ON THE IMPORTANCE OF SEASONS IN THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB

Abstract

There has been unceasing interest in Jane Austen's novels and the result is their many adaptations. My paper pays attention to Karen Joy Fowler's The Jane Austen Book Club, more specifically to the importance of seasons and the symbolic meaning of the months during which the story takes place. An analysis of two levels (the book and film versions) will be provided.

Headnote

Abstract: There has been unceasing interest in Jane Austen's novels and the result is their many adaptations. My paper pays attention to Karen Joy Fowler's The Jane Austen Book Club, more specifically to the importance of seasons and the symbolic meaning of the months during which the story takes place. An analysis of two levels (the book and film versions) will be provided.

Keywords: adaptation, Jane Austen 's legacy, seasons

1. Introduction

In today's world, Jane Austen is an icon. Her name spells quality, high standards and morality. For those who prefer films or TV series to books, there are various adaptations of her novels. However, not all of them may be considered high-quality productions. Apart from those adaptations that strictly follow what was written by Jane Austen herself, there are also the so-called 'loose' adaptations. Examples of the latter might be Bridget Jones 's Diary, Bride and Prejudice, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and many others. We can even speak of a phenomenon that focuses on the adaptation of Jane Austen's novels or on an Austen Industry (Gibson 2005: 181). Not only are her novels adapted, but her personal life has received a lot of interest too. The probable reasons for that are the blanks that surround her life, particularly her love life. Deborah Cartmell (2010: 109) stated:

Since the very first adaptation, there has been a desire to read her novels as a means of finding out something about the author, a taboo up until recently in English studies, but a practice which is undeniably present in adaptations of Austen's work.

The field of Austen's adaptations extends even further, creating half-way or full "meta-adaptations", this range including parodies or fan videos posted on YouTube and other social media. Chris Louttit (2013: 180) suggested that it is equally important, or sometimes even more so, to consider the relationship between two or more adaptations like that between the book and film. It was the BBC TV series adaptation of Pride and Prejudice (1995) starring Colin Firth as Darcy that caused what became known as Darcymania. In that version, Darcy showed his wet body to the audience after swimming in a lake and that part was recycled by other filmmakers, for instance in the TV series Lost in Austen (2008). Keeping in mind those intertextual references appearing in various adaptations, Sarah Cardwell (2002: 25) suggested that it would be more accurate to view adaptations as a development of a meta-text.

It is very important to realise that not all the adaptations deserve to be given that name; we need to differentiate between adaptations and appropriations. The difference is not as deeply rooted in the fidelity of the screenplay to the source text as it is in other aspects. Julie Sanders (2016: 35) stated that appropriation takes a more decisive journey away from the text into a wholly new cultural product and domain. Thus we use the term appropriation to describe those texts that take a different cultural or political path which brings new reinterpretations of the source texts. Although the terminology of adaptation theory is not fully developed yet and academics struggle with many problems in their attempt to designate and define many concepts, we face bigger problems when trying to name a novel that was inspired or influenced by another novel. Many terms come to mind, such as intertextuality, hypertext, metatext, appropriation or even adaptation, but none of them seems to fit our needs precisely. My aim here is not to solve the dilemma, so for my present purposes, I am going to use the word rewriting for the novels that were inspired by Austen's masterpieces.

Karl Kroeber (2006: 108-109) pointed out that the volume of criticism about Jane Austen has amplified over the years and now thunders like Niagara Falls. No wonder that it is the same with the adaptations of her novels and the theory thereof. The year 1995 can be considered as a milestone for the development of Austen adaptations, because in that year several influential adaptations were released, which triggered the phenomenon.

Certainly, this is not the end of Austen adaptations, appropriations and rewritings, one can only guess what is to come. Fantasy versions of Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, as well as other modern retellings of famous novels, are very likely to appear, following the trends that have been established. Paula M. Cohen (2005: 540) wrote that she was awaiting a Pride and Prejudice video game. On the basis of the quantity of Austen criticism and adaptations, Linda Troost and Sayre Greenfield (2010: 443) even suggested that the authorship of her novels may be called into question.

