Elinor and Marianne in the 21st Century

I’ve never been a fan of reading sequels to Jane Austen’s novels, as I feel that they simply don’t do justice to her writing. However, as I was reading Sense and Sensibility the other day, I couldn’t help but visualise what Elinor and Marianne would be like, had Jane Austen set the novel in the 21st Century. I will now share some of the ideas that came to me.

First of all, the modern-day Elinor and Marianne would certainly have pursued careers. Perhaps their characters would have been older, too, as marriages nowadays rarely take place during the late teens as they do in the novel.

Image from: http://imdb.to/iQOGyG

Houses and homes are an important theme throughout Sense and Sensibility. Elinor, who has plenty of common sense and is the first to take an initiative to find a suitable family home for the Dashwoods, might have made a good estate agent. She would have good business acumen and, although she might not make much money as an estate agent, she would be able to live comfortably within her means, being so economical and wise. On the other hand, she might make a good architect, too, what with her excellent skills at sketching.

Marianne, on the other hand, being a dreamer and an artistic soul, might be less practical about her career choices. Perhaps the modern-day Marianne would dream of the career of a singer/songwriter, living on very little but loving her freedom. I visualise her living in a small but quaint flat in a romantic, leafy area, where she would spend her evenings playing her guitar and singing melancholy love songs. 

                                               Image from: http://bit.ly/jymQJA

John Willoughby would probably have a penchant for fast motorbikes with which he would impress the modern-day girls, taking them on wild rides around the countryside. This modern scoundrel who would drift from one girl to another, would not be a hard-worker in the traditional sense and would probably earn his money by making risky investments in the stock market.

Image from: http://imdb.to/iU4YhB

The more laid-back Edward Ferrars, on the other hand, would be unlikely to have a well-payed, fashionable job and would live in a less fancy area. He might be a struggling academic living within modest means on a university campus and drive an old Fiat.

Image from: http://imdb.to/aEVyKw

The middle-aged Colonel Brandon – or simply known as Brandon – would be well-to-do and in an established position, perhaps a business man with plenty of work experience behind him. He would have worked abroad and seen much of the world, and live in a comfortable house of his own…

…I could go on!

Have you ever tried imagining any of Jane Austen’s heroes living in the modern day and age and if so, what did you visualise them to be like?

Metropolitan Youth Under the Guidance of Jane Austen

Metropolitan, a film directed by Whit Stillman in 1990, is said to be loosely based on Mansfield Park. Therefore it may come as no surprise that I was keen to see how one of my favourite novels has inspired a modern film-maker.

Like Mansfield Park, Metropolitan is a comedy of manners, but it is a modern take, set amongst a group of upper-class urban youth in Manhattan. A group of young girls and men are on holiday from college and get together for the debutante season. Dressed in smocks and white ruffles, they attend formal ball room parties and after parties at each others’ houses and get into intense discussions on social status and mobility.

Nick Smith, a Harvard student, introduces Tom Townsend, a less well-off Princeton student, to the group as an escort for the girls. One of the girls, Audrey Rouget, is soon charmed by his nonconformist views and strong principles. However, like Mansfield park, Metropolitan is largely a story of unrequited love. While Audrey – our modern day Fanny – likes Tom, Tom - as our Edmund - is obsessed with his not-so-faithful ex-girlfriend, Serena Slocum. It takes a few twists and turns before Tom realises that Audrey is what Serena will never be – a good person with strong morals who truly cares about him.

Interestingly, Audrey is a great fan of Jane Austen. She tells Tom that her two favourite books are Mansfield Park and Persuasion. To her dismay, Tom – without ever having read the book – disagrees with her.

“Mansfield Park…is a notoriously bad book”. “The whole story revolves around the immorality of a group of youngsters putting on a play.” “The context of the novel, and nearly everything that Jane Austen wrote looks ridiculous from today’s perspective.”

To this, Audrey argues back,

“Has it ever occurred to you that today, from Jane Austen’s perspective, would look even worse?”

Tom continues to say what the literary critic, Lionel Trilling, says about Austen:

“No one would like the heroine of Mansfield Park.”

