What century is this, anyhow?

As we get deeper into pre-production for "Fall of the House of Usher," we find ourselves immersed in costume books, decorative arts books, and period movies, trying to soak up the right feel for the early 19th century. Movie-wise, we keep landing on Jane Austen-inspired films.

A fun contemporary introduction to Jane and her novels is "The Jane Austen Book Club." When one of four friends suffers a tragic loss, the others decide to cheer her up by starting a group to read and discuss Jane Austen's novels. Since there are six novels, they need to recruit two more members, and the story takes off from there. It's a fun movie on its own merits, and even more fun if you're familiar with any of the novels. And if you're not, there are some nice extras on the DVD that will get you hooked.

Jane herself is the subject of "Becoming Jane," which speculates about events in her early life that helped shape her novels. Anne Hathaway, James McAvoy, Julie Walters, James Cromwell and Maggie Smith all deliver wonderfully authentic performances, and the period costumes and sets are quite lovely, too.

There have been a number of productions based on the novels themselves. The other night we re-watched "Emma," with Gwyneth Paltrow in the title role, Jeremy Northam as Mr. Knightley and Toni Collette as Harriet Smith.

"Pride and Prejudice" has been done many times, most recently in 2005 with Keira Knightly, Rosamund Pike, Brenda Blethyn and Donald Sutherland. The 1995 mini-series, featuring Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy, is currently running on PBS on Sunday evenings as part of a longer Jane Austen series.

Colin Firth was also cast as Mark Darcy, the 21st century equivalent of the original Mr. Darcy, in "Bridget Jones' Diary."

A final must-see is "Bride and Prejudice," a delightful Anglo-Indian adaptation of the novel, complete with Bollywood musical numbers. As strange as it may sound, the story is a perfect fit. Many popular Indian movies feature stories about marrying for love vs. the traditional arranged marriage. And the musical numbers are just plain fun. There are some great extras on this DVD, too.

When we watched "The Jane Austen Book Club," I realized that I've only read four of the six novels ("Pride and Prejudice," "Sense and Sensibility," "Persuasion," "Emma," "Mansfield Park," and "Northanger Abbey." Guess what I'll be reading this summer.

Now, it's off to the sewing room, full of inspiration.