海角大神

Last February, during the long winter of the pandemic and almost a year into lockdown, struggling through endlessly quiet hours and freezing temperatures, I turned to Jane Austen. The plan was simply to reread her six major novels. But that simple plan unlocked for me not only new conversations about these iconic novels but also an entire network of readers and thinkers.

As it turns out, Austen鈥檚 Regency world is not a bad place to escape to in a time of crisis. Because under all the romance plots and bucolic country walks, characters like Elizabeth Bennet in 鈥淧ride and Prejudice鈥� are not only dancing in halls and drinking tea; they鈥檙e also bearing up after insults and injury brought on by class, gender, displacement, and loss.听

No Austen hero exemplifies this quiet endurance more than听the pining and persevering Anne Elliot from 鈥淧ersuasion.鈥澨�

This most soulful of Austen鈥檚 stories is reigniting. Two film adaptations are due next year 鈥� one from Netflix and MRC Film starring听Dakota Johnson and听another听from Searchlight Pictures starring听Sarah Snook. And an off-Broadway adaptation from Bedlam theater company, currently in previews, is scheduled to run through the end of October.

Austen鈥檚 last full novel, 鈥淧ersuasion,鈥澨齪ublished months after her death, is steeped in longing (or pining, as romance aficionados call it), as the two protagonists 鈥撎鼳nne and Capt. Frederick Wentworth 鈥� have been driven apart but still inhabit each other鈥檚 dreams. Because of the radical interiority of Austen鈥檚 writing, known to critics as her method of 鈥渇ree indirect discourse,鈥� readers intimately live and breathe and pine 鈥� and ultimately survive 鈥� alongside Anne.听

鈥淎nne has been my imaginary friend for more than half my life,鈥� says Sarah Rose Kearns, the playwright behind the Bedlam production, who first read the novel as a middle schooler and has communed with Anne ever since. Ms. Kearns says Anne handles her anxiety and depression gracefully, but Austen鈥檚 literary technique lends emotional depth.听

Compared with 鈥淧ride and Prejudice,鈥� 鈥淧ersuasion鈥� is 鈥渟o much less suspicious of emotion. ... But this one is certainly a celebration of romantic love in the end, right?鈥� says Ms. Kearns.

Indeed.听鈥淚 call it an adult fairy tale,鈥� says Damianne Scott, an adjunct English instructor at the University of Cincinnati鈥檚 Blue Ash College who lectures on Austen in the classroom and in the Austen community. She says 鈥淧ersuasion鈥� is her favorite because the story is about a young woman taking on family responsibility, which she can relate to. And it鈥檚 also about second chances, which we all can relate to.听

As the organizer of the Facebook page Black Girl Loves Jane, Ms. Scott says since encountering the novel in high school, she has strongly related to Anne鈥檚 graceful navigation of financial and familial quagmires.听

Ms. Scott says she also appreciates contemporary adaptations and retellings of other Austen novels like Ibi Zoboi鈥檚 鈥淧ride,鈥� which sets 鈥淧ride and Prejudice鈥�听within a Brooklyn multiracial family, and 鈥淯nmarriageable,鈥� by Soniah Kamal, which puts the story in Pakistan. These retellings reinforce for her that Austen鈥檚 world is her world, she says, even if people who look like her aren鈥檛 always well represented in Austen discussions or in film adaptations.

鈥淭hese are my people,鈥� she says. 鈥淓ven if ...听I鈥檓 reading it in 2021, these are my people. This is what鈥檚 going on in my life in my world, too. And she鈥檚 speaking to me.鈥�

Stories for the times we鈥檙e in

Back in those long winter nights after a year of lockdown, the pandemic wasn鈥檛听the only听significant thing going on. The murder of George Floyd and the racial uprisings that followed inspired a reckoning about white supremacy and racial inequities at every level of society, and this reflection was also taking place in the conversations I was finding about Austen.听

Ms. Scott and scholars like historian Gretchen Gerzina and University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill professor Danielle Christmas, who co-hosted the Jane Austen & Co. series 鈥淩ace and the Regency,鈥� spoke to pandemic-era Zoom rooms attended by hundreds of Austen readers gathered across cultures and continents. Working from home with a makeshift audio production studio at hand, I soon found myself launching a podcast and exploring, with some of the scholars and fans I鈥檝e included here, questions about what Austen鈥檚 stories offer for the times we鈥檙e in.

