Born in 1775, Jane Austen was one of eight children born to a middle class family in a village in Hampshire, southeast England. Her books are often called ‘novels of manners’ because they’re based on carefully observed and satirised details of social interaction. Although Austen was living through a turbulent period, with the Napoleonic wars and the American struggle for independence in the background, in her books she makes almost no reference to these conflicts. Instead, she focuses on social rather than military manoeuvres and the high drama that can take place in the ballroom, or while visiting someone for tea.
TIMELESS TALES
Written over two hundred years ago, Jane Austen’s novels continue to delight readers with their romance, gossip, and, above all, humour. They’ve inspired numerous film adaptations, sequels and prequels, including almost twenty films, many television dramatisations and series, and even a so-called mash-up novel called Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, with its own film version.
Catching a man
All the books follow the same basic plot: young women looking for husbands. The characters, like Austen herself, are members of the English gentry, or middle class. Most of the female protagonists don’t work and so are dependent on marriage for their financial security. This means that the goal of (almost) every young woman in the novels is to find a husband, who will bring with him stability, sufficient wealth and social status. And, of course, the best place to find a man is at a ball, the highlight of the social calendar. It’s interesting to note that Jane Austen herself chose not to marry, although she did receive at least one offer that we know of.
the janeites
Two centuries have passed, but Jane Austen’s quintessentially English books have many fans all around the world, some of them organised into literary societies. The largest of these is the Jane Austen Society of North America, which was founded in 1979 and now has over five thousand members. In an interview with Speak Up, the society’s president, Liz Philosophos Cooper, talked about the lasting appeal and impact of Jane Austen’s work.
Liz Philosophos Cooper (American accent): She’s an author you can read and reread throughout your life. The first time you read her it’s for the plot and the love story. But after that it’s for all the other things she’s saying. She talks about economic justice, she talks about gender inequity, she talks about political oppression... These were revolutionary subjects to be writing about then but they’re still so pertinent. And I think that people read her, men and women, and identify with her themes. She also has the ability to nail these universal qualities about people. And we recognise people that we know in her characters. And she is funny, isn’t she? You just end up laughing out loud at times.
ENDLESS INTEREST
After the two hundred years, is there really a market for any more books about Jane Austen’s life and work? According to Philosophos Cooper, there certainly is.
Liz Philosophos Cooper: She is a force in the publishing world. There are books about her, her family, her friends, biographical books. There are certainly critical books and interpretive works. But then you get into the sequels, the reimaginings, the mash-ups. You name it, it’s out there. If it’s about Jane Austen I think that there’s a market for it. Amazon even has a whole category of Pride and Prejudice sequels and variations.
MODERNISING TRENDS
There have been numerous film adaptations of Austen’s work. Some of these films stay quite close to the original text. But some don’t. Philosophos Cooper explains why she isn’t a purist about it.
Liz Philosophos Cooper: I think that whatever brings someone to Jane Austen is a good thing. And if someone watches Pride, Prejudice and Zombies and says, ‘Oh, you know, I’d like to read Pride and Prejudice’, that’s great, who can argue with that? And then I think too, every generation needs their own version of Pride and Prejudice, because, Colin Firth isn’t going to appeal to young people today any more. So, I’m looking forward to more adaptations.
ROMANTIC DRAMA
The Netflix hit Bridgerton, like Jane Austen’s novels, is set in England in the so-called Regency period of the early 1800s. Philosophos Cooper suggests why this Regency period might provide such a good setting7 for romantic drama.
Liz Philosophos Cooper: Isn’t it so interesting that you have this sub-culture of literature, the Regency Romance, that is based on a few thousand rich people who lived in 1810? It’s funny. But it’s a highly restrictive society, with a preoccupation on the importance of social consequence in behaviour. So right there you have built-in conflict.
CAREER WOMAN
The fact that Austen made a career as a writer in the early 1800s was remarkable, given the restrictions faced by women at the time. Philosophos Cooper explains more about what that writing career meant in practice.
Liz Philosophos Cooper: I put together a timeline and laid in when she was writing, when she was editing, when she was proofreading, when she was negotiating with her publishers. And it ends up that it was a full time job. I think it’s a misconception that people have that she was this retiring woman writing in a cottage. But she was very involved in her career. She was committed to being a writer, did not accept a marriage of convenience. One that we know about and I’m quite sure there were others. Because it was important to her to be a writer.