Confessions of a Becoming Jane and Zombies Book Club Addict

(guest blog by G. Aubertin)

I discovered Jane Austen at the age of 21 when I picked up Emma to escape a particularly horrible weekend getaway. Although I had previously read Pride and Prejudice, perhaps at too young an age, I had positive but not fanatical feelings towards her novels. After Emma, however, I was enchanted and proceeded to read and re-read the remainder of her 6 novels with varying appreciation (none have compared to Emma for sheer reading pleasure, even though P and P is one of the greatest books of all time). Even so, I was slow to understand the extent of Austen’s genius. When I saw Clueless for the first time I didn’t detect the borrowed storyline. However, by the time the A&E/BBC P and P miniseries had ended I was completely in awe of all things Jane Austen, not to mention all things Colin Firth, and many things bearing some relation. Therefore not only am I a Jane Austen fan, I am a Jane Austen adaptation fan. In 2004 when I visited England for the first time my itinerary included Jane’s house at Chawton, her grave stone at Winchester Cathedral, a house she stayed at in Bath, her father’s grave in Bath, and various filming locations of P and P including the glorious golden home that was Longbourne. Gwyneth’s Emma inspired a long-standing celebrity crush, which is another whole story. At my wedding P and P music was played, my dress was inspired by Jennifer Ehle, my hair was Gwyneth’s Emma. My husband-to-be drew the line at English country dancing, but his handsome resemblance to Jeremy Northam helped me forgive him.

I have been so delighted by many of the adaptations of Jane Austen’s works, from the unbelievably authentic BBC version of Persuasion to the creative achievement of Bridget Jones’ Diary (the novel, less so the films). However, my feelings in regards to the surge in Jane Austen’s popularity are best described as a mixture of pride and, yes, prejudice. Pride, of course, because Austen is so great so it is no surprise that others have caught on to her appeal, and when you know about something good part of you wants others to know it too. But prejudice, because, my god, zombies? And, without having read that one, I can say from many of the other recent novels with appropriation of Jane, or her subject matter, the quality is just not always there. And having been an Austen fan (not a Jane-ite, please) for close to two decades, I do feel a sense (and sensibility? I’ll stop now) of ownership. To someone just discovering Austen, I say welcome to the club.

It’s a little like the time in high school I identified a boy, previously unknown to me and very attractive, near the end of the school year when one would have thought every post-pubertal girl in the neighborhood would have been talking about him for months. I kept my discovery to myself, but sent long pining gazes down the hall to his locker. Then somehow within mere days, I began to hear about other girls liking him too. I felt like he was mine simply because I liked him first. It turned out with this boy that my early adoration was rewarded with his returned interest. And here, the comparison with Austen falls apart because after spending time together I learned that as sweet and nice and darned attractive as he was, he was actually kind of boring. Kind of like those Jane Austen rip-offs.