Devoney LooserCritiques

I could wish that this book were just a bit shorter, because, whew it requires a lot of time... but ultimately, I'm convinced that the Porter sisters are long overdue for attention. So it's only right that they get a good biography that delves into their forgotten lives.

To place Jane and Anna Maria Porter in a context that many of us are comfortable with:
*They were contemporaries of Jane Austen (indeed, they had mutual acquaintances, and at one point Jane Porter even corresponded with Jane Austen's brother Charles).
*They saw baby Queen Victoria playing on the lawn next to their house and thought things like, "Hey, what a cute kid." (I paraphrase.)
*One of them (Jane Porter) was dazzled at a party one day by the most beautiful male speaking voice she had ever heard, and turned around and realized, whoops, um, that was Lord Byron, and you didn't even get anyone to introduce you, Jane, what were you thinking (which is what Anna Maria said later).

Okay, so that's when they lived. Now, what did they do? They wrote novels. But they developed a new genre--the historical novel. They combined real events with fictionalized characters and dramas, and they were wildly popular. They did this before Walter Scott did, except then he took all the credit.

This biography aims to redress some of that unfair treatment by opening up an honest, detailed, touching view of their lives and accomplishments.

In a way, what's most fascinating to me is that the sources are even available for this kind of work. Fans of Jane Austen well know how frustratingly meager her extant letters are, and what huge gaps there are in really being able to get to the heart of her personality. That's not the case with Jane and Anna Maria Porter. Private details are all there for the taking from their copious correspondence and diaries. And Devoney Looser has painstakingly compiled much of it into a coherent, compassionate account that gives them the dignity they deserve.

Obviously, I find their hot takes on the celebrities of their day to be crazy interesting. I love feeling like I'm getting a fresh eyewitness account of someone or something that feels consigned to the mists of legend. I think of it as a 360-degree view of history... Like you've been looking one direction for a long time, and then someone starts to spin you around, and your mind is blown by what else is in the same space. And I love that. But it's the account of their private lives that's most moving.

Whenever I read something that draws so heavily on private letters, even of people long-dead, I always wrestle with myself over the ethics of it. Because it's incredibly easy to think of them as fictional characters in a book. But then sometimes I stop and remember they were as real as I am. And then I think, "Whoa, this is deeply uncomfortable stuff for me to know about another human being without their permission." Like when I learn that Anna Maria secretly corresponded with and practically became engaged to a man she had seen at a distance but never been introduced to. Or when I learn how Jane Porter was painfully, intensely attracted to a war hero acquaintance and how her family worked and worked and worked to get the two of them in the same room some day.

The Porter sisters produced a huge body of work, much of it to great acclaim, but they often did it while on the brink of deep poverty, struggling with illness and caregiving. This biography respects their account of their own lives. It's so personal. And, yes, it's fascinating. But it also makes you want to protect them, even now, from injury.

Am I interested in reading any of their works now? Not necessarily, although I picked out one or two I might try. But I'm not sure that the point of this book is to get people reading their stuff in this day and age -- it's more to pay homage to "invisible" or forgotten women, which exist in all eras and all fields of interest.

If you're interested in the Regency era and want to go beyond the simplified view often presented in movies and novels today, I recommend this book. Also, of course, if you're interested in women writers, Austen contemporaries, etc.

In the late 1970s when I was at university, my classes in the early novel didn’t include any mention of the Porter sisters. Austen had a year-long honors seminar. So, it’s remarkable to read how an author I had never heard of, Maria Porter, had been more famous than Austen. With her sister Jane, the Porter sisters published twenty-six books, selling hundreds of thousands of copies. They created the historical fiction genre. Sir Walter Scott saw their success and wrote Waverly, his fame overshadowing them.

Devoney Looser determined to give the Porter sisters a deserved biography. The story of these women, and their brothers and friends and romantic crushes, as dramatic and exciting as any fiction. It’s the story of brilliant, independent, high minded women who make every mistake imaginable in terms of where they gave their affection and loyalty. Who gained fame but struggled with homelessness and poverty. They met the most famous writers, actors, and titled people of their time, where admired by important men, were beautiful and intelligent, but never found love or riches. Every time it looked as if their fortunes were changing, their hopes were dashed. Their brother Robert was a gifted artist, successful for a moment, then in huge debt. He married a Russian princess, but had no fairy tale ending.

Jane Porter’s The Scottish Chiefs was Queen Victoria’s and President Andrew Jackson’s favorite book. It inspired Sir Walter Scott. Emily Dickinson owned Jane’s bestsellers. It was even included in the The Classics Illustrated Comics, No 67. And, it may be the uncredited inspiration for the move Braveheart.

Of course, the reason why we didn’t study the Porters at university was because they wrote historical fiction. My professor scoffed when I said my husband brought home a complete set of Scott, indicating that those books were not esteemed as literature.

During the writing of this book, I had moments when I wished I could shake these brilliant sisters by the shoulders and ask, “What are you doing?”

from Sister Novelists by Devoney Looser
Maria was the more outgoing of the sisters and fell in love easily. Jane was considered the more beautiful, shy and serious. They were exceedingly well-read. Influenced by Mary Wollstonecraft, they were proud of their independence. To be women and writers, with their names on their books, was still socially unacceptable.

They fell for charming, handsome scoundrels, preferring to see the best in these men.

Their fame and popularity brought entrée into the world of the wealthy and priviledged, while they economized and often went without necessities. Their friends had ‘colorful lives.’ They used their wide experience in their novels, thrilling readers while educating them in history. They believed that while entertaining readers, they could also inspire proper values and character.

