WEBVTT - How Much Did Jane Austen Earn From Her Books (And Why Wasn’t It More)? 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:17.920 You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:25.000 and iHeartRadio. Guess what, Mango? What's that? Well? 0:00:25.200 --> 0:00:27.280 All right, let's say I invite you over for ice 0:00:27.320 --> 0:00:30.160 cream and give you a dessert spoon to eat it with. 0:00:30.360 --> 0:00:33.199 I also offer you coffee from a coffee urned. So 0:00:33.520 --> 0:00:34.919 who would we be celebrating here? 0:00:34.960 --> 0:00:38.200 Mango? Can I have another clue? 0:00:38.360 --> 0:00:40.159 Sure, if you don't want a coffee, I'll serve you 0:00:40.280 --> 0:00:43.480 tea with a tea ladle, which. 0:00:43.159 --> 0:00:46.199 Sounds nice, but I still have no idea what you're 0:00:46.200 --> 0:00:46.600 talking about. 0:00:46.640 --> 0:00:48.159 You get one more clue, Mega, You know I never 0:00:48.159 --> 0:00:50.400 get more than three clues. So I'm throwing this party 0:00:50.440 --> 0:00:53.400 for someone who's two hundred and fiftieth birthday just so 0:00:53.640 --> 0:00:56.240 happens to be on December sixteenth. 0:00:56.320 --> 0:00:59.279 Jane Austen nailed at mango, You're so smart. 0:00:59.520 --> 0:01:02.400 According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Austin was the first 0:01:02.400 --> 0:01:05.480 person to use these terms in writing. She didn't necessarily 0:01:05.560 --> 0:01:08.840 coin them, but she definitely helped codify them. For example, 0:01:08.880 --> 0:01:11.320 the dessert spoon first appeared in a letter she wrote 0:01:11.360 --> 0:01:13.959 back in eighteen oh eight. Apparently no one had ever 0:01:14.000 --> 0:01:17.319 bothered writing about dessert spoons before. In fact, the OED 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:20.720 credits her with around two hundred different words, and they 0:01:20.760 --> 0:01:23.920 run the gamut from the verb to chaperone. The noun 0:01:24.000 --> 0:01:26.560 existed before that, but she verbed it. Have you ever 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:27.160 verbed something? 0:01:27.200 --> 0:01:27.400 I have? 0:01:27.560 --> 0:01:31.160 Pretty impressively. So to the phrase if I've told you once, 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:33.560 I've told you one hundred times, which I think is 0:01:33.600 --> 0:01:36.800 like the eternal mom phrase. Right, that's pretty amazing that 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:39.959 what Austin actually wrote was if I have spoken once 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:42.600 to Rebecca about that carpet. I am sure I have 0:01:42.640 --> 0:01:44.880 spoken at least a dozen times, but you know it's 0:01:44.920 --> 0:01:45.600 the gist. 0:01:45.440 --> 0:01:51.680 Yeah, that carpet. Second, well, thank you to Jane Austen 0:01:51.760 --> 0:01:55.040 for all of those terms. But uh, you know, I 0:01:55.080 --> 0:01:58.200 definitely used the if I've told you once a bit, 0:01:58.680 --> 0:02:00.800 quite a bit, but I don't really talk about coffee 0:02:00.880 --> 0:02:01.600 earns something. 0:02:01.680 --> 0:02:03.960 No, not me either, but it's just nice to know 0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:06.720 they're out there. But today we have eight more facts 0:02:06.760 --> 0:02:09.240 about the Great Jane Austin in honor of her two 0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:33.280 hundred and fiftieth birthday, So let's dive in. Hey, their 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:36.120 podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson, 0:02:36.160 --> 0:02:38.400 and as always i'm here with my good friend Mangesh 0:02:38.440 --> 0:02:41.280 hot Ticketter and over there in the booth just brooding 0:02:41.480 --> 0:02:44.760 on a more as our friend and producer Dylan Fagan, 0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:45.560 just brooding. 0:02:46.560 --> 0:02:50.360 It is remarkable how you fit that more backdrop into 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:53.760 that booth, and also just how brooding he looks. He 0:02:53.840 --> 0:02:57.079 really does it well, so will. Today is a very 0:02:57.080 --> 0:03:00.480 special birthday celebration of Jane Austen. And I'm cure, are 0:03:00.520 --> 0:03:02.639 you a fan? Like, were you familiar with her work 0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:04.360 before we started working on this episode? 