TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Time To Swoon, Austen Fans; All 6 Novels Presented On PBS, Plus Story About Her

ADVERTISEMENT

By WALT BELCHER, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 12, 2008

TAMPA - Why do we love thee, Jane Austen?

Let us count the ways:

You gave us happy endings. The heroines of your novels live out that Cinderella fantasy every time. They may fret and flounder along the rocky road to romance, but eventually they snare Mr. Right. After more than 200 years, we still love your love stories.

Your heroines marry for love. In a time when women were little more than property, your women risk their very survival for the man of their dreams. Luckily for them, they end up with a guy who is loaded.

You speak to the post-feminist age: Your heroines are smarter or more good-hearted than the others around them, including the big lugs they finally marry. They see the folly of the world in which they are trapped.

And if they weren't stuck in the British class system of the early 1800s, these ladies might be running companies today.

Jane Austen died underappreciated, underfunded and unwed in 1817. The lack of a happily-ever-after fairy tale in her own life may have fueled her writing.

It's not clear because there aren't many details known about her life. Her father died when she was young, and the family had no money, so she knew firsthand about living off the kindness of relatives.

Austen really was ahead of her time. We've been in an Austen revival since the early 1990s, and there's no sign of it letting up. Witness the three-month marathon on PBS' revamped "Masterpiece" series that begins tonight.

"Masterpiece" is calling it "The Complete Jane Austen," and it includes adaptations of her six finished novels, plus a dramatization of her life.

Four of the book-based pieces - "Persuasion," "Northanger Abbey," "Mansfield Park" and "Sense and Sensibility" - are new. "Pride and Prejudice," with Colin Firth, aired in 1995 as a miniseries, and "Emma," starring Kate Beckinsale, is a 1997 film.

"Masterpiece" executive producer Rebecca Eaton says this may be one of the biggest events in the history of the series.

"What she wrote and when she wrote it was like 'Sex and the City' in the 18th century," Eaton says. "It's a little bit like extensive hand-holding in the country, but it's the same idea."

The Austen collection is being showcased as the revamped former "Masterpiece Theatre" begins its 36th season with a shortened name, a new host (Gillian Anderson of "The X-Files" fame) and a new look, Eaton says.

"We're attempting a major brand enhancement, but our award-winning programming won't change," she says.

'Persuasion' Kicks Off Love Stories

First up in the Austen collection is "Persuasion," a book that was published after Austen's death at age 41. It stars Sally Hawkins as the aging Anne Elliot, who at 27 seems headed for spinsterhood after missing out on the love of her life eight years earlier.

She was persuaded by vain and class-conscience relatives to spurn the marriage proposal from a dashing-but-broke navy officer (Rupert Penry-Jones) because he lacked breeding and money. Look for Anthony Head, of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," as her shallow twit of a father.

After eight years at sea, the lost love returns as a wealthy captain ready to settle down. Is it too late for Anne?

"Persuasion" is followed Jan. 20 by "Northanger Abbey," Austen's comic commentary on the popular Gothic novels of her day. Her heroine is a flighty young thing whose overactive imagination is fueled by "the horrid fictions."

In addition to the usual romance story, there are digs at the improbable plots and characters of the typical gothic novel. When one of the male characters notes that women are wasting their minds and time on this drivel, Austen's heroine reminds him that most of these lurid tales were written by men.

"Mansfield Park" on Jan. 27 stars Billie Piper ("Doctor Who") as the good-natured girl from a poor family who is taken in by a wealthy family that seems to take her for granted.

She blossoms into a beautiful woman of great moral fortitude and imperturbability. She rejects an offer to marry an older man for money and security, holding out for a man who doesn't yet appreciate her charms.

Why Did She Forgo Own Romances?

"Miss Austen Regrets" on Feb. 3 imagines what happened in Austen's real life involving three romances that she might have had.

Eaton says the film recounts a short relationship when she was 17 that may or may not have been as close as Austen came to marriage.

"In her diary, she is specific about proposals that she had from other people, two specifically and the third probably," Eaton says. "Our version takes Jane at the end of her life when she was in her early 40s and we go back to see how she became - truly became - Jane Austen and how those relations came to be and why they didn't end in marriage."

From Feb. 10 to 24, "Masterpiece" has what many consider to be the definitive "Pride and Prejudice," with Colin Firth as Austen's finest catch, Mr. Darcy, and her sharpest heroine, Elizabeth Bennet (Jennifer Ehle).

The series continues March 23 with "Emma" - the one starring Kate Beckinsale, not Gwyneth Paltrow - and concludes March 30 and April 6 with a new "Sense and Sensibility."

Eaton says one of the remarkable things about Austen is that she only produced six books starting at about age 35.

"She needed the money, but it wasn't cool or acceptable for a woman to be a writer in 1800," she says. "So her books were published anonymously, and eventually she earned enough to support her family.

"She never left the south of England. She lived with her relatives all her life. ... Yet she observed so much of her class and had profound, clear-eyed, compassionate insight into them and a gift for writing, just a tremendous writing gift."

ON TELEVISION

PBS' "Masterpiece" series offers three months of Jane Austen including adaptations of six of her novels and a biographical film:

"Persuasion" (tonight): Anne Elliot (Sally Hawkins) was persuaded by friends and family to turn down a marriage proposal from the dashing Capt. Wentworth. Eight years later, she's still single and he's back from war, rich and available, but is it too late?

"Northanger Abbey" (Jan. 20): Young Catherine Morland (Felicity Jones) may have read one too many romance novels. She gets creeped out at the foreboding abbey before her own romance blossoms.

"Mansfield Park" (Jan. 27): Fanny Price (Billie Piper) grew up with wealthy relatives who don't appreciate her charm, beauty and good nature. She's smitten by her cousin Edmund Bertram, but will he ever notice her?

"Miss Austen Regrets" (Feb. 3): This biopic explores romances the unmarried Austen might have had.

"Pride and Prejudice" (Feb. 10, 17 and 24): This 1995 miniseries was a blockbuster for PBS. It's back with Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy, the handsome but stern lord who irritates and infatuates Elizabeth Bennet (Jennifer Ehle).

"Emma" (March 23): Kate Beckinsale stars in this 1997 film about a woman who plays matchmaker while knowing little about her own desires.

"Sense and Sensibility" (March 30 and April 6): A new version of one of Austen's best-known works stars Hattie Morahan and Charity Wakefield as sisters trying to survive and find happiness in the cruel British class system in the early 1800s.

Reporter Walt Belcher can be reached at (813 259-7654 or wbelcher@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT