Happy Birthday Jane Austen

Happy 224th birthday to Jane Austen! Even after all these years Jane is still relevant and selling books. Jane isn't strictly Scandalous (her cousin Eliza de Feuillide might qualify for that title), but she wrote a few women who would qualify like Mary Crawford in Mansfield Park. Although she only wrote 6 complete novels during her lifetime, there has been an explosion of sequels and prequels to many of her books, particularly in the last ten years. There's even a mystery series featuring both Jane Austen, as well as Elizabeth and Darcy.

If you want to read a review of Jane Austen as a Vampire, check out Reading the Past's review here. And don't forget Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which Natalie Portman will produce and star in.

In honor of Miss Austen's birthday, the Risky Regencies are hosting a week lost celebration here. Leave a comment on any post and be entered to win some groovy prizes.

Also, there is a currently an exhibition on Jane Austen in NYC at the Morgan Library called "A Woman's Wit: Jane Austen's Life and Legacy." You can see an online exhibition here. You can also read a review of the exhibition over at The Duchess of Devonshire's Gossip Guide to the 18th century here.

Syrie James has written an excellent book called The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen which I highly recommend. You can read the first chapter of the book here.

Also Masterpiece Classics will be showing the new version of Austen's Emma starring Jonny Lee Miller and Romola Garai in January. You can check it out here on PBS's website here. Not a huge Jonny Lee Miller fan but I do adore Romola Garai so it should be interesting to watch.

If you have teenagers and younger children you want to introduce to Austen, pick up a copy of Marvel's graphic novel of Pride and Prejudice at Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble.com.

For everything Jane, don't forget to check out Jane Austen's World here or the Austen Blog here.

And there's always Netflix for films like Becoming Jane and Miss Austen Regrets.