2. The importance of seasons

2.1. The importance of seasons in Austen's Pride and Prejudice

Jane Austen is not very precise about the time in which her novels are set; readers are not offered any years or dates. Nevertheless, there are certain hints about the time frame of her novels. What must be said is that seasons and months have a symbolic value. It is usual that Austen's novels cover about a year and a half of the characters' lives, thus offering the whole cycle of seasons. Her characters' lives are normally peaceful in winter, when nothing much happens, while spring, as the beginning of a new cycle, is usually also the beginning of the central love story and brings some excitement into their lives, such as the arrival of a new family or falling in love. Sometimes, readers can only surmise what season it is, because there is no time information for several pages or chapters. Let me illustrate this with an example from Pride and Prejudice.

The life of the Bennet family is quite serene before the arrival of Mr Bingley and his companions. We are not sure at what time of the year they come, but on the basis of the subsequent references to winter after Bingley leaves Netherfield, we can assume that it is summer, which is the time that perfectly suits love, according to Austen's novels. Jane falls in love with Bingley before he leaves in November, and so does Darcy with Elizabeth, therefore falling in love begins in the summer. After Bingley and Darcy 's departure, there is not much progress in the story, so it seems as if winter-time is a symbol of stagnation. Jane Austen (1994: 119) describes the winter months as follows:

With no greater events than these in the Longbourn family, and otherwise diversified by little beyond the walks to Meryton, sometimes dirty and sometimes cold, did January and February pass away.

March, the beginning of spring, is to bring about some change; Elizabeth travels to visit Charlotte and goes on another journey with her aunt and uncle. Summer follows and everything seems to be better, but it is in summer that the two central couples are united forever, Jane Austen thus shows summer as the most desirable season for love. Before autumn and winter come, everything is settled and the central characters are all happily united.

I hope I have clearly summarised what I mean by Austen's usage of seasons as symbols, because this is necessary for understanding the similar device used by Karen Joy Fowler in The Jane Austen Book Club.

2.2. The novel The Jane Austen Book Club

The novel The Jane Austen Book Club was written by an American author, Karen Joy Fowler, and was published in 2004. It became a bestseller, with Fowler probably owing her success to the famous name in the title. There are six main characters, each of whom is dealing with personal problems, such as divorce, loneliness or lack of self-confidence. Those problems are ultimately resolved after the book club meetings take place and Austen's novels are discussed. The novels serve as a kind of moral guide, helping the club members to understand themselves better and fight for their happiness. The book club consists of five women, three of whom are rather older (Bernadette, Jocelyn, Sylvia), two of whom are young (Prudie and Allegra), and one middle-aged man, Grigg. Each month they discuss one of Austen 's six novels and each month one of them hosts the meeting. The last book to be discussed is Persuasion, which inspires the club members to follow the idea of second chances. Jocelyn and Grigg surrender to love and start a relationship, thus replacing their loneliness with a partner. Bernadette travels to Europe and finds a new husband, thus forgetting her previous unsuccessful marriages. Sylvia gives another chance to Daniel, her unfaithful former husband. Their daughter, Allegra, gives a second chance to Corrine, her lesbian lover, who disappointed her. And Prudie gives herself a second chance by forgiving her mother, as well as herself, for their bad relationship that was the cause of her incertitude; only in this way can she be really happy with her husband Dean. As Dana K. Smith (2006: 85) put it:

...each character carries resonances of Jane Austen's characters but is allowed a wholly realized interior life and motivations.

Their inner life is mostly revealed through flashbacks from their past; almost all of them had a troublesome parent-child relationship and their personality traits and defects are mostly the consequences of those family relations.

The stories seem to be really independent and one might think that the book is not an appropriation of Austen at all, that her name in the title and the book club discussing her novels are insufficient for that. Nevertheless, the characters are based on Austen's characters, and there are several events that resemble Austen 's stories. For example, Jocelyn's high school proms or charity dinner recall balls in Austen's novels, the discussions of the novels may evoke Catherine and Henry Tilney's discussions of gothic novels, Jocelyn's attempt to find someone for the disappointed Sylvia evokes Emma 's behaviour, etc.

