Happy 200th Birthday, Pride & Prejudice!
Pride & Prejudice first edition
It’s a big day for birthdays in my house. Today my son turns 19, and Pride & Prejudice turns 200. I’m taking part in today’s Pride & Prejudice Anniversary Blog Hop, hosted by my fellow Austen Author Alyssa Goodnight, so I sat down to think about what I could say to celebrate Jane Austen and Pride & Prejudice – – and drew a complete blank. That’s a little scary, given how much I adore both the author and the book! Then I realized why I was stumped. I celebrate Jane Austen and Pride & Prejudice every single day, usually multiple times. So I decided instead to figure out all the different ways I’ve celebrated her in the last week.
- Writing and editing my new variation of Pride & Prejudice
- Writing the first chapter of The Bennet Brother, an interactive group writing project at Austen Authors
- Blogging at Austen Authors about the effect having a son would have had on the Bennet family, and responding to 30+ reader comments about their views.
- Giving a 45 minute interview to the Wall Street Journal for their fantastic article on Austen Power
- Making a video about how Jane Austen inspires me for the BBC anniversary celebration
- Adding my two bits to the Austen Authors anniversary post
- Celebrating the audiobook release of By Force of Instinct and preparing for the upcoming release of the audiobook of Mr. Darcy’s Obsession (released today!)
- Proof-listening to the audiobook of Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy: The Last Man in the World (to be released in late February)
- Tweeting as @edwbennet as preparation for unveiling of The Bennet Brother
- Preparing for a Jane Austen Day in Milwaukee in March
- Last but not least, during the course of these 7 days, I opened my pdf of the text of Pride & Prejudice 23 different times, and Mansfield Park 3 times.
No wonder I have nothing left to say besides this:
I enjoyed your musings about how steeped you are in Jane Austen. I would think it hard to keep it fresh with so much contact.
Thanks for sharing!
Sophia, I feel extraordinarily privileged to be able to spend so much time with something I love so much!
Happy P&P Anniversary Day! And happy birthday to your son. I can’t remember what I did on my 19th birthday lol.
You’re right, you celebrate P&P every single day, and I’m so happy that you do! I always look forward to your next book. And it’s been fun flirting with #hotbennetbrother on Twitter! Will you continue to tweet for him throughout the Readers Choice project or will you pass it iff to whomever is deciding his fate at the time?
We haven’t actually made any plans for the Twitter part of The Bennet Brother – it just started organically. Lydia Bennet has joined in the act @lydiabennet8 and I expect you’ll see more. It’s great fun. I’ll have to find out what Jack plans to do, but of course you may not be speaking to me by then! 😉
Oh dear, Abigail, now you have me worried – will Edward besmirch my reputation in front of the entire Assembly? Say I’m absolutely intolerable and refuse to stand up with me?
Perhaps you will besmirch his reputation, Monica!
Wow…it would be wonderful to spend so much time with Ms Austen…I dabble…read when I can…her works have survived and are still current…she understood the human condition very wll…
Her understanding of the human condition is why she never grows old for me. There’s always something new to understand about Jane Austen.
I ran into the same thing, Abigail. I spend so much time with this novel that it’s hard to think of something special I don’t already do every week. (And even more, something dozens of other bloggers wouldn’t be saying too.) I think that makes us the lucky ones though, doesn’t it? We get to spend our lives with the book and characters that have meant so much to us.
I think we’re remarkably fortunate!
You have certainly celebrated well with many accomplishments. Love that I found your blog through the blog hop and looking forward to reading your books.
Thanks for stopping by, Veronica! The blog hop has been lots of fun. I hope you enjoy my books!
I don’t know why I’m hunting amidst the older posts nor why I’m commenting right now on something you wrote 6 years ago, but I wish you,”a bit” belatedly, a happy P&P anniversary!!