Jane Austen

Despite the wide popularity of her novels, Jane Austen's personal life remains somewhat of a closed book. British actress and playwright Judith French will take a glimpse into that book when she presents the U.S. premiere of her one-woman show, "My Solitary Elegance: The Woman Behind the Works of Jane Austen," at Goucher College this weekend.French approached Goucher when she learned that the college library houses this country's largest private collection of books by and about Austen, donated by the late Alberta Hirshheimer Burke, a Goucher alumna, and her late husband, Henry G. Burke, founder of the Jane Austen Society of North America.

Rarely does a literary classic transfer from page to stage as eloquently as Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" does in the current production by the Annapolis Shakespeare Company at Bowie Playhouse. Everything works beautifully, beginning with Jon Jory's engaging stage adaptation, which is faithful to Austen's prose and yet holds its relevance to contemporary audiences. Sally Boyett-D'Angelo's smart direction of the dream cast she has assembled creates exciting theater, where every actor fully delivers.

The new film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice is one of the least necessary artistic projects of 2005. There have been so many. And unlike the last one (Bridget Jones's Diary, just four years ago), the new version is largely faithful to the novel and to earlier film versions. It breaks no new ground, adds nothing. I enjoyed it a lot. Jane Austen's famous opening sentence ("It is a truth universally acknowledged") is intended to flatter the reader with feelings of worldly superiority to the claustrophobic society she writes about.

The woman wrote only six novels. But, though the most current has been around for 190 years, we can't get enough of them. One version or another of the stories by the 19th-century British spinster, which initially were published between 1811 and 1818, appears on an almost yearly basis on the large or small screen. A cursory check of the most popular film titles based on Jane Austen's novels, characters or life turns up releases from 1995, 1996, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2005 and 2007 - and some years produced more than one Austen film.

At first glance, Karen Joy Fowler's The Jane Austen Book Club (Putnam, 304 pages, $23.95) seems geared toward an impossibly exclusive audience, inscrutable to anyone without a working knowledge of Austen's novels. But foremost among the many surprises in Fowler's sixth book is the fact that nonconnoisseurs can enjoy it as well. True, the premise involves six book-club members in a small central California town who meet regularly to discuss Austen's fiction. And yes, there are echoes of Austen throughout this more contemporary but no less stylish comedy of manners.

Virginia Woolf laid down the challenge in 1928: "We have lives enough of Jane Austen." No matter, two new biographies have arrived this autumn raising the question of when yet another story of the life of a familiar author is warranted.The issue is especially pertinent in the case of Jane Austen since no great treasure trove of new letters has been discovered, no smoking gun of elucidation has arrived to capture this personality described as "elusive" by both David Nokes in "Jane Austen: A Life" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 578 pages, $35)

Bride & Prejudice, Gurinder Chadha's Bollywood-ization of a certain 1813 novel by Jane Austen, opened on the same autumn day in Britain and India. Its first weekend out, the colorful adaptation -- replete with the ebullient song-and-dance numbers that are a staple of Indian cinema -- landed at the top of the box office in both lands. "It was extremely satisfying," says Chadha, the British Indian filmmaker best known for the 2002 hit Bend It Like Beckham. "You know, it's not exclusively a Eurocentric movie ... and it's also not an Indocentric movie, it's a combination.

The Arts & Entertainment cable channel has delivered some superb British programming in recent years, such as "Cracker," "The House of Eliott" and "A Touch of Frost." But "Pride and Prejudice," the lavish BBC/A&E co-production that starts tomorrow night at 9, sets a new benchmark in style, wit and charm.The six-hour adaptation of Jane Austen's account of the five Bennett sisters may be the best miniseries of the television year, with an almost mind-boggling amount of talent.For those who slept through high-school lit class and missed the television adaptation that aired a decade ago on "Masterpiece Theatre," "Pride and Prejudice" is one of the most beloved European novels in literature.

Goucher College Austen lecture At 7 tonight, hear a free lecture on the works of Jane Austen by Rachel Brownstein, the Alberta and Henry Burke Jane Austen scholar-in-residence at Gouch er College. The event takes place in the college's Merrick Lecture Hall, 1021 Dulaney Val ley Road, Towson. For more in formation, call 410-337-6333.

INTO THE WILD -- (Paramount Vantage) Sean Penn directs a story about a young man (Emile Hirsch) who leaves behind his life for the Alaska wilderness. FEEL THE NOISE -- (Tri-Star) A Harlem rapper (Omarion Grandberry) finds a new beat in the Reggaeton sound. THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB -- (Sony Classics) Contemporary Californians start a club to discuss the works of Jane Austen, only to find their relationships begin to match her novels. THE HEARTBREAK KID -- (Paramount Pictures) Ben Stiller rejoins the Farrelly brothers in the tale of a new hubby who meets his soulmate on his honeymoon.

