Everybody's Jane

Juliette Wells's Everybody's Jane engagingly fills a surprising gap in the bulging Jane Austen bookshelves, surveying how and why this writer of six anonymously published novels attracts both young and old, female and male, and academics and amateurs. Professor Wells leads the reader, including this one, to think about why one loves and respects the same "Jane" who has sparked an Austen cottage industry of key chains, mugs, and Regency dressing, but who shunned fame and publicity in her own life. -- Joan Klingel Ray, Ph.D., Professor of English and CU-President's Teaching Scholar, University of Colorado, USA and President of the Jane Austen Society of North America (2000-2006). At once affectionate and judicious, Everybody's Jane succeeds marvellously in revealing the energy and tremendous variety of the practices that amateur readers develop to make Jane Austen's works a part of their lives. Juliette Wells' stories of Austen-inspired fandom--of Austen tourism, collecting, fan fiction, and dating guides--amply reveal the creativity that resides within everyday acts of fandom. -- Deidre Lynch, Chancellor Jackman Professor, University of Toronto, Canada A witty, erudite, and humane exploration of the varied ways that amateur readers of Jane Austen have sought closeness with the object of their affection, from collecting her works and visiting the places where she lived, to imagining Jane in novels and films - or most extremely, in hybrid creations that feature Elizabeth Bennett as a martial artist combating zombies, Jane Austen as a vampire, or her characters as paragons of evangelical faith. Juliette Wells approaches all these manifestations of fandom without disparagement and with an open mind.Her book, which is both learned and generous of spirit, illuminates the sometimes quirky cultural creativity that ensues when Austen's readers follow their desires to connect personally with their beloved author (and the woman behind the writing), and the enormous pull Austen and her works continue to exert on the popular imagination. -- Professor Elizabeth Long, Rice University, USA In her engaging and thoughtful book, Juliette Wells maps out Jane Austen country, from pastime to profession to publishing, so readers can enjoy and consider Austen's classic influence and the modern inventiveness of the popular imagination. -- Elda Rotor, Editorial Director, Penguin Classics Once Jane Austen was merely a beloved author. Today she is a phenomenon, a mogul, a money-maker. In Everybody's Jane, Wells provides an encyclopaedic account of Austen in the popular culture, as she and her characters make movies, inspire pilgrimages, provide dating tips, solve crimes, fight zombies... Wells' research is prodigious, her material fascinating, and her style easy and readable. -- Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Jane Austen Book Club Juliette Wells surveys a breathtaking number of pop culture manifestations of Jane Mania utilizing sociological and statistical as well as literary methodology. -- Elsa A. Solender * Jane Austen Society of North America News *

Juliette Wells is Assistant Professor of English at Manhattanville College, USA. She is editor (with Sandra Hagan) of The Brontes in the World of the Arts (Ashgate, 2008) and was features editor for the Penguin Classics enhanced e-book edition of Pride and Prejudice (2008).

1. Introduction: Approaching Austen in the Popular Imagination; 2. Alberta H. Burke, Austen Omnivore; 3. Reading Like an Amateur; 4. Getting Closer to Austen: Literary Tourism; 5. Envisioning Austen: Portraits, Fiction, Film; 6. Austen Hybrids: Sex, Horror/Paranormal, Faith; 7. Imagining the Austen Fan; References; Index.