I am a big Jane Austen fan, so every day is Jane Austen day to me. And, I think that my interest in Austen deepens as time goes on.
Austen's six completed novels were published in a very short time frame, between 2011 and 2017. The 200th anniversary celebrations of the publication of those novels made more of a splash, I think, than the observation of the 250th anniversary of Austen's birth.
I think this anniversary, however, might be the reason we are getting the romantic comedy Jane Austen Wrecked My Life, as well as the BBC/WGBH production of "Miss Austen," based on the novel by Gill Hornby. And I am grateful for both!
I had heard of "Miss Austen," the novel, when it was first published, but I did not see myself as someone who enjoyed Regency novels per se, and so I never seriously considered reading it.
When I began watching "Miss Austen," I expected nothing and wasn't invested in it.
"Miss Austen," is about the (fictional) efforts of Cassandra Austen, twenty years after her sister Jane Austen's death, to find existing letters written by Jane, and edit them to protect Jane's reputation. A subplot is the frustrated romance of the daughter of this family, friends of the Austen family (a niece of the man to whom Cassandra Austen had once been engaged): she had been in love with a local doctor, but her father objected to the proposed match because a doctor was below the clergy in the social order.
Watching it, I was surprised to find that I really enjoyed it, and the things that I liked most about it were the acting, the dialogue, and the way in which the screenplay's real-life events closely mirrored the events -- and concerns -- of Austen's novels.
Author Gill Hornby explained that she wrote the book to make the argument that Cassandra's actions, in editing or destroying her sister's letters, was motivated by the best of motives: a loving sister's desire to shape and preserve her sister's reputation. I find Hornby's argument that Cassandra Austen's actions were motivated by loyalty very persuasive.
A fellow Austen fan pointed out that the film Jane Austen Wrecked My Life has very little Jane Austen content.
The only Jane Austen content I can recall in this movie is early, when Oliver, who is a literature professor (but is working for the Jane Austen Residency because his parents need help with it), says that he thinks Austen is a little overrated (a look of disbelief crossed my face at this point), and Agathe, the aspiring writer, says that Austen created the first women characters who were not caricatures:
Oliver:
"She has a rather limited scope if you compare her writing to, say, Dickens or Shakespeare."
Agathe:
"Until Jane Austen came along, all female roles were solely written by men, and they were either portrayed as idealized perfection or monsters. Jane Austen made them human beings, that's all -- even capable of humor."
I wanted to mention these two wonderful quotes from the film, and its trailer:
"I believe that some books become part of our lives because they reveal to us our true nature."
And:
"Literature is like an ambulance speeding through the night to save someone."
(Isn't that *just* wonderful?)
Camille Rutherford, the actress who plays Agathe, has the most plastic face. She seems to look different in every scene, and she's so expressive. I found it fascinating to watch her act.
Publicity done by the director, Laura Piani, on YouTube, suggested to me that she was motivated to write the script for this film by a desire to create a good romantic comedy, inspired by rom-coms of the '90s (and Ernst Lubitsch's The Shop Around the Corner), rather than to write an homage to Austen specifically, although you could name some additional correspondences to Austen's novels if you wished to do so.
Online, I found a review that panned the film, and I wasn't surprised: this film is not for everyone, and I think it is a subtle film, right down to its relaxed pacing. The quotes I love are probably not even noticed by some viewers. Writer's block is probably not a condition everyone can identify with.
As I finish this post, I find myself wondering about what defines a romantic comedy. I find myself thinking of The Devil and Miss Jones, which was definitely partly defined by a time and place and which doesn't contain any reference to loss and grief, if I remember correctly, but also remember North & South, and The Magic of Ordinary Days, in which grief and loss play a strong part. Romantic comedies are not realistic; they're fantasies. But I suspect that rooting the fantasy in a very specific and recognizable reality strengthens the quality of the story.
