Scratching the underbelly of Jane Austen subculture

I originally wanted to call this blog post:

Fanny Price vs Mary Crawford and scratching the underbelly of Jane Austen subcultures

but that is too long and so went for the short

Scratching the underbelly of Jane Austen subculture

The strange thing is, that people I usually like and agree with i.e. are on the "same wavelength" I find myself passionately disagreeing with regarding Fanny Price and Mary Crawford: the heroine and anti-heroine of Jane Austen's possibly most controversial novel Mansfield Park.  My personal favourite with Emma i.e. I enjoy both more than Austen's most acclaimed novel Pride & Prejudice? 

Fanny Price is a character whom I greatly admire: with her inner strength, self-discipline and ultimately her incredible self-belief, she ultimately triumphs, although it is a long slog for both Fanny and the reader.

However Fanny is quite probably Jane Austen's "least favourite heroine" with Janeites (*) i.e. the sort of people who repeatedly read Austen, watch all the adaptions (good and bad) and/or join online Austen discussion groups… you get the picture.

Personally, I slightly struggle with Lizzy Bennett and the fairy-tale ending of Pride & Prejudice, yes it is a wonderful novel and an absolute romantic classic, but I'm not quite as satisfied with the fairy tale ending. 

Intriguingly Mary Crawford might satisfy/fill some of this gap; in many ways her quick wit and charm, make her seem a bit like Lizzy Bennett (Austen's most popular heroine from Pride & Prejudice). Still, ultimately she is overly ambitious, somewhat manipulative and overly self-confident. Not 100% surprisingly given Jane Austen's personal beliefs and faith; things never quite work out for Mary Crawford in Mansfield Park. Possibly Mary Crawford is an antidote to the overly saccharine fairy tale ending for Lizzy Bennett.

I'm also intrigued by parallels between Fanny and Anne Elliot, the very popular heroine (especially with seasoned Janeites). Both heroines are reserved, and stoical, whom eventually, after displaying a great deal of inner strength, self-discipline, and good judgement; both find their "true love". These two later novels, seem richer and even more revealing portraits of society to me. But why is Anne much more popular than Fanny? Fanny starts Manfield Park as the poor relative and is patronized plus heavily condescended to, but eventually makes good. Anne Elliot is an admirable character, but it is not as clear why she lets her family treat her in a condescending manner?

NB (*) Here is how the BBC describes modern Janeites

Some Janeites, as they call themselves, write their own fiction imagining the marital exploits of Mr and Mrs Darcy. Others don elaborate period dress and throw Jane Austen-themed tea parties and balls.

Blogs and forums dedicated to Austen and Austen-style fan fiction abound across the internet. The Jane Austen Society of North America (Jasna) boasts 4,500 members and no fewer than 65 branches. 

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21036818

 

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21036818

Emma, Jane Fairfax and Austen's magnum opus

Over the last five years, I've finally completed all six Austen major novels(1) and Emma is now my favourite. There also seems to be a few differences between the original texts and some of the modern adaptations...

While Pride and Prejudice is probably now Austen's most popular novel, I suspect that might be partly because of some of the slightly sexy film and TV adaptations in recent decades. Interestingly according to one highly acclaimed Austen scholar: ASU Professeur Devoney Looser mentions the Pride and Prejudice adaptation trend with "hunky Mr Darcy's" (my words not hers), started much earlier with the theatre and then film adaptation in the first half of the 20th century i.e. an interpretation of Pride and Prejudice which has grown in popularity over the last 100 years! So maybe the Colin Firth 1995 (BBC TV mini-series) wasn't the first Darcy-female-heart-throb (women's fantasy lover) but is part of a much longer tradition? I need to re-read Devoney Looser's wonderful The Making of Jane Austen. 

