I have started a new blog over at Wordpress, entitled
From JA to YA. It will be devoted entirely to my reading of young adult Jane Austen adaptations, biographies, and anything else which purports to introduce teens to the author. I hope you will stop by and either check on my progress or join the conversation. And if you are in the Boston area on Sunday 4 November 2012, I hope you will join the
Massachusetts branch of the Jane Austen Society of North America to hear me speak on the subject. Then you can say, "I knew those thoughts when they were just a blog!"
4 comments:
Awesome! I know I've got some additional titles in my LibraryThing collection, so I'll see what else I can dig up for you.
That would be great, Sarah! I'm in particular need of adaptations of Emma, Persuasion, Northanger Abbey and Mansfield Park. So far my cup runneth over with Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility.
Clearly a must read blog. Reminds me of what you said once about dumbing down of books tho, I read the Austen canon at age 13 and wouldn't change a word if I were handing the books to a young adult (tho I'd probably choose an edition w definitional footnotes).
I remember that conversation, Spectrum Mom, and you gave me some legitimate reasons in favor of abridged versions of longer works. I think there are different ways that authors can pay tribute to other authors through their own writing: homage, parody, modern adaptations. as an adult reader, I find those work best when I am familiar with the original source--I get more out of what the author is trying to do. But sometimes....just sometimes....I think it is lazy storytelling, because instead of creating a story of their own they are simply following a template. Whether I judge an adaptation that way or not depends on how good the new work itself is. Quality forgives a multitude of sins!
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