Illustration from Ordinary Extraordinary Jane Austen
by Deborah Hopkinson illustrated by Qin Leng
2025 marks the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen's birth, a monumental milestone in the literary world. I have been doing an adult education course reading or in some cases rereading her six novels. These things were not all covered but in the course I paused to think about common themes explored between the novels along with unrequited love; finding love; measures of beauty and worth; the modern relevance of these stories; superficial ways of measuring character through looks, money or manners; deception; false impressions; truth and lies; the linking of these stories to fairy tales; courtship; communication; plot devices such as side stories; the importance of letter writing especially as a way to express true feelings; Jane Austen's own attitudes to love and money and status; and human nature - virtue, vanity and jealousy.
After reading all six of these famous novels I am not entirely at ease with the repeated idea that the 'pretty girl' gets the guy and the happy ending but perhaps that is an immature or trivial way to think about these important books.
If you live in the UK there are a multitude of events in various locations to mark the 250 years.Of course there is also a big festival in Bath later in the year. Here in Australia you might check out the Jane Austen Society.
One of my set texts in Grade 11 was Emma and I remembered I did not enjoy reading it - in fact I don't think I read it all. So when we reached the week in the course to discuss Emma I reached for a simpler version first. These are designed for young teenagers and are a good way to get a quick plot overview but they are no substitute for the real book as they do not contain the rich language and wonderfully complex sentences created by Jane Austen.
If you have a younger reader, you could introduce them to Jane Austen through these two biographies:
I found a few useful Jane Austen resources:
For example do you know the word suavity from Persuasion? Or the word ebullition from Sense and Sensibility?
In our course the tutor gave us lists of modern texts based on or related to each of the six Jane Austen classics. Here are a few (I have only included the more recent ones):
Persuasion
2013 Loving Longest: Jane Austen’s “Persuasion” Meets the Modern World by Lisa Van Gemert
2015 Second Chances: An Amish Retelling of Jane Austen’s Persuasion by Sarah Price
2016 Mrs Clay: The Austen Expert’s Companion to ‘Persuasion by Dorothea-Sofia Rossellini
2016 The Boy is Back by Meg Cabot
2017 Disturbing the Dust: A Variation on Jane Austen’s ‘Persuasion’ by Ivy May Stuart
2020 Recipe for Persuasion by Sonali Dev
Northanger Abbey
2014 Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid
2016 Miss Eleanor Tilney: or The Reluctant Heroine by Sherwood Smith
2018 Banff Springs Abbey: Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey Reimagined by Samantha Adkins
2019 The Bride of Northanger by Diana Birchall
2020 Murder at Northanger Abbey by Shannon Winslow
2021 Woodston: A Sequel to Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey by Kate Westwood
Emma
2013 The Highbury Murders by Victoria Grossack
2014 Only with You by Cecilia Gray
2014 Emma: A Modern Retelling by Alexander McCall Smith
2015 Wrong About the Guy by Claire LaZebnik
2018 The Other Miss Bates by Allie Creswell, A Lady
Mansfield Park
2014 Revisit Mansfield Park: How Fanny Married Henry by Sarah Ozcandarli
2016 Mount Hope: An Amish Retelling of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park by Sarah Price
2017 A Contrary Wind: a variation on Mansfield Park by Lona Manning
2017 Seeking Mansfield by Kate Watson
Pride and Prejudice
2014 First Impressions: An Amish Tale of Pride and Prejudice by Sarah Price
2016 Christmas at Netherfield by Nora Kipling
2017 Mr. Darcy’s Kiss by Krista Lakes
2017 Death at the Netherfield Park Ball by Amelia Littlewood
2017 Netherfield Prep: A Modern Reimagining of Jane Austen's 'Pride & Prejudice' by Elizabeth Stevens
2020 The Price of Pride by Abigail Reynolds
2022 Initial Impressions by L.J. Shaw
Sense and Sensibility
2013 Sense & Sensibility by Joanna Trollope
2016 Sense and Sensibility: An Amish Retelling of Jane Austen’s Classic by Sarah Price
2017 Jane of Austin: A Novel of Sweet Tea and Sensibility by Hillary Manton
On my own shelves I have this book - which I hope to read later this year:
Finally a few years ago I fulfilled my ambition to see this rock from the 1995 Pride and Prejudice television series.
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