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Gentle listeners, we're so excited to have Maya and Christian of Manners and Madness join us again, this time for a movie review of Fire Island, one of the finest modern Austen adaptations of our time and an overall fantastic movie.   We discuss the deep dive this movie takes into the characters of Noah (Lizzy), Howie (Jane), and Will (Darcy), and the way the modern story blends with the original. We also talk over the incorporation of themes of power (and reclaiming power), and the parallels with Alice Munro's short story "Powers." This movie is full of thoughtful and smart choices that reveal aspects of Austen's characters, and it also happens to be hilarious. In short, we highly recommend it!   You can also find Christian and Maya at @MannersandMadnesspod on Instagram and @MannersMadness on Twitter!

We are overjoyed to bring you a special holiday episode discussing A Christmas Carol, the novel by Charles Dickens, and A Muppet Christmas Carol, the finest adaptation of Dickens' work ever to grace the silver screen. The novel is an absolute delight, and extremely readable - it's a great time for a read (or re-read)! And a sing-along! With a glass raised to toast your health! (Glass raised to toast your health!) and a promise to share the wealth! (Promise to share the wealth), yes every night will end, and every day will start, with a grateful prayer and a thankful heart! For you, our listeners! Happy holidays!

Everyone, thank you, we're so excited to finally present the conclusion of our movie commentary series for Pride and Prejudice 1995! Join us as we swoon over this beautiful movie's final chapter, after which all our favorite characters live happily ever after. By the way, if you are looking for the first installment of this movie commentary series, you'll find it all the way back in our archives - it's episode 26!!! 

Just in time for Halloween, we're back with our guest Natasha Junor (who you may remember from our Clueless episode!) to discuss Gothic literature and the ways it intersects with Austen's world and works. Tash is an Australian academic and Jane Austen scholar who is doing a deep dive into this topic in preparation for a possible dissertation on the subject, and she's stopping by to share her expertise with us! Join us for a fascinating exploration of how Gothic literature was received in Regency-era England, how it allowed women of that era to explore otherwise forbidden topics, and how Austen interpreted the Gothic in her novel Northanger Abbey.    And I promise to finally release Ep 6 of our P&P commentary very soon! I know I said it was coming next! But I lied! -K

Gentle listeners, Maggie and I recently found ourselves ready to chat, but completely unprepared to discuss any Austen-related topic! We instead had a delightful cozy catch up about Halloween fun, horror movies and their cultural relevance, workplace oopsies, and our favorite toxic trait. (I promised Maggie I would intro this with Toto, but I overruled her post-podcast and added the Monster Mash instead, because it just seemed appropriate.) If you want to catch up with us, enjoy - if not, our next episode, Pride and Prejudice Movie Commentary Part 6, is coming out soon! -K

Gentle listeners, join us as we review the storm-tossed 2022 Netflix adaptation of Persuasion starring Dakota Johnson and Cosmo Jarvis and directed by Carrie Cracknell. Described as "Bridget Jones meets Bridgerton," this unconventional take on Austen's contemplative, autumnal source material certainly made some waves in the Austenverse. But if you can manage to forget about the source material for a few hours, this is a beautiful and highly entertaining movie to enjoy with a glass of wine or four. Join us as we process both our agony and our hope: despite some reservations, we genuinely enjoyed this movie (but I wish they hadn't messed with the letter-K). 

Join us to learn more about the web series Rational Creatures to prepare for the release of Season 2! Rational Creatures is a modern interpretation of Persuasion, available in a web series format on YouTube. The show follows Ana Elías as she unexpectedly ends up living in the same apartment building as her ex (and perhaps one true love) Fred Wentworth. This modern remix of the classic features a bi Latina lead with a cast of queer characters, bringing Jane Austen into the 21st century.  Series co-creator Ayelen Barrios Ruiz Pagano and actor Peter Giessl (who plays Fred Wentworth) join us to chat about the series, "the letter," and why we think Persuasion is having a moment! You can view the first season of Rational Creatures now on YouTube!