Audrey aptly argues,

“Do modern people resent Mansfield Park because its heroine is virtuous?”

To Audrey’s relief, Tom later gets round to reading some Jane Austen and tells her that he “liked” Persuasion and was “surprised” at it being so good!

While the story is only very loosely based on Mansfield Park, Jane Austen is always there in the background as a strong moral backbone for the youngsters. Amongst the girls and young men, there is a conflict between what constitutes right and wrong behaviour, and who is a good person and who is not.  The film has its Austenesque romantic seducer-villain, Rick Von Sloneker, who stands as a rival to the men. The men are convinced that he is not a good person and are desperate to show this the girls, rushing off to rescue them from his charms. Mansfield Park is the most moralistic of all of Jane Austen’s novels, and this moral tone carries on to Metropolitan as well. 

What Audrey sees at a shop window…

In the novel, Fanny is against setting up a play, “Lover’s Vows”, as she feels that  it may not be a good influence during Sir Thomas’s absence. In the film, the others suggest playing a game of “Truth”, while Audrey is strongly against playing it. Like Fanny, she morally argues against it:

“There are good reasons why people don’t go around telling people their most intimate thoughts… I just know that games like this can be really dangerous”.

Incidentally, it is Audrey who has to give in and who, in the end, suffers from the consequences of “Truth”.

The screenplay is an excellent  take on Austenesque dry wit and clever dialogue, and Nick Smith’s sarcastic remarks - in a style not unlike Woody Allen’s - are particularly enjoyable. While I wouldn’t go as far as to call Metropolitan an adaptation of Jane Austen, I would say that it is a comedy of manners and morals in the style of Jane Austen with plenty of references to her work.

Have you seen Metropolitan, and if yes, and what was your impression?

The Fashion Revolution of 1795

In her blog Austen Only, Julie  Wakefield recently wrote an intriguing article, analysing whether Thomson’s illustrations for Sense and Sensibility from 1896 were accurate, as they portray Jane Austen’s characters dressed in the old, pre-revolution fashions. Fascinated by the fashion of Jane Austen’s time, the article inspired me to look into of the changing fashions of the time.

At around the time when Jane Austen was 20 years old and writing her first great novels, social change brought about a great change in fashion, too. 1794-1795 was a turbulent time in Europe, with the French revolution shaking the foundations of feudal society and with it, the upper classes.  Marie Antoinette preferred the simpler ‘English’ styles to the prevailing fashion of ornate gowns and hoops, which she hated wearing. Rousseau agreed with the more casual styles, as these were viewed to be more ‘democratic’, and this also encouraged the shift in style. 

         Napoleon’s wife Josephine in an empire dress. Image from Wikipedia.

With France at the forefront of European fashion, the social change in France had a marked influence on fashion all across Europe. During these years, fashions shifted from the large, hooped, frilly styles to easy flowing, thin silhouettes. Fashion reverted back to the classical, neo-Grecian style, emulating the democratic republics of the ancient world. Marie Antoinette was the first person to embrace the so-called ‘empire style’ in dress, which was soon adopted by gentry and nobility all over.

The 20-year-old Jane – and her characters – probably underwent these changes, although we fail to see this in the more recent film adaptations of her novels, which tend to display only the newer Regency fashions.

This engraving by Chataignier from 1797 shows the contrast between old and new fashions, the followers of new fashion mocking the old “Oh! What relics!” and the more conservative dressers disapproving of the new “Oh! What a foolish new fashion!”

                                                                                      Image from the British Museum.

The new styles brought great relief to ladies, as the tightly-laced corsets and hoops were abandoned and the dresses had a more comfortable, natural flow to them. The gowns were short-sleeved, made of soft, thin muslins, which were tied with a ribbon right below the bosom.  Underwear consisted of simple petticoats and cotton bodices. Men ridiculed the fashions, as the natural waistline had disappeared and the shape of the body was largely hidden below the chest; however, the new fashion was welcome to women, as it was less restricting and easy flowing, the footwear was more comfortable and the hairstyles were easier to manage.