Before paying attention to the importance of seasons and months and their symbolic meaning in the novel, let me summarise which Fowler character is based on which Austen character. Jocelyn is the hostess of the meeting where Emma is discussed and she is closely based on the latter's character. She organised the book club, just as Emma is the organiser of her household and the social events in her community. Emma's desire to find a husband for Harriet strikingly resembles Jocelyn's eagerness to help Sylvia to get over her divorce by manipulating her and Grigg into a relationship. Emma and Jocelyn both seem to be unable to fall in love for a considerable time and Jocelyn claims that she has been happily unmarried (Fowler 2004: 37).

In fact, Jocelyn is a modern feminist version of Emma, being financially independent, due not so much to her lineage as to her hard work. Her unmarried status, combined with her older age, is meant to highlight the fact that there is no big difference between the perspectives from which spinsters were viewed in Austen's time and in our own time. Money plays as big a role now as it used to then, and Jocelyn can claim to be happily unmarried only because of her financial independence; otherwise she would end up as another poor Miss Bates. Uncovering her memories of her adolescence, Jocelyn reveals how she had been flirting with two boys one summer. Similarly, Emma feels ashamed of her bad behaviour towards Miss Bates during a trip and her flirting with Frank Churchill. Fowler pushes the story forward to modern times, changing the innocent flirting of Frank and Emma into a real sexual experience.

Allegra is the hostess of the meeting for Sense and Sensibility; she is based on the character of Marianne, with her oversensitivity and intensity of feelings. There are two more striking resemblances: both Marianne and Allegra are attentive daughters caring for their mothers, although very often they unwillingly cause them pain, mostly when they suffer as a result of love. By making Allegra a lesbian, Fowler updated Marianne's character, making her a woman who fights for love and expresses her thoughts and attitudes, no matter what.

Prudie is supposed to host the meeting for Mansfield Park, but this never takes place because her mother has an accident and dies. Her bad relationship with her mother is central to her character and remorse is something she must overcome. Fanny also feels guilty for not being sufficiently attached to her family, when she visits them after many years. I believe that Prudie is an archetype of all the female characters and real women whose lives' burden is their relationship with their mothers. That topic seems to be tackled by many novels and TV productions inspired by Austen's work, and we can witness a bad mother-daughter relationship in, for instance, Lost in Austen or Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict. Both heroines, Prudie and Fanny, lack self-confidence and beauty during their adolescence. Prudie feels a desire for sex after spending several years as a teacher in a high school. She is tempted by her student Trey Norton, but she resists. A similar case can be found in Mansfield Park, when Henry Crawford proposes to Fanny. Although she rejects his offer, there are some points at which she begins to believe in his transformation into a man who deserves her. There is nothing sexual in Fanny 's temptation, but still some similarity can be traced.

Grigg is responsible for hosting the Northanger Abbey club meeting; his resemblance to Catherine, the heroine of Austen 's first written novel, is of a rather shallow nature based on family surroundings or choice of literature and that is why I think that Grigg is meant as an opposition to Catherine and her escapes from reality to the world of her fantasy mixed with the literature of the period. By including a male protagonist in her novel, Fowler added hints of the male's vision of the world and reality. He and his initial absolute ignorance of Austen's novels serve as a reminder that Austen's novels are not the Bible and cannot be followed literally. Ariane Hudelet (2009: 155) observed this in one conversation between Grigg and Jocelyn:

The limit between fiction and reality is blurred, and Austen's fictional creations become as important to the book club members as real people. This is demonstrated by Jocelyn and Grigg's debate over the "reality" of characters: when he asks her if she has read the science fiction books he recommended, she answers, "I prefer books about real people", to which he ironically answers, "So Elizabeth Bennet is real, but people in science fiction are not?

The Pride and Prejudice meeting is held at a charity event organised by the library where Sylvia works; however, it is Bernadette's life that is uncovered, as she remembers some stories from her past about her parents and husband. She mostly resembles Elizabeth Bennet in her relationship with her parents. Having been divorced six times, Bernadette would be "ruined" or even impossible to exist in Austen 's times, so her role in the novel is to remind us that the world has moved forward and we now live in completely different conditions; therefore Austen can serve as our moral guide, but not as our code of behaviour.

