Beg to differ
May 28, 2006
From a review of a new film in the Guardian:
When Jane Austen was once asked what she wrote about, she is said to have replied: ‘I write about love and money. What else is there to write about?’
Huh? Has anybody else ever heard that quote attributed to Jane Austen?
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Ummm… looks like someone is completely making up quotes to attribute to JA for their own benefit. That’s doesn’t even sound like something our dear Jane would have written… but I suppose I could be wrong.
I found one “credible” source which uses this quote – a Professor Sourian at Bard. But that is absolutely it, and the quote’s source was not given.
Hmmmmmm…seems like fuzzy scholarship to me.
I’d be willing to bet the farm that she never said that. It’s not subtle, witty or Austenesque.
I’ve spent a bit of time puzzling about this one. I’ve even searched the Letters for every occurrence of the words “write” and “money” and have found no statement even remotely like this.
I’m assuming, if the statement has any basis in reality, it is a very free paraphrase (as susan w. says, it just doesn’t sound like JA as presented.) If not in the Letters where could it be? Northanger Abbey? Juvenilia? JA, A Family Record (i.e. some reminiscence of Caroline’s or other relation)? Plan of a Novel or Opinions of E. or N.A.?
From a search in Google for the exact phrase, the prof at Bard (as Dae points out) may well be the perpetrator from whom the Grauniad writer found his “money quote” (as they say.) Maybe someone should ask him/her…
Another possibility; it is included in a book of quotations (like Bartletts, but one that is only available in print, not online.)
I don’t think it’s even a paraphrase. It sounds so unlike anything JA would ever have said. She would have said she writes about men and women, not love and money. It sounds more like something that Virginia Woolf or another critic might have said about Jane Austen.
I emailed Peter Sourian at Bard College to ask about the provenance of this quotation and will report back when I hear more. What I find intriguing is the prevalence of the “JA only writes about love and money” theme from journalists, reviewers etc. who are presumably at least moderately intelligent and moderately well read but may only have a passing familiarity with the novels & screen adaptations of Jane Austen.
I think that the journalist meant to quote Jackie Collins, not Jane Austen. Susan, doesn’t it sound more like Jackie than Jane? (I think your farm is safe.)