Content area
Full text
Lisa OssianSouthwestern Community College in Creston, Iowa LLOssian[commat]aol.com
Linda Troost, and Sayre Greenfield, editors. The University Press of Kentucky, 2001. 241 pages; $27.50.
A Jane Austen cartoon-figure stands in her high-waisted dress and waits to walk into a Hollywood movie debut as the reporters and photographers clamor about her. The book's cartoon cover and title--Jane Austen in Hollywood--are misleading, as this is a serious collection of fourteen essays concerning the recent film interpretations--both Hollywood and British--of Jane Austen's novels. Between 1970 and 1986 seven feature-length Jane Austen films were produced with six additional adaptations developed in 1995-1996. The editors, Linda Troost and Sayre Greenfield, address an important question in their opening: Why are Jane Austen's novels so ''readily adaptable'' (3) to 1990s films? Perhaps, as the editors conclude, these films can tell us even more about our own time than hers.
Jane Austen in Hollywood is an excellent example of literary
p.96
criticism as each of the fourteen essays is well-researched and scholarly but with a touch of humor. However, the reading of the entire collection would be strengthened by having each essay in the series be...