VIRGINIA WOOLF on JANE AUSTEN’s writing style-Persuasion & novels Austen might have written ANALYSIS

[@DrOctaviaCox]

Do you agree with Woolf’s analysis of Austen?

[@PaulfromChicago]

Dunno. Need to read more of Woolf's analysis. Talking about Austen's beliefs without Mansfield Park is to be incomplete. Thanks for making this video.

[@DrOctaviaCox]

It's my pleasure - thanks for watching.

[@gabycarrera7033]

I'm no expert but I've always wandered, why some documentaries about Austen Says that she died in poverty and unknown. What do you think Dr. Cox?

[@owamuhmza]

I love Persuasion because of the tinge of wistful sadness that pervades it throughout. I think of it as the “autumn” piece of her work compared to say, Emma, which I think of as a “spring” piece of work because of the vibrancy threading through it. I like to read these books one after the other for the sheer pleasure of the sharp contrast and swing they elicit in my own emotions. When I read Emma, I feel young, footloose and fancy free; when I read Persuasion, I feel mature, introspective and grateful for the blessings and experience that come with age.

[@mosart7025]

Interesting take on the "feelings" Austen provokes. Now I must read them all again!

[@misskimmy4040]

I like this! What seasons would you put Jane's other novels in?

[@brendabarrows6129]

Thank you, Dr. Cox, for this splendid reading. A detail I haven't seen mentioned in comments here (pardon me if I've missed it!) is that in 1924 when this review was published Virginia Woolf was 42 years old -- the same age as Jane Austen was at the time of her death. It strikes me that while Woolf's analysis of Austen's work is both insightful and entertaining on its stated subject, the points Woolf makes about a mature writer's perspective and the "six books" as yet unwritten must also reflect something of her own self-assessment. Woolf actually published six novels after 1924, one of them posthumously.

[@Ailorn]

Persuasion became my favorite Austen novel as soon as I read it. Every time I run out of Austen novels to read I lament that there aren't more to read. I think Austen could have so much more to share an her word choice in her editing process is so important to her crafting her point an layers..

[@DrOctaviaCox]

I agree Zaneel! I also wish there were more! Have you read Austen's lesser known works too: e.g. Sanditon, Lady Susan, the History of England, the Watsons? They're not full, edited novels, but they are really interesting in terms of seeing Austen's development & editing process. You might also enjoy the cancelled chapters of _Persuasion_ - which show Austen's original planned ending. It's quite revealing to learn how different Austen's original plan had been to what she rewrote! You can see Austen's manuscript in her own hand here: janeausten.ac.uk/manuscripts/blpers/1.html

[@rosezingleman5007]

@@DrOctaviaCox Thanks for that link Dr Cox. I can never get enough Austen. St. Augustine said that at the end of time we will be reunited with our flesh and at the height of our talents. Great artists will create, great composers will write music, great poets will observe. I like to look forward to seeing what our Dear Jane will have to tell us then. It’s quite a nice daydream.

[@DrOctaviaCox]

It’s an interesting exercise to examine how the style & techniques of _Persuasion_ differ from Austen’s previous novels, and consider what this exposes about the development of Austen’s craft. And then great fun to speculate about what this might have meant for any future novels!

[@63Speed63]

This is mirrored in the works of Mozart, in his operas, most particularly his final opera, The Magic Flute. The divine simplicity in that final work has given historians pause, but can be seen as Woolf sees Austen here: the moving beyond. It's interesting to speculate on what effect Mozart's experiment with simplicity would've had on the infantile Romantic movement.

[@DrOctaviaCox]

Beautifully put - exactly, moving beyond. There is actually a book on _Jane Austen and Mozart_ by Robert Wallace if you're interested in some further reading. There's also a chapter called 'Cockney Mozart' in Gillen D'Arcy Wood's _Romanticism and Music Culture in Britain_

[@effie358]

@@DrOctaviaCox you suggest the coolest books! Now that I know it exists I simply have to read this one

[@DrOctaviaCox]

Ha! - thank you, wildroses. If you are further interested in Woolf's readings of Austen, then you might enjoy this brief essay from the JA journal _Persuasions_ : www.jasna.org/persuasions/printed/number12/lee.htm

[@effie358]

@@DrOctaviaCox thank you so much!!

