Jane in January and You – How has Jane Influenced You?

I became a Jane Austen fan after reading Pride and Predudice for the first time in my 20s. Then I saw the 6 part series with Colin Firth💝 I was hooked. I was given a complete collection of Jane Austen and it cover to cover. I went to the library and found my first jaff, The Bar Sinister. Omg I found the movies and watched them all and more as they came out. I was then invited to my first JASNA meeting! There is an organization of people who love Jane Austen !?!. 6 years later I am the regional coordinator of our NY Capital Region JASNA. I have been to one AGM in DC so far…

About 8 years ago my husband read Pride and Prejudice. He told me I would like the story as it was historical fiction which I loved but I balked. It had nothing to do with the size of the book. (I read all three of the books in The Three Musketeers straight through without sleeping.) He finally convinced me to sit down and watch the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice and that was it. I read P&P as well as Jane Austen’s other major works and was introduced to JAFF and have not looked back.

One of the side benefits of reading Austen and getting hooked into JAFF is meeting so many wonderful caring and enthusiastic cyber friends who share your passion. Love it! Jen Red

I watched the 1995 version on PBS in early 2009. Got the book, a copy of the movie, the rest of the books, then discovered JAFF and these sites. I am now 100 books behind in my TBR pile. So much to read, so little time.

I first discovered JA when I watched the 1940 version of P&P. I was into watching classic movies at the time and P&P became one of my favorite ones. From there I fell in love with the books. It never occurred to me to read any of the variations though until about 3-4 years ago. I had gotten into reading FanFiction and decided why not try a P&P one. I loved it and soon discovered this amazing community that I had no idea existed.

Have been reading Jane Austen since I was 13
and given P&P as my first “literary classic” and I’ve been completely hooked ever since! My undergraduate English major, my love of beautiful
prose, countless trips to England, and so many dear friends are all because of Jane. How much richer she has made my life!

In high school, I faked a book report on Pride and Prejudice as I was ears-deep in a psychology project and didn’t have time to read that month. I read the first chapter, the last chapter, and the back of the school library’s cheap Bantam paperback (with pages already yellowing), and managed to piece together a passable book report, the only time I ever faked anything academic in my life. (I promise!!)

I didn’t read any Austen in my undergrad literature major, but I ran head-first into Austen in a grad school seminar entitled “Gender and Satire” (which I took as a bit of a break from Middle English and the medieval British works that were the focus of my Master of Arts in English). We drew an author’s name from a bowl for our final essay, and I pulled Jane Austen. So I read three novels, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Mansfield Park, and I finally GOT IT. In fact, I was forced to leave the university reading room–where silence was and still is brutally enforced–because I was laughing out loud while reading Sense and Sensibility for the first time. I didn’t actually do well on the paper (which focused on the concept of civility in Jane Austen) because my very feminist professor thought I wasn’t “militant” enough in tone; I was “too gracious”…which is rather ironic for an essay on civility. :/

I read the rest of the novels, and hated Emma–-goodness, she drove me batty!!–-enjoyed Northanger‘s thinly-veiled attacks on Gothic novels, and left Persuasion for a delicious last…and it’s now in my top three. (I actually waited three years before I allowed myself to read it–the joy/pain of reading the last book by Jane Austen for the first time was too delicious to rush!)

Then I discovered the movies: first the six-part P&P (wonderful!!!), then S&S with Emma Thompson. (I loved Hugh Laurie–and later noted how many of the actors appeared in the Harry Potter films!!) Although Mansfield Park is perhaps my favorite Austen novel, I have not been happy with any of the film versions; no film has captured Fanny’s character well. I also enjoyed the many newer film versions of Austen’s works that came out around 2007-2008, especially Sense & Sensibility, Persuasion, and Northanger Abbey.

But I love the books the best. (Except Emma. In that case, Clueless most definitely wins.)

I first came across JAFF on FanFiction.net and quickly discovered that some of these authors had published their books. My favorite JAFF writer there was TuesdayMorning423…who turned out to be Maria Grace! Then I discovered that I could order JAFF books through my little rural library, and that’s where I first discovered Abigail Reynolds’ books, even if they had to be sent down from Northern California to my wee, mountainous corner of San Diego County.

And I have hopes of perhaps writing some of my own JAFF…when I finish homeschooling (which is technically today as the semester closes and our youngest (and last of four) graduates from high school!) and get a few things organized.

And homeschooling reminds me of a quick incident: As a homeschooler, I made sure that my kids read P&P and watched film adaptations of most of the other novels. Of course, my daughter loved them, but my three boys weren’t quite as devoted (major understatement). Right after graduating from high school,our middle son was in the backseat of our car discussing being homeschooled with a friend, and I overheard him groaning, “My mother INFLICTED Austen upon us.” As if….;)

So that draw of an author’s name in that one grad school seminar definitely changed my life!!

Warmly,
Susanne the Medievalist 🙂