The word “legacy” gets bandied about far too frequently and often in tandem with a personality or venture that really doesn’t deserve the grandiose epithet. But Jane Austen, for one, definitely had the professional credentials for that.
The English Department of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI) and the Jerusalem Cinematheque certainly agree on that point and have decided to mark the 250th anniversary of the English literary giant’s birth with a program of events that offer irrefutable testament of her genius – that and the place she has in our hearts to this day.
The latter is, for one, reflected in the numerous silver screen and TV film adaptations that continue to captivate and even enrapture audiences across the world. And novels such as Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, and Emma, which Austen managed to have published during her relatively short life, still sell well around the world. Some, admittedly, are bought by high school students for their compulsory reading commitments, but plenty are purchased for the purpose of pure enjoyment.
The Jane Austen Festival takes place at the Cinematheque from December 22 through January 3, with a lineup of screenings as well as talks by staff from the university’s English Department – and all are in English.
Nuria Levy, a department lecturer, devised the program along with the department head, Prof. Ruben Borg.
Levy will be front and center throughout the festival, giving, for example, a talk prior to the screening of the 1995 production of Sense and Sensibility directed by Ang Lee, based on a screenplay by Oscar winner Emma Thompson, who portrays the protagonist, Elinor Dashwood.
Anyone who has watched a filmic version of an Austen novel, even without having previously read the book will, no doubt, be taken by the seamless transition from the written word to the screen. It is almost as if Austen, who died in 1817 at the age of 41, wrote the books with a silver screen reworking in mind.
Levy has a learned take on that. “As part of my research for my doctorate, I am looking at all the adaptations of Jane Austen’s novels and looking at when they started to become so popular,” Levy says. “It was really in the 1990s that Austenmania started. Then, the BBC miniseries and the films became very, very popular.” It was something of a renaissance.
“Until then,” she says, “it didn’t really look like anyone had thought to adapt the books or that it would be such a commercial success.”
That is amply demonstrated in the Cinematheque’s on-screen program, which, in addition to Sense and Sensibility, includes 1999’s Mansfield Park, starring Frances O’Connor; Emma, released in 1996, with Gwyneth Paltrow in the title role; the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice, with Keira Knightley; and Clueless, which came out in 1995 and was based on the novel Emma, with the storyline relocated to Beverly Hills. Fans of classic fare should also enjoy the original film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, which came out in 1940 and starred Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier.
There are also some films that were inspired by various Austen works but take a looser approach to the original text. These include Jane Austen Wrecked My Life, a French-British bilingual co-production from 2024; Metropolitan (1990); and Love and Friendship, a comedic adaptation of Austen’s epistolary novel Lady Susan, released in 2016 starring Kate Beckinsale.
In fact, there are some Austen-based films from before the 1990s, although Levy feels that they didn’t do the literary platform justice. “There were some films from the 1940s, ’50s and the ’80s, but they were quite niche, and they were really for a very literary audience that already knew Austen. In the ’90s, Austen entered popular culture, and now everyone has heard of Pride and Prejudice or knows the lovers trope that she popularized.”
Considering the huge following Austen’s oeuvre now commands, and the fact that some of her work was published posthumously, it is a shame she couldn’t hang around – for another couple of centuries or so – to reap the rewards of the fame and revenue. Levy is not so sure. “I don’t know if she would have liked the attention,” she laughs. “She was a very private person.”
Austen may have taken a rather introspective approach to life, but she was a perspicacious observer of human behavior and society around her. Perhaps being something of an outsider meant she enjoyed the exploratory benefits of a catbird perch, which subsequently fed into her writing. She was particularly adept at portraying certain societal circumstances and more with liberal helpings of wit and even sarcasm.
There is also more than a modicum of criticism of the class structure of the day, and that from a woman who also insisted on having her work put out in her own name. Although she wasn’t the first published female author, that still took some courage and self-belief.
Consider the likes of Mary Ann Evans, born two years after Austen died, who wrote under the pseudonym of George Elliot because she wanted to avoid the fate of other female authors of the day, who were generally pigeonholed on the lighter side of the literary domain and whose work was not taken very seriously.
“I would say she herself was quite an odd duck in her social circles,” Levy posits. “Women were not prized for their wit in Regency England, and her outspokenness and her very sharp language was not always well received. Critics of her at the time, male writers, would often remark that it was unsuited for a woman to express herself in such a way.”
