More on J.K. Rowling and Jane Austen
Alert Janeite Marybeth sent us a link to an interview with J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter novels and Friend of Jane, in which she mentions Jane Austen.
Zoe Brennan for The Sun - If you could choose to be anyone in history, who would you be and why?
JK Rowling: Anyone in history?
Yeah.
JK Rowling: Oh gosh. You see, the people I admire most, people like Jane Austen, I do not think had particularly happy lives, so I would not really want to live their lives. Then you could be selfish and choose to be someone like Henry the 8th who lived for pleasure, but I would not want to do that either.
To be honest with you, I am a very happy person, I can’t think of anyone I would rather be at the moment.
Well, we like to think Jane’s life was not exactly terrible, but she probably would have liked a bit of Ms. Rowling’s dosh. 
Alert Janeite Sophia J also sent us a link to the following quote by J.K. Rowling.
Jane Austen is the pinnacle to which all other authors aspire.
Pretty much, yes.
P.S. For those who have read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Ginny Weasley is Anne Elliot. Discuss. 
July 22nd, 2005 at 8:55 am
Be it resolved that GW = AE. Interesting.
In circumstances, maybe. Love lost to be regained after much hardship (we hope)?
{SPOILER ALERT BELOW}
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But in personality, I’m not sure. Ginny won’t be losing her bloom, and I don’t think she’s gonna sit around and wait for her true love to return from the wars… I think she’s gonna dive right in and help out, despite what all her friends and family may tell her.
Or perhaps you mean that she has ALREADY regained the love of her hero after 5/6 years of being in the background? Mmm… But the story isn’t over yet.
July 22nd, 2005 at 9:00 am
Mags - I wasn’t very vague in the above post. Could you add a HPHBP Spoiler warning? Or some such notice so I don’t spoil anything for HP fans who haven’t read the book?
Cheers
July 22nd, 2005 at 6:29 pm
SPOILER!!!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!!!SPOILER!!!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!!! SPOILER!!!!!!!
Mmm… I dunno. Ginny seems like she has a bit more backbone than Anne Elliot… she wasn’t the one who did the breaking up, and there was the whole ’stupid, noble reason’ thing that leads me to believe there’s more the story. I think Harry’s got a wee bit of a Spiderman complex, actually.
Still- if you want to generalize it a bit, I suppose Harry is Captain Wentworth here, isn’t he… He’ll end up going to ‘find himself’ and all those horcruxes and… chyeah. I suppose JKR is doing the whole archetypal hero thing, where no matter how many people he has in his life, the hero always stands alone. All the same, at the end of the day, I’m sure Harry and Ginny will be left standing together.
I suppose we’ll just have to wait another two years to find out for sure…. *sighs*
July 24th, 2005 at 12:38 pm
No!!!!! Harry can’t be the dashing Captain Wentworth. As much as I enjoy the boy wizard’s adventures I can’t have him mixed up with one of my favourite lit heart throbs
(I always thought that Rowling’s nod of appreciation to Austen was Mrs Norris.)
July 24th, 2005 at 1:41 pm
Ahh, Mrs. Norris… I always wondered if Mrs. Norris was just a former student hexed into a cat. I mean really- if she was as much a tattletale as a human as she is as a cat, it couldn’t be that hard to think of it.
July 24th, 2005 at 10:01 pm
James and Lily = Darcy and Lizzy. Discuss.
*runs away, laughing*
Really, I meant that Ginny knows she has to let Harry do what he needs to do. Anne broke her engagement with Wentworth because she thought she would hold him back in his career. Also, Harry’s jealousy awakening him to his feelings about Ginny are similar to Wentworth’s jealousy of Mr. Elliot awakening him to his true feelings about Anne.
I do have lots of theories about the romances in HP being roughly (and I do mean roughly) analagous to the romances in JA’s novels. But they are homages at best, not total copies. And I may be talking totally out of my butt.
July 25th, 2005 at 2:43 pm
Eep! James and Lily love! Heh, I must confess to dabbling in the world of fanfiction, where my choice of reading material would be Lily and James, as they have just oh-so-much more history to be written….
V. true, very true. Ahh… so, what, Mr. Elliot = Dean Thomas? Hmm…
February 6th, 2006 at 3:05 am
Girls you are just absolutly right! Ginny is so Anne Elliot ! How come I never have guessed it by my own ? Silly me!
Keep on writing Austenblog, you ‘re doing such a great job!
camille, france