Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Dollhouses

Right before Christmas, my sister and I took a road trip to spend the weekend with my niece and bring her home from college. It was an awesome visit for so many reasons, but I forgot to bring a book with me and that's how I accidentally stole my niece's copy of "Pride and Prejudice." That's okay because I'm the one who gave it to her. I go on a Jane Austen kick every year or so, and this incident set off the latest round.

So today's musical selection is from the wonderful 1995 A&E miniseries, which I just finished watching for the umpteenth time. Elizabeth Bennet sings a beautiful song while Mr. Darcy looks on with undisguised love and yearning. Is it possible NOT to fall in love with Colin Firth after watching this scene? I know some fans would argue for the "Mr. Darcy goes swimming in the pond" scene, but this is the one that does it for me.

When I'm in this frenzy for all things Austen, I get disappointed when I run out of things she actually wrote, and movie versions thereof, and I start looking around for related things. For instance, I also happen to love zombies. I've been thinking about them lately because the movie "Warm Bodies" is coming out and I can't wait to see it:

Apparently, the number of people who like both Jane Austen and zombies is not a small one, because there is a book called "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies," and it sold a LOT of copies.

The book has been around for awhile and I keep meaning to check it out, but I'm not sure that I could deal with Lizzie killing Darcy and eating his brains or something like that. (I would enjoy it if they both killed Mr. Collins and ate HIS brains, though.)  Since the release of "Warm Bodies" coincides with "Ange's Austen-Fest 2013," this may be the year that I break down and read it.

DHE Minis Celebrates P&P

This post was inspired when I looked at my blog list and noticed today's update from The Dollhouse Emporium:

Pride and Prejudice Free Wedding Gift Collection

They are offering "a charming collection of beautiful wedding gifts, created in honour of Jane Austen’s romantic novel, Pride & Prejudice, which is enjoying its 200th year in print."

Holy cow - I didn't even realize it was the 200th anniversary!  And I call myself a fan. Well, fortunately my dollhouse obsession continues to pay dividends, as it allowed this important fact to be brought to my attention.

Almost as soon as I finished the Mini House, I made these little pictures of for the top of the piano:

Lizzie and Darcy Photos on the Piano

I made them out of buttons from Michael's and images of Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth from the internet that I printed over and over again until I got them small and clear enough.  ("Who ARE these people?" my husband wanted to know, handing me a stack of papers covered with their images.)

I liked to imagine that Mr. and Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy were the grandparents of the current occupants of the Mini House. Or maybe the great-grandparents? I would have to sit down and figure it out - and I really try not to have my Mini House be polluted by associations to unpleasant things like math.

One final thought on this theme:  I have always been iffy about actually having dolls in my house, but if ever I was tempted it would be by these Lizzie and Darcy dolls in full wedding regalia:

Wedding Dolls from the Dollhouse Emporium Collection

They really did a great job of reproducing the clothes from the movie!

But if I were to give in to the very strong urge to get the dolls, it would change the whole time-frame of the Mini House, which I imagine to be very late 1800's. And then I would have to redo the bathroom or find something else to do with that room, because while my beloved Jane never talks about it, I am sure they didn't have indoor flush toilets in her day. And on that glamorous note, I will end.