The Awesomeness That Is Austen

You may have noticed a trend amongst us bloggers over the past couple of weeks - a celebration of the 200th anniversary of Pride and Prejudice, which coincidentally, is today

So it will come as no surprise that I'm going to continue that trend with a post of my own.  For me it's not so much about the books (wonderful that they are) but the screen adaptions.

Personally I'm a sucker for any romantic, period movies or TV series and Jane Austen fits the bill wonderfully.

The visuals are always beautiful, the acting top-notch and the men, generally, are swoon worthy.  Most of us (well except for Scriven who is a complete anomaly) fell in love with Colin Firth's Mr Darcy, he of the wet shirt scene, the glorious sideburns and piercing gaze...

Okay where was I... oh yes Jane Austen adaptions.

There have of course been several over the years and everyone has their favourite.  Romantic that I am, I have most of them in my DVD collection.  You can, you see, never have too much Austen, because frankly Austen is awesome.

Those words, the hidden meanings, the characters and the romance - all in one glorious package and created by woman who lived in an age where women writers were few and far between.

Pride and Prejudice is probably the most recognised of her works but her other works are just as wonderful so if you haven't caught up with the awesomeness that is Austen or just want to indulge in a romantic feast check out the following.

The finest of all the Mr Darcys

In celebration of the 200th anniversary of Pride and Prejudice I thought that I should do something to celebrate and what better way to celebrate than to appreciate Colin Firth. The finest of all the Mr Darcys.

Aside from the fact that Colin Firth is not at all hard to look at he's also pretty good at pretending for a living. He's well known for his signature role as the dashing, mysterious Englishman (Hope Springs, Love Actually) or the stern father figure to misbehaving children (Nanny Mcphee, St Trinian's) but he is best known for his roles as Mr Darcy. First in the BBC mini-series of Pride and Prejudice and then in Bridget Jones's Diary and it's sequel Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.

The Mark Darcy of the Bridget Jones franchise was based on the Fitzwilliam Darcy from Pride and Prejudice and even though the latter is clearly the better of the two, Firth pulls it off completely, making grown women swoon in the process.

If you're anything like us bloggers and you want to celebrate one of the true classics of literature then have a perve at Colin Firth. I couldn't recommend him highly enough.

(And yes, I'm well aware that most of my blogs are about aesthetically pleasing male specimens).