Alert! There is an excellent virtual conference on Persuasion happening August 13th-14th 2022 (this coming weekend!) Our guest Sarah Rose Kearns joins us to tell us about the event's fantastic programme, and we briefly discuss our thoughts on the new Netflix Persuasion movie as well. Join us to hear more, and to catch up with Rose! For more about the conference, see https://theholytheatre.betterworld.org/donate where you can make a donation in any amount you wish in order to register for the conference! This event is a benefit for The Holy Theatre and features special guests Lakshmi Gandhi, David Fernandez, Jocelyn Harris, Tabrizia Jones, Wendy Jones, Sarah Rose Kearns, Noreen Mughees, Janet Saidi, Damianne Scott, David Shapard, and Lena Yasutake. The event program, with speaker bios, can be accessed here — https://bit.ly/3SukIrk You can also find Rose on Twitter at @Persuasion_JA

[New file because Podbean sucks!] We're thrilled to welcome our friend and Bridgerton expert Priya back to the podcast to discuss season 2 of this smash Netflix show. Join us as we swoon over Kate and Anthony, grouse about Benedict and Eloise, and talk about the show in both its current cultural and historical context. Grab your Pall Mall mallet, make some disgustingly weak tea, and settle in for our convo!

Check out our review of Being Mr. Wickham, a one man show co-written by Adrian Lukis (who played Mr. Wickham in the 1995 Pride and Prejudice miniseries) and Catherine Curzon for the Original Theater company. It's available to stream online through April 30th, so don't miss out! We loved this charming show and the way it brought the Pride and Prejudice characters' future to life with hilarious anecdotes and historical details. You'll especially love the future of Mr. Bennet. You can stream Being Mr. Wickham online through April 30th, 2022 at https://originaltheatreonline.com/productions/28/being-mr-wickham Note: the original epsiode description omitted that the show was co-written by Catherine Curzon. You can find her work at madamegilflurt.com.

This time we welcome our friend and special guest Adrienne, known as @barelytolerabIe on Twitter and ElizaG1 on AO3, to talk about eternal period drama fan favorite North and South! We discuss the book by Elizabeth Gaskell, as well as the miniseries of the same name starring Richard Armitage and Daniela Denby-Ashe. Words like "brooding" and "smoldering" abound as we discuss the incredible chemistry between John and Margaret (and Nicholas Higgins), and delve into the social commentary element of the story. Please join us as we rave about how much we love this "Pride and Prejudice for socialists." And in honor of this episode's release date, be sure to check out Adrienne's North and South fanfic story Together at Christmas!

THREE AND A HALF YEARS AFTER PART 4, we present installment 5 of our commentary on the Pride and Prejudice 1995 miniseries starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth. You don't have to watch the movie along with us as we riff on what's happening - in fact, due to some buffering errors, that might be hard. But lots of listeners find these fun to listen to as standalone episodes! For our first commentary track, go back in our episode list to 2018.  Yes, we never finished this series. We're a mess. 

[Episode recorded July 2021]. In this episode, we welcome our friend and special guest Priya (who you may recognize as Constantia from our Regency Daze series!) to discuss the Netflix TV sensation Bridgerton, adapted from the novels by Julia Quinn. We discuss how the show handles race, class, and sex in a fantasy Regency setting. As you probably already suspect, this episode is NOT suitable for little ears! This episode's intro music is "Bad Guy" by Bilie Eilish, performed by the Vitamin String Quartet for the Bridgerton soundtrack.

