Jane Austen never goes out of style. The founding mother of chick lit (I say that with love and respect; please don’t throw your dog-eared copies of Pride & Prejudice at me) has become cinema’s go-to wordsmith. Move over, Shakespeare: This is Jane’s world now.

Of course, adapting Austen’s books for the big screen is nothing new. But two upcoming films take it a step further this summer. They are inspired by the very woman herself. Becoming Jane (opening Aug. 10) and The Jane Austen Book Club (opening Sept. 21) both draw inspiration from Austen’s life. And both look, at first glance, pretty intriguing.

Becoming Jane features Anne Hathaway as a 20-year-old Austen at the start of her writing career and a crossroads in her love life. It sounds like, for lack of a better description, classic Austen. And Anne definitely fits the part. Broody writer looks good on her. … continue reading

Here’s a horrifying thought. What if someone wrote two chapters of a novel, purposely using plagiarized sections lifted directly from one of the world’s most recognizable female literary figures? And what if the publisher who had just recently republished the original author's work turned down that new “author”? What if that same publisher told the “new” author that this “new” work of fiction was actually a "really original and interesting read" but not quite what the publisher was looking for? Wonder no more. It happened. For shame. What's more, only one publisher of the many who read the manuscript recognized the work as Jane Austen's. One?

In this day of popped-out popular culture, it’s easy for many not to recognize the classic works of the great literary giants of yesteryear. Of course, not being a great literary mind myself, I’m hard pressed to recognize the theme of Romeo and Juliet in West Side Story. So I pass no judgment on those common folk who would more easily recognize the plagiarized text of Jackie Collins and Barbara Cartland before they’d recognize Jane Austen’s delicate word choices. But a publisher? Yikes. That just hurts. I want to think that some professionals, other than librarians and museum directors, can still act as the custodians of pre-20th-century literature. … continue reading