While the old fashion had men and women wearing buckled, heeled shoes, the new fashion introduced flat shoes for ladies, which resemble the modern ballerina slipper. For men, boots were in fashion.  This caricature contrasts the hoop-skirts and high-heeled shoes of 1742 with the high-waisted narrow skirts and flat shoes of 1794.

Image from Wikipedia.

The gowns before the Revolution were heavily ornamented, with plenty of ruffles and bows adorning the dress. The ornamentation changed into simple designs, and the empire dress would nearly always be white and often transparent, at the most embroidered with intricate patterns.

                                                  The changing silhouette:

                                                              A hooped ornamented dress.

                                                                                             Delicate muslin gowns.

                                                                         (Images taken at the Fashion Museum in Bath). 

As the earlier fashion was characterised by large silhouettes, the hairstyles were large as well. Hair was gathered in a huge pyramid, backcombed, powdered and decorated with ornaments. On top of the pyramid, there might be a tall hat as well. The men, on the other hand, would either wear a wig, or wear their powdered hair long, clubbed with a black ribbon to hold the pigtail. All this changed when a tax on hair-powder was introduced in 1795, and men would gradually move towards cropped hairstyles. Women, on the other hand, now preferred shorter hair with loose curls around the face. Instead of large hats, long ostrich feathers were worn to display high status for evening gatherings.

For men, it was a time of more masculinity in style. It was goodbye to white stockings and buckled shoes, and hello to a more outdoors, sporty style suited to an active life in the countryside. While the earlier fashion placed a great deal of importance to shirts, with lace ruffles on the front and in the cuffs, shirts were now less important and neck-cloths were more prominent. Men would wear long riding coats with long tails, and breeches lengthened into skin-tight pantaloons tucked into boots. Later on, the fashion guru of the time, Beau Brummell, introduced trousers, and there was no going back. The new style was complete with stylish top hats, which emerged later in the period. 

         Towards a more natural style:

A man’s outfit from 1790. Image from V&A.

                     A model of a Regency outfit.

     Image taken at the Jane Austen Centre in Bath.

Predictably, there was a generation gap between those who sported the new styles with enthusiasm and those who disapproved of the new fashions, preferring to cling to the fashions of their youth. While we may assume that the characters from Jane Austen’s later novels - Emma, Mansfield Park and Persuasion – certainly followed the new style, the characters from the earlier novels – Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Northanger Abbey – written in 1795-6, 1796-7 and 1798 respectively – will almost certainly have portrayed a mixture of old and new fashion. The older, more conservative and rustic characters would have stuck to the old fashions, while the younger, more fashionable characters would have proudly embraced the new styles.

 

References and further reading:

• Downing, S.J. (2010) Fashion In the Time of Jane Austen. Shire Library.

This book gives a very interesting and useful introduction, with a clear outline of the fashion in the time of Jane Austen and excellent images.  

• Le Faye, D. (2002) Jane Austen – The World of Her Novels. Frances Lincoln.
• Articles on Regency fashion: Jane Austen Centre online magazine
• A comprehensive list of links on fashion history: La Mode Historique
• Several well-researched articles on fashion:  Jane Austen’s World
• Information on 18th century fashion: La Couturiere: 18th Century
• Costume history from the late 18th century to 1820: Fashion Era

Notebook Win!

I was the lucky one to win this beautiful notebook from Raquel Sallaberry’s one-year anniversary Giveaway Contest on Jane Austen Today. The notebook has been handmade by Raquel Sallaberry to celebrate the bicentenary of the publication of Sense and Sensibility.

The cover beautifully captures the famous scene from Sense and Sensibility where Willoughby rescues Marianne after she falls in the rain and hurts her foot.

“A gentleman carrying a gun, with two pointers playing round him, was passing up the hill and within a few yards of Marianne, when her accident happened. He put down his gun and ran to her assistance. She had raised herself from the ground, but her foot had been twisted in the fall, and she was scarcely able to stand. The gentleman offered his services, and perceiving that her modesty declined what her situation rendered necessary, took her up in his arms without farther delay, and carried her down the hill.”

