Bibliofreakblog

The Jane Austen Trilogy

I give this three DVD set a solid meh.  I espied it at the library and thought I’d give it a whirl for the Everything Austen Challenge.  Having watched all 180 minutes of it last night, I want at least 120 of those minutes back.

Actually, I didn’t really watch it.  While the narrator droned on about the letters that Jane’s sister Cassandra burned and tried to imitate the voices of females in Austen’s books, the screen pictured things such as a bird flying in the sky.

I am so serious.

And it gets worse.  We see people walking in the meadow as he talked about the closeness of Jane’s family growing up, and what became of her brothers.

The first DVD, Jane Austen’s Life tells nothing that most Austenites don’t already know.  Big family.  Never married.  Father a parson.  Blah blah blah.  However, there was a good bit about how she died of Addison’s disease, and did you know that JFK had it, too?  It created a lot of skin blotches, which Austen described as appearing “black on white”.  It was very painful and she was happy to end it when she was on her death bed.

The second DVD, Jane Austen’s works, gave a summary and quoted various passages of her books.  The only parts remotely interesting was her relationship with publishers, and the prince regent (to whom she dedicated a book).  

The last DVD, Jane Austen’s Society, was the only one of the set remotely interesting.  This might be because the pictures on the screen actually corresponded to what the narrator was talking about.  It focussed a great deal on the architecture popular in the early 19th century, which was the well-established Neo-Classical style, based on the old classical style of the Greek and Romans and the emerging New Gothic style, which was bringing back Medieval architecture.  Because I just read Northanger Abbey (review to come soon!) this was particularly gratifying.

And of course Jane Austen’s Society talked about manners and went into the royal family (is that capitalized?) at the time, which even then was a source of entertainment and gossip, though perhaps not to the extent it is now.  Apparently no kings of the 18th century to early 19th century had sons that they liked.  One of the Georges (the third, who by my count was the second, but whatever) had 15 kids and only one legitimate grandchild.

The last thing I want to complain about is the narrator’s assumption, throughout all three DVDs that if Jane Austen were transported to today’s world, she’d be delighted that so much of our knowledge of her time comes through her books and movies and spin-offs of said books.  While I think that she would indeed be pleased that her books have stood the test of time, she wouldn’t like the interest in her personal life, and I’m not sure that she’d be flattered by all of the spin-offs and sequels to her work.  I imagine she’d say something wry about lack of ingenuity.

So, skip the first two, watch the third if you’re bored.