0:03:04.400 --> 0:03:07.480 Don't you feel like there was sort of mandatory two 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:10.800 three Jane Austen titles in AP English. 0:03:10.840 --> 0:03:13.040 I don't know that I could recite much. 0:03:12.840 --> 0:03:14.760 From them at this point, but I know we read 0:03:14.800 --> 0:03:16.000 a decent amount, how about you. 0:03:16.480 --> 0:03:19.720 Yeah, I mean I have definitely skimmed Jane Austen. I 0:03:19.760 --> 0:03:22.640 don't know if I've read Jane Austen, but my mom 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:25.760 was a huge fan, so she and my sister had 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:29.519 not only read everything, but like also watched every single 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:33.000 PBS and BBC adaptation and there's so many of them, 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:36.160 and then all the movies of course, and then the 0:03:36.960 --> 0:03:38.880 variations like A Clueless and whatever. 0:03:38.960 --> 0:03:40.680 Yeah, but I do feel like she's one of those 0:03:40.720 --> 0:03:42.480 authors that you read too young in life. 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:44.440 Right, Yeah, let's make a commitment. 0:03:44.520 --> 0:03:48.960 Let's return to Jane Austin after this episode in our sixties, 0:03:49.080 --> 0:03:49.800 right exactly. 0:03:50.800 --> 0:03:53.720 But I actually remember this one time. I was in Washington, 0:03:53.800 --> 0:03:57.760 DC and I was riding the Metro and I saw 0:03:57.800 --> 0:04:00.440 this guy who had clearly just worked out and was 0:04:00.480 --> 0:04:03.280 coming from the gym. And he looked roided up to me, 0:04:03.560 --> 0:04:05.760 and he was like wearing a tank top, and he 0:04:05.800 --> 0:04:08.480 looked really gruff, and he was like tatted up, and 0:04:08.520 --> 0:04:11.200 he seemed so intimidating. But I could tell he was 0:04:11.200 --> 0:04:14.000 reading a book. And you know, I'm a curious cat. 0:04:14.160 --> 0:04:16.000 There are also like so many people on the train 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:18.080 that I was like kind of like poking around trying 0:04:18.120 --> 0:04:20.600 to figure out what he was reading. And I finally 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:23.000 caught a glimpse of the cover and it was Emma. 0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:27.559 But it's perfect. You're totally profiling this guy a picture. 0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:30.120 You actually like climbing up over his muscles to see 0:04:30.120 --> 0:04:30.480 the book. 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:33.880 I remember thinking I like this guy more now. Yeah, 0:04:33.880 --> 0:04:37.920 you know, anyway, let's get back to the fact. So 0:04:38.240 --> 0:04:41.400 one thing I did not realize is that Jane Austen 0:04:41.600 --> 0:04:45.040 only completed six novels in her lifetime, oh way, and 0:04:45.200 --> 0:04:49.280 four of these were actually published anonymously, but she finished 0:04:49.279 --> 0:04:51.440 all her books in the same location, a place called 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:56.520 Chotten Cottage. Chotten Cottage is located, unsurprisingly in Chotten, Hampshire, 0:04:56.560 --> 0:04:59.520 which is a small village. It's around fifty miles or 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:02.919 so sod of London, and Jane lived there with her mom, 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:05.719 her sister and her friend for eight years. This was 0:05:05.800 --> 0:05:08.680 from eighteen oh nine until she died at the age 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:10.920 of forty one in eighteen seventeen. 0:05:11.160 --> 0:05:13.480 Now I noticed you said finished her novels there. Does 0:05:13.520 --> 0:05:15.240 that mean she started them somewhere else? 