Sense and Sensibility p. 31

 

There was also a ribbon bookmark that came with the notebook.

Thank you, Raquel and Vic!

“Weep You No More Sad Fountains…”

I loved the soundtrack of Sense and Sensibility 1995, and when I came across the CD at a jumble sale, I just had to buy it.

Now I don’t usually listen to instrumental music, but this score really touched me. Having listened to it, I understood why Ang Lee’s adaptation stands out from the rest – good music really does arouse various strong feelings in you while you are watching a film.

Patrick Doyle’s orchestrated version perfectly follows the moods of the characters throughout the film, reminding me of the various scenes, whether happy or sad…

 

You can get a taster of all the tracks here.

They lived happily ever after… and then?

As we all know, Jane Austen’s heroes and heroines all had their share of happy endings (and the villains perhaps less happy ones, deservedly). Although Jane Austen never wrote sequels to her novels and gave little indication of what would happen to her characters after the wedding, she is known to have shared these little secrets with her close friends and family, such as her nephews and nieces.

Let’s have a look at these intriguing nibbles of information!

 

Sense and Sensibility

Ann Steele, Lucy Steele’s older sister, who can’t stop talking about the eligible Dr Davies, never managed to catch him in the end.

 

Pride and Prejudice

One of the foolish younger Bennet sisters, Kitty, ended up marrying a clergyman near Pemberley, being close to Elizabeth and enjoying a wider, classier social circle.

The plain younger sister, Mary, married one of Uncle Phillips’ clerks and was content with the small social circle of Meryton.

 

Emma

Mr Woodhouse continued to live for 2 years after Emma’s marriage, keeping Emma and Mr Knightley from settling down at Donwell Abbey until then.

While playing the alphabet game that irritated many of those present, Frank Churchill placed some letters in front of Jane Fairfax, which she brushed aside in anguish, without reading them. These letters contained the word ‘pardon’.

The weak, poorly Jane Fairfax only lived for another 9-10 years after her wedding, succumbing to tuberculosis. 

 

Mansfield Park  

The ‘considerable amount’ of money given by the insufferable Mrs Norris to Fanny’s brother, William, was one pound.

Jane Austen had a high regard for her heroes and felt that they were of higher calibre than the real men of her acquaintance. Edmund Bertram was along with Emma’s Mr Knightley, one of her two favourite characters.  “They are very far from being what I know English gentlemen often are”, she described (A Memoir, p. 118).

                                              *                      *                       *

Unfortunately, Jane Austen never got to share her secrets of Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, as these novels were published after her death and those close to her never had the chance to give their views to the author.

If you had had the chance to meet Jane Austen, what would you have asked her about her characters?

 

References:

Austen-Leigh, J-E. (2002). A Memoir of Jane Austen and Other Family Recollections. Oxford World Classics.

Le Faye, D. (2002) Jane Austen – The World of Her Novels. Frances Lincoln.

 

Images from: http://sharetv.org

Jane Austen’s Regency World

I’ve done it - I’ve become a proud subscriber of Regency World – a magazine produced by the Jane Austen Centre in Bath. I’ve been wanting to read this magazine for a long time now, and I’ve finally managed to get my act together and make an annual subscription. Now I can stay up-to-date with happenings in the world of Jane Austen.

Can’t wait to get my hands on my first issue!

Do any of you read the magazine and if so, would you recommend it?

Left Speechless by the King’s Speech

At the weekend, I finally had the chance to see the long-awaited King’s Speech. Many blogs have been paying tribute to Colin Firth’s performance as King George VIth and, needless to say, having seen the film, I too feel that the Golden Globes and the Oscars were well deserved.

For a man who will always be remembered as Mr Darcy from Pride and Prejudice (1995) – and who will probably always remain my favourite version of Mr Darcy – Colin Firth fails to disappoint in each role that he undertakes, and this is one of his most powerful performances to date.

