The topic for my local Jane Austen group’s March meeting was “Jane Austen in the trenches” which, I realise, sounds a bit anachronistic, given she died in 1817, nearly a century before the trenches we’re talking about. But, you see, Jane’s fame didn’t start in 1995 with Colin Firth and that wet shirt. No, her popularity took off around the late 19th century and has continued ever since, albeit with a huge spurt in the late 20th century. As Claire Harman states in Jane’s fame, she is the only writer “who is instantly recognisable by her first name”.
Kipling (Presumed Public Domain, via Wikipedia)
Anyhow, into the trenches. Our discussion was inspired by Rudyard Kipling’s short story “The Janeites”, first published in 1924. It’s a little tricky to read, being peppered with Cockney voices, but it’s worth the effort – and not just for Janeites. It is set in a London Masonic Lodge in 1920, during a weekly clean-up of the premises. There are three main characters – Brother Anthony, a veteran of army service in the Holy Land during World War I, now a taxi driver; Brother Humberstall, a hairdresser who is a veteran of artillery service in France and who suffers somewhat from shell-shock (now, PTSD); and the first-person narrator, ostensibly Kipling. Humberstall tells the others of his induction, during the war, into a secret society, the Janeites. He explains how he came to join this society, which included members from all ranks, and the tests he had to pass to do so. He tells how this society kept them sane during the war, and how it, in fact, saved him, when, after a terrible attack, he was his group’s only survivor:
… I walked a bit, an’ there was a hospital-train fillin’ up, an’ one of the Sisters—a grey-headed one—ran at me wavin’ ’er red ’ands an’ sayin’ there wasn’t room for a louse in it. I was past carin’. But she went on talkin’ and talkin’ about the war, an’ her pa in Ladbroke Grove, an’ ’ow strange for ’er at ’er time of life to be doin’ this work with a lot o’ men, an’ next war, ’ow the nurses ’ud ’ave to wear khaki breeches on account o’ the mud, like the Land Girls; an’ that reminded ’er, she’d boil me an egg if she could lay ’ands on one, for she’d run a chicken-farm once. You never ’eard anythin’ like it—outside o’ Jane. It set me off laughin’ again. Then a woman with a nose an’ teeth on ’er, marched up. “What’s all this?” she says. “What do you want?” “Nothing,” I says, “only make Miss Bates, there, stop talkin’ or I’ll die.” “Miss Bates?” she says. “What in ’Eaven’s name makes you call ’er that?” “Because she is,” I says. “D’you know what you’re sayin’?” she says, an’ slings her bony arm round me to get me off the ground. “’Course I do,” I says, “an’ if you knew Jane you’d know too.” “That’s enough,” says she. “You’re comin’ on this train if I have to kill a Brigadier for you,” an’ she an’ an ord’ly fair hove me into the train, on to a stretcher close to the cookers. That beef-tea went down well! Then she shook ’ands with me an’ said I’d hit off Sister Molyneux in one, an’ then she pinched me an extra blanket. It was ’er own ’ospital pretty much. I expect she was the Lady Catherine de Bourgh of the area.
Of course, you have to know your Jane Austen to get the Miss Bates reference … !
Jane Austen by sister Cassandra
Throughout the story Austen is only ever described as Jane, which bears out Harman’s comment above. There’s an entertaining description of Austen’s subject matter –
’Twasn’t as if there was anythin’ to ’em, either. I know. I had to read ’em. They weren’t adventurous, nor smutty, nor what you’d call even interestin’
– and some amusing references to various Austen characters, particularly Reverend Collins, Lady Catherine de Bugg (de Bourgh), General Tilney and Miss Bates. There’s also a comment that Austen did “leave lawful issue in the shape o’ one son”, and that was Henry James. Fair enough. At one stage, Humberstall chalks their guns with the names of Austen characters. His Janeite superiors approve, though there is some discussion about whether he’d accorded the right name to the right gun. For example:
… they said I was wrong about General Tilney. ’Cordin’ to them, our Navy twelve-inch ought to ’ave been christened Miss Bates …
Of course, much has been written about this story, including its secret society setting, the Masons, and Kipling’s intentions about that – but these other issues are not my focus here.