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:17.760 She did. She wrote the first drafts of three of 0:05:17.760 --> 0:05:20.919 her novels, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility in north 0:05:20.920 --> 0:05:24.640 Anger Abbey at Steventon House, the country home where she 0:05:24.800 --> 0:05:27.760 was born, but she finished those and also Mansfield Park, 0:05:27.880 --> 0:05:32.000 Persuasion and Emma all at Chotten and Shotten is actually 0:05:32.040 --> 0:05:35.520 a must visit spot for Austin fence. It is maintained 0:05:35.560 --> 0:05:39.280 as her house museum and much of it has been 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:41.000 restored to look like it would have been in the 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:44.440 early eighteen hundreds. The museum also holds many of Jane 0:05:44.440 --> 0:05:48.280 Austin's possessions like her jewelry, the first editions of her books, 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:52.160 and one of my favorite things is the twelve sided 0:05:52.240 --> 0:05:54.359 wooden table where she worked at. 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:58.360 Gotta Love a Good Dodeca Gone Right, And besides writing 0:05:58.360 --> 0:06:01.560 these novels and letters at that she probably also used 0:06:01.560 --> 0:06:04.360 it to copy down some of her favorite piano scores. 0:06:04.760 --> 0:06:07.200 You know, the Austin family and especially Jane, they were 0:06:07.240 --> 0:06:10.760 super into music. In twenty fifteen, scholars at the University 0:06:10.800 --> 0:06:14.520 of Southampton digitized most of the Austin family music books 0:06:14.520 --> 0:06:17.880 collection and made them available to the public. So they're 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:20.880 around twenty volumes of music, and seven of them belonged 0:06:20.880 --> 0:06:25.320 specifically to Jane, including titles like Songs and Duets and 0:06:25.480 --> 0:06:28.560 Juvenile Songs and lessons for young beginners who don't know 0:06:28.720 --> 0:06:32.480 enough to practice. That sort of reminds me of Derek 0:06:32.560 --> 0:06:34.920 Zulander's Well was School for kids who don't read good 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:37.080 sort of thing. This one's probably a little better than that. 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:39.760 But she actually copied out by hand. 0:06:40.120 --> 0:06:43.120 That's amazing. So this means she actually played piano. 0:06:44.040 --> 0:06:46.240 She did, and this was a pretty common thing at 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:48.680 the time, like the piano was considered an instrument that 0:06:48.720 --> 0:06:51.200 a woman of certain statures should know how to play, 0:06:51.400 --> 0:06:54.640 you know, to entertain a husband or potential guest. Jane, however, 0:06:54.720 --> 0:06:57.039 did not play for company, but she did like to 0:06:57.120 --> 0:06:59.440 practice in the morning before anybody else woke up. 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:03.480 So what sort of stuff was she jamming on before 0:07:03.520 --> 0:07:05.640 anyone could wake up to hear it? Well? 0:07:05.680 --> 0:07:08.480 The family collection includes a lot of popular composers at 0:07:08.480 --> 0:07:11.720 the time, like friends Joseph Hayden, as well as you 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:15.120 know folk songs like the Groves of Sweet Myrtle with 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:19.200 lyrics by Scottish poet Robert Burns. There's also some naval songs, 0:07:19.240 --> 0:07:21.920 which makes sense. Jane had two brothers who served in 0:07:21.960 --> 0:07:24.560 the British Navy, and a song called Crazy Jane that 0:07:24.640 --> 0:07:28.400 scholars believe may have been actually a family joke. Now, 0:07:28.480 --> 0:07:30.960 Jane may have played nursery rhymes for her nieces and 0:07:31.040 --> 0:07:34.520 nephews and sang for them too. According to her family, 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:36.960 she had a really nice singing voice, so even if 0:07:37.000 --> 0:07:39.400 she didn't perform them in public, music was a big 0:07:39.440 --> 0:07:42.480 part of her life. Some experts actually say it influenced 0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:45.000 her writing too, like the rhythm of her language. You 0:07:45.000 --> 0:07:46.280 can imagine that being the case. 0:07:46.400 --> 0:07:48.880 Yeah, I believe that it's so funny though, like that 0:07:48.960 --> 0:07:51.920 she has a nice singing voice, like I've never thought 0:07:51.920 --> 0:07:54.800 about Jane Austen's voice. Yeah