Editing Jane Austen (section)

==Reception==
{{main|Reception history of Jane Austen|Janeite|Jane Austen in popular culture}}

===Contemporaneous responses===
[[File:New-Monthly-Magazine-1816-25-p66-novels-inc-Austen-Emma-detail.jpg|thumb|upright=1.14|In 1816 the editors of ''[[The New Monthly Magazine]]'' noted ''[[Emma (novel)|Emma]]''{{'}}s publication, but chose not to review it.{{Cref2|K}}]]
As Austen's works were published anonymously, they brought her little personal renown. They were fashionable among opinion-makers, but were rarely reviewed.<ref name="Honan 1987, 289–290"/> Most of the reviews were short and on balance favourable, although superficial and cautious,<ref>Fergus (2014), 10; Honan (1987), 287–289, 316–317, 372–373.</ref><ref name=SouthamVol1p1>Southam (1968), 1.</ref> most often focused on the moral lessons of the novels.<ref>Waldron (2005), 83–91.</ref>

[[Walter Scott]], a leading novelist of the day, anonymously wrote a review of ''Emma'' in 1815, using it to defend the then-disreputable genre of the novel and praising Austen's realism, "the art of copying from nature as she really exists in the common walks of life, and presenting to the reader, instead of the splendid scenes from an imaginary world, a correct and striking representation of that which is daily taking place around him".<ref>Scott (1968), 58; Waldron (2005), 86; Duffy (1986), 94–96.</ref> The other important early review was attributed to [[Richard Whately]] in 1821. However, Whately denied having authored the review, which drew favourable comparisons between Austen and such acknowledged greats as [[Homer]] and [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]], and praised the dramatic qualities of her narrative. Scott and Whately set the tone for almost all subsequent 19th-century Austen criticism.<ref>Waldron (2005), 89–90; Duffy (1986), 97; Watt (1963), 4–5.</ref>

===19th century===
[[File:Pickering - Greatbatch - Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice - She then told him what Mr. Darcy had voluntarily done for Lydia.jpg|thumb|upright=.80|left|One of the first two published illustrations of ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]'', from the [[Richard Bentley (publisher)|Richard Bentley]] edition.<ref>Gilson (2005), 127.</ref> Caption reads: "She then told him [Mr Bennett] what Mr Darcy had voluntarily done for Lydia. He heard her with astonishment."]]

Because Austen's novels did not conform to [[Romanticism|Romantic]] and [[Victorian literature|Victorian]] expectations that "powerful emotion [be] authenticated by an egregious display of sound and colour in the writing",<ref>Duffy (1986), 98–99; MacDonagh (1991), 146; Watt (1963), 3–4.</ref> <!-- which critic said this? (Awadewit) Not Duffy, and I don't have Watt or MacDonagh handy right now to check. Let's note for later (Simmaren) --><!-- this needs checking. VE --> some 19th-century critics preferred the works of [[Charles Dickens]] and [[George Eliot]].<ref>Southam (1968), 1; Southam (1987), 2.</ref> Notwithstanding Walter Scott's positivity, Austen's work did not win over those who preferred the prevailing aesthetic values of the elite Romantic zeitgeist.<ref name="Litz, A pages 669">Litz, A. Walton "Recollecting Jane Austen" pp. 669–682 from ''Critical Inquiry'', Vol. 1, No. 3, March 1975 p. 672.</ref> Her novels were republished in Britain from the 1830s and sold steadily.<ref>Johnson (2014), 232; Gilson (2005), 127.</ref> Austen's six books were included in the canon-making Standard Novels series by publisher Richard Bentley, which increased their stature. That series referred to her as "the founder of a school of novelists" and called her a genius.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Austen|first=Jane|title=Sense and Sensibility: A Novel|location=London|publisher=Richard Bentley |year=1833|page=xv}}</ref>

The first French critic who paid notice to Austen was [[Philarète Chasles]] in an 1842 essay, dismissing her in two sentences as a boring, imitative writer with no substance.<ref name="auto">King, Noel "Jane Austen in France" from ''Nineteenth-Century Fiction'' pp. 1–28, Vol. 8, No. 1, June 1953 p. 23.</ref> Austen was not widely appreciated in France until 1878,<ref name="auto" /> when the French critic Léon Boucher published the essay {{lang|fr|Le Roman Classique en Angleterre}}, in which he called Austen a "genius", the first French author to do so.<ref name="auto1">King, Noel "Jane Austen in France" from ''Nineteenth-Century Fiction'' pp. 1–28, Vol. 8, No. 1, June 1953 p. 24.</ref> The first accurate translation of Austen into French occurred in 1899 when [[Félix Fénéon]] translated ''Northanger Abbey'' as ''Catherine Morland''.<ref name="auto1" />

In Britain and North America, Austen gradually grew in the estimation of both the public and the literati. In the United States, Austen was being recommended as reading in schools as early as 1838, according to Professor Devoney Looser.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Looser|first=Devoney|title=The Making of Jane Austen|location=Baltimore, MD|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|year=2017|page=181|isbn=978-1421422824}}</ref> The philosopher and literary critic [[George Henry Lewes]] published a series of enthusiastic articles in the 1840s and 1850s.<ref>Southam (1968), 152; Southam (1987), 20–21.</ref> Later in the century, the novelist [[Henry James]] referred to Austen several times with approval, and on one occasion ranked her with Shakespeare, [[Miguel de Cervantes|Cervantes]], and Henry Fielding as amongst "the fine painters of life".<ref>Southam (1987), 70.</ref>