Seeing the film triggered off some intense discussions on monarchy between us. Although I am hardly what you would call a monarchist, what I did like about The King’s Speech was that it shows the human side of a a monarch and the heavy burden of responsibility inflicted on you as a member of the royal family, despite your will and your level of competence to do the job.

It’s great to see Colin Firth go from strength to strength and still now, 16 years after his most memorable performance as Mr Darcy, surprise us with his amazing talent and ability to assume a role so unlike his own in real life.

You can also spot two other actors from the 1995 Pride and Prejudice in this film: Jennifer Ehle (Elizabeth) as the King’s speech therapist, Lionel Logue’s wife, and David Bamber (Mr Collins) as a theatre director. A wonderful cast make a wonderful film!

Jane Austen and the Evangelicals

As I visited the Paragon in Bath, where Jane Austen spent a few weeks in 1799 with her Uncle and Aunt Leigh-Perrot, I came across this quaint little chapel across the road from the Leigh-Perrots’ lodgings.

On the gate, it read “The Countess of Huntingdon’s Chapel”.

I became intrigued and was left wondering if this Countess of Huntingdon lived at the time when Jane Austen stayed in Bath, and whether Jane had anything to do with this undoubtedly formidable lady.  I decided to find out what the story was behind the church.

Countess of Huntingdon. Image from Wikipedia at http://bit.ly/heuxFG.

I discovered that the chapel was an evangelical connection set up by Selina Hastings,  Countess of Huntingdon, in the 18th Century. The Countess was born in 1707, became a born-again Christian at the age of 32 and, after she became a widow at the age of 39, she started to devote her time to religion. The Countess opened several private chapels like this for the public preaching of the gospel. After her death in 1891, there were local trusts running the chapels, and this small congregation is still active in Bath.

In Jane Austen’s times there was an evangelical revival, which would later have a great effect on the pious Victorians. The principle of the evangelicals was to express faith and to share the gospel actively and publicly. They were known for showing plenty of emotion in their worship and for singing hymns with fervour. 

Is this why Jane Austen wrote in a letter to her sister Cassandra, on January 24, 1809  [66],  "I do not like the Evangelicals", refusing to read a piece of religious fiction written by Hannah More, an evangelical reformer? Perhaps she first came across evangelicals during her first visit to Bath and, staying so close to the chapel, found them to be noisy and even vulgar?

Cover page for Hannah More’s “Calebs”, which Jane did not wish to read. Image from the Open Library:  http://bit.ly/fkIy2b.

For Jane Austen, religion was a more private affair. Being brought up as a moderate 18th Century Anglican clergyman’s daughter, religion was a part of her daily life, but it was demonstrated in a discreet manner. While Jane was well versed in her scriptures and attended morning prayer without fail, in her public writing she preferred to steer away from these topics, perhaps feeling that it wasn’t her place to preach. She did compose several sermons and prayers, but was otherwise undemonstrative in her approach to religion. In the Austen family, religion was demonstrated through action rather than feeling – through acts of charity and through their responsibility to the parish. The public preaching by the chapel might have put Jane off Paragon for good. She vastly preferred the location of her next lodgings at Queen’s Square, and wrote that the view from the drawing room windows was ‘far more cheerful than Paragon’.

                                                                           The Paragon as seen from the chapel.

It may be surprising, therefore, that five years later in 1814, Jane wrote in a letter to her niece, Fanny Knight, “I am by no means convinced that we ought not all to be Evangelicals, & am at least persuaded that they who are so from Reason & Feeling, must be happiest & safest.” This statement suggests that Jane may have become more religious as she grew older, perhaps growing up to see the permissive, indulgent Regency society, of whose monarch she despised. During the first two decades of the 19th Century, the evangelical movement did indeed become popular within the Anglican church, perhaps to counter the low morality of the time and to educate people of vice and virtue.

At the time when Jane Austen first stayed in Bath, she was still young and perhaps resisted restrictions on behaviour. Her later, more serious novels, such as Mansfield Park and Persuasion, reflect a less permissive approach. Fanny’s character in Mansfield Park, in particular, stands for morality and even saintliness, considering her forgiving and principled nature.  