yeah, And she could have 0:07:54.880 --> 0:07:58.000 like a terrible singing voice or ara, like, it wouldn't 0:07:58.000 --> 0:08:01.720 have been something I thought about. Worn out. But you know, 0:08:01.880 --> 0:08:04.520 I'm going to dedicate this next fact to Dylan, who's 0:08:04.520 --> 0:08:08.800 still over there rooting bad. It's terrible, But it turns 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:13.160 out that mister Darcy, the love interest of Elizabeth Bennett 0:08:13.200 --> 0:08:15.600 and Pride and Prejudice, may have been inspired by a 0:08:15.680 --> 0:08:19.320 real life nobleman that Jane knew. So as a side note, 0:08:19.360 --> 0:08:21.840 I know mister Darcy is a beloved figure, So let 0:08:21.840 --> 0:08:24.840 me just issue the big caveat that all of this 0:08:24.880 --> 0:08:27.960 is conjecture and it's really on the part of Jane 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:31.600 Austen scholars. So I should also say there have been 0:08:31.680 --> 0:08:34.920 many possible contenders for this honor through the years, including 0:08:34.920 --> 0:08:38.720 a young, good looking and absolutely broke Irish law student. 0:08:39.080 --> 0:08:42.120 His name was Thomas Lefroy, whom Jane met in the 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:45.520 late seventeen hundreds. It is unclear if they ever dated 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:47.640 in the current sense of the term, like they made 0:08:47.640 --> 0:08:49.600 have gone on walks with things like that, but they 0:08:50.120 --> 0:08:55.960 definitely exchanged flirtatious letters, and whatever their situationship was. It 0:08:56.120 --> 0:08:59.280 ended when Lefroy married a rich heiress instead. 0:08:59.400 --> 0:09:01.760 Oh wow, Well, I'm not sure he deserved her anyway. 0:09:01.800 --> 0:09:05.240 I know I don't think you did. More recently, doctor 0:09:05.360 --> 0:09:08.760 Susan Law, a writer and Austin aficionado, came to believe 0:09:08.800 --> 0:09:11.400 that Darcy may have been based on a guy named 0:09:11.520 --> 0:09:17.360 John Parker, more commonly known as Lord Boringdon. Now Jane 0:09:17.440 --> 0:09:20.520 knew Lord Boringdon through his second wife, Francis, who was 0:09:20.520 --> 0:09:23.560 a close friend of hers, but the word, at least 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:27.400 in Southern England was that everyone kind of knew Lord 0:09:27.440 --> 0:09:30.800 Boringdon because of his very scandalous first marriage. 0:09:30.920 --> 0:09:34.200 Okay, so you're saying Lord Boringdon was actually pretty interesting. 0:09:34.720 --> 0:09:37.959 He definitely had a reputation as a ladies man. Before 0:09:38.000 --> 0:09:40.200 he got married, he had a long and open affair 0:09:40.240 --> 0:09:44.040 with a married woman named Lady Elizabeth Monk, but she 0:09:44.040 --> 0:09:46.440 wouldn't leave her husband for him. So Boringdon, who was 0:09:46.480 --> 0:09:49.040 in his thirties at this point, went ahead and married 0:09:49.040 --> 0:09:52.760 an eighteen year old named Augusta Faine. But after a 0:09:52.760 --> 0:09:54.800 couple of years he started cheating on Augusta with a 0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:58.920 ballerina he'd met, and meanwhile, Lady Elizabeth was also back 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:01.920 in the picture because she was still unwilling to fully 0:10:01.960 --> 0:10:04.319 cut things off with Lord Boringdon. 0:10:04.640 --> 0:10:06.360 Man, that's pretty juicy, And. 0:10:06.440 --> 0:10:10.480 It actually gets juicier because young Lady Augusta, she's aware 0:10:10.559 --> 0:10:14.320 her husband is, you know, Tom catting about, so she 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:18.240 starts having an affair with a guy named Sir Arthur Paget. 