Okay, so I don’t have much time today. I’m super-busy trying to get my final proofread of The Kidnapping of Kenzie Thorn done by Wednesday, plus I’m in the middle of quite a good book, and I’m terribly distracted by Valentine’s Day M&Ms … but I wanted to offer a quick post about the movie I watched this weekend. For Christmas Jess B. gave me the dvd of Northanger Abbey–the PBS Masterpiece Theater version. We had watched it together last year, and it was really my first interaction with Jane Austen’s least known novel. It found it to be terribly clever, funny, and all around lovely (that’s for you, Hannah)!

JJ Field stars as Mr. Henry Tilney, a sarcastic yet every enjoyable younger son of the strict General Tilney. Felicity Jones plays Catherine Morland, a young woman on an adventure to Bath with her friends the Allens.

When Henry and Catherine meet, there is an immediate interest and attraction, but, like in all of Ms. Austen’s stories, money soon becomes troublesome. Catherine, a voracious reader of gothic romances with an amazing imagination, finds her daydreams running wild in Henry’s family’s home–Northanger Abbey.

PBS doesn’t disappoint in this beautiful period piece. And JJ Field is wonderful! I couln’t stop laughing at some of his lines, like the famous, “Now I must give you one more smirk, then we can be rational.”

And who can forget Mr. Allen’s “Resign yourself, Catherine. Shops must be visited. Money must be spent. Do you think you could bear it?”

A delight all the way around! I highly recommend this lovely romance–though I confess I have not yet read the book, which needs to be on my 2009 list. Enjoying Mr. Tilney’s smirk until next time. -LJ