But do Jane Austen’s novels actually show religious influences? Surely her characters make moral choices without any reference to god or religion? The debate on Jane Austen’s religiousness vs. her ambivalence towards religion continues, but I think we can safely say that Jane Austen was a practising Anglican with religion in her heart, even if she preferred not to show it to the outside world.  

 

Further reading:

Jane Austen’s Letters:

• Jones, V. (2004). Selected Letters by Jane Austen. OUP.

On the history of the Chapel of the Countess of Huntingdon:

• http://www.cofhconnexion.org.uk/history/

Frequently cited work on Jane Austen’s religion:

• http://www.scribd.com/doc/27028479/Christian-Encounters-Jane-Austen-by-Peter-Leithart
• Collins, I. (2002) Jane Austen and the Clergy. Hambledon and London.

Nancy Meyer–Regency Researcher

I have just received a wonderful link from the Jane Austen Centre in Bath, for an extensive site for research on Jane Austen. Nancy Meyer has been collecting information on Jane Austen for years, and this information is free to access on her website:

Nancy Meyer – Regency Researcher

 

On her site, you can also ask her questions on a variety of topics that you would like to learn more about, such as:

Was it legal for an Earl to have a fox hunting party on his own estate in June?

How soon could a Regency widow remarry?

Did Mothers wear mourning clothes for stillborn infants?

 

             Images from Wikipedia Commons.

Jane Austen a-Shopping with Burney’s Evelina

It is interesting to know that the 18th Century author, Fanny Burney, introduced several new words into the English language through the literary form. Through Evelina, she is the first known person to use words which are still so commonplace now, such as a-shopping, seeing sights, break down and grumpy.

Have you ever wondered what inspired Jane Austen to use dialogue as a clever way to personify her characters? Was the romantic charlatan, Mr Willoughby, a product of Jane’s imagination or an imprint of her early reading? Read on!

In her novels and letters, Jane Austen made several references to her favourite authors, and amongst her favourites were always Frances (Fanny) Burney and Maria Edgeworth. Fanny Burney wrote Evelina in the 1770’s, when Jane Austen was still an infant, and Cecilia soon after, and Jane grew up reading these stories. As you read through her novels, it becomes evident that Jane Austen drew inspiration from them.

                                                         Image from: http://bit.ly/ephcyO

Evelina is a lengthy novel, which was originally written in 3 volumes, according to the custom of the time. Like Northanger Abbey, Evelina is a coming-of-age novel, with the apt subtitle  “The History of the Young Lady’s Entrance Into the World”. The heroine is a girl of obscure birth who has been raised by her loving foster father, Mr Villars, in a comfortable home. Like Catherine, Evelina is set to ‘come out’ and enter the society to lure the attentions of eligible young men.

Evelina is chaperoned to London, where she visits the numerous theatres, operas and pleasure gardens frequented by fashionable society.  As Evelina enters into society, she comes across one odious character after another and must defend her virtue against characters of low morals. Not unlike Catherine, Evelina is all innocence and youthfulness and is shocked to experience the realities of London society. She is repulsed by the lewd behaviour of men that she meets and soon wishes that she had never left Berry Hill, her home. In short, her trips are a journey from innocence to experience (to quote Blake).

  Fanny Burney. Image from http://bit.ly/eiFQ4S.

Evelina is a satire of fashionable life. Like Jane Austen, Frances Burney  is an excellent satirist and parodies characters through her excellent mimicry. It is in the dialogue that she really shows her ingenuity. In the preface of Evelina, Burney describes her style as follows:

“To draw characters from nature, though not from life, and to mark the manners of the times, is the attempted plan…”

As a key component of her style, Burney reveals personality through her use of language. Her highest-ranking characters (e.g. Lord Orville, Lady Louisa) use extremely formal register, as opposed to the lower-ranking, more vulgar characters (e.g. Captain Mirvan, Madame Duval), who Burney mimics endlessly.

The grotesque Captain Mirvan who enjoys abusing the would-be French woman, Madame Duval,  uses crass language with plenty of nautical references.

