Today In History: On January 28, 1813, Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice Was Published

It is a truth (nearly) universally acknowledged by my readers that I am a fan of Jane Austen, and have made numerous blog entries about my studies and love of things Austen [1]. Without indulging in too many more witty references to a novel well beloved by many millions of men and women (though mostly women, it would appear), or repeating what I have already said elsewhere, I would like to reflect a little bit on the enduring fame that Jane Austen has found and how unlikely that is in light of where she began. After all, a great many books were published in 1813, and very few of them are read nowadays with any sort of enthusiasm by anyone who is not a graduate student of regency literature.

In fact, to provide some historical context, here is a non-exhaustive list of the various novels that I could easily find written and/or published in 1813 from wikipedia [2] other than Pride & Prejudice:

Ukiyoburo, by Shikitei Sanba
Kreisleriana, by E.T.A. Hoffman
Histoire secrete d’Isabelle de Baviere, reine de France, by the Marquis de Sade (yes, the one responsible for Sadism)
The Miser Married: a Novel, by Catherine Hutton
The Queen’s Wake, by James Hogg
The Bridal of Triermain, by Sir Walter Scott
Rokeby, by Sir Walter Scott (he was busy that year)
The Bride of Abydos, by Lord Byron
Tancredi (an opera, not exactly a novel, I know), by Giachino Rossini
The Sons of the Viscount. And the Daughters of the Earl: a Novel; Depicting Recent Scenes in Fashionable Life, by Selina Davenport
Roskilde-Riim, by Nikolaj Grundvig
La Suite d’un bal masque, by Sophie Bawr
The Wife And The Lover, by Fanny Holcroft
Leonie de Montbreuse, by Sophie Gay

Let us note that this is not a cherry-picked list of the most deliberately obscure novels (and other major works) of 1813. This is a list in order as they were seen in about 100 wikipedia entries dealing with novels of 1813. There were at least a dozen (or more) references to Pride & Prejudice as well as numerous examples of other Regency novels written in recent decades but inspired by Jane Austen’s novels. Of the other works on the above list, I have not read or heard of a single one of them, and I only know of a few of the people on the list who remain important and relevant for their works (not written in 1813). In fact, the only work that I am aware of that remains well-known by the general English speaking population published in 1813 is Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice, and there is no competition for the honor of best-remembered work of 1813 that is remotely close to her enduring success.

How did this happen? It was by no means a foregone conclusion. Jane Austen’s masterpiece was listed as being written by “A Lady,” as her name was not widely known until after her death four years later, after which it was forgotten for more than a decade before her books were rediscovered during the Victorian period. Jane Austen, during her lifetime, wrote as an anonymous spinster of the lower ranks of the gentry and while her novels sold a few hundred copies apiece, she received neither fame nor fortune from her nearly universally treasured novels, certainly nowhere near the levels of Sir Walter Scott or Lord Byron, who were both members of the titled aristocracy as a result of their works. And yet Jane Austen’s work has not only endured where her fellow writers are mostly forgotten, but her works (especially Pride & Prejudice) are vastly more popular now than they were when they were released.

How did this happen? It does help that Jane Austen’s masterpiece is a fine work, elegant and full of both romance and witty prose. In fact, I would say (and this simply my own opinion) that the real genius of Jane Austen is combining a set of virtues that is quite rare: a sharp wit and critical eye towards characters and to the hypocrisies and double standards of her society, a humane and optimistic sense of romance, a phlegmatic acceptance of reality, brevity. Her work manages to appeal to both romance readers as well as those who are more cynical and sarcastic simply because she herself rests in both camps, avoiding the tedious explanations that make most Victorian literature such a hassle to slog through. I would also venture to say that this same sort of combination of deep and sympathetic feeling for others as well as ironic distance from others (both facets of my own life and works) probably shortened her own life because of the tension that it involved, even as it made her the great novelist she was and made her works sufficiently ambiguous to be widely appreciated and appropriated by a huge and diverse audience without losing their greatness in translation.

It is quite likely that the delayed fame of Jane Austen’s works as a whole was related to the need for time to sift the works of her time to separate that which was truly great and that which was merely of ephemeral popularity and importance. As she did not have the built in advantages of wealth and patronage that many other writers had, and as she followed the delicacy of ladies not publishing their works under their own name (as to do so would lead one to be viewed as a fame whore, and probably not an honorable lady). While it is a shame that her beloved children (which is what she called her novels) only achieved modest success during their own time, let us at least be glad that they have endured for generation after generation for people to fall in love with them, and their characters, anew, for reasons as diverse as the readers themselves.

[1] Here is a (non-exhaustive) list: