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life with more cowbell

The washing machine in my building has broken down, which meant I had to schlep my laundry to the neighbourhood laundromat last night. Not such a bad thing, though, as going to the laundromat affords the perfect excuse to catch up on some reading.

I took Dancing with Mr. Darcy with me; it’s a collection of short stories inspired by the writing and life of Jane Austen, and Chawton House Library. The various tales place Austen’s characters and themes – and even Austen herself – in some thoroughly entertaining and thought-provoking situations. The collection was assembled following a writing competition, and features an introduction (and was selected by) author Sarah Waters. A must-read for Austen fans.

Today, I picked up a copy of Linda Griffith’s play Age of Arousal and have been reading that as well. I’ve seen it on stage twice: the Nightwood production at Factory Theatre in 2007 and the Shaw Festival production in 2010. The play was inspired by George Gissing’s novel The Odd Women, and I fear that I may do it a disservice in attempting a description here, so I’ll leave that up to the folks at Coach House Books: http://www.chbooks.com/catalogue/age-arousal

What can I say – there’s something very sexy about intelligent, independent, forward-thinking women in period costume.

3 responses to “Characters reimagined”

Tina

March 9, 2011

Loved “Dancing With Mr. Darcy” – I borrowed it from the library and just returned it last week.

Reply
1. life with more cowbell
  
  March 10, 2011
  
  Cool! Do you have a favourite story? I’m only a few stories in, so jury still out for me.
  
  Reply
  1. Tina
    
    March 15, 2011
    
    Gah – you know what, have a hard time recalling the individual stories now. I steamed through it pretty fast, because I’d had it for the almost the full 3 weeks before I got to it (several books out!) and it couldn’t be renewed.
    I remember liking all of them quite a lot, except for a couple that left me cold. There was one about a girl going to a photographer in his studio in a bad area that didn’t thrill me, but the one with Elinor Dashwood as a detective was very funny.

I’m Cate (she/her)

A woman with short brown hair greying at the temples, wearing t-shirt and a navy pinstripe blazer, gazes up to her right with a glint in her eye.

Thanks for stopping by life with more cowbell. This blog is about living my best life through the arts. I’ll be sharing short fiction & creative non-fiction, art & other stuff. The arts are for everyone & you can choose to share your art or make it just for you – have fun exploring & creating!