jane austen cover to cover: gallery

8/10/2019 Jane Austen Cover to Cover: Gallery

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Te covers gathered in Jane Austen Cov-er to Cover represent two hundred years ofpublication, interpretation, marketing, andmisapprehensions of Jane Austens works, but

underneath the variety of images one thingremains the same: the text that left the pen ofa woman in Hampshire, England, two cen-turies ago. Austens imagination and intellecttranscended the ction of her own time andcreated the cherished characters and timelessstories for which she is still celebrated today.No matter how beautiful, tacky, infuriating,beguiling, silly, or strange the packaging maybe, the story inside never changes. And that,after all, is the most important thing.

Follow along on a journey across the years, from the early 1800s to today, and fromhandset typography to digital technology, aseach generation of Jane Austen fans interpretsand experiences her works anew.


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1817 January Begins writingSanditon;last works on it in March

May Goes with Cassandrato Winchester to seekmedical care

July 18 Jane Austen dies

1818December Northanger Abbey and

Persuasion published

1832All six novels reblishedas part of BentleysStandard Editions

1869J. E. Austen-LeighsMemoirofJaneAusten published, renewingpublic interest inher novels

1923R. W. Chapmanpublishes theOxfordIllustrated Jane Austen,the first scholarlytreatment of Austensnovels, collated fromearly editions

1935 Helen Jeromes stageadaptation of Pride andPrejudice produced onBroadway

1938 Penguin publishesPrideand Prejudiceas partof its Illustrated Classicsseries

BBC broadcasts atelevision play ofPrideand Prejudice

1940 MGM releases a big-screen film adaptation ofPride and Prejudice

1980 BBC broadcastsa five-episodeseries ofPrideand Prejudice

BBC broadcasts a new,enormously popularfive-episode series ofPride and Prejudice starring Jennifer Ehle

and Colin Firth

1995 Columbia Picturesreleases a big-screen filmadaptation of Sense andSensibility starring EmmaThompson and KateWinslet

Sony Pictures Classicsreleases a film adaptationof Persuasion starringAmanda Root andCiaran Hinds

1996A&E broadcasts thehugely popular newseries ofPride andPrejudice in the USMiramax releasesEmma starringGwyneth Paltrow

BBC broadcasts a newadaptation of Emma starring Kate Beckinsale

1997 A&E broadcaststhe Kate Beckinsaleadaptation ofEmma in the US

1999Miramax releasesManseld Park

2005 Focus Featuresreleases a big-screenadaptation of Pride andPrejudice starring KeiraKnightley and MatthewMacfadyen

Cambridge UniversityPress begins to publishits new, definitiveeditions of Austensnovels and other works

2007ITV broadcasts threenew television filmsof Manseld Park , Northanger Abbey , andPersuasion in the UK

Amazon releases theKindle, creating anew market for digitaleditions of Austens work

2008 BBC broadcasts a newthree-part series ofSense and Sensibility

PBS broadcasts aJane Austen Seasonconsisting of the newadaptations of ManseldPark , Northanger Abbey ,Persuasion, and Senseand Sensibility , as wellas the 1995 adaptationof Pride and Prejudice and the 1997 adaptationof Emma

2009BBC broadcasts a newseries ofEmma starringRomola Garai

2010 PBS broadcasts thenew series ofEmma in the US

2012 April First episode ofThe Lizzie BennetDiaries Web series,a contemporaryadaptation of Prideand Prejudice,premieres onYouTube

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8 JANE AUSTEN COVER TO COVER

Chronology

1775 December 16Jane Austen is born inSteventon, Hampshire

17871793Writes juvenilia

1795 Begins writingElinorand Marianne, laterpublished in a differentformat as Sense andSensibility

1796Begins writing FirstImpressions, later editedand published asPrideand Prejudice

1798 Begins writingSusan,later published asNorthanger Abbey

1801Summer Engages in a romancewith an unidentifiedgentleman in a seasidetown; the familylater learns that thegentleman died

