Jane Austen is one of the BBC Faces of the Week
Alert Janeite Kirsty wrote to tell us that the BBC has profiled Jane Austen as one of its “Faces of the Week.”
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that every man in possession of a fortune must be in want of a wife,” begins Pride and Prejudice. Austen knew only too well about the economic necessity and convention of her class that women must also secure a husband. But Austen’s heroines hold out for a union of equals; they will marry only for love.
Casting Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennet has confirmed some critics’ fears that Austen has now become a chick flick, but it shouldn’t surprise us that Jane Austen has become a phenomenon with a myriad of marketing opportunities.
Skilfully exciting the reader’s imagination about the unseen, smouldering passions beneath the surface, her “iceberg” novels have a timeless appeal to generations of romantics.
September 18th, 2005 at 10:30 pm
Austen is often criticised for her alleged complicity in the class structure and social mores of Regency England…
Excuse me, but this is criticism is illogical and ridiculous. Let’s say I live in a city and I choose to write about the type of life that I live in that city without mentioning the homeless people or the projects or the people in the prison. Am I somehow to blame that these things exist simply because I choose not to write about them in my work of fiction? (If so, many contemporary authors should be ashamed. ;)) If a critic can demonstrate that her work was an inaccurate representation of the part of society that she did write about or that she never did anything to aid the poor and spoke forcibly against any kind of societal change perhaps there would be some cause for this nonsense, but as it is they need to just hush.
about the unseen, smouldering passions beneath the surface, her “iceberg” novels
Do icebergs have smouldering stuff underneath their surfaces? Must be global warming.
(And calling them “iceberg” novels makes me want to bash him/her about the head with my reticule. 
)
As far as the casting of KK, I assumed it was an attempt to get men to come see it. Was I wrong?
September 18th, 2005 at 11:33 pm
When asked why men should go see this movie, Joe Wright said, “Keira Knightley.” Then he added something about Donald Sutherland. Click on the video clip entitled “Rosamund Pike, Brenda Blethyn, Joe Wright.”
http://www.wanadoo.co.uk/entertainment/film/clips_prideandpred.htm?linkfrom=entertainment__ent_newhome&link=fsAMPU_2_1Link1&article=ENT_filmbox