The last meeting is at Sylvia's place, where they discuss Persuasion; it is their last meeting, just as Persuasion was Austen's last novel. Sylvia has a lot of common features with Anne Elliot; she is compassionate, attentive, caring, calm and dignified, like Anne. There are also certain similarities in their fates; they both break up with the men of their lives. After refusing Wentworth, Anne is not proposed to again and at the age of 27, there are only few possibilities left for her, and her probable destiny is to become a spinster. Sylvia, in her early fifties, and still not over her husband, seems to have a limited choice too. Nevertheless, they both get a second chance and find their way back to the men of their hearts, Daniel and Wentworth. One could think of Sylvia as a very suitable character for feminist writers. Broken at the beginning, she rises from the ashes, being helped only by her friends and family. She becomes an independent, self-confident woman, able to survive without Daniel and live her life on her own. Her transformation is the most complete one; she becomes a new woman. Although she takes Daniel back, it is because she loves him, not because she needs to. It is Sylvia who decides their future; Daniel is the one who begs for her forgiveness. The club members notice her transformation when she opens a birthday present from Allegra (2004: 233):

We would have guessed Sylvia was the sort to unknot the ribbon, carefully remove and fold the paper. Instead she tore it apart.

The gift also reveals that it is Sylvia who understands that they can be guided by Austen, but need to make their own decisions, that Austen's novels are not the Bible, nor the law. The quotation from the magic ball is supposed to make them decide whether Daniel can stay at the club meeting, but Sylvia secretly skips one quote and gets another, thus making her own choice. She manipulates it, because she knows best what is good for her and she understands that Austen does not offer all the answers and solutions to their problems. She can help, but cannot save everything.

2.3. The importance of seasons in The Jane Austen Book Club

Fowler's novel is divided in six chapters, based on the characters they represent, Austen's novel that is being read by the protagonists, and the months in which the reading takes place. I believe that Fowler's choice of months is not accidental, but rather fully well-considered, following the symbolic meaning of Austen 's usage of the seasons.

There is no time reference for the prologue; however, when the book club is organised and the members start meeting, we are immediately offered a month reference. Jocelyn 's story is revealed in March and so is the reading and discussion of Emma. It can be said, then, that this is when the whole story begins and the romances and complications evolve in spring. I believe I have clearly shown that Jane Austen used the same scheme. Although Jocelyn had met Grigg some time before, there had not been any development in their relationship until the story began. Similarly to Jane Austen's use of spring, Fowler was inspired by Austen when it comes to summer. Two important events happen; the library dinner is organised in July and the last club meeting is held in August. I have suggested earlier that in Austen's stories everything culminates in summer and is resolved by the time late autumn and winter come. The library dinner party seems to be important for the development of every character. Everything is heightened by the heat the characters are exposed to, because the summer is at its height. August brings the resolution of all the stories involved, Persuasion is read and the characters follow its basic idea of the possibility of second chances. The last part, following the August Persuasion chapter, is an epilogue dated in November. Here again we can see how everything is settled before either autumn or winter comes.

2.4. A film version of The Jane Austen Book Club

A film version of the bestselling novel was produced in 2007 and directed by Robin Swicord. Although it cannot be reviewed as a loose adaptation, it does not strictly follow the novel's story and plot. There are many differences, including changes in the time frame, the choice of the novels by the characters and the sequence in which the novels are read and discussed, which is very important for my paper. Other significant changes cover the relationships. Prudie and Dean's marriage is described as much worse; they do not understand each other and fight constantly. Prudie almost ends up having sex with her student Trey. In fact, her sexual desire for that younger boy seems to be the centre of her story. It seems probable that the filmmakers needed to add more action to her story and that her problems with her mother and her lack of self-confidence were not attractive and passionate enough for them. We do not learn much about Bernadette, although she is the one who founded the book club; she seems to be out of the focus of the viewer's attention and is simply used as the glue that holds the club members together. The reason is that her character as an older woman is not appealing to younger viewers, so she gets only limited space. Only some fragments of the characters' past and their relationships with their parents are revealed, which is a shame, because they are the foundation on which the characters' analysis and interpretation are based in the novel. However, the filmmakers compensated for the flashbacks by adding scenes that help us to understand the personalities of the characters. For instance, there is a scene in which, because of a problem with the shop alarm system, Prudie (shopping for some lingerie) has to let the shop assistants unpack her bag, as she is standing in front of the shop. Her face, her prudishness, her lack of self-confidence and her shame reveal a lot about her to the viewer in just one scene. Similarly, when Jocelyn organises a funeral for her dead dog, the viewers may find out that she is much lonelier than she admits and that her statements about being happily unmarried are just a façade. She is desperate for some connection and relationship and that is why she is so obsessed with and attached to her dogs.

