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

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.