A Curious Statistical Anomaly

Sunday, Feb 3rd saw the airing of Miss Austen Regrets as part of the Masterpiece Theater’s Complete Jane Austen series. This is one that I’ve never seen before in any media so I have nothing to compare or contrast it to. It’s based on the correspondence of Jane Austen and while I’ve had “read her letters” on my list of things to do before I die — I haven’t gotten to it. The closest I’ve come is the page of famous quotes from Jane Austen (or quotes that should be famous) that I read at the Republic of Pemberly (a site every Jane Austen fan should visit — at least once so you know what you’re missing).

Miss Austen Regrets gives us a glimpse into the life and times of Jane Austen. The movie is framed with Fanny Austen coming to her Aunt Jane and wanting her to help her make a decision about a potential suitor. Using this frame, the viewers are shown a Jane Austen, nearly forty, single, living with her sister and mother in a cottage owned by one of her brothers. In asides, we see Jane concerned with her writing, her lack of funds, her worry about her sister and mother, their possible loss of their home if their brother loses a law suit, and the decisions she’s made in her life.

The acting is fabulously nuanced. We see Jane hurt but, with a deep breath and turning a smile, she carries on as a witty conversationalist and flirt. The small gestures that show that the surface may not be a true reading of the inner soul. But then that is the heart of Jane Austen’s novels, the public social faces against the private feelings that are held in check and controlled — always the smooth facade presented to others.

Maybe it’s because it’s the first time I’ve seen this movie — but the tears flowed freely for some parts. Partly at the loss of such a writer and partly at the knowledge that today she could be treated and live so much longer. What would she have written with more years? Other parts made me so angry at the place of women in her time — unable to speak with her publisher on her own behalf, unable to ask for more money for her works. Today, since most of us have read her books and all are still in print, it’s hard to believe that we might never have had them at all if not for her brother representing her.

We’ve come a long way as women and it is sometimes difficult to remember what life was life then. She died in 1817 and yet her characters and her works live on. Perhaps there were some regrets but since most of her correspondence was destroyed, much of what we know of the inner Jane is conjecture and hopeful guessing. Miss Austen Regrets is definitely worth viewing and reviewing. I hope to be able to add it to my rainy day collection of movies — you know the ones that you watch with a box of tissues, a cup of tea, and a lonely heart yearning for more…