By Elizabeth Jewell
Sara Tavela led the May meeting, which featured Dr. Susan Allen Ford speaking about her book, What Jane Austen’s Characters Read (and Why). Ford was a professor of English at Delta State University and has been the editor of Persuasions: the Jane Austen Journal and Persuasions On-Line since 2006. She will be a plenary speaker at the 2025 Jane Austen Summer Program in New Bern, North Carolina (June 19-22), giving a lecture on “Reading the Americas with Jane Austen.”
Before Dr. Ford joined us, we briefly acknowledged “May the Firth Be with You” memes featuring the always wonderful Colin Firth as Darcy. Then, turning to the topic of today’s discussion, intertextuality was defined as the shaping of a text’s meaning by another text. Karin Wiberg mentioned Shakespeare references in Sense and Sensibility.
Darcy would have been in his twenties when he was left to raise his sister Georgiana by the death of his parents. Conduct books would have been available to him to help. These were hugely popular at the time and passed down through families. Pride and Prejudice mentions James Fordyce’s Sermons to Young Women (1766). Another popular work, Letters on the Improvement of the Mind, Addressed to a Lady (1773), by Hester Chapone, informs Mansfield Park.
Author Dale Spender wrote Mothers of the Novel: 100 Good Women Writers Before Jane Austen (1986), examining women authors who have mostly been forgotten in modern times.
We talked about Northanger Abbey and whether Miss Eleanor Tilney is the true Gothic heroine of the book. The question was posed of whether Henry Tilney is a weak Gothic hero, given that he is generally kind and sensible, rather than masterful, brooding, and domineering.
Austen subtly undermines conduct literature in Pride and Prejudice through the marriages of the characters. Does Elizabeth and Darcy’s marriage offer an alternative model for marital happiness? If so, how does their dynamic challenge the moralizing advice found in eighteenth-century conduct books?
We discussed what Persuasion teaches us about romance. It’s important to remain constant and to continue to hope even when it seems hopeless. Although Anne Elliot’s story exemplifies this, it’s also true of other Austen characters—particularly Elinor in Sense and Sensibility or Fanny in Mansfield Park.
Dr. Ford joined us and said that she began her interest in what Austen’s characters read by looking at what Emma read and what she was advised to read. The “box of little secrets” in the book (mementos kept by Harriet) is a device found also in the epistolary novel Adelaide and Theodore (Adèle et Thèodore, 1782, by Caroline-Stèphanie-Félicité du Crest de Saint-Aubin).
When asked about recommended reading, Dr. Ford mentioned Cowper’s The Task (1785), a long poem, which begins with a passage about a sofa but then moves into Cowper’s thoughts about nature and religion. Though long, it’s not difficult to read.
Another recommendation was Matthew Prior’s “Henry and Emma,” a 1709 poem that was so well-known at the time it’s mentioned in reference to Anne Elliot in Persuasion, more than a century later. Dr. Ford makes the point that, while knowing about these references can enhance or deepen our knowledge of Austen’s work, these are like “Easter eggs” that aren’t at all essential for understanding.
Other recommendations for reading include Richard Graves’s Columella; or, the Distressed Anchoret (1779), a satire about a young man who retires to the country but has no knowledge of how to farm or manage an estate. Frances Burney’s Cecilia, or Memoirs of an Heiress (1782) is a novel of manners about an upper-class woman entering London society and seeking a husband. For plays, there’s Lovers’ Vows (1789) by Elizabeth Inchbald, the play featured in Mansfield Park, which features sex outside marriage and illegitimate birth (makes Fanny’s objection to it more understandable if one knows that!). The Heir at Law (1797) is a comedic play by George Colman the Younger.
A number of Gothic novels have been republished by Valancourt Books, including The Castle of Wolfenbach (1793) by Eliza Parsons and The Midnight Bell: A German Story (1798) by Francis Lathom.
Post-discussion announcements included information about the film Jane Austen Ruined My Life, coming out on May 25; the Jane Austen Summer Program (JASP), scheduled for June 19-22 in New Bern, North Carolina (the last year JASP will be in NC, as it’s moving to Pennsylvania); our next meeting, on June 29, for Tea and Miscellany; and the television premiere of Miss Austen on PBS, Sunday nights at 9 p.m.
Visiting members from other chapters were warm in their invitations for NC members to attend meetings of the East Tennessee JASNA and to join the Alabama members in their slow read of the book we discussed, What Jane Austen’s Characters Read (and Why)—email jasna.alabama@gmail.com.