Autumn Moves to Bath withher parents and sisterCassandra

1802Receives proposal ofmarriage from HarrisBigg-Wither, a familyfriend; she accepts butthen changes her mind

the next day

1804Begins writingThe Watsons

1803Susan accepted forpublication by Crosby &Co. but never published

1805Father dies; moves withher mother and sister tocheaper lodgings in Bath

1806Jane, Cassandra, andtheir mother move toSouthampton to livewith Francis Austenand his wife

1809 July Jane, Cassandra, theirmother, and their friendMartha Lloyd move toChawton Cottage inHampshire (now theJane Austens HouseMuseum)

1810 RevisesElinor andMarianne

1811October

Sense and Sensibility published; revisesFirst Impressions

1812Begins writingManseld Park

1813 January Pride and Prejudice published

1814 January Begins writingEmma

May Manseld Park published

1815Begins writingPersuasionDecember Emma published

1816Begins to feel thesymptoms of herfinal illness

August CompletesPersuasion

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Her Own Darling Children 18111818

In November 1797 Jane Austens father, the Reverend George Austen, wrote a letter to the London publisher TomasCadell offering him a manuscript novel, comprising 3 vols. and inquiring about the cost of publishing the book at theauthors risk. Tat manuscript was a novel by his younger daughter Jane that she calledFirst Impressions . Despite Mr. Austens hint that he would be willing to cover all related expenses, Cadell rejected the manuscript. Readers today knowthat passed-over best-selling novel asPride and Prejudice , and we are grateful for its existence.


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THOMAS EGERTON FIRST EDITIONSENSE AND SENSIBILITY

Jane Austens father died in 1805, after which the Austen wom-enJane, her mother, and her sister Cassandrasuffered a pe-

riod of nancial instability. Five of Janes brothers contributed what they could (the sixth brother, George, had disabil ities and was unable to help), and it was not until the summer of 1809 thatthe ladies had a permanent home. Janes elder brother Edwardhad inherited three estates from a rich childless cousin, and he was able to give h is mother and sisters a cottage in the vil lage ofChawton, in Hampshire. Back in the peaceful country that sheloved, and within the security of a new home, Austen dusted offthe novels she had written years before. Te rst one, which shehad originally called Elinor and Marianne , was retitledSense andSensibility . Austen had her brother Henry approach a publisherhe knew in London, Tomas Egerton, who agreed to publishthe novel on commission. Using Charles Roworth of London asprinter, he ordered an initial print run of 750 copies. Te novelappeared in 1811 as three volumes, as was typical for that time,and was sold for 15 shillings.


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THOMAS EGERTON FIRST EDITIONPRIDE AND PREJUDICE

As Sense and Sensibility made its way into the world, Austen dust-ed off another novel to prepare it for publication: the book thather father had attempted to get published all those years be-fore. She had called it First Impressions , but in the intervening years, another book by that title had come out. So Austen took aphrase from the nal chapter of one of her favorite novels,Cecilia by Frances Burney, and called her workPride and Prejudice . Analliterative pairing, as shed done for her rst novel, the title waspossibly an early attempt at branding by an otherwise anony-mous author. Austens sister Cassandra later left notes indicatingthat Jane had made additions and contractions to the manu-script; Jane lightheartedly wrote in a letter that she had loptand cropt the original (the longer manuscript does not survive).


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Books of Intrinsic Merit 18321920

In 1817 Tomas Egerton remaindered Sense and Sensibility and the third edition of Pride and Prejudice . John Murrayremaindered his unsold stock of Emma in 1820, and a year later he did the same for the second edition of ManseldPark as well as the only editions ofPersuasion and Northanger Abbey . And with that, only four years af ter her death, Jane Austens books were out of print. But her work was not meant to slip into obscurityother publishers would soon stepup to supply the renascent demand.


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CHAPMAN AND HALL SELECTLIBRARY OF FICTION

rain travel revolutionized life in England in the 1840s and1850s and helped transform reading habits as well. A smoothride in a well-lit compartment was a much more pleasant read-ing experience than could be had in a lurching horse-drawn car-riage. Seeing an opportunity to ll a need in the market, aroundthis time the bookseller W. H. Smith began placing bookstallsin railway stations. Te books were sold cheap and frequent-ly featured sensationalistic stories meant to appeal to low-browtastes, although older titles were also availabletheir expiredcopyrights made them a bargain to publish.


