Selwyn, David, ed.
The Poetry of Jane Austen and the Austen Family. University of Iowa Press; published in association
with the Jane Austen Society of Great Britain. $12.95.
Review by Alan Shockley, Princeton University.
There are no undiscovered Austen novels. Neither an archeological dig at Steventon,
nor interviews of the Austen-Leighs with 20th-century fin-de-siecle zeal will produce
Jane's much-desired-by-critics radical, down-with-the-status-quo novella, her lesbian-tinged
feminist manifesto, or even her clearly-accepting-of-social-conventions epistolary tome. We
have long had the full body of her work.
Yet outside of her novels, the indefatigable Jane did leave a large and varied corpus of other
writings. The first edition of her letters was met by scholars with immediate enthusiasm.
But, that initial flame waned to some extent once scholars (and especially those scholars seeking
biographical evidence for their theories) realized the full breadth of the epistolary exclusions made
before printing, first by Jane's sister, and later by her niece.
Now, editor David Selwyn has made available a small Austen-related book, collected along a completely
different tack. The Poetry of Jane Austen and the Austen Family does not pretend to be a complete
presentation of anything. Instead, Selwyn mates the presentation of that small number of poems
supposed to be by Jane herself with a selection of poems by most of Jane's close relatives.
Included are poems by five of the novelist's siblings, as well as some by her mother, an uncle,
two nieces, a nephew, and even some few verses composed of contributions by several family members.
The book is a small one -- all told, a mere sixty-two pages of verse are nestled comfortably between eight
pages of introductory material (including a page of acknowledgments that reads like the guest book at
an Austen family reunion) and 43 pages of bibliographical and explanatory note material. The notes are
quite good, with plenty of manuscript citations, alternate verses from different sources, and some quite
interesting explanations of period- or person-specific references, such as, "Winchester races[:] Steeplechases
were held under civic patronage at Worthy Down, 3 miles north of the city, from the seventeenth century...
JA could have seen the advertisement in the Hampshire Chronicle of Monday 14 July..." This already detailed
note concludes with a full listing of the aforementioned advertisement, as well as a brief history of the Winchester
races after Austen's time.
The introductory material is also good, though Selwyn's inclination to read all of Austen's work as closely
autobiographical (with its none-too-occasional implication of simple one-to-one correspondence between Jane's
life and art) can be bothersome if years of JASNA meetings and listserv barrages have not worn away one's
recalcitrant opposition to easy answers.
The poetry itself? Truly, most of the included verse is mediocre parlor-work of the sort created by generations
of educated, well-to-do Englishmen and Englishwomen with little of a pressing nature to occupy their time.
The reader is never struck with the light of the discovery of a heretofore hidden genius. Little of the only
"declared" poet of the family, James Austen, is included, and for once in the long history of editorial cuts to
the public availability of Austen-related material, an omission is clearly a godsend. James' work (both that
published here, and those verses I have seen elsewhere) is just not very good. His attempts at quasi-Gray
epitaphs pale beside even student imitations. Everywhere his classical allusions seem stilted, his style belabored
and his rhythm awkward.
But a handful of the other included verses make this little collection well-worth adding to an
Austen scholar's shelf. Jane's versified responses to newspaper announcements, "On the
Marriage of Mr. Gell of East Bourn to Miss Gill." and "On the marriage of Miss Camilla Wallop
& the Revd [Henry] Wake." are actually laugh-out-loud funny and remind the reader of the witty
wordplay of characters in the novels. Jane is less successful in the serious verse, but it is here
that biographical criticism becomes most tempting. Several of the works of the Mrs. Austen are
also quite humorous, and I think the volume would be well worth the printing just for the elder Austen's
reminder to today's reader (though perhaps this is yet another sermon only reaching the choir) of that time
(not so long ago) when poetry was not considered solely the province of the professional, when wordplay
was not confined to a few retirees playing scrabble, and metered, rhyming language was a medium to be
frolicked in and danced with by one and all.
Alan Shockley is a second year PhD student at Princeton University.
Email Alan Shockley at shockley@princeton.edu
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