What is of interest is Humberstall’s statement late in the story:
“… You take it from me, Brethren, there’s no one to touch Jane when you’re in a tight place. …”
It is this that inspired our meeting because, while Kipling’s story is fiction, it is the case that Austen’s novels, among others, were provided to soldiers to read for morale. On the Kipling Society’s website is this:
In 1915, John Buchan and George Mackenzie-Brown, co-directors of Nelson, launched the highly successful Continental Library series, designed to be carried in soldiers’ pockets. Gassart [who wrote an article for the TLS in 2002] quotes the papers of W.B. Henderson, a Glaswegian schoolmaster attached to a Siege Battery in the Royal Garrison Artillery, in arguing that a book’s solace:
was its power to transport the infantryman from a world of “sergeants major and bayonet fighting, and trench digging and lorry cleaning and caterpillar greasing” into the fantasy of the novelist – and none was better at it than Jane Austen.
Her novels were also used during the war as part of therapy with shell-shock victims. Indeed, the above-mentioned Clare Harman says that three of Austen’s novels were “at the top of a graded Fever-Chart”. Academic Claire Lamont (in her paper, “Jane Austen and the nation”) suggests that this was because Austen’s “Englishness expresses itself as the standard of where and how one might live…”. Other critics have other ideas – though many of them are variations on this theme. One member of my group found a report that novels like Austen’s were used to gee-up damaged soldiers to get them back to the front! That shocked us somewhat. Bibliotherapy, it seems, is not a new thing.
Kipling, himself, was, not surprisingly, an Austen fan. As well as his story “The Janeites” (which term was coined by a critic back in the 1870s), he wrote a poem, whose final lines are used as an epigram for “The Janeites”:
Jane lies in Winchester, blessed be her shade!
Praise the Lord for making her, and her for all she made.
And while the stones of Winchester – or Milsom Street – remain,
Glory, Love, and Honour unto England’s Jane!
OK, so it’s a bit sentimental I admit, but he wrote it and that’s my excuse for using it to close today’s little commentary!
Rudyard Kipling
“The Janeites”
First published: Hearst’s International, MacLean’s, and the Story-Teller Magazine, May 1924
Available: Online at UWYO
Whispering Gums 
Thank you for this. In Novermber 2014, our local JASNA Group adapted the story as a group reading. No advance rehearsals, just showed up, stood in line, and read our parts. We had a few basic props. It was marvelous and moving – we added a show and tell of members’ WW1 personal memorabilia (inlcuding the diary of one member’s mother who was a young war nurse in 1915) and read a couple of war poems written during Jane Austen’s lifetime. Jane spent most of her life during an active war.
Wow, Joan, that’s great! I’d be challenged doing the Cockney accent, but it would be fun to do. BTW we are a local group of JASA.
Well, I have to say I was born and brought up in the UK and my dear late Mum was from the East End of London so it was a piece of cake for me to read “Umberstall’s” lines. The hardest part was the adaptation that two of us undertook, eliminating a lot of text that slowed things down, and any descriptive non-dialogue sections. Once we had that done, it was really very straightforward. One thing I did do, was put together a little programme to give some background to the story and a glossary of terms as so much of the slang was foreign to our Canadian members’ ears.
Haha, Joan. We have a couple of English born people in the group – not Cockney’s – but they did a good job of reading out a little bit. A glossary of terms – yes, that would have been useful too. I could work some out in context, but Google is a help these days. Have you made your adaptation public for others to use?
We have sent our text (along with production notes etc) to JASNA for their consideration for their Script Bank.
Thanks Joan … is their script bank publicly available? I guess I can go check their website for that. Good luck – I hope they accept it.
