During an appearance this week, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling mentioned Jane Austen in a comment about the “shipping wars” in the Potter fandom.
Though Rowling said she was amazed at the relationship wars — the “gang warfare” between fans who want certain relationships to happen between characters — she doesn’t need any more feedback about “weird couplings.” “Jane Austen probably got less feedback,” she joked.
Obviously Ms. Rowling is comfortable with writing in spite of fan reaction, and as a Janeite is probably familiar with Jane Austen’s habit of making notes of reader comments about her books. Of Emma, Jane recorded that her Steventon neighbor Mrs. Digweed said, “Did not like it so well as the others, in fact if she had not known the Author, could hardly have got through it.” A Mr. Fowle (perhaps Cassandra’s dead fiancé’s father?) said, “Read only the first and last Chapters, because had heard it was not interesting.” Of Mansfield Park, a Mrs. Augusta Bramstone “owned that she thought S&S and P&P downright nonsense, but expected to like M.P. better, & having finished the 1st vol. — flattered herself she had got through the worst.” We like to imagine Jane Austen writing down these little criticisms and having a laugh over them from time to time!
The H.M. Brock illustrations for the 1898 Dent edition of Mansfield Park are now available at Molland’s (scroll down to Tinted Line Drawings by H.M. Brock”). A sample:
