Jane Austen Lives

[shakatany]

There really must be something in the air. Publisher's Weekly has a report about Jane Bites Back by Michael Thomas Ford. The novel presents an undead Jane Austen, frustrated by nearly 200 years of writer's block and 116 rejections of an unpublished novel she finished just before turning into a vampire; she's becoming increasingly irritated that the rest of the world seems to be getting rich and famous off of her works and her life. The two follow-up books will be derived from the first. Waters said Ford, the author of many books for young readers and adults, is likely to publish this under a pseudonym; pub date still undecided. That Jane will really be irritated by the following items:

First there's Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, where Seth Grahame-Smith intersperses his tale of zombies running amuck with the world of the original P&P. It's due out in March and has already been optioned to be made into a movie.

Then we get a movie called Pride and Predator where the denizens of P&P go up against you-know-what.

Finally Columbia Pictures is making a movie called "Lost in Austen" based on a British TV series (anyone seen it?): The film will center on Amanda, an ardent Jane Austen fan, who lives in present-day New York with her boyfriend, until she finds she's swapped places with Austen's fictional creation Elizabeth Bennet.

I guess Jane Austen and Elizabeth Bennet are still hot commodities after 200 years.