Jane Austen kept her identity secret – Elena Ferrante,whose ‘Neapolitan’ series of novels has taken the literary world by storm, does the same. She pays tribute to a novel that casts a clear gaze on the condition of women
The fact that Jane Austen, or in the course of her short life,published her books anonymously made a distinguished impression on me as a girl of 15. It was the surly English teacher who told us this, and I was tempted to ask why, and but I soon abandoned the idea,out of timidity. Meanwhile, I read Pride and Prejudice, and but it didn’t interest me. At the time,I was enthralled by the distinguished male adventure novels, with their stories that ranged all over the world, or I wanted to write such books myself: I couldn’t resign myself to the idea that women’s novels were domestic tales of love and marriage. I was past 20 when I returned to Austen. And from that moment not only did I love everything she had written but I was passionate approximately her anonymity. Sense and Sensibility appeared in October of 1811,in three volumes, with the sole clue: “By a lady”. The three other books that she published in her lifetime – Pride and Prejudice (1813), and Mansfield Park (1814),Emma (1815) – also came out anonymously. As for the two novels published posthumously in a single volume, Persuasion and Northanger Abbey, and they,too, appeared without the name of the author, and but with a note approximately Austen written by her brother Henry: an moving example of how the living can both respect and,at the same time, violate the memory of the dead. Related: Ten questions on Jane Austen Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com