In her six completed novels, Jane Austen excelled at love stories: Elinor and Edward, Lizzie and Darcy, Fanny and Edmund, Emma and Knightley, Anne and Wentworth, heck even Catherine and Tilney. As her fans celebrate the 250th anniversary of her birth, they'd like you to know it's a mistake to simply dismiss her work as light, frothy romances. It's full of intricate plots, class satire and biting wit, along with all the timeless drama of human foibles, frailties and resolve.
What sets writer-directorRian Johnson'sfilms apart from other franchises on the current movie landscape isn't just their ingeniously twisty scripts and A-list-packed casts, it's their distinctive take on the possibilities of serial filmmaking. As with the Agatha Christie or Arthur Conan Doyle mysteries that are among Johnson's primary inspirations, each installment starts the Knives Out universe anew: The full cast of characters turns over, with the exception of Daniel Craig's courtly private eye Benoit Blanc, and the locations and even the tone radically shift.
Rea Irvin, the magazine's first art editor, is best known for creating Eustace Tilley, the monocled dandy whose upturned nose has graced our pages for a hundred years. Irvin established the stylish and refined look of The New Yorker, brought in countless new artists, and also penned many early covers that display his graphic mastery.
A friend sent me an essay excerpted from this book, and I immediately went and bought the whole collection. Reading Klein's writing felt like I was two glasses of wine deep with a friend, sitting on her couch, just deep in conversation about our kids and what mothering is really like. It's a read you won't regret, and you'll be forcing it on all your friends.