Dundalk man, 59, is charged on child pornography counts A Dundalk man was arrested yesterday and charged with 10 counts of possessing child pornography, state police and the FBI said. Authorities said Julius G. Ruley Jr., 59, of the 1600 block of Searles Road accessed a Web site that was offering pornographic images of minors. The site was started in 2006 by FBI agents in California and didn't contain pornography. Investigators said they traced one of the site's users to Ruley's Internet account.

INTO THE WILD -- (Paramount Vantage) Sean Penn directs a story about a young man (Emile Hirsch) who leaves behind his life for the Alaska wilderness. FEEL THE NOISE -- (Tri-Star) A Harlem rapper (Omarion Grandberry) finds a new beat in the Reggaeton sound. THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB -- (Sony Classics) Contemporary Californians start a club to discuss the works of Jane Austen, only to find their relationships begin to match her novels. THE HEARTBREAK KID -- (Paramount Pictures) Ben Stiller rejoins the Farrelly brothers in the tale of a new hubby who meets his soulmate on his honeymoon.

Austenland By Shannon Hale Bloomsbury / 198 pages / $19.95 Ask a woman to describe Fitzwilliam Darcy, the obstinately ineligible stiff who thaws under the lively wit of Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, and watch her eyes take on a lustful sheen as she conjures up the image of Colin Firth in the BBC adaptation of Jane Austen's novel, plunging shirtless into an icy English pond. Firth played another Darcy in Bridget Jones's Diary, suffering through one of Bridget's mum's awful parties in a reindeer sweater.

Goucher College Austen lecture At 7 tonight, hear a free lecture on the works of Jane Austen by Rachel Brownstein, the Alberta and Henry Burke Jane Austen scholar-in-residence at Gouch er College. The event takes place in the college's Merrick Lecture Hall, 1021 Dulaney Val ley Road, Towson. For more in formation, call 410-337-6333.

TOMORROW FORMER HOSTAGE TO SPEAK -- Former hostage Terry Waite will deliver the keynote address for Loyola College's humanities symposium at 7 p.m. at McGuire Hall, 4501 N. Charles St. Waite was held hostage in Lebanon from 1987 to 1991. The symposium's theme is "What Would You Die For?" Admission is free. 410-617-2617. WEDNESDAY ABOUT JANE AUSTEN -- A lecture on the works of Jane Austen will be given by Rachel Brownstein, Goucher College's Jane Austen scholar-in-residence, at 7 p.m. at the college's Merrick Lecture Hall, 1021 Dulaney Valley Road, Towson.

SWEET NATURE Enjoy the mouth-watering taste of fresh maple syrup? Taste this sweet treat and learn how it's made this weekend at Oregon Ridge Nature Center. Watch the transition from sap to syrup as the maple trees are tapped for sap that is then boiled down into syrup. Visitors can also make maple taffy or watch a video about the maple sugaring process. ....................... Oregon Ridge Nature Center, 13555 Beaver Dam Road, Cockeysville, hosts this event from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

We can't just lock up the state of Montana.This administration needed a hero and in the unexpected persona of Ron Brown has one.People who survived the Blitz and terrorists and brussels sprouts can make do with mutton until this mad cow business is sorted out.If only Jane Austen had lived past the age of 41, there would be more decent movies made today.Pub Date: 4/05/96

The Chesapeake would be a pretty body of water if they ever got the junk out.The deal is that Bill will help Boris' re-election if the latter promises to stay out of his.Bill turns out to be our greatest foreign-policy president sinceGeorge Bush.Hollywood made still another remake of ''Jane Eyre,'' even though it isn't even by Jane Austen.Pub Date: 4/22/96

The new film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice is one of the least necessary artistic projects of 2005. There have been so many. And unlike the last one (Bridget Jones's Diary, just four years ago), the new version is largely faithful to the novel and to earlier film versions. It breaks no new ground, adds nothing. I enjoyed it a lot. Jane Austen's famous opening sentence ("It is a truth universally acknowledged") is intended to flatter the reader with feelings of worldly superiority to the claustrophobic society she writes about.

For [Jane] Austen," writes scholar Robert Polhemus, "love, like dance, ought to be a rational pursuit, leading to what is pleasurable, useful, and beautiful."