Military Owes Jane; Janeites Owe Military
Last month, we explored the way the Napoleonic Wars affected Jane Austen’s family and how her novels were viewed by readers during the world wars of the twentieth century. This month, we’ll drill a little deeper and go a little wider.
Austen’s novels might be said to have participated directly in World War II. Some of Virginia Woolf’s copies of Austen’s books were reported to have been damaged during the Blitz, and a book dealer in London offered a first edition of Northanger Abbey and Persuasion at a discounted price “because it and other rare books had been water-damaged by firefighters battling an incendiary bomb.” The latter instance is recounted by Annette M. LeClair in the article “In and Out of the Foxholes: Talking of Jane Austen During and after World War II,” in Persuasions (issue 39). LeClair concludes that Austen’s novels provided solace to the home folks as well as to the troops.
In her The Lost Books of Jane Austen (2019), Janine Barchas found that it was the cheap editions of Austen’s novels that helped develop Jane’s reputation during the 1800s. Such editions were printed by the tens of thousands for readers and schools all over the English-reading world. Barchas also located several rare copies of mass-produced war paperbacks by Austen and included the cover images in her book.
Begrimed troops reading in foxholes likely got a chuckle to see adverts for toothpaste and lighting fixtures on the backs of Penguin titles. (Image courtesy of Janine Barchas; used by permission.)
As cheap books kept Austen popular over time, cheap books—in this case, free—may have had the same effect on modern writers whose books were handed out to soldiers. Scribner’s produced only 25,000 copies of The Great Gatsby from 1925 to 1942, but 155,000 were given to the army and navy overseas during World War II. Not coincidentally, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s reputation enjoyed a resurgence after the war. The book is now considered a classic.
These two efforts, British and American, to provide books to the military helped the printing industries to develop the expertise and distribution models that carried on in the postwar paperback booms in both countries. New publishers such as Bantam, Ballantine, and Ace emerged to serve up inexpensive editions. The efforts undoubtedly spread literacy as well as generated interest in genres such as romance, westerns, detective stories, science fiction, and fantasy.
During the wars, Austen and other authors provided a welcome distraction to the troops, especially those serving in distant battle zones. Austen’s stories of ordinary life in quiet country villages proved a respite to readers of the crashing struggle around them in Austen’s time. Her novels also reminded soldiers, then and later, of the life they were fighting for.
A first edition of Pride and Prejudice, part of the Thomas Meatys set at Jane Austen’s House in Chawton, Hampshire, contains a set of inscriptions when the then-owner (currently unknown), noted each time he read the novel. One of these times came while he was on leave from the British Expeditionary Force on 5 May 1918—the army during World War I. Lizzie Dunford, director of the House, noted in an article in Persuasions (No. 44) that Austen’s novels “represented an escape, as well as a vision of an idealized England,” for the military.
War Illustrated, a popular magazine during World War I, solicited books to provide “friendly companionship” to take the minds of combatants away from the “terrible environment” of war. How important the “friendly companionship” of reading was to soldiers in battle is seen by a reference in Lawrence Durrell’s Clea (1960), a novel set in Egypt in WWII. A soldier on leave in Alexandria from desert combat is looking for a replacement copy of “a sodden, dog-eared little book with a bullet hole in the cover, smeared with oil.” It’s Dickens’ The Pickwick Papers, the only book the unit has, and it’s worn out from use. He must find a replacement copy, the soldier says, or “the crew will bloody well fry me.”
Military readers in WWII often expressed their thanks to authors in writing. Some authors received hundreds of thank-yous, with soldiers saying the books were the first they had ever read through in one sitting—or possibly read at all.
As much as the military owes Austen, though, Janeites also owe the military. Jane Austen’s House, the most popular Austen site in the world, exists because of the sacrifice of Lt. Philip John Carpenter. He died at the age of twenty-two leading an attack in Italy in 1944. The Carpenter family purchased the cottage and gave it in trust to “all lovers of Jane Austen.” Until then, they had had no deep connection to the author. But they were from Hampshire and wanted to honor their son. Philip is commemorated on a plaque near the entry, and the family has been engaged with the House since.
One of the country’s many fallen sons gave rise to a sanctuary for one of the nation’s most beloved daughters.
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My new book, Jane Austen and the Creation of Modern Fiction: Six Novels in a “Style Entirely New,” examines Austen’s development as a writer and the way her innovations shaped modern fiction. The book is available at a discounted price from Jane Austen Books. Formal launch will be at the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) annual general meeting in October.
The Marriage of Miss Jane Austen is also available from Jane Austen Books and Amazon. The trilogy traces love from a charming courtship through the richness and complexity of marriage and concludes with a test of the heroine’s courage and moral convictions. A “boxed set” that combines all three in an e-book format is also available.