Was there really something outdated about "You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope"? According to HarperCollins, yes. The Guardian reports that the publisher "will team modern authors with Austen's six novels, asking them to reimagine the books in a contemporary setting." Read More
Vampires don't really live forever—it just feels like they do. Lately, you can't turn on the TV, go to a bookstore, see a movie, or go to (if you're really prepared to argue that these books aren't just for kids, you might want to take a cold, hard look at yourself in the mirror at Read More
If you're the type of person who always thought the works of Jane Austen needed a little extra oomph, then have we got some news! Elton John's Rocket Pictures has set up Pride and Predator, an adaptation of the classic Jane Austen novel Pride and Prejudice ... but one where an alien monster runs Read More
For her fourth novel, The Emperor’s Children, Claire Messud has put aside her customary sobriety and composed a suspenseful, dark, pitch-perfect comedy of manners and morals about a small collection of individuals who aspire to—or might have stepped from—the “Intelligencer” section of New York magazine or the “Off the Record” column of this publication. The Read More
For her fourth novel, The Emperor’s Children, Claire Messud has put aside her customary sobriety and composed a suspenseful, dark, pitch-perfect comedy of manners and morals about a small collection of individuals who aspire to—or might have stepped from—the “Intelligencer” section of New York magazine or the “Off the Record” column of this publication.
The Read More
Midway through Metropolitan, the preppy cast riffs on Luis Buñuel’s unflattering portrayal of the upper class, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. Based on the title alone, Charlie, a pessimistic know-it-all, feels that he went to see the film under false pretenses. He simply can’t “imagine a less fair or convincing portrait.” Nick, the group’s Read More
Midway through Metropolitan, the preppy cast riffs on Luis Buñuel’s unflattering portrayal of the upper class, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. Based on the title alone, Charlie, a pessimistic know-it-all, feels that he went to see the film under false pretenses. He simply can’t “imagine a less fair or convincing portrait.” Nick, the group’s Read More
Stephen Gaghan’s Syriana, from a screenplay by Mr. Gaghan, suggested by the book See No Evil by Robert Baer, seems to position itself as a serious-minded political statement by studiously, even laboriously, avoiding all the compromises and clichés common to mere commercial entertainments. This is to say that it’s hard to follow, overloaded with characters Read More
Stephen Gaghan’s Syriana, from a screenplay by Mr. Gaghan, suggested by the book See No Evil by Robert Baer, seems to position itself as a serious-minded political statement by studiously, even laboriously, avoiding all the compromises and clichés common to mere commercial entertainments. This is to say that it’s hard to follow, overloaded with characters Read More
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen’s saga of manners and mores in 19th-century England and bad timing in matters of the heart, is an enduring story, one of the most revered works of literature in the English language, and fodder for big-screen interpretations. Despite an infinite number of television adaptations, here it is again, brushed off Read More
It's such a pleasure for me to return for a moment from writing columns about the endless tragedy of the Middle East to a reconsideration of one of the great comic-ironic artists of the West. (Particularly now that The New Republic has weighed in to inform us that there's nothing much to be alarmed about Read More
A while back, my colleague Ron Rosenbaum made what seemed an eminently sensible proposal: that a good way to judge a person is by his or her Jane Austen novel of preference. Ron tended to find spiritual kinship with fans of Persuasion , a bias of which I was reminded a week ago when, rushing Read More
The Edward Said Reader , edited by Moustafa Bayoumi and Andrew Rubin. Vintage, 472 pages, $15.
Did you see the newspaper pictures last month of Columbia University professor Edward Said? He wasn't photographed in his campus office or before a classroom of undergraduates or strolling in Morningside Heights–too commonplace for Mr. Said. He was in south Read MorePatricia Rozema's Mansfield Park , from the novel by Jane Austen, is not what one would call a faithful adaptation of a literary classic. Quite the contrary, it's more a Patricia Rozema movie or, rather, an Austen movie with more Austen in it than Austen put in herself. Indeed, this adaptation should have been retitled Read More
