The Jane Austen Handbook (21 page)

Jane Austen called this novel
The Elliots
and finished it less than a year before her death. In the first draft of the final chapters, Wentworth is jealous when the rumor mill has Anne engaged to her rich cousin; when Anne tells him that the gossip is untrue, they become engaged. Jane was dissatisfied with this ending and rewrote it, creating the classic scene in which Wentworth pours out his heart in a letter, apologizing and asking if it is not too late. The “cancelled chapters,” as they are known, are now on display at the British Library, the only manuscript of the six major novels still extant. The novel, retitled
Persuasion
, was published posthumously in 1818 in a four-volume set with
Northanger Abbey
.

OTHER WORKS BY JANE AUSTEN

Many of these works were not published until the twentieth century, most as part of the Oxford Illustrated Editions edited by R. W. Chapman.

The “Juvenilia”
: Three notebooks into which Jane copied stories that she wrote when she was a young girl. The stories have a great deal of violence, death, and drunkenness but—or perhaps partly as a result—are extremely funny and show a precocious storytelling skill while parodying the conventions of contemporary fiction.

The History of England
:
“By a Partial, Prejudiced, and Ignorant Historian.” A parody of serious histories, this short work gives brief, humorous overviews of the reign of each British monarch from Henry IV through Charles I. Cassandra Austen added illustrations of the various kings and queens. The manuscript is in the possession of the British Library and facsimile editions with the illustrations are widely available.

Lady Susan
:
A novella in letters; the title character is an amoral, manipulative sociopath who uses others indiscriminately, somewhat reminiscent of Madame de Merteuil of
Les Liaisons Dangereuses
. Jane Austen never attempted to publish it, perhaps because of the rather shocking subject matter, but technically it is brilliantly executed. It was first published in the second edition of J. E. Austen-Leigh’s
Memoir
.

The Watsons
:
A rather darker version of
Pride and Prejudice
, this incomplete work sets up the story of the Watson sisters, three of whom are trying very hard to get married, as they have no mother and a sickly clergyman father who will leave them with nothing when he dies. Cassandra Austen later told family members that Jane’s plan was that Mr. Watson would
die in the course of the story and that the heroine, Emma Watson, would have to choose between marriage for money and position or for affection. Jane abandoned the story around the time of her father’s death in 1805; perhaps the story of the orphaned daughters of a clergyman struck too close to home.

Sanditon
: Jane Austen worked on this novel until a few months before her death, completing twelve chapters. The heroine, Charlotte Heywood, is invited to a small seaside town called Sanditon, which the inhabitants are trying to promote as a resort town. The characters gather, including the members of the Parker family: the eldest Mr. Parker, who is the main promoter of the town; his two sisters, Susan and Diana, and youngest brother, Arthur, all determined hypochondriacs; and his younger brother Sidney, of whom we have only a tantalizing glimpse, and who seems destined to be the hero of the piece. Brilliantly ironic and savagely funny,
Sanditon
might have been Jane Austen’s finest novel had she lived to finish it.

Nearly two hundred years after her death, Jane Austen is more popular than ever.
Film adaptations, biographies, sequels, retellings, an action figure—Janeites can’t get enough of their favorite writer, and publishers and Hollywood are happy to oblige.

While there were various television versions of Jane Austen’s novels produced throughout the twentieth century, 1995 saw the “golden age” of Jane Austen adaptations, with an enormously popular BBC miniseries of
Pride and Prejudice
, starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth in the lead roles, and a major motion picture of
Sense and Sensibility
, directed by Ang Lee and starring Emma Thompson (who won an Academy Award for writing the screenplay) and Kate Winslet. Other film and television adaptations of
Persuasion, Emma
, and
Mansfield Park
followed, the latter a controversial postmodern interpretation that brought filming of Austen novels to a screeching halt for several years. A second wave of Jane on film kicked off in 2005 with
Bride and Prejudice
, a contemporary Bollywood-style musical adaptation of
Pride and Prejudice
, and the first major motion picture adaptation of
Pride and Prejudice
since 1940, starring Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen in the lead roles. The films listed are either available for purchase on DVD or in production at press time.

S
ENSE AND
S
ENSIBILITY

1981
: BBC television series, starring Irene Richard as Elinor and Tracey Childs as Marianne

1995
: Columbia Pictures, starring Emma Thompson as Elinor and Kate Winslet as Marianne

2007
: BBC television series, from a script by Andrew Davies

P
RIDE AND
P
REJUDICE

1940
: MGM, starring Greer Garson as Elizabeth and Laurence Olivier as Mr. Darcy

1980
: BBC television series, starring Elizabeth Garvie as Elizabeth and David Rintoul as Mr. Darcy

1995
: BBC/A&E television series, starring Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth and Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy

2005
: Working Title Films, starring Keira Knightley as Elizabeth and Matthew Macfadyen as Mr. Darcy

