Jane Austen

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.

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.

To: Jane Austen, "Steventon," Hampshire, England.L From: Morrie Greene, Creative Arts Agency, Hollywood, Calif.Re: Career MovesJane, baby:Sorry, princess, it's over, 15-minutewise. You may get an Oscar but we've stopped getting callbacks on your projects, plus "Mansfield Park" has just gone into turnaround at Metro. Have you thought of trying to crack the How-to Market? Ciao!To: William Shakespeare, Stratford-on-Avon, England.From: Morrie Greene, CAA, Hollywood, Calif.Re: Career MovesWillie, pal:Welcome back to the bigs, baby.

A Democrat triumphed -- at least on the best-seller list. Bill Clinton wrote the big book -- his fulsome autobiography -- of 2004. Bob Dylan weighed in on his own enigmatic existence and porn star Jenna Jameson bared herself -- in words, not just photos. Philip Roth imaged a nightmare America that cozied up to Adolf Hitler, and the 9/11 Commission's report on a real nightmare in America became an acclaimed best-seller. Tom Wolfe published a new novel, and critics thought it was a nightmare.

Sounds like a good "Homicide" on NBC tonight."The Flintstones" (8 p.m.-10 p.m., WMAR, Channel 2) -- Yabba dabba doo, it worked better as a cartoon! ABC."Dave's World" (8 p.m.-8: 30 p.m., WJZ, Channel 13) -- Bea Arthur returns as Dave's agent and organizes a party at his home that somehow connects the Barrys to organized crime and propels them into an unwanted public spotlight. CBS."Babylon 5" (8 p.m.-9 p.m., WNUV, Channel 54) -- A reporter for Interstellar Network News promises to do an unbiased story on Babylon 5. Wanna bet he breaks that promise?

"Jackson's Dilemma," by Iris Murdoch. Viking Press. 252 pages. $22.95 "Jackson's Dilemma" is Iris Murdoch's 26th novel and considerably shorter than her masterpieces, "The Black Prince" and "The Sea, The Sea." Dame Murdoch has honed her craft to its essence, producing a fictional gem. This time there is no hero, but an ensemble of upper-middle-class semi-intellectuals, civil servants, artists and mystics, all blunderers. Incapable of discovering where their happiness resides, or afraid to accept it, they duck behind abstractions, religious or philosophical.

Almost 180 years after her death, Jane Austen is suddenly everywhere. At the movies ("Sense and Sensibility," "Persuasion," the coming "Emma"), on television ("Pride and Prejudice," concluding tonight on A&E) and in People magazine, which named her one of the 25 most intriguing people of 1995. She even has her own site on the World Wide Web.But for those whose Austen thirst is not yet slaked, there is only one place to go: Goucher College's Julia Rogers Library.The country's Jane Austen fans -- Janeites, if you prefer -- have long known the college has the United States' best collection of Austen works and related materials.

Lillian Hellman said it in her best Hammett-esque voice: Biography -- as distinct from the memoirs she was writing, which could omit anything -- is the whole life, from beginning to end. Biographers have their own cliche: "from cradle to grave." Alas, too many biographies of the past decade have been tomes of undigested flesh, unified by neither purpose nor conviction. To the biographer is granted the sacred task of weighing the achievement, judging what is extraordinary against the detritus of flawed everyday life.

THE OLD CONTEMPTIBLES.Martha Grimes.Little, Brown.333 pages. $19.95.Perhaps it's time to retire "whodunit." In many of the bescontemporary examples of the "cozy" mystery genre grandmothered by Agatha Christie, who did the deed is almost incidental to the unpleasant (if thoroughly delightful) unraveling of the characters' destinies. For much of "The Old Contemptibles," there is some question as to whether anything was, in fact, "dun."In Martha Grimes' newest -- named, like her 10 previous novels, for an inn that features in the plot -- her police superintendent hero Richard Jury becomes involved with an enigmatic, troubled woman whose family suffers a series of ambiguous tragedies, including two suicides and two fatal accidents.

CASCO BAY, Maine - And now we turn to our summer reading list. OK, our mid-summer reading list. We are, blush, late with our report. Indeed, we were reminded of our tardiness last week, when the National Endowment for the Arts reported ominously on the decline and fall of reading. Barely over half of Americans read any book at all this year. Was it something we didn't say? Actually, we suspect that too many of the "big books" these days are political screeds instead of good reads. So herewith, as a public service, is a list neither blue nor red, but black and white and read all over.