest tid bit comes in the form of "Jane Austen's Regency World," a magazine their recommend highly. It's worth a look.

Region Update

We officially submitted our application to become recognized as the "Alaska Region" of the Jane Austen Society of North America this week. We'll keep you posted when it becomes "official!"

Meeting Reminder

Just to let everyone interested know, our next meeting will be Tuesday, September 15, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Title Wave Books. We'll be discussing "Emma."

Hope to see you there!

The Latest Mashup

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters...

It's true, and it's due out this Tuesday, September 15, 2009. Buy your copy at Amazon or your favorite retailer. There's a trailer for it located here.

And Entertainment Weekly did a review of it. You can find the entire article here.

(Reviewed by Lisa Schwarzbaum)

Had Jane Austen observed waterborne horrors like giant octopi and monstrous jellyfish — not to mention the Devonshire Fang-Beast — there's no doubt she would have written prettily about them. As it is, the land-based 19th-century lady stuck to what she knew when writing Sense and Sensibility, leaving Brooklyn-based 21st-century wordsmith Ben H. Winters to provide the fish-tailed portion of Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters.

And here we have a whale of a problem. It may be a truth universally acknowledged that a publisher in possession of a hit with the hipster mash-up Pride and Prejudice and Zombies must be in want of a follow-up, pronto. But that doesn't mean the great Jane's novels can be grafted to any high-low premise, or her wry elegance improved by naughty-rude adjustments. Can it be that in the rush to turn a charming book novelty into a renewable resource, the whole Austen-and-monsters series has already jumped the shark? The second project strays much further from the original text than the first did. It's made goofier by the intrusion of a Jules Verne-inspired plot detour during which the Dashwood sisters descend to Sub-Marine Station Beta on the ocean floor. For no real payoff, courteous Colonel Brandon is now a gentleman with squishy tentacles dangling from his face. And suave Willoughby is now accompanied by a defecating pet orangutan.

There are plenty of menaces — androids, bugs, people who text while driving — still available for book packagers to mingle with other Austen masterpieces, but I'll second Mr. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice when he says, ''You have delighted us long enough.'' B–