Jane's Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World [Hardcover]

 

 

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This is a witty & informative account of Jane Austen's reputation since her death in 1817. Although the recent TV & movie adaptations have made Austen one of the most famous authors in the world, her books were out of print for several years after her death. Her reputation was only revived with the publication of the first biography written by her nephew in the 1870s. That was when the cult of dear Aunt Jane, the refined, elegant spinster, began. Austen's reputation in the 20th century was enhanced by the scholarly editions of the novels published by R W Chapman which was the beginning of the academic critics' interest in her work. The explosion of popular interest which began with the BBC's Pride & Prejudice in 1995 has led to hundreds of websites, blogs, movies, sequels & prequels of the novels. Harman explores everything from chick lit & the internet to serious academic works in this exploration of how Jane Austen conquered the world.

I first read Jane Austen's novels when I was teenager and it is only recently I have returned to them with renewed pleasure. This book charts the progress of Jane Austen's reputation from moderate sales of the first 4 novels published - `Sense and Sensibility', Pride and Prejudice', `Emma' and `Mansfield Park'. `Northanger Abbey' and `Persuasion' were both published after her death in 1817. Some appreciated her writing then including the Prince Regent to whom `Emma' was dedicated, others thought it ephemeral and of no importance. All of the books were remaindered at some point in their early lives.

It wasn't until the late nineteenth century that her reputation improved and her books were reprinted and sold well. It was at that point that the critics started to take notice of the six novels and they were divided into two opposing camps. Rudyard Kipling wrote a short story about Jane Austen's work being read in the trenches during World War I and providing common ground between all ranks. Winston Churchill took refuge from the stresses of World War II in the novels. Others hated the books and saw them as dealing with a society that no longer existed and concentrating mainly on people of the middle and lower orders.

This book discusses some of the many film and television adaptations both in the UK and in the USA starting with Geer Garson in a much altered version of `Pride and Prejudice'. It also touches briefly upon the many books which have been written in the last 50 years about Jane Austen and about her work and also about the many many sequels and prequels which have grown out of the novels themselves. Blogs and web sites are also mentioned. I felt this chapter could have been expanded as there are so many novels which owe their origins to Jane Austen's 6 novels.

Overall this is an interesting and lively book which will appeal to anyone who has read the novel themselves and wants to know more about Jane Austen herself and her reputation. It provides notes to each chapter, a bibliography, and index and photographic illustrations. It is written in a lively style and with an obvious love for Jane Austen's work.

The reading public is not all clamoring for the next popular thriller. There are reasons to be confident that people are at least sometimes reading truly great literature. If you need evidence, look at the continuing popularity of the novels of Jane Austen. They have not always been popular, and were wrenched from obscurity decades after her death, but it does not seem as if they will ever need such a rescue again. In _Jane's Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World_ (Canongate), biographer Claire Harmon has given something of a posthumous biography, although she does provide some useful insights about Austen's life and attitude toward her work. The important chronicle here, though, is how Austen, well appreciated as an author by her family circle, had significant but minor success with publication in her lifetime, was forgotten, became a literary staple, and then became a phenomenon. Harmon expects that readers will know something of Austen's works (not a bad assumption to make), but her book even when concentrating on what academics have made of the novels is unstuffy and brightly written.

Austen died at age only 41in 1817. In the chapters devoted to Austen's life, Harmon tries (as have so many) to understand how this rural spinster could have produced such worthy novels. It was family influence that helped. Her family read. They talked about books, and they made fun of the bad ones and valued the good. "Jane Austen became a great writer," says Harmon, "partly because she was a great reader, and had a highly developed _consumer's_ understanding of her favourite form." Her family, though they loved her writing, underestimated the value of her novels, and certainly would have been surprised that generations later would find Austen a world-class author. The famous gravestone the family set down within Winchester Cathedral is full of praise, but does not at all mention that the lady wrote novels. After she was set beneath it, the family lost or discarded most of her papers and letters, and the early editions of her books were remaindered or pulped. Harman proposes that the turnaround began with a memoir from her nephew James in 1869. Aunt Jane was quiet, she was modest, she was a loving and lovable family member, went this portrait. That she was a careful and determined professional author was not emphasized, but she seemed simply a nice, ordinary, English gentlewoman. Readers rather liked this depiction; after all, many of them were nice, ordinary English gentlewomen, too, and so began a strain of affection for Austen that has not been equaled for any other author, and has continued to our day. Also like no other author does Austen repay the attention of the ordinary reader as well as the academic. Although her novels take place among the members of a few families in a village, larger themes of religion, nationalism, warfare, and slavery can all be cited, as well as the constant interest within women's studies.

The Jane Austen phenomenon is bigger today than twenty years ago mostly because of movies. More people come to her novels because of film and television, and of course some never get from the films to the original books. Harman is of course correct to consider this a real loss, but although Austen's reputation needed no boost, her visibility has certainly been increased. There are Jane Austen societies on either side of the Atlantic, with thousands of members who go to conventions and talk about the latest slant on the novels and participate in quizzes on trivia within the books (one scholar wrote about how badly fellow scholars do on such competitions: "We rarely recollect the colour of this character's dress or that servant's name"). In 1913 came the first sequel to the novels, a genre that continues to grow, and has branched out into tongue-in-cheek porn and even Austen-meets-Zombies or Austen-as-sleuth spinoffs. You can, if you wish, advertise your Janeite enthusiasm by an "I [heart] Mr. Darcy" bumpersticker. Miss Austen would be astonished. I would love to talk with her about all this; I have a feeling that she would be amused by all the spinoff novelties. Even zombie sequels, I would remind her, are a reflection of a sincere regard for her unmatchable originals. Harman's delightful book about increasing appreciation though the decades proves it.

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4.0 out of 5 stars From obscurity to globality
In 1815, Jane Austen published Emma, dedicated by permission (or rather command) to the Prince Regent, who was Austen's highest profile fan, keeping a set of her novels in all his... Read more

Published 8 months ago by Miss Moppet

4.0 out of 5 stars A must read for the student of Jane Austen
Probably unusually, I read this book without having read any of Jane Austen's books although I have Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion, Emma and Sense and Sensibility in my bookcase... Read more

Published 12 months ago by Gerund

4.0 out of 5 stars `What is all this about Jane Austen?'
`What is all this about Jane Austen?'
`What is there in her? What is it all about?' (Letter from Joseph Conrad to H.G. Read more

Published 19 months ago by J. Cameron-Smith

5.0 out of 5 stars "[She] gave away more about how women think and behave than any previous writer had cared or thought right to do."
When the Archbishop of Dublin made this statement in a long article he wrote in 1821, just four years after the death of Jane Austen (1775 - 1816), he was recognizing the genius... Read more

Published 21 months ago by Mary Whipple

5.0 out of 5 stars We are all Janeites...
Claire Harman, author of the pseudo-biography of Jane Austen, writes a very observant book. I call this a "pseudo-biography", simply because Jane Austen lived only 41 years and... Read more

Published 23 months ago by Jill Meyer

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous Jane's Fame!
Witty,knowledgeable and perceptive about how fame and celebrity has always been manipulated by the media. Read more

Published on 14 July 2009 by Ms. Susan J. Brissenden

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Jane
The full title of this book is Jane's Fame - How Jane Austen conquered the World and it is hard for modern readers to realise there was a time when Jane Austen was out of print... Read more

Published on 27 May 2009 by Elaine Simpson-long

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightfully entertaining and engaging
This is a delightful book and very well written. I must admit that I have never read any of Jane Austen's novels but have watched several television and film dramatisations of her... Read more

Published on 10 April 2009 by D. P. Mankin

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