The many facets of Jane
Diane Johnson writes about Jane Austen in the New York Review of Books, discussing several recent books about our favorite author. She addresses the main problem of Austen biography: the dependence upon speculation in the face of a severe dearth of fact about the author’s life.
Saving the discovery of a new trove of Austen family letters or a lost manuscript, the lot of the Austen scholar is not enviable. Given her very small oeuvre and the probability that nearly all is known that is to be known about her world, finding new facts about her will not be easy. Interpretation is all.
It is rather surprising that Ms. Johnson does not mention The Jane Austen Book Club with its aphorism, “Each of us has a private Austen.” It is also curious that she does not mention the current debates going on here and there about the P&P3 trailer. 
If our readers will permit a bit of editorializing, we feel that it is the very love of Jane Austen that causes these debates and discussions and drives authors to write all those books. Respectful yet critical debate is healthy, and it would be doing a disservice to Jane Austen’s work and literary legacy for us to avoid debate for the sake of the appearance of fellowship. Within the Austen fandom, fellowship is assumed; homogeneity of thought should not be required.
The soapbox is now available for the next orator.
