Why are we still obsessed with Jane Austen?
DOZENS of film and TV adaptations. A huge number of literary versions. It’s been 200 years since revered British author Jane Austen died — so what is about her books that still so captivate her audience?
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DUMPED and penniless, a young Andrea Goldsmith was essentially trapped in a trailer park outside San Francisco for a month, waiting for the unchangeable flight she had booked home to Australia.
In her misery she turned to a book she bought when “still happy-ish, still coupled” a fortnight earlier — the complete works of Jane Austen.
“I remember very little else of the next four weeks because I was so captivated,” she says.
“I discovered what many had discovered before me, namely, the novels of Jane Austen have the power to displace or silence misery, fear, pain and other pesky emotions.
“When I boarded the plane to Australia, my heart was still in tatters and I was a good deal thinner, but I felt relatively calm and my mind was stirring with ideas and characters for a novel of my own.”
That was the late 1970s. Four decades on, Goldsmith is a successful author who never leaves home without Austen’s six main novels, albeit now in e-book form on her iPad.
The Melbourne novelist and essayist was in Adelaide over the weekend to speak at Flinders University’s international Immortal Austen conference, marking the 200th anniversary of Austen’s death.
Austen, it seems, is as popular as ever. Bookshops often stock multiple editions of her works, there is a steady stream of film and TV adaptations, biographies and biopics, and the reams of fan fiction are endless.
Her stories have also inspired hit movies such as the 1995 Alicia Silverstone vehicle Clueless and the Bridget Jones’s Diary series (based on the Helen Fielding novels), as well as bizarre spin-offs like last year’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which was shown at the conference.
Goldsmith says Austen’s works are among “a very small number of fictions (that) retain their power during vastly different epochs and for vastly different people”.
She says they were recommended reading for shell-shocked WW1 soldiers as a “means of escape” — though she rejects the notion of “Austen as literary valium and we, her readers, hopeless junkies” — while a century on, a psychologist friend of hers used the strength and resilience of Elizabeth Bennett in Pride and Prejudice to help a client struggling with her sexuality.
Austen’s power, according to Goldsmith, comes from her being “the least indulgent of fiction writers”, leaving “a huge imaginative space for the reader”.
At different stages of Goldsmith’s life she has read, for example, Mansfield Park as a series of love stories, a moral tale, and most recently a novel of exile.
Goldsmith says strong, opinionated female characters give Austen’s works feminist appeal, while the moral dimension — though always subservient to the stories — is another source of satisfaction.
“The righteous will be rewarded and the liars and cheats and, in particular, those of superficial character will get their comeuppance,” she says.
And Austen’s characters remain relatable today, she adds.
“Modern (Mr) Darcy (from Pride and Prejudice) might be a neurosurgeon and (his sister) Georgiana drives one of those monster black 4WD Porsches and goes to lunches and hosts charity do’s.”
Immortal Austen conference organiser Dr Gillian Dooley says Austen’s stories are “a bit generic”, attributing for popularity instead to her “very confident and satirical, ironic voice” and her assumption that women are morally and mentally equal to men.
“She took that for granted and it makes her seem really modern,” Dr Dooley says.
“(All the adaptations) show that she’s continually interesting to every generation.
“The way that her values and characters and lines translate into even something as weird as a zombie movie is really quite remarkable. It’s not sending her up, it’s recruiting her for something new.”
Major Jane Austen novels — and adaptations
Sense and Sensibility (1811)
■ The romantic heartaches and triumphs of teen sisters Elinor and Marianne Dashwood.
■ Film adaptation in 1995 starring Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet.
■ TV miniseries in 1971, 1981 and 2008.
■ Looser adaptations include the 2006 film Material Girls with Hilary Duff and Haylie Duff, and From Prada to Nada in 2011 with Camilla Belle and Alexa Vega.
Pride and Prejudice (1813)
■ The troubled but timeless romance of Elizabeth Bennett and Mr Darcy, amid the high jinks of the other Bennett sisters and their suitors.
■ Film adaptations in 1940 starring Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier, and 2005 with Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen.
■ TV miniseries in 1952, 1957, 1958, 1961, 1967, 1980 and 1995.
■ Looser adaptations include the 2001 film Bridget Jones’s Diary (based on the 1996 Helen Fielding novel), with Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth and Hugh Grant, and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies in 2016 with Lily James and Sam Riley.
Mansfield Park (1814)
■ Fanny Price is sent to live with nasty, rich relatives but eventually gets her man, her cousin Edmund.
■ Film adaptation in 1999 starring Frances O’Connor and Jonny Lee Miller.
■ TV movie in 2007 starring Billie Piper and Blake Ritson. TV miniseries 1983.
■ Looser adaptations include the 1990 film Metropolitan with Carolyn Farina and Edward Clements.
Emma (1815)
■ Meddling matchmaker Emma Woodhouse learns a humiliating lesson on her way to finding love with the older Mr Knightley.
■ Film adaptations in 1948 starring Judy Campbell and Ralph Michael, and in 1996 with Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeremy Northam.
■ TV movie in 1996 starring Kate Beckinsale and Mark Strong. TV miniseries in 1960, 1972 and 2009.
■ Looser adaptations include the 1995 film Clueless with Alicia Silverstone, and its TV series spin-off that aired from 1996-99.
Northanger Abbey(1817) Published posthumously
■ Gothic novel fan Catherine Morland stays with friends at the abbey and falls in love with one of them, Henry Tilney. His dad turfs her out. All ends happily, however.
■ TV movies in 1986, starring Katharine Schlesinger and Peter Firth, and 2007 with Felicity Jones and JJ Feild.
■ Looser adaptations include 1993 film Ruby in Paradise with Ashley Judd.
Persuasion(1817)
published posthumously
■ At 27, Anne Elliot is considered over the hill and regrets not marrying a naval officer years earlier. But she finally gets a second chance at love.
■ TV movies in 1995 starring Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds, and 2007 with Sally Hawkins and Rupert Penry-Jones. TV miniseries in 1960 and 1971.
■ Looser adaptations include 2004 film Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (based on the 1999 Helen Fielding novel), with Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth and Hugh Grant.
Originally published as Why are we still obsessed with Jane Austen?