Jane Austen (1775-1817) is considered one of the most talented and best loved novelists of all time. Dozens of movies have been made as screenplays of her novels. The popular movie rental company Netflix offers sixteen movies based on Austen’s books: two versions of Emma (1972 and 1996), three of Mansfield Park (1983, 1999, and 2007), two of Northanger Abbey (2000 and 2007), three of Persuation (1971, 1995, and 2007), and six versions of Pride and Prejudice (1940 starring Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson, 1980, 1995, 2003, 2005, and 2008). In addition, there are several documentary films about the author’s life: Famous Authors: Jane Austen (1996), Austen Country: The Life and Times of Jane Austen (2000), Great Women Writers: Jane Austen (2001) and Life Society Works’ Jane Austen series (2005). Spin-offs that deal with Austen’s work include: The Jane Austen Book Club (2007), Becoming Jane (2007), and Lost in Austen (2008).
Books on Austen themes or in her style are still being published
Not to be outdone by the silver screen, there are countless books analyzing Austen’s style of writing, her life and contemporary culture, and what it meant to be a woman writer in the very early nineteenth century. Several modern spin-offs deal with the Austen phenomena of the early twenty-first century. Austenland (Bloomsbury USA, New York, 2007) by Shannon Hale, an avowed “avid Austen fan,” has a lead character, Jane, aka Miss Erstwhile, who is enamored with Colin Firth in his role as Mr. Darcy in the BBC’s 1995 special DVD edition of Pride and Prejudice. Jane is bequeathed a three-week stay at an exclusive vacation resort called Pembrook Park that requires Austen-era dress, entertainments, and even discourse. Her experience perhaps gives her more insight than an academic thesis could about why the real Jane Austen delved into the exciting and make-believe world of romance novels.
The Jane Austen Society takes members into Austen’s real world
The Jane Austen Society of North America sponsors annual tours to England to visit places that were important in Jane Austen’s life. The tour for 2011 celebrated the two-hundredth anniversary of the publication of Sense and Sensibility. The itinerary included visits to locations in Devonshire in which the novel or screenplay versions took place, tea at the former estate of friends of Jane Austen, a tour of her home in Chawton, and a private viewing of Jane Austen’s letters, manuscripts, and desk that are in the collection of the British Library in London. The society also hosts conferences and arranges travel to Austen festivals.
Jane Austen’s books are loved for their wit, romance, and lively characters
The society’s website includes a chronology of Austen’s works and her struggle to have them published. Summarized from the society’s page, here is a list of Jane Austen’s novels with their dates of publication:
- Sense and Sensibility (1811)
- Pride and Prejudice (1813)
- Mansfield Park (1814)
- Emma (1815)
- Persuasion (1817)
- Northanger Abbey (1817)
Austen’s works that the society refers to as her juvenilia include a short piece that relates the history of Great Britain from 1399 to 1649. Titled The History of England: from the Reign of Henry the 4th to the death of Charles the 1st, the young author shows her keen mind and sharp wit with which she will wield her pen like a skilled swordsman in later works, such as Pride and Prejudice. Austen’s thirty-three-page History of England was published in 1993 by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill (North Carolina). It appears to be out of print, but copies currently are available on eBay with an asking price of about $20.
Denise Larson - Denise Larson is an author, editor, and freelance writer, mostly of history and genealogy, and a hobbyist in gardening and healthy ...
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