0:10:18.720 --> 0:10:22.000 And in a weird twist, Paget's brother is married to 0:10:22.040 --> 0:10:25.959 one of Lady Elizabeth's daughters. But even more scandalous than 0:10:26.000 --> 0:10:30.280 that is that Paget is a college buddy of Lord Boringdon's. 0:10:30.320 --> 0:10:32.680 Now I'm trying to keep up with this and to say, like, 0:10:32.760 --> 0:10:35.240 how weird that twist is, But I gotta be honest, 0:10:35.240 --> 0:10:37.280 I'm getting a little bit lost here. So how about 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:39.000 you just tell me if there's a happy ending to this? 0:10:39.240 --> 0:10:39.520 There is? 0:10:39.840 --> 0:10:44.280 Okay, good, Well, after finding out about Augusta's affair, Lord 0:10:44.320 --> 0:10:47.360 Boringdon divorced her, which was fined by her. She actually 0:10:47.400 --> 0:10:50.360 got married to Sir Paget three days later, and a 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:54.240 couple of months after that, Boringdon marries Jane's friend Francis, 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:58.120 and to everyone surprised both of these marriages actually last. 0:10:58.320 --> 0:11:00.600 All right, so you were talking about how Lord Boringdon 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:04.240 could actually be the inspiration for mister Darcy. Right, but 0:11:04.280 --> 0:11:06.880 if you remember, like, they don't sound anything alike. So 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:07.400 how is that? 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:11.480 Yeah, so the academics admit they don't have any actual 0:11:11.520 --> 0:11:14.800 proof of this, Like this Darcy comparison is based mostly 0:11:14.840 --> 0:11:17.680 on his appearance, even though the physical description of mister 0:11:17.800 --> 0:11:21.280 Darcy in the books is pretty minimal if you remember so. 0:11:21.400 --> 0:11:25.480 Austin actually writes quote that he drew the attention of 0:11:25.520 --> 0:11:29.480 the room by his fine, tall person, handsome features and 0:11:29.559 --> 0:11:33.280 noble maine. Apparently Lord Boringdon had all of those qualities, 0:11:33.280 --> 0:11:35.960 and because Jane was good friends with his second wife, 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:38.480 she probably spent time with him and could have used 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:41.640 this experience to inform her depiction of mister Darcy's a lore. 0:11:42.320 --> 0:11:45.319 But here's a bonus Darcy fact for all of you 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:49.160 Darcy lovers out there. Colin Firth made a huge splash 0:11:49.200 --> 0:11:51.760 literally when he played the role in the nineteen nineties 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:54.800 BBC mini series. There is a famous scene where he 0:11:54.840 --> 0:11:57.840 goes swimming in the lake, and just last year, that 0:11:58.000 --> 0:12:00.600 same costume he wore in that scene sole at auction 0:12:00.840 --> 0:12:02.720 for twenty thousand pounds. 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:04.959 Wow, that's a lot of money for some like wet 0:12:05.120 --> 0:12:08.320 used clothes, but just goes to show people are passionate 0:12:08.400 --> 0:12:10.800 about these characters. All Right, we have to take a 0:12:10.840 --> 0:12:12.840 quick break, but when we come back, we'll talk about 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:16.440 Jane Austen's famous fans, the last piece she wrote, and 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:17.280 so much more. 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:35.400 So stay tuned, Welcome back to Part Time Genius, where 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:39.320 we're celebrating Jane Austen's two hundred and fiftieth birthday. Yes, 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:43.760 and before we get back into Jane Austin facts, I 0:12:43.880 --> 0:12:46.079 want to share one of the greatest facts a listener 0:12:46.280 --> 0:12:48.800 just sent us. Remember you can get an official Part 0:12:48.800 --> 0:12:52.000 Time Genius membership card for free if you send us 0:12:52.040 --> 0:12:56.000 your name, your address, and a fun fact. So Christine 0:12:56.000 --> 0:12:58.679 and Washington wrote in to tell us that according to 0:12:58.760 --> 0:13:02.920 microbiologist Peter Gurgis, the number of microbes in the world 0:13:03.080 --> 0:13:06.240 is ten to the twenty seventh power, and if you 0:13:06.400 --> 0:13:09.240 laid them all end to end, they'd be one hundred 0:13:09.280 --> 0:13:10.680 and five light years. 0:13:10.840 --> 0:13:13.880 Wow, Christine, that's so impressive that you laid them all 0:13:13.920 --> 0:13:14.480 in to end. 