The publication of James Edward Austen-Leigh's ''[[A Memoir of Jane Austen]]'' in 1869 introduced Austen's life story to a wider public as "dear aunt Jane", the respectable maiden aunt. Publication of the ''Memoir'' spurred another reissue of Austen's novels. Editions were released in 1883 and fancy illustrated editions and collectors' sets quickly followed.<ref>Southam (1987), 58–62.</ref> The author and critic [[Leslie Stephen]] described the popular mania that started to develop for Austen in the 1880s as "Austenolatry". Around the start of the 20th century, an intellectual clique of ''[[Janeite]]s'' reacted against the popularisation of Austen, distinguishing their deeper appreciation from the vulgar enthusiasm of the masses.

In response, Henry James decried "a beguiled infatuation" with Austen, a rising tide of public interest that exceeded Austen's "intrinsic merit and interest".<ref>Southam (1987), 46–47, 230 (for the quote from James); Johnson (2014), 234.</ref> The American literary critic [[A. Walton Litz]] noted that the "anti-Janites" in the 19th and 20th centuries comprised a formidable literary squad of [[Mark Twain]], Henry James, [[Charlotte Brontë]], [[D. H. Lawrence]], and [[Kingsley Amis]], but in "every case the adverse judgement merely reveals the special limitations or eccentricities of the critic, leaving Jane Austen relatively untouched".<ref>Litz, A. Walton "Recollecting Jane Austen" pp. 669–682 from ''Critical Inquiry'', Vol. 1, No. 3, March 1975 p. 670.</ref>

===Modern===
[[File:Jane Austen, from A Memoir of Jane Austen (1870).jpg|thumb|right|Depiction of Austen from ''[[A Memoir of Jane Austen]]'' (1871) written by her nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh, and based on the sketch by Cassandra. All subsequent portraits of Austen are generally based on this, including on the reverse of the [[Bank of England £10 note]] introduced in September 2017.]]

Austen's works have attracted legions of scholars. The first dissertation on Austen was published in 1883, by George Pellew, a student at Harvard University.<ref>Devoney Looser, The Making of Jane Austen (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2017), 185–196.</ref> Another early academic analysis came from a 1911 essay by the Oxford Shakespearean scholar [[A. C. Bradley]],<ref>Trott (2005), 92.</ref> who grouped Austen's novels into "early" and "late" works, a distinction still used by scholars today.<ref>Southam (1987), 79.</ref> The first academic book devoted to Austen in France was ''Jane Austen'' by Paul and Kate Rague (1914), who set out to explain why French critics and readers should take Austen seriously.<ref name="auto1"/> The same year, Léonie Villard published ''Jane Austen, Sa Vie et Ses Oeuvres'', originally her PhD thesis, the first serious academic study of Austen in France.<ref name="auto1"/> In 1923, R.W. Chapman published the first scholarly edition of Austen's collected works, which was also the first scholarly edition of any English novelist. The Chapman text has remained the basis for all subsequent published editions of Austen's works.<ref>Southam (1987), 99–100; see also Watt (1963), 10–11; Gilson (2005), 149–50; Johnson (2014), 239.</ref>

With the publication in 1939 of Mary Lascelles' ''Jane Austen and Her Art'', the academic study of Austen took hold.<ref>Southam (1987), 107–109, 124.</ref> Lascelles analysed the books Austen read and their influence on her work, and closely examined Austen's style and "narrative art". Concern arose that academics were obscuring the appreciation of Austen with increasingly esoteric theories, a debate that has continued since.<ref>Southam (1986), 108; Watt (1963), 10–11; Stovel (2014), 248; Southam (1987), 127</ref>

The period since the Second World War has seen a diversity of critical approaches to Austen, including [[feminist theory]], and perhaps most controversially, [[postcolonialism|postcolonial theory]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Said, Edward W.|title=Culture and imperialism |publisher=Vintage Books |year=1994|isbn=0-679-75054-1|edition=1st Vintage books|location=New York|oclc=29600508}}</ref> The divide has widened between the popular appreciation of Austen, particularly by modern [[Janeite]]s, and academic judgements.<ref>Rajan (2005), 101–110</ref> In 1994 the literary critic [[Harold Bloom]] placed Austen among the [[The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages|greatest Western writers of all time]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Bloom |first=Harold |author-link=Harold Bloom |year=1994 |title=The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages |page=[https://archive.org/details/westerncanonbook00bloorich/page/2 2] |location=New York |publisher=Harcourt Brace |isbn=0-15-195747-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/westerncanonbook00bloorich/page/226}}</ref>

