Dawn Bonker
Hold onto your bonnets, Jane Austen fans. An out-and-out Austenpalooza is coming to Chapman University on Feb. 15, when Lynda Hall, Ph.D., professor of English and a scholar of 19
th
Century British literature, hosts “Austenalia,” a panel discussion featuring four novelists whose contemporary work picks up where Austen’s pen left off.
Among the panelists will be Karen Joy Fowler, author of the
Jane Austen Book Club
, which spent 13 weeks on the
New York Times
bestsellers list, was a
New York Times
Notable Book and was adapted to film in 2007. Other panelists include Diana Birchall, author of
Mrs. Darcy’s Dilemma
, Syrie James, author of
The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen
, Laurie Viera Rigler, author of
“Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict
and
Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict.
The event commemorates the 200
th
anniversary of the publication of Austen’s first novel,
Sense and Sensibility,
and celebrates
the inexhaustible fascination
readers have with the troubles, romances and foibles of all those lively heroines testing the boundaries of English society. That timelessness is thanks to Austen’s keen observation of human nature, says Dr. Hall, who will also offer insights into the novelist’s work and life Feb. 22 in “A Night With … Jane Austen,” part of
Wilkinson College’s
special series during which faculty members portray historical figures about whom they have performed extensive research.
“I think part of what is so fascinating and interesting is that people really haven’t changed in 200 years. She really understands the predicaments we get ourselves into. … It’s why we keep watching Shakespeare. We just get into the same predicaments over and over again,” Dr. Hall says.
In conjunction with the anniversary, Leatherby Libraries has purchased a first American edition of
Sense and Sensibility
and will unveil it at the event.
Austenalia begins at 4 p.m. in the Henley Reading Room of Leatherby Libraries. Light refreshments will be served. For more information, call 714-628-7355.
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