We're delighted to welcome our guests Maya and Christian of Manners and Madness, a Jane Austen and David Lynch podcast, to join us for this movie review episode! This time we're tackling the recently released movie Modern Persuasion, starring Alicia Witt and Shane McRae as our stand-ins for Anne and Wentworth. Despite some hiccups with the pacing and chemistry, overall we enjoyed this adaptation as some fluffy summer fun. Check out our thoughts, and be sure to give Manners and Madness some love by checking out their Persuasion episodes! You can also find Christian and Maya at @MannersandMadnesspod on Instagram and @MannersMadness on Twitter!

[Episode recorded 5/15/21] Welcome, gentle listeners, to our review of the 2008 miniseries Sense & Sensibility, written by Andrew Davies and starring Hattie Moran as Elinor and Charity Wakefield as Marianne. While it's not easy to make a new version of S&S with the specter of the 1996 Ang Lee movie in the background, this game adaptation has some enjoyable points, especially with regard to the Willoughby/Marianne pairing. And Maggie is back to share her witty repartee and sing us a song! Note, as usual, this episode has some commentary that is not suitable for little ears.  Movie IMDB Link here: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0847150/ The intro includes a clip of Peggy Lee's performance of Why Don't You Do Right? From this YouTube clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uTcw_A80Bo

In this episode we welcome special guest Bianca Hernandez-Knight to talk about current affairs in the Jane Austen fandom, including the push that dedicated Janeites are making to foster inclusion in our online community. Join us to hear about the barriers that BIPOC and other marginalized Janeites continue to encounter in Austen fan spaces, and why representation in Austen adapations is so important to growing a diverse Janeite community. Finally, learn about her upcoming Virtual Jane Con event on May 1-2, 2021!   You can find Bianca online at Bookhoarding on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, and check out her new patreon!

In this episode, we're thrilled to welcome special guest Sarah Rose Kearns, actor, playwright, and consummate Janeite! We chat with Sarah Rose about her new adaptation of Persuasion, which will be staged (hopefully) in New York this fall. We also discuss her one-act play Manydown, which will be included as part of UNC Chapel Hill's Jane Austen Summer Program. Join us to learn how Sarah Rose interprets key aspects of Persuasion, and discover the fascinating challenges of making Austen come alive onstage. [Note: since recording this podcast, JASNA announced that their 2021 Annual General Meeting will indeed be held in person!]

In this episode we're thrilled to have guests Lauren and Emily of the Reclaiming Jane podcast! Reclaiming Jane was started as a podcast for fans on the margins, and creates a welcoming space for those whose identities are not reflected in Austen's original text, and may not be well represented in the current world of Austen fandom. Join us to learn what it means to read Austen through a modern lens, and how breaking down Austen's works and examining them thoroughly can help reclaim Austen for the readers on the margins. [Episode recorded 2/13/21]

Gentle listeners, we present a review of Austenland (2013), a movie that skewers Austen-addict Jane (Keri Russell) as she goes on a Regency roleplaying retreat and meets a real life Mr. Darcy (JJ Feild). Directed by Jerusha Hess, this movie might be considered the "Napoleon Dynamite" of Austen-related media, winning you over with its broad yet quirky humor. It's getting hot in here... let's take off all our clothes and hope Brett Mckenzie doesn't have to deliver a newborn foal at an inopportune moment. [Episode recorded 1/2/21 so there is no discussion of recent US current events]   Full credits for the movie can be found at its IMDB entry.

[Note: File updated 12/20 with a small fix to the movie clip used in the intro - it was cut off in the first version of this episode!]. Time for the perfect Christmas movie review! We're taking on the beloved classic Bridget Jones's Diary, one of Kristin's favorite movies of all time. This "lean" adaptation of Pride and Prejudice with a very sexy Wickham, a very perfect Darcy, and a man we all call Mr... Mister...MISTER... FITZHERBERT! Because that is his name. Songs featured in the podcast include Chaka Khan's I'm Every Woman  and Marvin Gaye and Diana Ross's duet Stop Look Listen (To Your Heart). At one point in the podcast Kristin misidentifies Marvin Gaye as Al Green - we apologize for the mix-up.