The Latest from Devoney (June '23)

From Mansfield Parkers, to Banjos, to Teenage Artless Tales

Dear Janeite and Sister-Novelists Friends:

I hope this finds you well—and, for those of you in the Northern Hemisphere, enjoying a great summer so far. I’d like to offer a Phoenix-level-hot welcome to the twenty new Counterpoise subscribers I got to meet this week on Zoom, as a guest at Hayley Solano’s Enchanted Book Club. They’re reading Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park (1814) together this month, so, at Hayley’s invitation, I joined them, and we had a great chat (without spoilers!).

My favorite part was telling them about the history of strong responses to this novel, from Jane Austen’s own mother calling heroine Fanny Price “insipid” in 1814 to admiring critic Logan Pearsall Smith’s calling himself a “Mansfield Parker” in 1937. Although I think my own take is probably still closer to Mrs. Austen’s than to Smith’s, maybe I’m mellowing on it with age. The conversation made wonder whether I should have a summer go at re-reading it. I love this 1875 edition—the first with a series of Austen-inspired illustrations, not just on the frontispiece, title page, or cover.

Frontispiece and Two Illustrations from Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park (London: Groombridge & Sons, 1875), by A. F. Lydon.

SISTER NOVELISTS AT NYPL LIVE WITH BEANIE FELDSTEIN!

The last time I wrote I was about to head off to NYC to be interviewed by biographer Ruth Franklin (whose next biography is on Anne Frank) and to hear the Porter sisters’ letters read by brilliant actor Beanie Feldstein at NYPL Live. We had so much fun that night. Beanie was just the absolute loveliest. We talked in the green room about how excited she was to be planning her wedding to Bonnie-Chance Roberts. Now having seen the wedding photos in Vogue, I see why. It was a picture-perfect Gucci summer camp wedding. I was a Beanie fan before meeting her, but now I so hope she and Bonnie (a producer) will want to put Sister Novelists on screen. I feel sure they’d create something important from the sisters’ fascinating stories. If you didn’t see the NYPL Live event, you can check it out on the New York Public Library’s YouTube page. And if you haven’t weighed in this week to support the NYPL in its fight against proposed budget cuts and would like to add your voice, that’s here.

New York Public Library Live: Sister Novelists, with Ruth Franklin and Beanie Feldstein

SPOTTING SISTER NOVELISTS IN THE WORLD

Thanks to the friends who’ve sent photos of Sister Novelists in bookstores and libraries. It was a pleasure to learn that it was recently on special display at the Santa Fe Public Library, as well as to see it in the “Entertainment” section of the 5th Avenue Barnes and Noble. But it was a special thrill that ASU’s President Michael Crow took the time to send me his photo after spotting the book at Kramers in DC. Thank you, thank you, all of you, who took the time to read, review, and notice the book. (More opportunities to help spread the word that way are linked below.)

Sister Novelists at Santa Fe Public Library, Kramers in DC, and B&N on 5th Ave/NYC

NEW PREJUDICE & PRIDE BEING STAGED

Okay, here’s something new—at least I think it’s new? A banjo musical P&P adaptation, called Prejudice & Pride, showing at Off-Broadway’s 59E59, July 13 to August 20. They are calling it a “knee-slapping, foot-stomping, heart-tugging new folk musical.” They didn’t just flip around the title words. It’s “a new modern gender-flipped Jane Austen,” where the “young single woman in possession of a good fortune” is “absurdly rich songstress Darcy Fitzwilliams,” who moves in next door to Bennett Longborn in East Tennessee. It’s got to be better than the last gender-flipped Austen adaptation I saw, which was a truly dreadful Hallmark Christmas movie, Pride, Prejudice, and Mistletoe, with Lacey Chabert playing a character named Darcy Fitzwilliam. . . . I don’t think I’m going to get to New York to see this new Austen-banjo musical, but if you do, please let me know what you think.

UPCOMING FUN THINGS

I’m happy to report recently sending off to press (with three amazing ASU student co-editors) the first modern edition of Anna Maria Porter’s Artless Tales, Vol. II (1795-96), her second book, published when she was just sixteen. We hope our edition will be out in October or November, when we’ll have a launch party. I’ll be sure to tell you about it. In the meantime, do check out the Juvenilia Press, a non-profit press that exclusively publishes childhood writings, edited by faculty-student teams.

Anna Maria Porter with Laurels, Artless Tales, Vol. II, and Anna Maria Porter in Straw Hat

Or maybe we’ll have a little celebration if the book is ready in time to make it to the Jane Austen Society of North America’s Annual General Meeting, in Denver, from Nov. 3-5, at the Gaylord Rockies Resort. I’ll be presenting new work there on the history of P&P on stage and screen in a breakout session. I hope to see some of you there. Until then, please keep in touch. Let me know what you’re reading, viewing, or noticing in the world—or what I ought to be, especially if it touches on the history of strong women.

Sincerely,
Devoney

P. S. MIGHT YOU HELP ME SPREAD THE WORD FURTHER ABOUT Sister Novelists?

• Add Sister Novelists to your Want to Read on Goodreads, and return later to rate and review it.

• Rate or review Sister Novelists on Amazon or BookBub.

• Did you know that Sister Novelists has an online reader’s guide for book groups?

• The book is also available on Audible and in audiobook format.

• Does your public library, or college/university library, have a copy in its collections yet? If not, please suggest it for purchase. (ISBN: 978-1635575293)

• Forward this newsletter to a friend.