I am sitting down to write my
Editor’s Note on the afternoon of Remembrance Sunday—the first Sunday after
11 November (Armistice Day)—the day set aside for remembering those who died
in war. Specifically, the
ceremonies commemorate the dead of the two world wars of the twentieth century,
but at this time people remember the dead from all wars, including the one
raging in Iraq. In terms of war,
2004 is a watershed year for commemorations:
in June, there was the 60th anniversary of D-Day and the
Normandy Invasion, and in August there was the 90th anniversary of
the beginning of World War One. The
press is already full of stories about the big commemorations of 2005: the 60th
anniversary of the end of World War Two, and the 200th anniversary of
the Battle of Trafalgar, an episode in British naval history that personally
touched Jane Austen, and a war that figures prominently in her novel Persuasion. Reading Jane Austen in a time of
war recalls for me Rudyard Kipling’s remarkably witty short story “The
Janeites.” In this story, set in
1920—that is, only two years after the guns fell silent at 11 a.m. on the 11th
day of the 11th month of 1918—a couple of brother Masons who had
somehow survived the Great War begin to reminisce about the terrain of war and
their brother soldiers and officers. One
ex-soldier, a bloke named Humberstall, nostalgically recalls
“Jane”—“this Secret Society woman,” “this Jane woman.” He
tells his buddies about how the mere mention of the name “Jane” could break
down barriers in the Mess, particularly when at least one of the officers is
“bosko absoluto” (I’m sure you can guess what that is!). With great humor, he recounts how a few junior and senior
officers and some soldiers—those in the know, so to speak—formed a secret
society—the Janeites—with special ranks and dues and passwords and secret
signs and countersigns. The sole
purpose of this society was deeper knowledge about Jane’s books. “They weren’t adventurous, nor smutty, nor what you’d
even call interestin’,” Humberstall says.
But he, too, pays up to be part of the brotherhood of readers. Like Janeites today, every one
of Kipling’s original Janeites has an opinion about Jane Austen’s themes and
characters. In what is actually an
astute literary analysis, Humberstall, the only Janeite to survive the war,
reflects upon the fact that, regarding the novels, “there was nothin’ to
’em nor in ’em.” And
Jane’s characters, he announces, “was no use!
They was only just like people you run across any day.” Well, yes. And perhaps that is why we find so much to say about this
“little old maid ’oo’d written ’half a dozen books . . . .” We
offer in this issue of Persuasions On-Line
a variety of opinions and ideas about ways to read and to interpret Jane
Austen’s novels and to understand the time she lived in. The essays included here range from the interior worlds of
the big houses to the exterior worlds of the British Empire, from the interior
psychological spaces of the characters and families to the exterior natural
landscapes they inhabit. In
addition, we offer essays that develop comparisons and contrasts between Jane
Austen’s novels and the work of contemporary writers such as Laclos and Mary
Wollstonecraft. All of the essays
presented here will, we hope, generate a greater understanding of text and
context. What seems on the surface
to be so simple in Jane Austen’s novels is always psychologically, socially,
and theatrically complex, and the authors here analyze setting and symbols,
vices and virtues, character and motivation. As
the arch-Janeite Humberstall reminds us, “They’re all on the make, in a
quiet way, in Jane.” It is that
“quiet way” that general readers and literary critics alike find
irresistible. The soldiers in Kipling’s
story are well aware of the fact that “we couldn’t expect to av’rage more
than six weeks’ longer apiece” at the Front during the Battle of the Somme,
and they defy military codes in favor of Janeite loyalty.
In fact, they demonstrate their dedication to Jane by naming their guns
after the characters in the novels. What
would Jane Austen have thought of a ten-inch gun named “Bloody Eliza”?
or a “cut down Navy Twelve” named “General Tilney”?
or a Nine-point-two called the Reverend Collins?
or a Skoda named “The Lady Catherine De Bugg”? The men actually “chalk” (mark) the guns—and get into
trouble with the authorities for “writin’ obese words on His Majesty’s
property, on active service.” Sic. Reading Jane Austen in the time
of war makes me think about how much joy the half a dozen books have provided
for Janeites—for those who have always
loved the novels as well as for those who have been conscripted into our society
(high school and university students, perhaps?). What
with a new film of Pride and Prejudice in the making, and an exuberant Bollywood Bride
and Prejudice already released in England, and Bridget
Jones and the Edge of Reason topping the film ranking, Jane Austen is in the
ascendancy. As Kipling’s Humberstall reminds us, “there’s no one to touch
Jane when you’re in a tight place.” When, ultimately, Humberstall
“cops it” during the spring “push” of 1918 and ends up waiting in a
seemingly endless queue to secure a place on a over-crowded hospital-train, his
run-in with one of the nursing Sisters juxtaposes perfectly the Austen-Kipling
tensions between comedy and tragedy: “I
was past carin’. But [the
grey-headed nursing Sister] went on talkin’ and talkin’ about the war, an’
her pa in Ladbroke Grove, an’ ’how strange for ’er at ’er time of life
to be doin’ this work with a lot o’ men, an’ next war, ’ow the nurses
’ud ’ave to wear khaki breeches on account o’ the mud, like the Land
Girls; an’ that reminded ’er, she’d boil me an egg if she could lay
’ands on one, for she’d run a chicken-farm once.
You never ’eard anythin’ like it—outside o’ Jane.
It set me off laughin’ again. Then
a woman with a nose an’ teeth on ’er, marched up.
‘What’s all this?” she says. “What
do you want?” “Nothing,” I
says, “only make Miss Bates, there, stop talkin’ or I’ll die.”
Laurie Kaplan Please note my new address: Firs Hill Coach House Staircase Lane Pool-in-Wharfedale LS21 1EX West Yorkshire England lkaplan@goucher.edu |