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:16.720 That's it. Those numbers are so big they. 0:13:16.640 --> 0:13:19.160 Actually kind of make my brain hurt, but I actually 0:13:19.200 --> 0:13:21.800 love it when people send us facts and cite their sources, 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:23.520 So so good on you, Christine. 0:13:23.920 --> 0:13:25.800 I think the ven diagram of people who've listened to 0:13:25.840 --> 0:13:29.000 the show and people who appreciate footnotes is definitely a 0:13:29.000 --> 0:13:32.280 total circle. So anyway, Christine, your membership card is on 0:13:32.320 --> 0:13:34.439 the way, and if you want one to all you 0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:38.320 other listeners, email us at high Geniuses at gmail dot com. 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:41.600 That's Hi Geniuses at gmail dot com. You can also 0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:44.480 dm us on Instagram or blue Sky, or leave a 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:47.760 voicemail at three O two four oh five five nine 0:13:47.880 --> 0:13:50.520 two five. We cannot wait to hear from you and 0:13:50.559 --> 0:13:53.160 will Just so you know, we have friends of the 0:13:53.200 --> 0:13:57.120 show in Malaysia who sent us a photo of not 0:13:57.160 --> 0:14:00.400 only the membership cards but also the atomic fire we 0:14:00.440 --> 0:14:03.360 sent them, oh and they said it was too spicy 0:14:03.400 --> 0:14:04.120 for the kids, but. 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:07.960 Made it all the way in Malaysia. That's fantastic. Good job, 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:09.040 and I love fireballs. 0:14:09.040 --> 0:14:10.640 I've ever mentioned that before, I don't think so. 0:14:10.920 --> 0:14:13.360 All right, So back to Jane Austin. You know, one 0:14:13.360 --> 0:14:14.920 of the things that really struck me when I was 0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:17.600 doing the research for this episode was that despite her 0:14:17.679 --> 0:14:20.960 novel's popularity, she didn't make that much money from book 0:14:20.960 --> 0:14:24.160 sales while she was alive. In fact, one scholar estimated 0:14:24.200 --> 0:14:27.520 that Austin made around six hundred and thirty one pounds 0:14:27.600 --> 0:14:31.480 before tax or five hundred and seventy five pounds after tax, 0:14:31.960 --> 0:14:35.000 which would work out to about fifty six thousand dollars 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:37.880 in today's money. Now. Obviously, since then the books have 0:14:37.960 --> 0:14:40.160 sold a lot more, but it's safe to say that 0:14:40.240 --> 0:14:43.320 writing did not make Jane rich in her lifetime. Part 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:46.240 of the reason for this is that she died quite young. Now, 0:14:46.280 --> 0:14:49.280 I remember, she was only forty one, and her debut novel, 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:53.960 Since Insensibility, wasn't published until eighteen eleven, just six years 0:14:54.000 --> 0:14:57.720 before she died, and her last two novels were published posthumously, 0:14:58.040 --> 0:15:00.520 which means she was only alive to see four books 0:15:00.520 --> 0:15:02.800 published over the course of six years. 0:15:03.040 --> 0:15:05.400 You know, I get all that, but I'm still kind 0:15:05.400 --> 0:15:07.840 of surprised that there was such little money involved. 0:15:08.000 --> 0:15:10.280 Yeah. Well, like many writers, she had a couple of 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:13.640 less than favorable deals, particularly for her most popular book, 0:15:13.680 --> 0:15:17.240 Pride and Prejudice, which was first published in eighteen thirteen, 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:20.360 and for whatever reason, she agreed to a one time 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:23.880 payment of only one hundred and ten pounds. The publisher, 0:15:23.880 --> 0:15:26.040 of course, made a lot more money than that, but 0:15:26.400 --> 0:15:28.560 by the time she died, her publisher had made more 0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:32.080 than four times what they'd paid for that book. Luckily, 0:15:32.120 --> 0:15:34.520 she made better deals with her other novels. Instead of 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:36.760 a flat fee, she was able to get a percentage 0:15:36.760 --> 0:15:39.880 of her profits. But