Dear Joan, Our JASNA chapter has asked a local actor to do a reading of “The Janeites” for a Zoom meeting in March, 2021. In searching for material for an introduction I ran across your comment about sending the script for your presentation to the JASNA “script bank”, but in checking their website I cannot locate such a category. Did they ever actually archive your script? And would you be willing to share the script with our chapter? (JASNA-Puget Sound Region, Washington, USA) Thank you. Debbie Johnson, Program Committee
Oh Deborah, thanks for commenting here. If you don’t hear back from Joan, I can probably contact her through the email she would have had to supply, like you did, to comment here. Not everyone, as you probably know, checks back on responses to their comments on other people’s blogs.
BTW I love the Puget Sound. Have visited that area a couple of times in my life, and have happy memories.
Marvelous post. I must read Kipling’s story. There has been a lot written and said about the healing power of literature. It seems that if any author’s works would be efficacious, it would be Jane Austen’s. I love the concept of the Janeites.
Yes, do read the story Brian, it packs quite a lot into it. “Janeites” is a great term. I think the critic who coined the term I also said “Austenians” but, happily, that nomenclature didn’t stick.
I can’t imagine there would be so many Janeites in the army or in the general population today, another century later. If we were unlucky enough to be in that situation again I’m guessing they’d be using names from Harry Potter (or from film culture about which I know nothing).
Haha, Bill, there was a reference in one of the articles I read that said people turned to Austen then the way people turned to re-runs of Friends after 9/11!! Hmmm. Still, Austen may not have disapproved. She was, we understand, eclectic in her interests – consumed popular culture as well as “high” culture.
This is fascinating – I had no idea!
Thanks Lisa. I don’t always write here about my Jane Austen group’s monthly meeting, but I wondered how many people would know this story – both Kipling’s story and story about Austen being used this way – so thought is worth doing.
What a fascinating post and I can certainly see the appeal of Jane Austen as an antidote to trench warfare. Kipling is such a fascinating writer. Kipling’s 1914-18 home front story Mary Postgate is equally brilliant, compassionate – and grotesque.
Thanks Ian. I haven’t read Mary Postgate – “brilliant, compassionate – and grotesque”. Wow, that’s a combination. I haven’t read enough Kipling to have a real sense of him.
His best short stories are among the best ever written. I find his politics a real barrier to enjoying him but remember a good literary biography of Kipling by the late Angus Wilson (about as different a personality from his subject that can be imagined) who really brought home to me his stature. Check out Mary Postgate which is a fearful mixture of hate and compassion.
Yes, I wondered about his politics – a challenge with some writers. I have found Mary Postgate on line, now have to find time to read it but will try. Sounds silly I know but the piles of stories and articles I have nearly rival the books!
I’m amazed at Kipling doing cockney accidents… he was a toff, wasn’t he?
Fair question, Lisa. I think he came from comfortable but not wealthy origins – was born in India. Not Cockney. But, he was a Mason. Also I think he did get around a bit so met and mixed with a wide range of people.
Hi Sue, I was at my local library tonight and Toni Jordan, the author of Fragments was there. She spoke about writing and explained that she was doing a Phd on comdedy romantic over 3 decades. Jane Austen and her writing is one of her themes. She doesn’t find Jane Austen romantic at all. Toni Jordan is a very entertaining speaker as well as an entertaining writer. I like how everything connects in life!
Haha, I do too Meg. I’d love to hear Toni talk. There is romance in Austen of course, but I love that she doesn’t see her as romantic – it means she sees her wit, irony and particularly her commentary on human nature.
Oh what a delightful story! I had no idea Kipling was a Jane fan. I just came across this today: https://storybrewersroleplaying.com/good-society/
It’s a Jane Austen tabletop role playing game! Have you heard of it? It looks pretty complex but could be fun.
Thanks Stefanie. It’s actually interesting discovering which writers loved or admired her and which didn’t.
No I haven’t heard of that game. I’ll check it out to see if it might be something for a meeting?
A very late note to this topic but have you seen this news item? I hope the production gets off the ground for us all to enjoy: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-janeites-film?fbclid=IwAR3YTQGNhGsvy4gnqY8UYIVhDshUBUrnem-pNGPwSbfOI6ZvUlubs3KzCfM#/
Nice to hear from you again, Joan. No, I hadn’t heard of that, so thanks. I love how they describe it as a “labour of love”.