Austen devotees need no persuasion

A collection of people's reminiscences about reading Jane Austen reveals deep affection, even passion, reports books editor MARGIE THOMSON.

Oh Jane, how we love you! And as for Mr Darcy, he remains the ultimate fantasy for girls and grown women alike, his x-factor pursuing our hearts down through the centuries.

Discovering Jane Austen is, quite simply, a defining moment. Like remembering where you were when presidents and princesses died, who cannot remember their first brush with the grande dame of English literature? Perhaps it was love at first sight; perhaps it was a crossed love which needed a change in circumstances (the acquisition of age and wisdom) to flourish; perhaps after years of flirting with other, younger writers you disentangled from your youthful pride and prejudice and stumbled, sensibly, back to constant Jane.

Some people even feel that one's attitude to Jane Austen is indicative of character.

"I think it is," laughs Susannah Fullerton who, with Anne Harbers, has edited a collection of reminiscences of the author, Jane Austen: Antipodean Views (Wellington Lane, $29.95). "I ask people early on in my acquaintance, 'Do you like Jane Austen?' If the answer is yes, they do tend to immediately shoot up in my estimation."

We can assume, then, that she won't be forming lasting friendships with former Mayor of Wellington Sir Michael Fowler who growls, "Jane Austen bored me stupid at secondary school. I've never read her since", or even with former Prime Minister David Lange who inquired with uncharacteristic vacancy, "Is she the one who lived with her sisters in the parsonage?"

But mostly, their respondents - who include the truly famous as well as local personalities and less-known fans - have fallen over themselves to write with great enthusiasm about this long-dead woman who occupies a special place in the lives of 21st-century readers.

"To me a year is wasted if I haven't re-read at least one Jane Austen in it!" writes poet laureate Elizabeth Smither, one of many in this collection to finger Austen as a yearly pleasure.

"I was in love with Mr Darcy at 15 and still am," confesses Australian writer Susanne Gervay, echoing a popular sentiment. Murray Ball, though (who contributed the cover cartoon for this smart little book), would rather have been Mr Darcy. "I, personally, had definite pretensions to being Mr Darcy. But humbler, and quicker off the mark with the bafflingly sexy Elizabeth."

Auckland writer and commentator Gordon McLauchlan was initially, as an adventure-loving 15-year-old, immune to the charms of Austen, but the scales fell from his eyes many years later and he returned to her to discover her musicality, wit and perceptiveness. He describes a visit to the Austen shrine, her house at Chawton where she lived during her most productive years, 1809 to 1817.

"I found an absurd air of reverence, a museum so static I had great difficulty imagining a lively mind ever in residence there. The famous creaking door whose hinges Jane deliberately left unoiled so she could hear anyone approaching and have time to hide her work is labelled as such but doesn't squeak any more. 'Who oiled the door?' I asked mock-accusingly of one of the elderly women in charge. She looked away and busied herself with dusting."

Manners and style have changed greatly in the past 200 years, but Austen endures.

"She appeals to people in so many different ways," Fullerton explains.

"Some people adore her exact use of language. Other people respond to her characters. Another reason is her wonderful wit and humour.

"I usually re-read all six of her novels at least once a year, and every time I learn something new about myself or about human nature - and, of course, human nature has not changed since she wrote her novels. Reading Jane Austen is like a dose of wonderfully pleasant medicine that people just need to have every so often to rejuvenate them."

Fullerton's project was inspired by a similar British publication, Jane Austen: A Celebration, although the two books form "an interesting contrast with each other", she says, the British one being "stuffy, correct, proper" and the Antipodean one "fun, with an appeal for young people".

She was thrilled with the response rate to the original letter she and Harbers sent out to hundreds of Australians and New Zealanders from all walks of life, and bowled over by the friendliness of many of the responses. Alliance leader Jim Anderton, for instance, replied with delight.

"In all my years as a member of Parliament I have received many unusual requests. This must be one of the most unusual. However, I am delighted to respond," he wrote. In his contribution he notes, "Austen was a revelation to me ... This was a whole new world opening up of which I'd known nothing".

As for Fullerton, she is in no doubt that Austen has changed her life. This erstwhile university academic, who began her career at the University of Auckland but emigrated to Australia around 15 years ago, is one of those happy individuals whose working life echoes their central passion.

Fullerton first encountered Austen at the age of 11 when her mother read her Pride and Prejudice. Now, she is a freelance lecturer, paid good money to talk about her favourite subject and related matters, such as the architecture, art or even cooking of Regency times - "anything," she says, "that will help us understand the novels".

The Jane Austen Society of Australia, of which Fullerton is president, is that country's largest literary society, beating hands down the societies of other writers such as Dickens and the Brontes, although it is probably not polite to speak of such matters in terms of rude competition. Nevertheless, even though she also lectures when required on those other luminaries, as well as Oscar Wilde, Samuel Pepys and Anthony Trollope and even some modern writers, Fullerton can't help remarking on the particular passion that Austen, and Austen alone, inspires in her readers - a passion even unto death, it transpires.

For instance, popular children's author John Marsden, who "almost" agrees with his old English teacher that Emma is the only perfect novel in the English language, plans to see out his days in the company of Austen.

"I've deliberately refrained from reading Persuasion so that I would never get to the point where I had no more Jane Austens left to read," he writes. "When the doctor, with grave countenance, gives me the news that I have only three months, the grief will be mitigated by delight that at last I am allowed to read Persuasion."

But that seems a long time to wait. If you've forgotten the particular pleasures - be they hormonal, as in the case of Ball, or more cerebral, as in the case of the Australian biochemist who finds in Austen the "most profound message that no matter who, where or what we are, we are empowered by the sensible expression of our thoughts" - this little book will have you once again plunging back between the covers with Jane, Mr Darcy et al.