Here’s more from the BBC: “It has one of the most famous opening lines in literature, it turned Colin Firth into a heartthrob and it spawned a zombie spin-off. Now Pride & Prejudice  has reached the venerable age of 200…First published by Thomas Egerton in 1813, Pride & Prejudice  was Jane Austen’s second novel.”

According to the article, Austen dubbed this work her “own darling child.” UK readers purchase approximately 50,000 copies every year. In honor of this occasion, we’ve put together a list of three ideas on how fans can celebrate.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Shelf Life reports that fans can also look forward to a Bridget Jones musical and a third Bridget Jones film called Bridget Jones’s Baby. It has been confirmed that lead cast members Renée Zellweger, Hugh Grant and Colin Firth will return for this movie. Fielding will be involved with both adaptation projects.

The Guardian had a quote from Fielding about the new book: ”She’s still trying to give up [drinking and smoking], she’s still on a diet. She’s trying a bit harder, and is a bit more successful, but she’s never really going to change.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

What celebrity would you choose to read your favorite book? The program will add more celebrities in the future. We’ve included the current list below…

Kate Winslet explained why she read Thérèse Raquin by Émile Zola:  “You use a different part of your brain and it keeps your creative juices flowing … It is challenging, and it’s a heck of a lot of fun as well. As a listener, being able to tune out and be taken into another world, an atmosphere, an environment that is being created entirely for you by somebody else’s voice is really a wonderful, magical thing.”

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Jamie Byng, Canongate Books managing director and World Book Night committee chairman, conceived the event back in 2009. A group of booksellers, librarians, authors, broadcasters and others have chosen a list of 25 books to give away (the complete list follows below). Only 20,000 people will be invited to give away books for the program. Prospective givers have until January 4th to sign up–they can go to the World Book Night website and explain in 100 words or less why they want to participate.

John Le Carré‘s The Spy Who Came in From the Cold made the cut, and he had this statement: “No writer can ask more than this: that his book should be handed in thousands to people who might otherwise never get to read it, and who will in turn hand it to thousands more. That his book should also pass from one generation to another as a story to challenge and excite each reader in his time–that is beyond his most ambitious dreams.”

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Though Jane Austen was all over the book, film and TV world? Then wait till 2007, when no fewer than six forthcoming films and television series, along with plans for new editions of her works, tailored to the teenage market, arrive on the scene. The Telegraph reports on the newest form of Austenmania that kicks off with the film BECOMING JANE, which examines the author (as played by Anne Hathaway, above) romance with Thomas Langlois Lefroy (James McAvoy), the Irish politician. Bookshops and libraries, anticipating a surge of interest in the author as a result of her exposure on both the big and small screens, are planning major displays of her works. A spokesman for Waterstone’s, Britain’s biggest bookseller, predicted it would sell more copies of Austen’s works than at any time since Colin Firth emerged from a lake during the BBC’s adaptation of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE in 1995, while Penguin said it planned new editions of the author’s six best-known works with covers designed to appeal to teenagers.

Andrew Davies, who has written adaptations of SENSE AND SENSIBILITY for the BBC, NORTHANGER ABBEY for ITV, and the screenplay for the 1995 production of P&P, predicted a new generation of teenagers would fall in love with Austen and her work. “The effect of all of these projects will make for a Jane Austen frenzy. The stories are absolutely contemporary. They are about sex and they are about money. One of the good things about Jane Austen is the men. They are real men – classy and rather scary. That makes them terrific for a female audience.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.