The first Jane Austen Book Club
An excellent column by John Mullan in the Guardian reminds us that in Jane Austen’s day, books were often read by groups, but not in quite the same way that we think of book groups today.
The modern book club echoes habits of reading in Austen’s day. Reading, especially of fiction, was often a communal experience. And so, too, in the novels themselves. If something is worth reading it is worth reading aloud to someone you like. On rainy days in Bath, Catherine Morland and Isabella Thorpe retire to “read novels together”. When the perfidious Willoughby inveigles his way into the hearts of Marianne Dashwood and her mother and sisters, the sign of their intimacy is that they read aloud together. When he abruptly leaves them, they are in the middle of enjoying Hamlet.
But remember, not everyone can be Elizabeth Bennet.
The Jane Austen Book Club, in book and film versions, believes that we can discover ourselves and our dilemmas in Austen’s novels. So every self-respecting Janeite would believe. Most of us, like those Californian narcissists, are happy to think we might be like Elizabeth Bennet. But why not Mr Collins or Lady Catherine de Bourgh or the immortally idiotic Mrs Bennet? Austen got her fools and monsters from her observations of people, too. And who ever recognises themselves as Mrs Norris? One of the first readers of Mansfield Park, Mrs Wither Bramston, did think that she was herself rather like the elegant, enervated, vacuous Lady Bertram. And this was a sign of her admiration for the novel. But perhaps readers were a little more honest with each other in Austen’s day.
November 26th, 2007 at 7:02 am
Personally, I’ve always thought of myself as an Emma Woodhouse. I even attended a wedding a few weeks ago, the result of my most recent (successful) matchmaking scheme. Bring on my Mr. Knightley!
November 26th, 2007 at 9:43 am
Well, it’s sad, but I’ve always seen myself as the female version of Mr. Darcy. Not so proud, but very taciturn and unsociable…
November 26th, 2007 at 10:53 am
Sad to say I am more like Lydia when amongst other Janeites - silly, loud, and rambunctious.
November 26th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
I’m a mix of Elizabeth Bennet and Emma Woodhouse…
November 26th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
Delightful article. So happy he is a plenary speaker for the 2009 JASNA AGM. *sigh* of contentment
November 26th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
**But why not Mr Collins or Lady Catherine de Bourgh or the immortally idiotic Mrs Bennet?**
Why, because people like Mr Collins and Lady Catherine don’t have the sense or the taste to appreciate JA, of course!
(However, I still can’t answer Crash Davis’s question about why everyone who believes in past lives is sure they were somebody famous in a previous incarnation…)
November 26th, 2007 at 6:27 pm
“why everyone who believes in past lives is sure they were somebody famous…” Well, the New-Agers, anyway. Actual Asians, not so much. One is supposed to start out as a vegetable or mineral, then animal, then work up the ladder as progressively more fortunate human beings, then attain freedom from the cycle. Like Bill Murray in “Groundhog Day.”
Then there’s the follow-up question, what heinous act one committed to deserve one’s current life, since one is supposed to have learned and improved in one’s past lives. Why else would Julius Caesar or Napoleon come back as a copy center clerk?
November 27th, 2007 at 1:27 am
I’m probably the Emma Woodhouse type myself—I catch myself meddling too much in other people’s affairs. Okay, so I’m a guy, but still…
It’s could be the reason why I never cared for Emma very much, until lately. Now she may very well be my favorite JA heroine, after Emma Watson, of course.
November 27th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
I’ve always enjoyed Mansfield Park because, well, of all Austen’s heroines I can relate to Fanny Price the best - I’m shy, prefer my own company to that of others, except for those I know well and care for a lot, I tend to moralise a bit and I’m quite a homebody. So, yeah, I have no illusions about being Elizabeth Bennet
November 30th, 2007 at 7:02 pm
I’m rather Fanny-like myself, though I have gotten over my shyness at least enough to perform (I’m a musician). I’m still pretty introverted though.