One subject we often came back to: 鈥淏ridgerton.鈥� When the show debuted on Netflix at the end of 2020, it changed everything we thought we appreciated about Regency stories.听The racy series brought the gift of escapism, and with its color-conscious casting (a departure from the books on which it is based), it challenged and boldly revisioned that Regency world, putting Black citizens within and at the top of the aristocracy.听

鈥淚 actually think it does really important work,鈥� Dr. Christmas told me during our podcast taping about bingeing 鈥淏ridgerton.鈥� 鈥淭here are dozens of future Jane Austen adaptations to come, because we love them, right? ... And I actually think that 鈥楤ridgerton鈥� is insisting that the next time there鈥檚 a production, if they decide to insist on a certain kind of casting, they鈥檙e being deliberate and intentional about that.鈥澨�听

It鈥檚 a view shared by an increasing number of Austen scholars and fans, including those writing adaptations themselves like Ms. Kearns and Ms. Scott.听The Bedlam production includes a diverse cast, and Ms. Kearns, who serves on the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee for the听Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA), says this is right on many levels.听

鈥淥ne thing that I am mindful of when I think about casting and British period pieces,鈥� she says, 鈥渋s that Britain in Jane Austen鈥檚 lifetime was a lot more diverse than it appears to be in many of the film versions.鈥澨�

Scholars like Dr. Gerzina and David Olusoga in the United Kingdom are unearthing the stories of Black British lives in the 18th and 19th centuries, providing fans of 鈥淏ridgerton鈥� and Austen a place to go for historical context.听

Ms. Scott says she鈥檚 excited about the Netflix 鈥淧ersuasion鈥�听production deploying what she calls 鈥渘ontraditional casting,鈥� including听鈥�Crazy Rich Asians鈥� heartthrob Henry Golding as Anne鈥檚 cousin, William Elliot. However, she says she鈥檚 encountered resistance to a听piece听she wrote for JASNA on the 鈥減ineapple emoji craze鈥� and the PBS series 鈥淪anditon.鈥� When Black viewers called for 鈥淪anditon鈥澨齠ans to stop using a pineapple emoji to symbolize the fandom 鈥� explaining that it unhelpfully symbolizes both reverence toward and trivialization of colonialism and the slave trade 鈥� a debate broke out, and Ms. Scott weighed in.

Now, Ms. Scott is writing her own 鈥淧ersuasion鈥� retelling: Her novel 鈥淧ersuaded,鈥� due from Meryton Press next year, sets the story of Anne Elliot in a contemporary Black megachurch. Like Austen鈥檚 Sir Walter, Anne鈥檚 father, Ms. Scott鈥檚 megachurch pastor is weak on financial planning and strong on superficial appearances.听

鈥淎mong the people鈥�

Meanwhile, Ms. Scott says she听supports听the Austen fandom celebrating films, romance, and Regency dresses. 鈥淚鈥檓 all for you learning how to make a bonnet. I want to make a bonnet, too,鈥� she says. But the problem comes when we make Austen transcendent, placing her outside the world she herself lived in.

鈥淲e make her so unreachable,鈥� she says. 鈥淭he one thing about my generation 鈥� Generation X, Y, even millennials 鈥� is we鈥檙e not looking for people to put on pedestals. We want people to be among the people. And Austen is among the people, if you let her be.鈥�

Janet Saidi is a journalist who鈥檚 assigned herself the Jane Austen beat. When not working on her podcast and newsletter, The Austen Connection, she is producing at NPR-affiliate KBIA radio and lecturing at the Missouri School of Journalism.