No plain Jane
Austen myths abound but many of them are not true
Thanks to the PBS Masterpiece series Sanditon and Autumn de Wilde’s new film, Emma, Jane Austen (17751817) is again proving a hot screen commodity.
Yet the author best known for Pride and Prejudice (1813) and Sense and Sensibility (1811) has had her share of troubles, too. These myths about her have circulated for more than a century.
MYTH NO. 1: JANE AUSTEN WAS A BORING HOMEBODY.
The myth of her sheltered existence originated with her brother Henry’s short biographical notice, published as a preface to the first edition of Northanger Abbey and Persuasion (1818). There Henry describes his late sister as having lived “not by any means a life of event.” Today, it has become a trope. But things happened to her. For one thing, she visited London and frequented its rowdy theatres, where vendors sold rotten fruit specifically for the purpose of hurling it at the actors.
MYTH NO. 2: THERE IS NO SEX IN AUSTEN’S WORK.
Henry Austen’s biographical notice claims that Jane was “fearful of giving offence to God.” Novelist Charlotte Bronte cemented Henry’s vision, complaining in 1850 that “the Passions are perfectly unknown” to the late Austen. But you’ll find plenty of illicit sex in Austen’s fiction, including seductions, adultery, out-of-wedlock pregnancy and prostitution. Any author who could create Mr. Darcy must understand the power of sex appeal.
MYTH NO. 3: AUSTEN APPROVED OF SLAVERY.
Did Austen’s novels have “racist subtext,” as a Salon headline claims? Austen certainly benefited from the cultural and economic privileges of her race and class, so it’s complicated. Anti-slavery commentary appears in Emma, when elegant Jane Fairfax decries the dehumanizing slave trade and governess trade, comparing the sale of human flesh to that of human intellect. It has also been argued that the title of Mansfield Park intentionally echoes the name of Lord Mansfield, the judge whose 1772 ruling said chattel slavery was unsupported by English common law.
MYTH NO. 4: AUSTEN’S WORK WASN’T NOTICED BEFORE SHE DIED.
Austen published Sense and Sensibility with the anonymous credit “By a Lady.” She published her next books “by the author of Sense and Sensibility” and “by the author of Pride and Prejudice.” Best-selling novelist Sir Walter Scott, claimed the book Emma’s author was “already known to the public by the two novels announced in her title page.” Scott may not yet have known this admired author’s name her, but others got wind of it.
MYTH NO. 5: AUSTENINSPIRED FAN FICTION EMERGED IN THE 20TH CENTURY.
Works of Jane Austen fan fiction have exploded in the past decade, but Austen-inspired fan fiction dates back a century. A piece of real-person fiction, using Austen as a character, appeared in the Lady’s Magazine in 1823.