The book club meetings start in February, a month earlier than in the novel, and the same happens with their last meeting, which, in the film, takes place in July. I can only think of one reason for the filmmakers' choice of changing the time frame. By choosing February, a winter month, they may have tried to show how unfavourable winter is for relationships in Austen's novels. The characters also seem to be very cold and reserved or broken-hearted in their relationships. Nevertheless, as spring is drawing near, they start to feel warmer and more passionate and their relationships undergo many developments; and when summer, the season favourable for love, arrives, the story is concluded and the characters are united.

I believe there is one reason for the change of sequence and choice of the novels by the characters and that is that the filmmakers wanted to make Prudie's story the centre of attention. Her story is definitely the one that is most altered, especially with regard to her relationship with her husband Dean and her student Trey, adding much more tension, passion and impropriety. Her story is the reason for not strictly following the novel and assigning Mansfield Park to Sylvia and Persuasion to Prudie. Although Sylvia clearly expresses her admiration for Fanny Price in the novel, in the film she goes so far as to choose the novel and identify herself with the heroine to a certain extent. By assigning Persuasion to Prudie, they make her and Dean's second chance the central point of the story. The film does not follow the sequence of the discussions of the novels properly, as the order of precedence is changed; Mansfield Park is the second novel to be discussed, Northanger Abbey the third one and Sense and Sensibility the fourth one. The reason for the decision to use Mansfield Park sooner in the film story is obvious; in the film version, Trey is rehearsing a play and Prudie helps him to practise his role. Their relationship starts to evolve and become dangerous, just as the rehearsal of the drama in Austen's novel is the ground on which the relationships are formed. I appreciate the decision to use Sense and Sensibility later in the story. The club meets at the hospital because Allegra is injured. The discussion there suggests how much the characters allowed Austen's novels to influence and guide their personal lives. Jocelyn and Grigg's exchange of opinions is definitely not only about the novel, but marks their present situation and their relationship. Grigg offers his opinion: "I think Jane Austen wrote about women falling in love, but she was lonely." Jocelyn reacts immediately: "Oh, you couldn't be more wrong. Austen lived a very full life." Similarly, when Prudie says: "No rules, no fear. I like that." what she is really talking about is her obsession with the student. Prudie's struggle between sense and sensibility, whether to be or not to be unfaithful to her husband, seems to be much more the centre of attention in the discussion of Sense and Sensibility than Allegra's story. Thus the filmmakers decided to make an indecent teacher-student relationship the focus of the story and that does not seem to be very Austenish. I think that they wanted to satisfy those who claim that there is not much action in Austen's stories and those who prefer more contemporary marriage complications, as no one could even imagine such a story development in Austen's novels. By doing that and giving Trey more space, they may also have gained a lot of viewers among teenagers: the story is more provocative, up-to-date and appealing to young viewers.

3. Conclusion

One can only guess whether Fowler and Swicord were aware of Austen's use of seasons as symbols. I believe that Fowler's idea of dividing the story according to the months of the year was intentional and based on her observations of Austen 's writing. The filmmakers may have only included that in the film as an attempt to closely follow the novel, but then a question arises - why did they change the time frame if there was no purpose in that? Why is Prudie's story the most altered one? Supported by the heat of the summer, Prudie's little romance is the most passionate part of the film.

Whether intentionally or not, The Jane Austen Book Club is inspired by Austen's novels on different levels, including characters, events and the symbolical meaning of the cycle of seasons.

Sidebar

Gabriela Plaňková is a teacher of English and Slovak language and literature and a Ph.D. student at the Faculty of Arts, Palacký University in Olomouc, the Czech Republic. Her research focuses on literature, adaptations and appropriations, inspired or influenced by the works of Jane Austen. She is also interested in other classical writers and novels influenced by feminism.

E-mail address: [email protected]

References

References

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