In the People's Republic of China after 1949, writings of Austen were regarded as too frivolous,<ref>Zhu Hong "Nineteenth-Century British Fiction in New China: A Brief Report" pp. 207–213 from ''Nineteenth-Century Fiction'', Volume 37, No. 2. September 1982 p. 210.</ref> and thus during the Chinese [[Cultural Revolution]] of 1966–76, Austen was banned as a "British bourgeois imperialist".<ref>Zhu Hong "Nineteenth-Century British Fiction in New China: A Brief Report" pp. 207–213 from ''Nineteenth-Century Fiction'', Volume 37, No. 2. September 1982 p. 212.</ref> In the late 1970s, when Austen's works were re-published in China, her popularity with readers confounded the authorities who had trouble understanding that people generally read books for enjoyment, not political edification.<ref>Zhu Hong "Nineteenth-Century British Fiction in New China: A Brief Report" pp. 207–213 from ''Nineteenth-Century Fiction'', Volume 37, No. 2. September 1982 p. 213.</ref>

The conservative American professor Gene Koppel claimed that Austen and her family were "Tories of the deepest dye", i.e. Conservatives in opposition to the liberal Whigs. Although several feminist authors such as Claudia Johnson and Mollie Sandock claimed Austen for their own cause, Koppel argued that different people react to a work of literature in different subjective ways, as explained by the philosopher [[Hans-Georg Gadamer]]. Thus competing interpretations of Austen's work can be equally valid, provided they are grounded in textual and historical analysis: it is equally possible to see Austen as a feminist critiquing [[Regency era|Regency-era]] society and as a conservative upholding its values.<ref name="Koppel">{{cite web|last=Koppel|first=Gene|date=2 November 1989|title=Pride and Prejudice: Conservative or Liberal Novel—Or Both? (A Gadamerian Approach)|url=http://www.jasna.org/persuasions/printed/number11/koppel.htm|access-date=25 October 2016}}</ref>

===Adaptations===
{{main|Jane Austen in popular culture}}
Austen's novels have resulted in sequels, prequels and adaptations of almost every type, from [[Softcore pornography|soft-core pornography]] to fantasy. From the 19th century, her family members published conclusions to her incomplete novels, and by 2000 there were over 100 printed adaptations.<ref>Lynch (2005), 160–162.</ref> The first dramatic adaptation of Austen was published in 1895, Rosina Filippi's ''Duologues and Scenes from the Novels of Jane Austen: Arranged and Adapted for Drawing-Room Performance'', and Filippi was also responsible for the first professional stage adaptation, ''The Bennets'' (1901).<ref>Devoney Looser, The Making of Jane Austen (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2017), 85.</ref> The first film adaptation was the [[Pride and Prejudice (1940 film)|1940 MGM production of ''Pride and Prejudice'']] starring [[Laurence Olivier]] and [[Greer Garson]].<ref>Brownstein (2001), 13.</ref> BBC television dramatisations released in the 1970s and 1980s attempted to adhere meticulously to Austen's plots, characterisations and settings.<ref>Troost (2007), 79.</ref> The British critic Robert Irvine noted that in American film adaptations of Austen's novels, starting with the 1940 version of ''Pride and Prejudice'', class is subtly downplayed, and the society of Regency England depicted by Austen that is grounded in a hierarchy based upon the ownership of land and the antiquity of the family name is one that Americans cannot embrace in its entirety.<ref>Irvine, Robert ''Jane Austen'', London: Routledge, 2005 pp. 158–159</ref>

From 1995, many Austen adaptations appeared, with [[Ang Lee]]'s [[Sense and Sensibility (film)|film of ''Sense and Sensibility'']], for which screenwriter and star [[Emma Thompson]] won an [[Academy Award]], and the BBC's immensely popular TV mini-series ''[[Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series)|Pride and Prejudice]]'', starring [[Jennifer Ehle]] and [[Colin Firth]].<ref>Troost (2007), 82–84.</ref> A 2005 British production of [[Pride & Prejudice (2005 film)|''Pride & Prejudice'']], directed by [[Joe Wright]] and starring [[Keira Knightley]] and [[Matthew Macfadyen]],<ref>Carol Kopp, [https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-nominees-keira-knightley-15-02-2006/ "The Nominees: Keira Knightley"], CBS News, 20 October 2008.</ref> was followed in 2007 by [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]]'s ''[[Mansfield Park (2007 film)|Mansfield Park]]'', ''[[Northanger Abbey (2007 film)|Northanger Abbey]]'' and ''[[Persuasion (2007 film)|Persuasion]]'',<ref>Julia Day, [https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/nov/10/broadcasting.ITV "ITV falls in love with Jane Austen"], ''The Guardian'', 10 November 2005.</ref> and in 2016 by ''[[Love & Friendship]]'' starring [[Kate Beckinsale]] as Lady Susan, a film version of ''Lady Susan'', that borrowed the title of Austen's ''[[Love and {{Not a typo|Freindship}}]]'' {{sic}}.<ref>Alonso Duralde, Alonso, [http://www.thewrap.com/love-friendship-review-whit-stillman-kate-beckinsale-chloe-sevigny-jane-austen/ "'Love & Friendship' Sundance Review: Whit Stillman Does Jane Austen—But Hasn't He Always?"], ''The Wrap'', 25 January 2016.</ref>