I am not exaggerating to say that their lives were as full of tragedy, reversals, and serendipitous good fortune as any romance or soap opera imaginable. The stories of their brothers and their beloved friends are just as dramatic and colorful. I was riveted to the book, updating my spouse on the latest shocking episode.

This is a must read for anyone interested in women writers, the early novel, and women’s social history. Readers of history will gain insight into all levels of society.

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

This was a Great Courses... course I accessed through audible about... the life and works of Jane Austen. Did what it said on the tin and all that--and did it quite well. I'm pretty familiar with Austen and her works, but I still learned some things here and had a lovely time listening to the course. Looser does an excellent job both explaining things and presenting things in an interesting way through this format. Recommended if you are interested in Austen or English lit.

I do not know Professor Looser personally, but my MA thesis advisor does through Jane Austen scholarship, and my former department chair at Marquette gets a shout-out in her acknowledgments! It's fun playing the Six Degrees of Academic Kevin Bacon. Name recognition made me pick up this book, but the content is a game-changer for Austen scholarship.

Looser focuses on less-known aspects of scholarship or culture surrounding Jane Austen. In so doing, she opens up avenues for future researchers to explore. The part on dramatizing Austen is perhaps the most fascinating, because it shows the origin of the "sexy Darcy" which has been popularly attributed to Colin Firth, who took his performance from Laurence Olivier, who has HIS roots in a theater adaptation in the 1930s and an ever-evolving screenplay. It's fascinating, and a great accompaniment to The Cinematic Jane Austen.

Looser proficiently bridges the gap between scholarly and general writing, and this book is all the more worth reading, because of it. If you like reading about Jane Austen culture, this book is for you. If you are interested in cultural literary movements and authors' afterlives, this book is also for you.

As an author, Jane Austen has reached a near mythic status, and this book, focusing not on the author's life but her afterlife, tells part of the story of how that came to be. Looking at how Austen's stories were illustrated in the 19th century, how stage actors adapted her novels, how politicians from different ends of the political spectrum made use of her words, and how students were introduced to Austen through curriculums, this book pieces together the story of an author's legacy. Different eras and generations have examined Austen and found something slightly different that speaks to the moment. If you're a Jane Austen fan, this book is definitely recommended.

Nearly everyone loves Jane Austen. People have favorites and can get quite heated over whether “Emma” or “Mansfield Park” or “Pride and Prejudice” are the best or who wrote the best completion of Sanditon or how anyone would dare, but outright dislike for Jane Austen? I sure, like the yeti, it may exist, but only in theory. Most everyone likes Jane Austen, but which one? There’s so many to choose from, the prim and proper defender of class and privilege, the saucy, dry wit skewering class and privilege, the proto-feminist whose success mocks the idea that great literature is written by men? In The Making of Jane Austen, Devoney Looser looks at how these many ideas of who Jane Austen was and how our understanding of her books was formed as much by people who publicized her work as by Jane Austen herself.

Clearly organized into sections that dive deeply into the illustrated, the dramatized, and the politicized Austen as well as Austen pedagogy, from the first dissertation to the McGuffey Reader, The Making of Jane Austen provides a review of how Austen’s image was shaped and shifted over time by those who marketed her work in books, films, and texts. Looser also looks at how both anti-suffrage men and suffragettes used Austen to prop up their viewpoint as people continue to look to Austen for conservative and liberal ideas. It seems Austen in almost biblical in her ability to be all things to all people.

What makes The Making of Jane Austen compelling, though, is the stories of people who are simply fascinating as the man who first illustrated Austen, Pickering. He was the ultimate perpetual student at the Royal Academy and his understanding of Austen reflected the melodrama of his real life perhaps more than the actual storylines. Then there is Pellow, who wrote the first Austen dissertation. He died under mysterious circumstances which no one seems to agree upon. I am curious why that mystery was not cleared up when the most famous medium of the time began channeling him.

When writing this review, I looked at the author’s web site and discovered she has posted many additional pictures of the illustrations, handbills, and other items she talks about in the book. I wish we had been directed there in the book, because she often wrote about illustrations in addtion to those in the book.

I love Jane Austen, in fact, I love Austen a bit too much to watch the films, TV series, and adaptations, let alone the zombies. I didn’t even watch “Clueless” because…”Leave my “Emma” alone!” However, I was interested in seeing how the perception of Austen may have changed over time or why there is such fervor at the moment. Perhaps it is because her novels can be read at two levels, as the conservative stories of love, marriage, and class sensibilities or the satiric sendup of those same things. Perhaps what we really find in Austen is ourselves.

In any event, Looser has persuaded me that Austen can stand up to good and bad adaptations, to silly vampires and serious Colin Firth, so I will no longer fear Austen being ruined by bad acting. Maybe I will even watch “Clueless.”

I received The Making of Jane Austen as a thank you gift from Johns Hopkins University Press with no obligation to review.

The Making of Jane Austen at Johns Hopkins University Press
Devoney Looser author site, Faculty Page at Arizona State University
Book Extras – more illustrations and photos for the book

https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2018/07/15/the-making-of-jane-austen...

Interesting academic study of the different ways Jane Austen has been portrayed and marketed and thought of, through illustration, theater, and eventually movies. Parts of it were a little dull for me but this isn't a book really aimed at general readers and scholarly types would find more to enjoy. I had hoped it would be a different kind of book, more about the film adaptations, the popular culture manifestations and about the WHY of it, why we return again and again to Jane and how her books continue to hold such an appeal- and bridge the divide between high brow and beach bag. But that's not really what this book is about.½