Another take on Jane Austen

December 16 is Jane Austen’s birthday. Would the early 19th century author of “Pride and Prejudice,” “Sense and Sensibility” and other enduring literary favorites be happy with how she is construed today?

People who leave the current movie blockbuster version of “Pride and Prejudice” wondering how much of the Hollywood adaptation was true to the original intent of the book are in good company. University of Wisconsin–Madison English Professor Emily Auerbach has spent many years researching Jane Austen and has come to the conclusion that Austen has been repeatedly misrepresented and misunderstood over the years.

Auerbach’s 2004 book, “Searching for Jane Austen,” will be released in paperback for the first time March 2006 by the University of Wisconsin Press. In it, Auerbach demolishes with wit and vivacity the often-held view of “Jane,” a decorous maiden aunt writing her small drawing-room stories of tea parties and balls.

Auerbach presents a different Jane Austen – a brilliant writer who, despite the obstacles facing women of her time, worked seriously on improving her craft and became one of the world’s greatest novelists: a master of wit, irony and character development.

Auerbach is also a professor of liberal studies in the arts in the UW–Madison Division of Continuing Studies. The paperback release will be just in time for viewers of a UW–Madison theatrical presentation in February and March 2006 of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” to learn a little more about an author whose work just keeps coming back.