February, Or The Month In Which I Did Not Read P&P On The 14th

February 2008

Books Purchased:
I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith
Solstice Wood - Patricia McKillip
The Female Quioxte - Charlotte Lennox

Books Received Gratis:
Resistance - Owen Sheers
Playing with Grownups - Sophie Dahl

Books Read:
Becoming Jane Austen - Jon Spence
The Dead Fathers Club - Matt Haig
The Female Quixote - Charlotte Lennox


Since I was in high school, every year I've read Pride and Prejudice for Valentine's Day. Elizabeth and Darcy's romance always seemed to assuage the fact that I didn't have a date. Honestly, most years I didn't care that much and preferred to cuddle up with P&P. This year, tradition changed.

Masterpiece Theatre was running The Complete Jane Austen, with the full 6-hour P&P miniseries starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin "Mr. Darcy" Firth. Pride and Prejudice, the way it was meant to be filmed. This is one of those few times where TV/movies come close to overtaking the book they're based on. So, I had my Valentine's fill of P&P. Plus, Masterpiece's adaptation of Northanger Abbey (in fact, the only Jane adaptation that Masterpiece has aired besides P&P that was not a piece of merde) had been a lovely confection, so with the adorable JJ Field in mind as Henry Tilney, I set out to read a different Jane than usual: Northanger Abbey. And earlier than usual, for as you know, I read NA in January.

For my follow up, I delved into Jon Spence's Becoming Jane Austen. BJA was the basis for the film of the same name in which Anne Hathaway played a character named Jane Austen, but was not the venerable Miss Austen who wrote those novels. That's the best defense I've been able to come up with for the film. It was based on reality, but was actually complete fiction. If Jane were alive today, the film would have begun "the names have been changed to protect the innocent and misportrayed."

Spence was a historical consultant on the film. He was also the historian who 'discovered' the importance of Jane's relationship with Tom LeFroy. Before Spence, most Austen scholars viewed LeFroy as a friend of Jane's when she was in her late teens and early twenties. They flirted at balls and assemblies - at worst it was meaningless fun, at most it was puppy love. Spence however, has evidence that LeFroy was much more to Jane, so much more in fact that he influenced her writing for the rest of her life. Most of Spence's claims revolve around some similarities between names and places in Austen's novels and the novel Tom Jones, which was LeFroy's favorite book. Due the commonality of names and travels at the time, most of Spence's evidence is suspicious. The most meaningful piece, however, is a question that a niece or nephew asks of LeFroy years later - if he had been in love with Miss Austen the novelist. Why, years later, would Tom be asked this unless is was known that he and Jane had been friends. If there had been nothing between them, the question would have been "Did you know Miss Austen?"

Aside from Tom LeFroy, Eliza de Feuillade is the other major influence on Jane in Spence's biography. Spence frequently points out that much of Jane's inspiration came from her family history and daily life. Persuasion it seems, was rooted in the tale of an ancestor, and the play scenes in Mansfield Park came from a home theatrical when Jane was young. As the glamorous, rich, older cousin, Eliza first enthralled then frightened Jane. Spence makes the case for Eliza being Jane's model for Mary Crawford in MP. When Eliza began to pursue Jane's beloved brother Henry, Jane was shocked and outraged. The theory is that she wrote MP to warn Henry away from Eliza/Mary by casting him in the role of Edmund, who ultimately marries Fanny. She named Mary's brother Henry and gave him some of her brother's more free spirited qualities also as a warning - if he wasn't careful, he could end up like Henry Crawford.

Most of Spence's theories were not fully convincing, however BJA was an enjoyable biography of Miss Austen. At least, that is, once you got past the first two chapters. Those comprise the histories of Jane's parents' families as far back as the 1600s. Cramming many facts into those chapters made them dry and at times highly indecipherable. I wanted to throw the book against the wall, but I stuck with it and was rewarded with many chapters full of Jane that will add to my future readings of her work.

After BJA, I picked up The Female Quixote by Charlotte Lennox. TFQ was a recommendation from my friend E. Much like Northanger Abbey, it is a satire of romance novels. In this case, the novels being skewered are French romances written by the likes of Scuderey, where heroines are carried off by ravishers and heroes must prove their worth by single-handedly fighting off armies. TFQ is the story of Arabella, a strong willed young woman who was raised in exile by her father, a Marquis. With not much else to do but read, Arabella fills her head with the romances favored by her late mother, and lacking the proper society and instruction, she believes them to be accurate portraits of the world beyond her manor house. When she meets the outside world after the death of her father, hi jinx ensue as Arabella mistakes would be suitors for ravishers, and even throws herself into the Thames to avoid being carried off. Much of her misadventures vex the poor Mr. Glanville, her cousin who loves her deeply for the intelligent woman she is when she's not in the throws of a romance-induced fit.

TFQ took me a while to read. Written in 1752, the language is even older than that of a Jane Austen novel, and I often had to read the same sentence several times before it made sense. Arabella's adventures were amusing, but after several hundred pages, they did become tedious. Mr. Glanville spends most of his time wishing for Arabella to be cured of her fantasies, and his sister spends most her time snitting because Arabella is more beautiful. However, The Female Quixote was very enjoyable, and I like to think if they had met, Arabella would definitely get along with NA's Catherine Morland.

The third book I read in February was our book club selection, The Dead Fathers Club by Matt Haig. An update of Hamlet, it has been lauded as Haddonesque, referring to the popular Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime (which I have not read, so I cannot say if that is accurate praise). TDFC is the story of 11-yr-old Phillip Noble, who is devastated at the death of his dad.
Even worse, his lecherous Uncle Alan is making moves on Phillip's newly widowed mum. Then Phillip's father's ghost starts appearing to him, urging him to revenge his death by killing Alan, who the ghost claims murdered him. Poor Phillip doesn't know what to do and finds himself beset by ghosts, well meaning but inept adults, his creepy Uncle Alan and Alan's cruel friends, and bullying classmates. Phillip's only solace is Leah, his girlfriend.

Haig does an excellent job of capturing Phillip's young, scared, inexperienced-yet-knowing voice. And as Phillip becomes deeper mired in the confusion and sadness that permeate the tale, events play out with freshness. Even though the story is Hamlet, each time the plot points meet, they come wholly unexpected. The ending, too, is much more ambiguous than Hamlet. In Shakespeare's play, the perfidiousness of the king is revealed at the end. In Haig's tale, one is left wondering if Alan is evil or if Phillip is mentally unstable.

So that was February. Once again, I read far less books than I thought I would. March, however looks very promising. In one weekend, I already polished off the advance copy we got of Lucie Whitehouse's The House At Midnight. But you'll have to wait until June to read about that one....