Monday 14 August 2017

A Letter to Jane Austen

Dear Jane Austen,

I have read all your novels and loved them all with just one exception: Northanger Abbey.
I return to them again and again. It's like visiting old friends. Emma Woodhouse and her father who is so careful of his health, Eleanor and Marianne making do on a low income, Fanny Price living in the awesome environs of Mansfield Park. I hardly need mention the lively Elizabeth Bennet and the stuffy Mr. Darcy, not that Mr. Darcy would be everyone's fancy but the telling of his proposal to Elizabeth and her spirited refusal is a treasure among "romance" novels.

You grew up in a world where women had to marry in order to have what was known as a comfortable provision. Or they had to be rich, like Emma Woodhouse. We know that you were not wealthy. Yet you refused to accept the norms of your day and your heroines are all rebels in their own way with the possible exception of Fanny Price. Many readers are impatient with Fanny but you  remained true to the character - given her upbringing and circumstances, it is highly unlikely that Fanny would have been a rebel. That is what makes a talented author, to know the characters you have put on paper and understand how they would react.

Having said all that, I can't tell you how depressing I find it when modern authors "build" on your stories - murders and vampires included! - and books are published on your private life and "wild love affairs".  I have read a collection of your letters many of which concerned domestic matters. You were most entertaining when you described acquaintances or people you had met and were very proud of recognizing an "adultress" on one occasion despite having been told she was not the one. I have read one or two biographies of your life and as far as I can gather, you fell in love with a dashing young man (I feel you built Wickham's character around him) and refused another gentleman's offer. There might have been more romance inbetween but as your sister Cassandra burned all your letters during a bad period of your life, we are never going to find out all the details. And we don't need to. We can admire your work and enjoy all the nuances of your characters (and compare them to people in our circle of acquaintances!).

So, thank you Jane Austen, thank you for the pleasure I get whenever I re-read one of your novels. You are a treasure!




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