Jane Austen’s American Spirit
Jane Austen is England’s brightest literary jewel. The slightly upper-crust characters in her novels spend most of their time in the most English of pursuits: drinking tea, visiting country houses, and gossiping about their neighbors. Austen herself never left English soil, and all her books are set on the “sceptered isle.”
You might find it surprising, then, that the Florida commissioner of education, Manny Diaz, Jr., recently included Austen’s Pride and Prejudice on a list meant to celebrate “the unyielding spirit and heroic patriotism of the many Americans throughout history who fought in the pursuit of liberty and freedom.” Over at LitHub, the writer James Folta excoriated the commissioner for the selection. “Is there anything American in Austen’s book?” he asked rhetorically.
But Folta’s dismissal of the supposedly provincial Floridian is altogether too snobbish. Austen’s novels are essential entries into the Western canon, and they have delighted generations of American readers. More importantly, Austen’s books are about the possibility of self-government and the potential of human freedom—deeply American themes in their own right. Even if the Florida Department of Education told Rolling Stone that critics were over-interpreting the decision and choosing Austen had nothing to do with the “American pride” theme, our country has every reason to claim her as our own.
Great Americans throughout our history have expressed their love for Austen often enough that she would be rightly considered an adopted daughter of our literary tradition. Chief Justice John Marshall, for example, expressed his admiration for her novels in an 1826 letter to his Supreme Court colleague Joseph Story. William F. Buckley Jr., one of the best American stylists of the 20th century, purportedly praised her by remarking, “One doesn’t read Jane Austen; one re-reads Jane Austen.” She is referenced and imitated in popular films ranging from the dazzling work of Nora Ephron to comedies by Whit Stillman.
Read more in The Dispatch.
