We Did It, Jane

Goals met, writers beloved, and plans for the rest of the summer.

I won’t beat around the bush: on July 19th I reached my goal for the JASNA AGM, with YOUR help! Through a combination of paid subscriptions to this very Substack, Medium earnings, Twitter ad revenue (I’ll never call it X), Ko-fi tips and a few kind gifts from family and friends (you know who you are) I have saved enough to cover all anticipated costs for my trip to the Jane Austen Society of North America’s Annual General Meeting this October. I would say that I am completely and perfectly and incandescently happy, because it’s a good quote to describe my feelings at the moment, but I would not wish to deceive anyone into thinking it is an Austen quote. (It’s not. It’s from the screenplay of the 2005 Pride and Prejudice film.)

Thank you all so much. I am incredibly grateful.

I do not intend to stop writing about Jane Austen this summer just because I met my goal (I’m having fun with this series, and any royalty monies can still get socked away for my college fund) but as you may have noticed I have slowed down a bit in recent weeks. I just finished a week of volunteering with Vacation Bible School at my church (imagine that meme of Frodo leaving the fires of Mount Doom, if you will) and I recently started a new part-time job; which, though it is only 12-15 hours a week at present, still significantly eats into my available writing time. (For the curious: I am working at the drop-in childcare center at my gym. It’s a good fit for me in this season of life since I can bring my two small children with me and don’t have to pay for childcare for them while I work.)

In August I shall start up with college classes again, and I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to write during the fall semester. I’ll do my very best to keep up with this newsletter, as it’s

I’ve also been sewing a bit! Here’s a simple party dress I made for my sister Elizabeth, upon the occasion of her second wedding reception (an affair thrown by my parents in July after the actual wedding in January was hit by a blizzard).

I do intend to make a gown for the JASNA AGM’s Saturday evening ball, and shall share more about that in due course. I have the fabric and the pattern already, and just need to find time to figure out underthings and then of course do the actual sewing. Hahahahahaha I’m sure it’ll be fine.

July also marked the 207th anniversary of Jane Austen’s death. On that anniversary, I asked the literary folk of Twitter to tell me what it is about Austen that has been enduring and meaningful for them, and received permission to share a few of these answers below.

Though Austen wrote much about virtue, she did not paint people in black and white. “Her characters have depth and breadth. They’re dynamic and change so much in the course of the stories but not in a moralizing way. None of them are idealized.” —Lydia Cubbedge

We are not yet tired of telling and retelling her stories; the number of adaptations and spinoffs still being written is quite staggering. “Her stories and characters are just... that good. I think the number of film/TV adaptations is an indicator of this. The fact that many of those adaptations have been stellar has helped keep the legacy going, particular the 1995 P&P which is one of the best miniseries ever made.” —Jack Brown

As we reread, she gives us something new each time we return (I wrote about this earlier this month). “You get more out of her books with each re-reading. I started reading her as a teenager and as my age advances, so does my appreciation of her genius.” —Ethel Monticue

Though she dealt in wit and humor, her work has a foundation of truth and wisdom; it is not mere fluff; she employed “a deeply humane sensibility and tight plotting undergirding comic genius.” —Scott Thomson

She has something for everyone; the casual reader and the analyst alike. “She holds up to close reading to see multiple layers to many of the narrator’s statements But the plots and heroines are enjoyable even if one is reading without deep analysis in mind.” —Amber Adams

We learn about ourselves as we read about the people she invented. “Trenchant wit. Insight into human nature. Pokes good-natured fun at both characters and readers.” —Prose Haikus

Her humor remains hopeful while sardonic; she gives us “astute observation of human nature that isn’t edged with judgy cynicism.” — Denise Deberry

Charlotte Bronte complained that Austen's characters lived in drawing-rooms and gardens (as opposed to Bronte's own stormy moors and Gothic manors and the fiery passions of the human soul) but many of us relish this focus on quiet, ordinary life. “I like that she wrote about events of personal stakes rather than cities rising and falling and clashes of rulers. Through her it feels like we get a fuller picture of the lives people lived in the past.” —Chad Howard

Perhaps my favorite response of all highlighted Austen’s gently impactful writing in the earliest days of feminist thought: “Austen’s work quietly argues that women's lives matter; that politics, war, and commerce are not the only important subjects. The daily domestic lives of young women—their options, their choices, their challenges—are important, too, including the decision of who to marry.” —Teresa Traver/Anne Rollins

And for myself? A quote from Samuel Johnson (written about Shakespeare, but it applies here) comes to mind: “Nothing can please many, and please long, but just representations of general nature.” It is the realism and the relatable humor in everyday situations that keeps me coming back to her; the feeling of seeing and being seen. (I wrote about this in more depth here.)

What would you add? What does Jane Austen mean to you? Why do you think her works have remained in print for nearly two hundred years? I'd love to hear from you; comments are open to all.

Once more, thank you for reading and for your support. More Austen (and non-Austen) essays coming soon!

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This post is a part of The Summer of Jane Austen, a literary-inspired endeavor to fuel both a journey of the mind and my own journey to the Jane Austen Society of North America’s Annual General Meeting. More here.