Themed gift ideas: For a future (or current!) Jane Austen fan.
I love themed gifts, but I don't always have the right folks on my to-buy-for list for all of the entertaining things I think up.
Therefore, this year, I shall share said ideas with you, so that I won't have all of these Brilliant Thoughts in vain. Or something.
For a future (or current!) Jane Austen fan:
Fiction: Depending on the age and interests of the giftee, pair up an Austen classic with a retelling or something along the lines of The Jane Austen Book Club, Cassandra's Sister, Stephanie Barron's Jane Austen mysteries (in which Jane is a sleuth!), or go for broke with a gift set.
If you'd rather go the mash-up route, the Penguin Classics edition of Sense and Sensibility could be paired with Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters.
You could pair Pride and Prejudice with a bazillion and six things, from Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to Bridget Jones' Diary to Austenland to one of the Carrie Bebris mysteries.
Mansfield Park could be paired with Joan Aiken's Mansfield Revisited, Vera Nazarian's Mansfield Park and Mummies, or Lynn Shepherd's Murder at Mansfield Park.
The annotated Emma could be paired with Joan Aiken's Jane Fairfax or Mr. Knightley's Diary, by Amanda Grange. (There aren't a whole lot of Emma re-writes out there. See below for a couple of film adaptations, though!)
Sadly, Val McDermid's YA thriller based on Northanger Abbey won't be out until 2014, and while that's TOTALLY the one I'd go with (<--a statement based solely on my love for Wire in the Blood), you could also take a look at Marvel's comic book adaptation.
And, of course, you could pair the gorgeous annotated edition of Persuasion with Diana Peterfreund's super-rad For Darkness Shows the Stars.
Nonfiction: Possibilities abound, including A Jane Austen Education, What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew, Why Jane Austen?, Jane Austen's Letters, or the Jane Austen Handbook.
Paired with:
A Jane Austen (or Mr. Darcy!) t-shirt from Novel-T or something from Out of Print Clothing; a film adaptation—one of the usual suspects like Emma Thompson's S&S, the Firth/Ehle P&P, Clueless (Emma) or Lost in Austen, OR go with a lesser known one like Metropolitan (Mansfield Park in New York) or Aisha (Bollywood Emma!)—or something from this Etsy treasury.
As always, suggestions are very welcome in the comments!
Previously:
For the trivia lover on your list.
For your favorite space traveler.
For an aspiring forensic genius.
For your resident fashion maven.