Jane Austen's 250th Birthday!

If you were unaware this year -2025- marks 250 years since Jane Austen was born, and the Austen-heads are pulling out all the stops in celebration!

Jane Austen was born on December 16th 1775, in Steventon, Hampshire, England. She is most well known as the author of books like Pride & Prejudice and Sense & Sensibility. In celebration of the legacy Austen left, events and special things are happening not only across England but throughout the world. Here are some things going on this year that you can do to celebrate:

The JASNA

The Jane Austen Society of North America (or the JASNA) is free to join this year as part of the celebration. I joined late last year, with the free subscription, and in all honesty I haven't really been utilizing all that the society has to offer. But I will be doing a deep dive through the society website and database soon, and maybe I'll write a separate piece about things I find. I digress.

If you are all interested in Austen (which if you clicked on this I imagine you are), I think this is a great opportunity to interact with the community. And if you know whether the JAS in your area is doing something similar, please let me know!

Pride & Prejudice and Pride & Prejudice

Along with the 250th anniversary it is simultaneously the 30th anniversary of the release of the BBC's adaptation of Pride & Prejudice AND the 20th anniversary of the 2005 adaptation of Pride & Prejudice! This past month, in April, theatres were showing P&P to celebrate the anniversary (and may still be when this comes out, I'm not sure).

It will also be the 30th anniversary of Emma Thompson's Sense & Sensibility. There was a special screening of the film, however, it was not a widespread event like the most recent P&P screenings, instead it was a one time event but there was a talk with stars of the film afterwards. I would love to see some more love for the anniversary of this adaptation but I guess it's just not as well loved/popular as the 2005 P&P.

Your Own Little Celebrations

Following the film thread, I think watching any (or all?) of Austen's adaptations can be a special way to celebrate her 250th birthday. I know an independent theatre in my city is playing a different adaptation every month, and because of that I was able to see Emma (2020) in theatres for the first time (because as you may or may not recall it was released when everything started to get shut down due to covid). It was so exciting to finally get to see Emma on the big screen, it honestly kind of made me a little emotional! But maybe that's just because it's possibly my favourite Austen adaptation... more on that later.

Obviously, I think reading any of Austen's books is a great way to celebrate this year! My dream is to read all six books this year... we'll see if I am able to get through them all along with the other four million books on my want to read. If you need any recommendations for Austen's own books you can check out my ranking of her six books here. Otherwise, I have tons of other lil recommendations through my page and more to come!

Finally, I feel like I would be remiss to not suggest going to England as a way to celebrate Austen's 250th birthday. This is obviously not possible for everyone for a MULTITUDE of reasons, but if you find yourself capable of the journey this year I would highly recommend jumping on the chance! Like I said earlier, there are a lot of events happening in England to celebrate this momentous year but also just generally there are plenty of Austen tours that happen all over the country.

That is all for now! Happy reading to you all, and happy 250th birthday to Jane!!