(no subject)

[msmemory_archive]

Last night, elizabear and I went to see "Becoming Jane," starring Anne Hathaway. It was a pleasant little piece of Austen fanfic, a lightweight Regency novel with a bit of Miss Austen's family stuck in to give our heroine a background. I don't see any reason to believe that any of it had a basis in fact, other than that Austen never married (so the writers added some doomed romance to her life, as explanation). Nice evening out, nonetheless, and bargain night at the cinema, so cheap too.

(Any historical costuming nuts out there who might know if the drawstring jumper dress had any basis in history at all?)

Comments

[rickthefightguy.livejournal.com]

I heard a piece on NPR about that, I think - it seemed to imply a good deal of historical Austin research was done, the author being an Austin nut. You might be able to find it for download on NPRs website if your intarweb-fu is stronger than mine.

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

I'll try to remember later to find more sources. From memory - the whole bit about her sister was true. They were engaged for 5 years, without being able to afford to marry, so he went off to be a chaplain in the tropics and died. Her brother did marry the rich older widow. There are a couple of mentions of Tom Lefroy in Jane's letters, references which could be taken as jokey or wistful, depending upon your bias. Lefroy did become a high-ranking judge whose oldest daughter was named Jane.

I haven't read all the entries yet, but I subscribed to this newsletter after I saw the movie.
http://www.pemberleydesigns.co.uk/dressingjane/issue1.html