Nora Ephron's enchanting comedy, You've Got Mail, is my favorite film version of Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Directed by Nora Ephron and written by Nora and her sister Delia Ephron, it is not an exact retelling but is playfully allusive. Set in New York in the '90s, it is also a romance of bookshops. Ephron's…

Thornfield Hall | A Book Blog

14.09.2025

Great Fall Reads: Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” & Robert Macfarlane’s “Is a River Alive?” – Thornfield Hall

On a recent vacation, I was fascinated by Fanny Burney's Cecilia, a smart 1,003- page novel about the perils of being rich and female in the 18th century. And then Burney pointed me in the direction of Jane Austen, when, on page 930, she repeated the phrase PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (all caps) three times. Yes,…

Thornfield Hall | A Book Blog

14.09.2025

The Paperback Road Trip – Thornfield Hall

Road trip reading is not restricted to Jack Kerouac's On the Road or Fanny Trollope's Domestic Habits of Americans. I prefer Jane Austen. And I always take a rather scruffy paperback. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a woman on a road trip needs an inexpensive, even disposable, paperback that will fit in a…

Thornfield Hall | A Book Blog

15.09.2025

The Grammar of Rivers: Amal El-Mahter’s “The River Has Roots” – Thornfield Hall

"There is grammar that is ruled like a kingdom, and grammar that is ruled like a composition book, and there is always, always the wild, unruly grammar of ballads and riddles..." In Amal El-Mahter's lyrical novella, The River Has Roots, the River Liss brims with grammar. Two willow trees on either side of the river,…

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Thornfield Hall | A Book Blog

Books & Literature

“Pride and Prejudice” & “You’ve Got Mail” – Thornfield Hall

Great Fall Reads: Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” & Robert Macfarlane’s “Is a River Alive?” – Thornfield Hall

The Paperback Road Trip – Thornfield Hall

The Grammar of Rivers: Amal El-Mahter’s “The River Has Roots” – Thornfield Hall

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Thornfield Hall | A Book Blog