Jane Austen

There is perhaps no better friend to the movie, TV movie or miniseries than the 19th century British novel; with their colorful characters, speakable dialogue, temporally exotic set pieces, and reservoirs of deep feeling, these books are made to be enacted. As the first entry in its refitted "Masterpiece Theatre," PBS is mounting "The Complete Jane Austen," with new and old adaptations of the six novels Austen completed -- a rock on which something like a church has been built.

English fiction flows from Jane Austen's pelisse as surely as Russian fiction does from Gogol's overcoat. She founded character and caricature at the same time, which is the essentially satirical, essentially English approach to fictional people. From her, Dickens learned that characters can survive on one attribute and still be fat with life. From her, Forster learned that characters do not have to change to be real; they must merely reveal more of their stable essences as the novel progresses.

The chief glory of every people arises from its authors. --Samuel Johnson Great Britain has produced more than its share of great poets and novelists, and it is easily possible to visit their homes, to walk the country lanes they trod, to stay in their towns and villages, which now abound with bed and breakfast signs . . . and to relive the scenes they described so vividly.

Fiercely independent Elizabeth Bennet is known for her sharp tongue -- and her sharp dagger. That's what it takes to capture Darcy's heart in "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies," the surprising literary hybrid by Los Angeles author and screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith. While retaining 85% of the original text of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice," this novel-as-mashup alters some characters' fates and endows the Bennet sisters with martial arts skills to battle the lumbering undead.

The quiet, clever, Englishwoman Jane Austen died in 1817 at age 42, having written six novels and establishing herself as a major literary figure. Interest in Austen, it seems, never fades. A faithful interpretation of her most popular novel, "Pride and Prejudice," just graced the television screen, 50 years after the late Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson (who just died) starred in a very Hollywood version of "Pride and Prejudice."

The hottest writer in Hollywood today is Jane Austen, born 220 years ago. With the determined assistance of her appreciative interpreter, British actress Emma Thompson, the early 19th-century English writer continues to weave her quilt of keen observations, this time on film.

So, they have taken that Alicia Silverstone movie "Clueless" and turned it into a miniseries called "Emma," set in England in the early 1800s, and, what's more, they've issued a novelization by someone named Jane Austen. There is a lot more talking in the book, but it is really quite well done and covers all the major points of the miniseries, which is also excellent. They really capture that original "Clueless" spirit. Or perhaps I have that backward. Hang on while I Wikipedia that.

When writing about Jane Austen, it takes enormous restraint not to open with "It is a truth universally acknowledged," the words with which she so famously began "Pride and Prejudice." When making a biopic about Jane Austen, it takes enormous daring to take universally acknowledged truths about the great author and stand them on their heads in an effort to convey her spirit.

Two students from the San Gabriel Valley are among 136 students nationwide selected by the National Endowment for the Humanities for Younger Scholars to conduct independent research and do writing projects this summer. Amy R. Haley of San Marino, a student at Westridge School in Pasadena, will receive a $1,800 grant for her project, "At Home, Quiet and Confined: Relationships Among Women in the Novels of Jane Austen." Jason C.