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THE PEACOCK EDITION

In 1894 George Allen produced one of the rst truly iconic edi-tions of Austens work. Now known as the Peacock Edition, thebooks cover featured a stunning line drawing by Hugh Tom-son, one of the most popular illustrators of his time. Accordingto David GilsonsBibliography of Jane Austen, the elaborate illus-tration was inspired by Macmillans similarly decked-out NewCranford series of well-known British novels, but its possiblethe designer may have taken inspiration from the books hero,Mr. Darcy. (Tough Austen mentions no peafowl at Darcys es-tate, Pemberley, readers have imagined them there for years. Orperhaps a cheeky employee at George Allen was comparing theproud Darcy to the strutting bird.)


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Works of a More Modern Production 19201989

As the world heaved into the conicts that would dene the early twentieth century, Jane Austenor her writing, atleastwas drafted into serv ice. During World War I, British soldiers took her books into the trenches and barracks, andthose who later suffered from shell-shock were often advised to read her novels to calm their nerves. Her stories, ful l ofhumor and free from melodrama, represented aspects of British society that the war had ripped away. And for the rsttime, a true scholarship of her oeuvre began to emerge.

One of the returning soldiers was a former editor named R. W. (Robert) Chapman. As Austens novels were publishedand republished, various editors had introduced errors, modernizations, and other noncanonical changes into the text.Chapman, an Oxford graduate and classical scholar, set out to edit the original texts with a scholars eye. He assembled theeditions printed during and just after the authors lifetime and collated them into the denitive edition of Austens novels.

All great inventions arise from necessity, and such is true of the paperback. Te idea was the brainchild of Allen Lane,an editor at the Bodley Head, who was having a hard time nding a cheap, decent read at his local railway station. Pa-perback books were not unknown at this time, but they had never gained popularity, being either too expensive or not ofhigh literary quality. Lane created a simple design and reprinted good ction by such popular authors as Agatha Christieand Ernest Hemingway, priced at six shillings. He was able to do so protably because of the same technology that had

advanced the printing process since Austens day. Paper was now mass produced from pulped wood rather than cotton, andtype was no longer set by hand but by machines. Te invention of the rotary printing press in the mid-nineteenth centurydelivered printed material faster and in bulk. Lanes Penguin Bookssold in vending machines in nontraditional outletslike newsagents and train stationswere an immediate success and soon sparked a publishing revolution.


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R. W. CHAPMAN EDITIONS

Unlike the novels published earlier by Macmillan and J. M. Dent(pages 2829), R. W. Chapman chose to accompany Austenstext with period illustrations, such as fashion plates, contem-porary prints, and drawings of carriages. Recent scholars havecriticized Chapmans editorial work for being too heavy-hand-edand for his reuse of material from a 1912 edition ofPrideand Prejudice edited by Katherine Metcalfe, who would laterbecome Chapmans wife, without noting her contributionbutmost agree that his work was a boon to later generations. Nearlyall subsequent texts have owed a debt to this edition.


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PAN CLASSICS

Novels of the late 1960s and early 1970s that were aimed at

teenage girls typically featured a stylized portrait of the heroineon the cover, and these Pan Classics from Pan Books are noexception. On the Northanger Abbey version of 1968, CatherineMorland becomes a plucky girl hero in her own right, complete with cascading sixties tresses, a dress that looks more GunneSax than British Regency, and a suspiciously sleepy-eyed ex-pression. Likewise for 1971sSense and Sensibility it seems thatMarianne Dashwood has stumbled onto a stash of magic mush-rooms in her woodland wanderings (and here Elinor thoughther sisters passion was for dead leaves!).Persuasions Captain Wentworth appears to be a larmed by Anne Elliot s dcolletage,or perhaps that she seems to have forgotten to wear her stays. Orit could be that this is a fever dream of the post-accident LouisaMusgrove, her brain still a little scrambled, in which she wan-ders around Bath without her undergarments and with a treesprouting from her bonnet.


