The latest literary news in the UK is that much respected crime author P.D. James is planning to write a murder mystery based on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Regular readers of this column will know that I am not a great fan of Jane Austen and that I can't stand the works, collected or otherwise, of the Bronte sisters and deplore their domination of women's literature. Frankly the only reason they have such a dominant position is because for years they were deemed the only female novelists suitable to be read by delicately nurtured females who could have no greater ambition than to make a mercenary marriage. Both featured on the curriculum at my girls' grammar where the headmistress, even in the 1960s fondly liked to imagine we were 'gels'. (We weren't!) More politically minded and rather better novelists like Maria Edgeworth, Elizabeth Gaskell and Mary-Anne Evans (George Eliot) did not get a look in. Oddly this restrictive approach to literature did not apply to male writers. I studied John Osborne's 'Luther' at A-level which influenced me far more than Jane Austen or Charlotte Bronte. I have always liked writers with ideas.
Even more irritating is the effect on the film industry. How many versions of Jane Eyre do we need? The latest remake is now on general release. If a film isn't based on an actual Jane Austen novel it seems it is either Jane Eyre or it's a modern re-telling of a Jane Austen novel (Bridget Jones Diary, Clueless etc). Enough surely! The most exciting event in Persuasion is when someone catches a cold. Puh-lease! If I pitched that story to a TV executive I would be out on my ear faster than I could say 'Jane!' Every pointless remake is a brand new original film that doesn't get made. Please, everybody, give it a rest.
I am full of admiration for these women in getting their work published - difficult enough at the best of times - and more than a little annoyed at publishers who still think this is the standard of literature required for 'women' (why do women need a separate category anyway like children?) - I just wish the books were more ambitious. To Jane and Charlotte, Anne and Emily may I just say Maria, Mary-Anne and Elizabeth all did it. Wrote proper grown-up books I mean. Why didn't you at least give it a try?
By the way I have nothing against Janes in general. My father never called me anything else.
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