Jane Austen: Rise of A Genius

Review

Jane Austen: Rise of a Genius is a three-part docudrama made by the BBC in conjunction with the Open University which examines the life and work of one of Britain’s most influential writers through the eyes of contemporary authors, historians and actors.

Each episode takes us on a journey through Jane’s life, firstly, at Steventon where the budding young author started her writing career by contributing to family plays and entertaining them with short stories. The teenage Jane would then start experimenting with the new format of novels and create the first versions of Lady Susan, Northanger Abbey and Pride and Prejudice. At at time when young ladies were expected to marry, Jane’s father was instrumental in allowing his daughter to pursue her passion for reading and encouraged her to keep writing so the world likely owes him a massive debt for being the first to recognise her talent.

Jane is devastated when her father decides to retire and she is forced to leave the rectory at Steventon which is the only home she has ever known. The family end up in Bath which has always been associated with Jane Austen but as it turns out it was a place for which she held no great love. Jane’s writing stalls for a time as she tries to adjust to the changes in her life and is forced to attend the balls of the season which were nothing more than marriage markets. Jane had no desire to marry, despite having two close romantic relationships, and her most enduring companion would always be her sister Cassandra.

After the death of her beloved father, Jane’s desire to write falls away but she continues to observe life around her and trips to the seaside town of Worthing would remain in her conscience and evolve into her last unfinished novel Sanditon. When her older brother finally comes through and offers his mother and sisters the use of a cottage on the Chawton estate, Jane finally regains her balance and sets about revising her earlier novels for publication. Sense and Sensibility, Northanger Abbey and Pride and Prejudice prove to be a hit with the public and Jane finally has her own source of income. She would go on to write Mansfield Park which was ignored by critics and did not sell as well as the previous novels much to Jane’s disappointment.

Jane regains ground with the release of Emma which she publishes by herself and dedicates to the Prince Regent who is a great fan of her novels. While Jane abhorred everything the man stood for, she was wise enough to realise his patronage was important to her career and future releases. When Jane begins to write Persuasion, the novel some believe to be her greatest work, her health starts to fail and she is in excruciating pain when she writes the last few chapters. However, Jane refuses to give in to her illness and she begins to write her last novel, Sanditon, but only manages to write twelve chapters before she stops writing it in March 1817. Jane would die in Winchester four months later on 18 July 1817.

The documentary blends dramatic scenes of Jane’s life with commentary from writers, academics, actors and experts including Helen Fielding, Candice Carty-Williams, Tamsin Greig, Colm Tóibín, Greg Wise and Charity Wakefield. The important parts of Jane’s life are discussed at length but the contributors are engaging and clearly fans of her work with their enthusiasm shining through. There is a more serious discussion on the writing techniques that Jane invented such as free indirect style, where the voices of characters shift into the voice of the narrator and vice versa, and the concept of the unreliable narrator. All of this had me itching to pick up her novels and start reading them again.

Perhaps the most emotional part of the docudrama is the relationship between Jane and Cassandra which has to be one of the strongest ever examples of sibling love. If Cassandra’s fiancé had not died, things could have been vastly different for Jane but it seems Cassandra’s destiny was to support one of our greatest writers and she would be remembered for it. While many lament Cassandra’s destruction of Jane’s letters, there is no denying it was done to protect the legacy of her sister and maybe it was just as well.

Jane Austen: Rise of a Genius is one of the best docudramas I’ve ever watched and is a fitting tribute to the writer on the 250th anniversary of her birth. After all the struggles she endured in her life, I’m glad Jane got a taste of success before she died even if her books never had her name on them.