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PENGUIN CLASSICS s

In the mid-1980s, Penguin redesigned its Classics line, and inthe 1990s it expanded the books trim to a larger paperback size. Te painting reproduced on the Northanger Abbey cover is of agentleman showing some ladies around the gardens of a grandhouse, rather as General ilney led Catherine Morland aroundthe abbey. Poor Catherine wanted to see the Gothic details, likenuns cells and dungeons, but the general insisted on sharing views of only the gardens and working areas. Te painting is cer-tainly bucolic, but probably rather dull to a romantically mindedseventeen-year-old. Te cover artwork shown on the circa-1985edition of Emma is a detail from the portrait of Marcia B. Foxpainted by the English artist Sir Will iam Beechey (17531839). Tis same painting appears slightly altered on a 2009 cover ofPride and Prejudice(see page 151).


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HARPERTEEN

Janeites like to pass on their passion for their beloved author to younger generations. So it is to be earnestly hoped that this series byHarperCollins from 200911 has brought teenage fans of romanceover to the Austen camp. Inspired by the stark red-and-black coversof the iconicTwilight series, the designs are so minimalist as to be(mostly) inoffensive. Its the taglines that are more difficult to ac-cept: Te Love Tat Started It All and Love Is a Game arenttechnically wrong, but they arent exactly right, either.


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DAILY TELEGRAPH EDITIONS

Te U.K.s Everyman Orion published this limited-edit ion setof Austens novels in 2007 to celebrate I Vs Austen Season.Londons Daily Telegraph published daily coupons that could beclipped and redeemed at a certain chain of coffee shops for afree copy of the book. Each had original cover art commissionedfrom a different artist, and all are splendid. Te folk-art feel ofRichard Wilkinsons illustration forSense and Sensibility evokesthe close relationship of the Dashwood sisters and hints a bit atthe plot besides, whereas Bernie Reids cover forPride and Prej-

udice takes an edgy approach to the iconic pose of courtship withgraffiti-inspired stencils. Brett Ryders illustration combines aVictorian, Edward Goreyesque cast of black-clad characters, abuttery with groovy sixties brightness, and snaking roses thatinvoke Monty Pythons absurd cut-and-paste animation style.Its an old-is-new pastiche, but for Manseld Park, it works. Da- vid Downtons elegant and understated charcoal-colored water-color (page 138) captures Emma Woodhouses elegance as sheleans negligently on a chair (and no doubt plots her next pro-gram for improving her friends lives). Alan Bakers unnishedbut dynamic tableau visually echoes the lost-and-found-againlove story of Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth in Persuasion, while Jeff Fishers handwritten cover sets the nal sentence of Northanger Abbey atop a swooning lady. Te result is a bit ofmetactional cheekery: the book about books is now using itsown words to invite judgment on itself. A

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: R I C H A R D W I L K I N S O N


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QUIRK CLASSICS

Billed as Te Classic Regency RomanceNow with UltraviolentZombie Mayhem! these remixed editions roared, lumbered, andslithered onto the scene in 2009. Austens origina l text was alteredand expanded to include all the gory details readers didnt knowtheyd been missing. Te series was a hit, reaching #1 on the NewYork Times Best-Seller List and spawning sequels, knock-offs,and plans for a movie. In keeping with the old-meets-gruesometheme, the illustration for the PPZ cover reimagines the por-trait of Marcia Fox by Sir Will iam Beechey (page 66) with blood-encrusted mandibles and glowing eyes. Other volumes in the se-ries featured original paintings by Lars Leetaru. A R

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I R W I L L I A M B E E C H E Y

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A R C I A F O X ; Z O M B I F I C A T I O N A N D D E S I G N

: D O O G I E H O R N E R


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Tis exhibit is based on Margaret C. Sul livans book Jane Austen Cover to Cover: 200 Years of Classic Covers publishedby Quirk Books.

jane austen cover to cover: gallery

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