Jane Austen And Irony

Chawton Cottage



Reader alert! This post is totally self-indulgent of my great admiration for a certain lady's writing. Those of you not interested in Jane Austen can move along before reading further.

In the event that you may have wondered, I am not the person pictured on my sidebar. That is an engraving taken from the only known portrait of Jane Austen made during her lifetime, done by her sister Cassandra. You can see the portrait here. I wanted to put the picture at the top of the post, but I would have to purchase rights from the National Portrait Gallery in London. I sent them an email just to test how it's done, and here is the initial automated response to my email:

Over the next few weeks, we are implementing some changes to our systems in the Picture Library, aimed at improving the services we offer. During the interim period, there may be some delays, and it will be more important than usual for you to contact us well in advance of your deadlines. As usual, we will do our best to help, but offer our apologies, in advance, for any delays, and hope you will bear with us.

The very next day, I received a personal reply:

Thank you for your enquiry below.

If you wish to licence NPG 3630 from the Picture Library, for use on your blog, for a licence period of up to three years, we would charge a licence fee of £18.00 Pounds Sterling. If you proceed in licensing NPG 3630 from us at this cost, we would allow you to use the larger thumbnail of NPG 3630 that appears on the Gallery's own website at....

As you see, the staff member was quite courteous and sent a prompt reply, but, much as I love Jane Austen, I'm not paying the equivalent of $36.00 for the use of the picture. Yes, I'm cheap. Certain museums, such as the Vatican Museum through their Christus Rex site and the Metropolitan Museum in New York, allow free use of illustrations of their holdings.

The quotation beneath the picture on my sidebar is from my favorite of her novels, Pride and Prejudice, words spoken by my favorite character in the novel, Elizabeth Bennett. I consider the words as my philosophy of the proper use of irony.

When I was 16 years old, I read a chapter from Pride and Prejudice that was included in my English literature textbook. It was the chapter in which Darcy first proposes to Elizabeth in a haughty and insolent manner, and she, of course, refuses. The characters and the glimpse of the story captivated me, therefore, as soon as I could, I went to find a copy of the book to read the whole thing.

I adored it. She writes beautifully. Her gift for writing dialogue is unsurpassed. Make no mistake about it; I am passionate about her writing.

I rather quickly went through the other five completed novels, and I loved every one of them. P&P will always be my favorite, but the others move up and down in my list of which is my second favorite. Through the years, I have read all of her books over and over, and I never tire of them.

For a good many years I trekked to New Orleans to attend the meetings of the Jane Austen Society there, but after Katrina, new leadership took over the group, and the events were not to my taste.

One year I traveled to the national convention of the Jane Austen Society of North America held in Santa Fe, of all places. A surprising number of the folks who attended seemed to eat, sleep, live, and breathe Jane Austen. I'm a devotee, but she's not my whole life. Some wore eighteenth and nineteenth century dress to the dinners.

Sometimes I wonder if my tending toward irony is genetic, since my father was a master of irony, but he sometimes used it cruelly toward his wife and children. I hope I don't put it to cruel use. Tell me if I do. Or was it learned at his knee? Or was it learned by reading Austen's books over and over?

Several years ago, I attended a study program on Jane Austen at Oxford University. We stayed in student rooms during the summer break. It was awesome - at least to me - to stay in those hallowed halls, which I had read about and seen in movies and on TV. We took day trips to Steventon, the church where Jane's father served as vicar. We saw the house in Winchester, where she died at the young age of 41, and the cottage in Chawton on the grounds owned by her brother, Edward Knight, where she lived until she moved to Winchester to die. She is buried in Winchester Cathedral.

During one program lecture, as we were discussing irony in Austen's writing, a woman asked the lecturer to explain irony. She said that she had never been able to "get" irony. As I remember, our lecturer was a bit stunned, but, of course, he tried not to show it. He was surprised, I believe, because he must have been wondering why she had crossed the ocean for a program on Jane Austen without having any concept of irony. I can't imagine what one would make of reading Jane Austen without an understanding of irony.

I give you the first words from Pride And Prejudice:

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

Reading the words literally, with no understanding of irony, what does one take away? I talked to the woman afterwards, and she declared that she truly loved Jane Austen's writing. I didn't have the nerve to follow up and question her about what attracts her to Jane Austen's works. I suppose that it's like reading Trollope; one can read simply for the story.

Over the next couple of days, I will have only intermittent access to a computer, so posting will be light or not at all.

Have a lovely weekend, my pretties.