A Book To Read

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 96, 18 January 1938, Page 5

A Book To Read

The Life and Works of Jane Austen A CHARACTER STUDY “Jane Austen,” by Beatrice Kean Seymour (London: Michael Joseph). TT is a significant fact that admirers of Charles Dickens are called Dickensians, but admirers of Jane Austen are called Janettes. If a man is born with the necessary qualities to make him a Janeite. he will feel, by the time he has read “Pride and Prejudice” and “Emma,” that he knows their author well enough to call her by her Christian name. Yet, about this woman, who can rouse personal affection as well as admiration in her readers, a legend has developed that she was a caustic spinster, with a narrow outlook' and a subnormal emotional development. It is to refute this legend that Beatrice Kean Seymour has written her book, “Jane Austen.” - The author describes it as “a study for a portrait as yet un.painted.” If at some future date a writer does desire to paint a finished portrait of Jane Austen, this sketch of Mrs. 'Seymour s will provide him with excellent material. Mrs. Seymour is a Janeite, but not the passionate Janeite who becomes so submerged in the beloved’s works that he has to rise to the surface at the end of every three pages, panting for breath, • anij, in consequence, is too impressed to see a single flaw.

Mrs. Seymour possesses a great measure of that quality she admires in Jane, the quality of reasonableness. In her sketch she has not painted out the imperfections, and so the great deal that is perfect is made credible. In, the past those who have found fault with Jane as a novelist, have been inclined to' overlook her letters, and those who have found fault with her as a woman to overlook her novels. Mrs. Seymour’s sketch is based on both. She has studied the development of Jane’s genius from its first mocking manifestations in “Loye and Friendship” and “Northanger Abbey,” to its most mature expression in “Persuasion,” and has evolved a critical conception of the woman who wrote them. This conception she has supplemented with Jane’s expression of her own personality in her letters, particularly her letters to her sister Cassandra. The result is a very convincing sketch of Jane Austen. Mrs. Seymour is a Janeite, and halfway through the book there is a change in her treatment of the subject, as though she wondered whether, in being so critical, she were being disloyal. The second half of the book is a defence against everybody’s criticisms except her own. She considers the major charges levelled against Jane Austen, and, holding them up to the light of common sense -and intelligent understanding,- she draws some thought-provoking conclusions. If Jane, in Elysium, can read all that has been written of her since her death, I think she will have most enjoted G. K. Chesterton, but less for wiiat he has said than the way he has said it. She will enjoy Mrs. Seymour’s study for its sympathy and sense, qualities that strongly appealed to her. Janettes will welcome it eagerly, for it is the most understanding attempt that has yet been made to portray the woman who is the h rst lady In the land of letters. — MJ.