Mirkwood Reflections

Austen adaptations abound! I read this blog post which ranks 21 of them with clever explanations then thought to myself that my own list would look somewhat different. And then someone (yes, you, Austenacious !) asked me HOW my list would shuffle the films. So here I am in the wee hours of the morning, ranking Austen movies instead of sleeping.  Go read that blog post before reading mine because her comments are far more comical than mine could ever dream of being. Plus mine will make more sense if you look at hers first.  Two of the movies on her list I haven't seen -  Austenland , 2013 since it has yet to open in Michigan and  Bride & Prejudice  since Bollywood films make my skin crawl . Then I added one that she left out, which is at the bottom of my list. So, without further ado, I present to you my top twenty Austen film adaptations in reverse order of preference! Ta-dah! 20. Northanger Abbey 1980 - one of THE worst movies I have eve...

After watching The Jane Austen Book Club (which I really don't recommend), my friend Darlene and I decided we wanted our own Austen club and started one - The Rollicking Readers Club. So far we've read Emma and Persuasion . Pride and Prejudice is our next selection. I am becoming steeped in the world of Jane Austen, so I thought now would be an appropriate time to view Becoming Jane . What a charming movie! The filmmakers, along with some scholars, apparently imagine that Jane Austen had at least one star-crossed love affair. Becoming Jane is the fictionalized account of that love story. No one alive knows for sure what actually happened because much of Jane's correspondence with her sister was destroyed. Family legend includes some details, but they have been passed down orally and have no substantiation. But, whatever the truth, it is a well-told story. Jane is a single woman living with her family around the turn of the 19th century. She falls in love with a pennil...