Ladies and gentlemen, we have two winners to congratulate tonight!
First, by a near 2-to-1 victory, allow me to present the Champion of Jane Austen’s March Madness:
Miss Elizabeth Bennet!
I’m sure we’d all like to congratulate Miss Elizabeth on her stunning victory—really a walkthrough, ladies and gentleman—as we’ve seen, there have simply been no serious contenders for this lady! Even her own husband did not present that much of a challenge. (Well, we knew that. 
) What’s next for Miss Elizabeth? The chat shows/books have had a field day speculating—I’ve heard rumors of zombie hunting, vampires, vampyres, and all sorts of gossip dished up about the championship couple, though I find it all a little hard to credit, given the sources. But really, Miss Elizabeth is like Greta Garbo. She’s walked away from the stage with NO announcement of any dramatic plans, and we just can’t stand that, can we?
Well, we here at Austenacious wish her good luck, at least, in all her future endeavors, whatever they may be!
Next, we’d like to thank all of our lovely voters, and most especially those brave souls who waded into the cross-book politics and submitted brackets! We salute you! Fully 1/3 of you chose the correct champion, but it’s all in the details, as they say: remember, this pool was judged on highest number of correct picks.
So, we would most especially like to congratulate the winner of the Jane Austen March Madness pool, Alexa Adams, who, even though she did not correctly choose the final champion, blew us away with a stunning 52 correct picks! Ms. Adams clearly has her finger on the pulse of the Jane Austen fighting community, and who can blame her for succumbing to Mr. Darcy’s charms at the last minute? Second place goes to Meredith Esparza, who had 51 correct picks, including the championship match itself, and third place goes to Felicia Soechting, with 50 correct picks, also including the championship.
Congratulations, Ms. Adams, Ms. Esparza, and Ms. Soechting! Your special prizes will be announced shortly (big news there, everyone, stay tuned!), and we’ll be in touch with you personally to arrange for delivery.
Whew! Thanks, everyone, for playing! It’s been a busy two weeks, but exciting too! Will we do this again next year? Only time will tell . . .
Photo credit: ©2010 Heather Dever. Some rights reserved. Please credit where used.
Tagged: Jane Austen, Jane Austen's March Madness, March Madness on Wednesday, April 7, 2010 · 5 Comments »
I don’t know if I should be devastated that Darcy lost or delighted I won! I was so sure he would triumph in the end.
Interesting that you compare Elizabeth Bennet to Greta Garbo. Family lore has it that my cousin once, when horseback riding on a private beach in St. Thomas, came across the star sunbathing in her birthday suit. Not very Lizzy like, if you ask me, but if she were ever to be caught in such a compromising position, I like to believe that she would have behaved with as much dignity as Ms. Garbo reportedly did.
Thanks for the good times ladies!
Congratulations, winners! Well played!
(Alexa – That’s an amazing story! Also, lest you think I’m a stalker, I followed you on Twitter yesterday. My name’s itstheliz.)
Well this just makes my day! Thank you so much ladies for wonderful diversion! It was the best March Madness I have ever seen! Hope you do it again next year!
Ms. Adams, Ms. Esparza, and Ms. Soechting–congrats! That was some amazing bracketology at work.
We had fun pulling it all together, and we were really glad that so many people took the time to fill out their brackets and vote. So thank you!
YAY! I’m so excited, this was so much fun.