M
ANSFIELD
P
ARK

1983
: BBC television series, starring Sylvestra Le Touzel as Fanny and Nicholas Farrell as Edmund

1999
: Miramax, starring Frances O’Connor as Fanny and Jonny Lee Miller as Edmund

2007
: ITV television film, starring Billie Piper as Fanny and Blake Riston as Edmund

E
MMA

1972
: BBC television series, starring Doran Godwin as Emma and John Carson as Mr. Knightley

1996
: Miramax, starring Gwyneth Paltrow as Emma and Jeremy Northam as Mr. Knightley

1996
: ITV/A&E television film, starring Kate Beckinsale as Emma and Mark Strong as Mr. Knightley

N
ORTHANGER
A
BBEY

1986
: BBC/A&E television film, starring Katharine Schlesinger as Catherine and Peter Firth as Henry

2007
: ITV television film starring Felicity Jones as Catherine and JJ Feild as Henry

P
ERSUASION

1971
: BBC television version, starring Anne Firbank as Anne and Bryan Marshall as Captain Wentworth

1995
: Sony Classics/Masterpiece Theatre, starring Amanda Root as Anne and Ciarán Hinds as Captain Wentworth

2007
: ITV television film starring Sally Hawkins as Anne and Rupert Penry-Jones as Captain Wentworth

B
IOGRAPHICAL
F
ILMS

2007
:
Becoming Jane
, Ecosse Films, starring Anne Hathaway as Jane Austen and James McAvoy as Tom Lefroy

2007
:
Miss Austen Regrets
, BBC television series

A
ND
N
OW FOR
S
OMETHING
C
OMPLETELY
D
IFFERENT
 …

Some filmmakers have recreated Jane Austen’s stories in the present day, often in specific cultural settings that mimic the “three or four families in a country village” that was Jane Austen’s preferred milieu.

Clueless
, Paramount Pictures, 1995
: A contemporary adaptation of
Emma
, written and directed by Amy Heckerling, starring Alicia Silverstone.

Kandukondain Kandukondain
(“I Have Found It”), Sri Surya Films, 2000
: Tamil-language Bollywood adaptation of
Sense and Sensibility
, starring Aishwarya Rai.

Pride and Prejudice
:
A Latter-Day Comedy
, Excel Entertainment, 2003: A contemporary “Mollywood” (set in the Mormon community) adaptation of
Pride and Prejudice
, starring Kam Heskin and Orlando Seale.

Bridget Jones’s Diary
, Miramax, 2003
: Sometimes claimed as a modern adaptation of
Pride and Prejudice
, the film adaptation is so different from the original book by Helen Fielding that much of the P&P feeling is lost, despite Colin Firth’s patented Darcy smolder.

Bride and Prejudice
, Miramax, 2005
: A contemporary Bollywood-style musical adaptation, directed by Gurinder Chadha, starring Aishwarya Rai and Martin Henderson.

Wishbone
:
“Furst Impressions” and “Pup Fiction”: Wishbone was a PBS television series for children in the 1990s, featuring a Jack Russell terrier called Wishbone, who would act out stories from classic literature alongside human costars to impart a life lesson to the young viewers. Two of Jane Austen’s novels were adapted for the series:
Pride and Prejudice
became an episode called “Furst Impressions” and
Northanger Abbey
became an episode called “Pup Fiction.” Wishbone is our favorite Henry Tilney on film.

Since Jane Austen first wrote her novels, readers have become so attached to the characters that they have wanted to know what happened to them after the action of the novels ended. In James Edward Austen-Leigh’s memoir, he reveals that Jane told her nieces and nephews stories about their favorites to satisfy their curiosity; others have drawn their own conclusions and committed their stories to the page with varying degrees of success and popularity among Janeites.

Unsurprisingly,
Pride and Prejudice
has inspired most of these stories, including sequels, retellings of the original from another character’s point of view (particularly Darcy’s), retellings set in modern times, and even a series of mysteries featuring Mr. and Mrs. Darcy as sleuths. Jane herself is the
detective in a series of mysteries by
Stephanie Barron, and novelist
Karen Joy Fowler’s novel
The Jane Austen Book Club
is a contemporary comedy of manners about a book club that reads only Austen. There are several completions each of
The Watsons
and
Sanditon
, and the two Bridget Jones novels were inspired by Jane Austen novels (
Pride and Prejudice
and
Persuasion
). Jane Austen fan fiction communities flourish on the Internet, and some of the authors have published their work. Some sequels and fan fiction even follow the characters into previously uncharted Austen territory: the bedroom. There are so many Austen completions and continuations that a bibliography has been published:
After Jane
by
Jennifer Scott.

AustenBlog (
www.austenblog.com
)
: News and commentary about Jane Austen in popular culture.

Molland’s (
www.mollands.net
)
: An archival resource site for fans of Jane Austen, including searchable e-texts of the novels, an archive of illustrations and out-of-copyright e-texts about Jane and her work, a comprehensive links listing, and interactive areas.