Anyway, I'm a bit with Fay Weldon here: okay I wouldn't dare be quite as rude about the Pride and Prejudice plot as Fay Weldon was in "Letters to Alice: On First Reading Jane Austen", but Fay Weldon is a very distinguished writer (plus FRSL & CBE). Still, I also find Emma's plot more engaging and Fay Weldon cites other key critics claiming Emma as "Austen's masterpiece". I do sense Emma is Jane Austen's magnum opus: although I'm sure many will cite other Austen books as their favourites, Persuasion seems very popular with many modern Janeites? (2)

I've recently had the pleasure of a double-dose of Emma with two almost back-to-back book club events in May 2021 :
* May 4th, the Amsterdam English Classics read Emma this month; this is my regular book club

* May 11th, the London Jane Austen book club also discussed Emma this month focusing on the perspective of one of the minor but key characters: Jane Fairfax. With covid-19 most bookclub's are still online, so I was grateful to be invited to this event.

Jane Fairfax's character is a useful contrast to Emma's, Jane Fairfax is charming and talented but also a poor relation to Miss Bates (another key character) while Emma is wealthy, lazy, unaccomplished but comfortably established at the top of Highbury society. Jane Fairfax is also sometimes pushed around and bullied by the more noisy and bossy elements of the upper-classes in Highbury (the village just south of London where the novel is set). Jane Fairfax is talked down to by the insufferable Mrs Elton (a bit pantomime villain and friend to the slave trade). However Jane Fairfax is stoical and her eventual reward is marriage to a wealthy, handsome Frank Churchill, who can both sing & dance, so what more could a girl want!?

Well, I'm not 100% sure the story has a happy ending for Jane Fairfax, as the somewhat feckless Frank Churchill is both egotistical and so insensitive he is verging on cruel. Points heavily emphasised in key Jane Fairfax scenes, which we discussed at some length this week's London book-club event with a focus on the "Emma [the novel] from Jane Fairfax's point of view".

Although I didn't get that much traction with my suggestion that the novel has a distinctly dubious ending for Jane Fairfax; I do see others online who share my concerns. This essay from North American Jane Austen society (one of the oldest and largest Austen fan-clubs) stood out to me:

Jane Fairfax, perhaps even more than the minor characters in Austen’s other five novels, provides the author the opportunity to portray “the difference of woman’s destiny” (384).  By considering the focus of Jane Fairfax’s education and the grim financial as well as psychosocial reality of her future life as a governess, contrasted with her ultimate choice to marry a man who acts contrary to social norms and treats her with disrespect, Austen exposes the limitations faced by a poor woman with a genteel upbringing.  Austen shows us that women’s choices are grim:  they must be sold in one market or the other...

Since Austen shows that Frank Churchill is not a good choice for a woman who can choose, she may also be showing that choosing such a man is really the last resort for a woman who has few choices—and that this lack of choice is a social problem.

 http://www.jasna.org/persuasions/on-line/vol28no1/hall.htm

Anyway, Jane Fairfax does eventually marry a wealthy and handsome young man, the classic Austen ending and I'm very grateful to the London club for organizing the Jane Fairfax-focused event, plus the all-round lively & insightful discussion we had this week.

Finally checking on Wikipedia, I also see more claims that Emma is Austen's greatest novel

Although Austen's Pride and Prejudice is the most popular of her novels, critics such as Robert McCrum suggest that "Emma is her masterpiece, mixing the sparkle of her early books with a deep sensibility"

Notes

(1) The six major

(2) Janeite's are hardcore Jame Austen, according to Wikipedia there is often a negative connotation "term of opprobrium", but there is also a more jocular interpretation: Janeitism is "the self-consciously idolatrous enthusiasm for 'Jane' and every detail relative to her".

Ref:

• https://www.meetup.com/English-Classics-Lovers-Club/events/276855632
• https://www.meetup.com/The-Season-A-London-Jane-Austen-Meetup/events/277405142
• http://www.makingjaneausten.com/ Just how did Jane Austen become the celebrity author and inspiration for generations of loyal fans she's become today? ASU (Arizona State University) Prof Devoney Looser's The Making of Jane Austen.
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fay_Weldon
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_British_Empire (CBE - Captain of the British Empire)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Society_of_Literature (FRSL - Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letters_to_Alice:_On_First_Reading_Jane_Austen
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_(novel)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janeite