[@cynthiarowley719]

Knowing the order these stories were written, and published gives the reader ideas. I'm not sure why she supposed Jane Austen would suddenly have begun to travel and be toasted by London society. Austen's characters never have fun in London, do they? I know at 40, love looks a lot different, than it did at 20. After a lifetime of devotion to her writing, was she ready to go out to sea, with her own Captain Wentworth? She did trade a lot for her free time to write. It's interesting to think about the six novels she didn't write. Thank you for reading this💐

[@DrOctaviaCox]

I think Woolf thought that Austen's name would become more widely known in London literary circles. Pride and Prejudice had been the toast of the town in 1813. Anonymity, as one might imagine, often waned over time and multiple publications. Austen's identity was already an 'open' rather than a 'closed' secret (not helped by her brother Henry telling all-and-sundry) - she was well known enough that the Prince Regent 'requested' that Emma be dedicated to him.

[@feelswriter]

Wow. Thank you so much for bringing this to our attention.

[@gersandelf]

Extraordinary. Thank you for reading.

[@jrpipik]

I've just seen this for the first time now, a year later. Fascinating speculation. Thanks.

[@SS-qo3nt]

Love it!

[@mosart7025]

So have you read aloud The Janeites by Kipling? The statement about "the 25 elderly gentlemen living in the neighborhood of London..." made me think of it.

[@argusfleibeit1165]

I think a lot of what we modern readers love in her books is the completely different world she lived in and writes about. There is repression and limitation, surely, but one also can nest in the little, mostly safe if not always financially secure worlds of the characters. There seem to always be relatives who are better off, who can take one for a vacation in London or Bath or Derbyshire. There are well-to-do men who are available to fulfill the "rescue fantasy" that some of us still secretly harbor in our modern lives. Woolf's ideas of how Austen might have changed and grown are really pointless. How many writers have even this body of work that is still so beloved and read after so many years? P.S. I have never even read any of Woolf's work. I live with depression myself, and don't need to bathe myself in hers.

[@DrOctaviaCox]

… I’m not sure Woolf can have read _Sanditon_ (the novel that Austen was writing when she died). It rather trounces Woolf’s speculations, doesn’t it? [Chapman’s 1923 edition, which Woolf was reviewing, only contained Austen’s six main novels.]

[@HeyAllyHey]

I was wondering the same thing: Did Woolf read Sanditon? I do believe that Austen would’ve taken on more mature themes but I don’t believe she would’ve lost the dialogue or been less...snappy? I think it just depends on the themes of the book, I think. When I read her books chronologically, her books seem to zig-zag in regards to expectations. She evolves, adjust, goes somewhere you never expected, but she’s still herself. I think overall Woolf would be more right than wrong but Austen’s shift wouldve been hard to catch just like her greatness 🤷‍♀️

[@DrOctaviaCox]

Ha! - yes indeed - such a good phrase of Woolf's to describe Austen. Austen makes writing seem so easy, and yet she's actually such a technical wizard! I very much doubt that Woolf had read Sanditon - it wasn't published in the edition of Austen's _Works_ that Woolf was reviewing. Sanditon was alluded to (with a precis) in the 2nd edition of the _Memoir_ (published 1871, and written by her nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh), but the whole text wasn't published until 1925 (so the year after this review of Jan 1924).

[@kahkah1986]

@@DrOctaviaCox She does depict Sanditon as 'more of a group' though imo. I think Woolf is quite right, or at least not wrong, that JA was thinking more of a society. There is no clear cut romantic hero in Sanditon either to interact with the heroine, in fact there is no romance, which is a major departure from the previous novels - although it is of course unfinished.

[@rachelwhite9503]

It is only in this I understand why Virginia is so revered

[@BeckyMarshallDesign]

Damn, what a poignant tribute.