there was one other snag to this. 0:15:40.400 --> 0:15:43.160 The profits for her fourth novel, Emma, were tied to 0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:47.040 a reprint of her third novel, Mansfield Park, and although 0:15:47.040 --> 0:15:50.840 Mansfield Park's first edition sold well, the second edition did not. 0:15:51.360 --> 0:15:53.840 Because of that, she wound up only making about thirty 0:15:53.960 --> 0:15:56.960 eight pounds on Emma, and she died before she could 0:15:56.960 --> 0:15:58.640 see any additional money from that. 0:15:58.640 --> 0:16:02.880 That is insane. You know, it's funny. They seem like 0:16:03.040 --> 0:16:08.160 such unglamorous and contemporary problems like negotiating contracts and tracking 0:16:08.240 --> 0:16:11.720 book sales. But you know, lucky for us, that did 0:16:11.760 --> 0:16:14.400 not stop Austin from writing, especially because it's fun to 0:16:14.400 --> 0:16:17.280 see how her fan base has grown, Like did you 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:20.080 know that Dwayne Wade, the NBA star is a huge 0:16:20.120 --> 0:16:26.040 fan Musician BB King and Kelly Clarkson, they are just massive. 0:16:26.160 --> 0:16:29.160 Jane Austin fans. I did not know that. No. Kelly 0:16:29.280 --> 0:16:31.600 Clarkson is such a big fan that she bought one 0:16:31.600 --> 0:16:34.560 of Austin's rings at auction in twenty twelve, but the 0:16:34.640 --> 0:16:37.920 Brits weren't happy about it, leaving the country. In fact, 0:16:37.960 --> 0:16:41.240 so much so that after Clarkson won this auction, the 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:44.560 UK government put a temporary ban on the rings export, 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:48.240 which gave enough time for other fans, presumably British ones, 0:16:48.240 --> 0:16:50.680 to raise enough money to buy the ring from Clarkson 0:16:51.040 --> 0:16:53.920 and give it to Jane Austen's House museum, where it 0:16:53.960 --> 0:16:57.520 still is today. You know, it's also impossible to overstate 0:16:57.560 --> 0:17:00.480 the impact Jane Austin had on English culture. Her books 0:17:00.480 --> 0:17:03.080 were actually given to British soldiers in World War One 0:17:03.080 --> 0:17:06.679 to help recover from PTSD. Oh interesting, yeah, and along 0:17:06.800 --> 0:17:10.199 similar lines. After Rodyard Kipling's son was killed in the 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:13.679 First World War, he actually read Austin's novels to his 0:17:13.720 --> 0:17:16.320 wife and daughter as a bit of levity and solace 0:17:16.400 --> 0:17:19.840 during their grief. And in nineteen twenty four Kipling wrote 0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:22.399 a short story called The Jay Knights. It's about a 0:17:22.480 --> 0:17:25.439 soldier serving in France during World War One. He finds 0:17:25.440 --> 0:17:28.080 out about this secret club, the Society of the Jay Knights, 0:17:28.119 --> 0:17:31.160 which he can join, but he's only allowed entry after 0:17:31.240 --> 0:17:34.320 he reads every single one of Austin's novels. So he 0:17:34.400 --> 0:17:37.320 starts reading them, and he really isn't into it at first. 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:40.639 He has this great line where he says her books quote, 0:17:41.040 --> 0:17:45.200 weren't adventurous, nor smutty, nor what you'd even call interest in. 0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:49.600 But he gets through them all. He passes the Society's 0:17:49.680 --> 0:17:54.520 tests and he is officially accepted. But the companionship he 0:17:54.600 --> 0:17:58.040 finds in the society, plus all their conversations about Jane Austin, 0:17:58.240 --> 0:18:01.639 actually helped him get through the dilace. And then when 0:18:01.680 --> 0:18:04.440 their bases attack, the guy gets wounded and he's struggling 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:07.600 to board this crowded hospital train and he meets a 0:18:07.680 --> 0:18:10.800 nurse and quotes Jane Austen to her and she recognizes 0:18:10.840 --> 0:18:12.880 it and then takes pity on him and gets him 0:18:12.880 --> 0:18:15.520 on the train. And so Jane Austen in this book 0:18:15.600 --> 0:18:19.200 saves his life. Wow. Yeah. Towards the end of the story, 0:18:19.240 --> 0:18:22.440 he says, quote, I read all her six books now 0:18:22.480 --> 0:18:25.479 for pleasure. You take it for me, brethren. There's no 0:18:25.520 --> 0:18:27.960 one to touch Jane when you're in a tight place. 