As we approach the end of “Jack’s Bookshelf”, we welcome Rachel Sherlock from the “Risking Enchantment” podcast to talk about one of the more surprising influences on Lewis, Jane Austen.
S6E35: “Jack’s Bookshelf – Jane Austen” (Download)
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Show Notes
Introduction
Drop-In
Quote-of-the-week
If I loved you less, I might be able to speak about it more.
Jane Austen, Emma
Biographical Information
Rachel Sherlock is a writer, with a background in literary writing and book reviewing. She’s passionate about literature, with a special interest in history, mythology, classic novels, and crime fiction, as well as a keen interest in language, linguistics, and the history of language.
She is host of the podcast “Risking Enchantment”, on which I have been a guest, and I’m very pleased to welcome her here…
Guest Biographical Information
Chit-Chat
- Heavenly and Hellish Creatures in The Great Divorce feat. Pints with Jack co-host David Bates
- S4E73 – Bonus – “The Great Divorce” with Risking Enchantment
- The Universal Truths of C.S. Lewis, with Michael Ward
Toast
- David was drinking a Left Hand Milk Stout
- Rachel was drinking honey, black pepper and ginger tea
Discussion
01. “Encountering Austen”
Q. When did you first encounter Jane Austen?
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
- Pride and Prejudice (2005) movie adaptation
- Sense and Sensibility (1995) movie adaptation
- Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
- Trafalgar Park formerly owned by David’s cousin
- Love and Friendship (2016) movie adaptation
02. “Author 101”
Q. Who was Jane Austen?
03. “Influential author”
Q. Why is Jane Austen such an important and influential writer?
04. “Influences”
Q. What were Jane Austen’s chief influences?
- Influences
- Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
05. “Corpus”
Q. Would you mind giving us a brief sketch of Austen’s corpus?
- Pride and Prejudice
- Sense and Sensibility
- Mansfield Park
- Emma
- Northanger Abbey (Posthumous)
- Persuasion (Posthumous)
- Lady Susan (Posthumous and incomplete)
- Love and Friendship (Posthumous and incomplete)
- The letters of Jane Austen
- Juvenilia
Jane Austen was not inflamed or inspired or even moved to be a genius; she simply was a genius. Her fire, what there was of it, began with herself; like the fire of the first man who rubbed two dry sticks together. Some would say that they were very dry sticks which she rubbed together. It is certain that she by her own artistic talent made interesting what thousands of superficially similar people would have made dull.
G.K. Chesterton, Introduction to Jane Austen’s “Love and Friendship”
- Georgette Heyer
- A note on Jane Austen by C.S. Lewis (found in Selected Literary Essays)
06. “Influencing Lewis”
Q. Where do you see Austen influencing Lewis?
- Selected Literary Essays by C.S. Lewis
All is hard, clear, definable; by some modern standards, even naively so. The hardness is, of course, for oneself, not for one’s neighbours. It reveals to Marianne her want ‘of kindness’ and shows Emma that her behaviour has been ‘unfeeling’. Contrasted with the world of modern fiction, Jane Austen’s is at once less soft and less cruel.
C.S. Lewis, A note on Jane Austen
- The Narnia Code by Dr. Michael Ward
- The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis
[Austen’s world] is unexacting in so far as the duties commanded are not quixotic or heroic, and obedience to them will not be very difficult to properly brought up people in ordinary circumstances. It is exacting in so far as such obedience is rigidly demanded; neither excuses nor experiments are allowed. If charity is the poetry of conduct and honour the rhetoric of conduct, Jane Austen’s ‘principles’ might be described as the grammar of conduct. Now grammar is something that anyone can learn; it is also something that everyone must learn.
C.S. Lewis, A note on Jane Austen
He learned more of Malacandrian humour and of the noises that expressed it in this one night than he had learned during the whole of his life on the strange planet hitherto. Indeed, nearly all Malacandrian conversations in which he had yet taken part had been grave. Apparently the comic spirit arose chiefly from the meeting of the different kinds of hnau. The jokes of all three were equally incomprehensible to him. He thought he could see differences in kind—as that the sorns seldom got beyond irony, while the hrossa were extravagant and fantastic, and the pfifltriggi were sharp and excelled in abuse—but even when he understood all the words he could not see the points. He went early to bed.
C.S. Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet (Chapter 18)
07. “Getting started”
Q. Where would you recommend someone begin reading Austen?
- Pride and Prejudice and then Sense and Sensibility
- Avoid starting with Mansfield Park and Persuasion
08. “Adaptations”
Q. Which do you think are the best and worst adaptations of Austen’s work?
- Sense and Sensibility (1995)
- Pride and Prejudice TV Series (1995)
- Pride and Prejudice (2005)
- Emma (2009)
- Clueless (1995)
- Emma (2020)
- Persuasion (2022)
- Bride and Prejudice (2004)
- The Lizzie Bennet Diaries
- Love and Friendship