“The old buck is safe – but we must sheer off directly, or we shall be all aground.”

On the other hand, Madame Duval’s bad grammar reveals her lack of breed and education.

“This is prettier than all the rest! I declare, in all my travels, I never see nothing eleganter.”

As Evelina meets her ‘vulgar’ cousins in London, the scene reminds me of Mansfield Park where Fanny meets her real family in Portsmouth after several years and feels out of place, having got used to the genteel, polished manners of a country house (Burney uses the word “low-bred” to describe Evelina’s relatives).

Like Austen’s novels, Evelina too is written in somewhat archaic 18th Century language with a preference for long, complex sentences – a style that Jane Austen certainly assumed. Thankfully, this Oxford edition has been carefully edited by Edward Bloom, with detailed notes on 18th Century vocabulary and manners.

As it was popular at the time, the novel is written in epistolary form – in letters. The epistolary form, which may not always seem realistic, does give the novel a lovely personal touch with its 1st person narration.  Perhaps Jane Austen’s early style was much closer to Burney’s, as her early novels were also written in epistolary form, such as the first version of Sense and Sensibility  (“Elinor and Marianne”) and Lady Susan. Only Lady Susan survives to this day, and it is a novel cleverly written. Lady Susan retains much of the certain mischievous flavour present in Austen’s early novels, which is lacking in her later work.  Evelina reminds me not only of Lady Susan, but of Jane Austen’s juvenilia with the likes of “Love and Freindship” and “The Three Sisters”, with their profligate, even evil characters, speedy plot turnings and plenty of slapstick.

The scenes in Evelina do reveal much more of the period than Jane Austen does. While Jane Austen chooses to leave out details, which she felt were unnecessary or perhaps unpleasant to narrate, Evelina contains plenty of references to prostitution, rape, racism, and other things, which were certainly prevalent in the society of her time.

Did the frivolous seducer, Sir Clement Willoughby, inspire Jane Austen as she created the character of Mr Willoughby to seduce Marianne in Sense and Sensibility? Like Mr Willoughby, Sir Clement is a romantic character with no intention of marrying Evelina. Luckily, as a smart enough girl, Evelina is not lured by his charms, seeing through his false pretentions, and turns down his attentions (which were becoming a bit too much anyway!).

The initial scene with Evelina’s future husband, Lord Orville, reminds me of the first meeting between Elizabeth and Darcy at the ball in Meryton. In this scene, Elizabeth overhears Darcy describe her as ‘tolerable but not handsome enough to tempt me’.  Similarly, at a ball, Evelina’s friend overhears Lord Orville put Evelina down as a “pretty modest looking girl…a silent one…a poor weak girl” and she recounts this to Evelina. As a result, Evelina is in awe of him and like Elizabeth, feels embarrassed of her obscure status and her “low-bred”, vulgar relations. Interestingly enough, the title for Pride and Prejudice was famously taken from the last chapter of Burney’s Cecilia, which I shall attempt to read next. It will be interesting to see if there is any further similarity between the two novels. 

Frances Burney has certainly influenced Jane Austen in her creation of storylines and her literary style.  The clever use of dialogue to personify the characters is something that Jane, like Burney, adopted from early on. During Jane’s lifetime, Burney was a far more popular writer - perhaps because Austen wrote more about everyday life and Burney was better versed with the fashions and amusements of the day – her novels would probably have made better popular literature.

However, it was Jane Austen who is considered the first great female writer and one of the pioneers of the novel. Her wit and depth in depicting the human character are beyond comparison. It is writers such as Fanny Burney who paved the way for Jane Austen and certainly contributed to her later success.

A Beautiful Bound of Pride and Prejudice

I recently found this beautiful copy of Pride and Prejudice in a book sale. It is an old edition printed by Century Hutchinson in 1985 and I simply had to buy it because it was so lovely to look at.

The skin is made of fabric and shows a scene which could well represent the beautiful grounds of Pemberley.

The inside illustrations are quite grainy, however, but I don’t mind as you don’t often come across a novel with illustrations in the first place.




Are you a sucker for beautiful covers?