0:18:28.880 --> 0:18:31.120 That's actually pretty sweet, even though it's a funny quote. 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:31.439 I mean. 0:18:31.480 --> 0:18:33.280 One of the things that soldiers might have been drawn 0:18:33.320 --> 0:18:37.040 to was Austin's distinctive style of writing, especially her use 0:18:37.080 --> 0:18:40.760 of something literary scholars call free indirect discourse. You know, 0:18:40.760 --> 0:18:43.600 it's one of those styles that you may be familiar 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:46.600 with now you may see it pretty frequently. She didn't 0:18:46.640 --> 0:18:49.240 invent this style, but actually she was one of the 0:18:49.240 --> 0:18:52.919 first writers to use it, so, you know, consistently and effectively, 0:18:53.000 --> 0:18:55.280 and that's when you know it really pulls you into 0:18:55.280 --> 0:18:58.600 the inner lives of her characters. Actually read one paper 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:01.200 that described it as kind of like a kind of 0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:04.959 ventriloquism by the narrator. So it allows Austin, as the 0:19:04.960 --> 0:19:07.919 third person, omniscient narrator, to dip in and out of 0:19:07.960 --> 0:19:11.399 the character's inner dialogue and thoughts, which makes you feel 0:19:11.400 --> 0:19:13.960 like you understand them and know them a little bit better. 0:19:14.359 --> 0:19:16.760 Here's actually an example from Emma, which is about a 0:19:16.800 --> 0:19:19.440 young woman who has, you know, shall we say, an 0:19:19.520 --> 0:19:23.280 unwarranted confidence in her ability to read a romantic situation. 0:19:23.840 --> 0:19:26.040 And so early on there's this scene where Emma and 0:19:26.040 --> 0:19:29.160 a guy named Frank are alone together We the readers 0:19:29.240 --> 0:19:31.680 already know that Emma thinks Frank is in love with her, 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:35.000 but we also understand Emma may not be seeing everything 0:19:35.119 --> 0:19:38.080 so clearly. So Austin, you know, kind of plays with this. 0:19:38.520 --> 0:19:42.119 So here's what she says. He stopped again, rose again 0:19:42.280 --> 0:19:44.879 and seemed quite embarrassed. He was more in love with 0:19:44.920 --> 0:19:47.760 her than Emma had supposed. And who can say how 0:19:47.840 --> 0:19:50.080 it might have ended if his father had not made 0:19:50.160 --> 0:19:50.840 his appearance. 0:19:51.280 --> 0:19:54.439 So it's kind of subtle, and that bit more in 0:19:54.480 --> 0:19:57.399 love with her than Emma had supposed. Like that's Emma's voice, 0:19:57.400 --> 0:19:58.200 not the narrators. 0:19:58.240 --> 0:20:01.399 That's exactly right, and like all of our own inner voices, 0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:05.639 it doesn't always assess the situation accurately, because later in 0:20:05.640 --> 0:20:07.919 the novel, Emma will learn that no, Frank is not 0:20:08.080 --> 0:20:10.320 in love with her. And even if we the readers 0:20:10.359 --> 0:20:12.399 already know this, we get to be part of the 0:20:12.480 --> 0:20:15.200 drama as she starts to kind of figure this out. 0:20:15.440 --> 0:20:18.359 Free and direct discourse lets us empathize with a character 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:20.600 but laugh at them a little bit at the same time. 0:20:20.880 --> 0:20:23.480 Well, on a sado topic, we should talk about how 0:20:23.600 --> 0:20:27.239 Jane Austen died. And the thing is even today, no 0:20:27.280 --> 0:20:31.679 one knows the cause. Her sister destroyed most of Jane's letters, 0:20:31.840 --> 0:20:34.679 anything that talked about medical stuff, So all we have 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:37.600 to go on are some known symptoms, and one of 0:20:37.600 --> 0:20:40.439 them was discoloration of her skin, plus some of the 0:20:40.520 --> 0:20:43.960 contextual clues. Over the years, many scholars have aligned with 0:20:43.960 --> 0:20:46.760 the belief that she died from Addison's disease, which is 0:20:46.880 --> 0:20:50.520 an autoimmune disease that affects your adrenal glands, but other 0:20:50.560 --> 0:20:55.040