Few authors continue to speak in the present tense with the clarity of Jane Austen. To remind us of this Liliana Rampelloformer university professor and now literary critic, who has passionately studied the voice and vision of the English author for years. In his book A Year with Jane Austen (Neri Pozza) proposes an original path, made up of slow and thoughtful readings, which invites us to rediscover the psychological depth, irony and modernity hidden in Austen’s novels. With her we try to understand why, after more than two centuries, this writer, born on 16 December 1775, never ceases to question and fascinate us: «Reading Jane Austen is an amazing, fun, pleasant, airy and profound experience. She talks about true and authentic states of mind without having had a particularly adventurous life. He was able to look at society without judging it, with an ironic eye. The heart of his novels are human relationships, which always interest us.”
How did he manage to reach us, maintaining success, with lyrics written two centuries ago?
«Because it is still absolutely readable. And she is read and translated all over the world, above all because, within her novels, there are elements of extraordinary modernity. The plots are eighteenth-century, nineteenth-century – young girls who must find the right man to marry – but underneath these plots she invented female characters who are protagonists of their own destiny, therefore no longer victims of the patriarchal and class-divided society. They are capable of forming themselves in such a way as to be able to reach the goal of their existence, which more than marriage is the happiness of loving someone, being loved in return.”
So they are romance novels in a certain sense, even if the economic aspect is often talked about?
«Yes, but they are not sentimental novels, because marriage in that society is seen by Jane Austen as the element on which a social architecture is based in which the public game is assets, the private game is marriages».
The elements of modernity he mentioned?
«They are universal feelings: love, hate, ambition, cowardice, cowardice, jealousy… the feelings that have always agitated the human soul and which are eternal. It features young girls, fifteen or sixteen year olds, who experience the discovery of love and attraction towards the opposite sex. His characters are never just good or bad: they are full of light and shadow, nuanced. In this individualization he captures many elements that reach us.”
Can we say that Jane Austen has gone pop?
«It has certainly become a brand. There are Jane Austen Society everywhere, and has become a classic of English and world literature. In England the £10 sterling has his face, which also appears on the silver pound. Everything exists around her: prequels, sequels, TV series, films, and every detail of her novels — how to dress for a ball, how to cook, how to find the right man — has been transformed into something to market. She is considered a pop icon and even objects with her face sell: from shopping bags to lipstick, from gloves to slippers. Then there are books that continue the stories of her heroines after marriage: the fake diaries, the Jane Austen detective series, Pride and prejudice and zombies, Bridget Jones’s Diary… It’s an avalanche of productions that take a trait of her and translate it into merchandise. But this is part of his extraordinary success and, above all, it drives the reading of his works.”
Do men read Jane Austen?
«Abroad she has been considered a great writer of masterpieces for many years. Ian McEwan in Atonement features a little girl who recalls Catherine Morland (the protagonist of Northanger Abbey); the writer Sally Rooney says that in the story of the novel there is “a before and an after Jane Austen”. For this reason it cannot be confined to the pink genre. We hope that the canonization in the prestigious Meridiani Mondadori series (edited by Rampello ed.) also help men, in Italy, to reconsider her as a universal writer. University studies are now mainly in the hands of female Anglicists and perhaps new ones will flourish from the male point of view. But it also depends on us: first of all we must not present her as an author “for girls”, because she is not. Austen, moreover, has a lucid perfidiousness in making fun of her buffoons (the ridiculous Mister Collins of Pride and prejudice is famous all over the world)”.
His most famous novel is his own Pride and prejudice. What is special about it compared to others that are equally enjoyable and compelling?
«Perhaps it is more entertaining because there is a bubbly protagonist, with a witty intelligence, capable of smiling at the world around her. She is a lucid woman, capable of overcoming her prejudice towards Darcy and examining her conscience of rare intensity. Halfway through the novel, faced with the letter in which he explains his reasons for having separated her sister, Jane, from his friend Bingley, she says to herself: “did you think you were so intelligent? Instead, look how stupid you were”. This ability to look at one’s limits with a clear conscience is a great lesson for everyone.”