That, Levy feels, was a baseless, denigratory stance. “I think there is a wonderful balance that she finds in her writing, between being quite critical but also very amusing and making the experience of reading enjoyable for her audience.”
Austen may have been belittled by some of her male counterparts but, in a way, she appears to have had the last laugh, as her work continues to be eagerly read and watched by a loyal ever-expanding consumer base. There seems to be a timelessness to her oeuvre – her writing style and the themes she addresses.
“While her work is very rooted in her Georgian and Regency time period of the landed gentry, the wider themes of human connection, of misunderstanding, ambition, and social mobility are kind of timeless. They could apply to any age, as can be seen by the many modern workings of her work. Clueless, for example, is a modern Emma; [the 2001 romantic comedy] Bridget Jones’s Diary is a modern Pride and Prejudice. Clearly, people have found something to resonate with in those themes,” says Levy.
Austen’s relevance to the current zeitgeist is not entirely down to positive reasons. “I think that, while we’re talking about a different time and a different social structure, the pressures and societal norms imposed on women still exist to a certain degree,” Levy muses. “I think that many women will be able to relate to Austen’s attitude and maybe with some frustration towards the restrictions imposed on women.”
Over the past two-plus centuries, Austen’s works have been translated into more than 40 languages, such as Hebrew, Hindi, and Chinese. However, it is one thing finding the correct word in another language, and even managing to convey the ambiance of certain relationships. But how, for example, does Levy think Israeli-born people appreciate the idea of a social hierarchy or the concept not only of social mobility but all the airs and graces, and accepted modes of behavior in certain social circles?
"I think it can be a challenge; and I think that part of reading a Jane Austen novel is also finding out about the minutiae of this kind of class divide, and the differences between a private gentleman and a titled gentleman and all these things which seem very removed. But, like any good literature, it’s like diving into a different world, and you want to find out as much as you can about it.”
Levy has been finding out just as much as she can about Austen’s work, probably more than most. “My master’s [degree] research was about women reading within the novels of Jane Austen. I looked at what she gave her female characters to read, how she treats women who read versus women who don’t. To simplify that, she does place very big value on reading as an education for women, as a means for social mobility for them, and as a way for them to free themselves from an otherwise restrictive society.”
Levy is still following her specialized learning curve as she works toward a doctoral degree. She is currently exploring a different perspective on the dynamics and roles Austen depicts in her writing.
“Now I’m looking at modern adaptations of Jane Austen’s novels, and I’m actually looking at the function of the narrator. Austen’s narrator, which is often combined with her own persona, is often very witty, very critical, very sarcastic; and in modern adaptations, that sometimes gets lost in the periodesque drama that comes with her novels. I have a great appreciation for her humor and her subtle style of writing. I think she is really wonderful.” I have to agree, as do millions of readers and cinemagoers around the world.
In terms of the Austen legacy, no doubt academics and other devotees of her oeuvre find evidence of her influence in all sorts of fields. The idea of class structure, and the comedic reversal thereof, for example, brings to mind Monty Python sketches.
One I recall from the early 1970s TV series Monty Python’s Flying Circus flexed social bracketing to the max by having the common-looking and -sounding parents bemoaning their tough life of having to do the rounds of cocktail parties and PR presentations. Meanwhile, the spiffy-looking son, with his Oxford English, who earned his crust down the local coal mine, was disparaged as soft and mollycoddled.
Levy sees the natural flow there. “For me, it all falls under the umbrella of British humor,” she chuckles. “I wouldn’t say Austen is a huge part of that, but I think she contributed.”
Then again, the Regency era writer may not have gone along with that. “I think she herself would be offended if someone called her a comic or said she was writing comedy. She considered herself to be a very serious writer. But I do think her satire, her cynical remarks as a narrator, can be closely tied with what we see in more modern British comedy groups, troupes, and sketch shows. I can definitely see the connection there,” she says.
With some of the Jerusalem Cinematheque screenings being preceded by learned talks about the feted writer’s work and times, no doubt the festivalgoers will enjoy a more immersive viewing experience. That may move some people who have not, to date, delved into Austen’s writing to actually obtain a copy of Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility. Regardless, most of the Austen-inspired filmic creations produced thus far have been quality works and entertaining, too.
Happy birthday, Ms. Austen. May your legacy live on.
For tickets and more information: https://jer-cin.org.il/en.