Jane Austen’s French Publications from 1815

Indeed, for most French readers, when they happen to know her, Jane Austen is only a British novelist among the others. Although all her six novels were promptly translated and published between 1815 and 1824, and almost never ceased to be available since then, there is a great discrepancy between her fame in France and in Britain. In France, she is perceived by the broader public as a sentimental novelist, writing mostly for young women. Austen’s reception in the English-speaking world has reached new levels of popularity: There are now, after decades of literary criticism, two coexisting figures for Austen, the popular and the academic one. The academic appreciation of Austen has deeply expanded since the 1940s, firmly installing her in the canon of great English writers. She is famous for her irony and innovative style as a novelist, and now all the aspects of her work have been explored. This intense scholarship cohabits with the popular Austen, where readers experience a peculiar feeling of proximity to Austen’s six novels. Jane Austen’s success is rather unique, uniting both academic and popular traditions. However, there are local variants on this success: The French have translated her according to prevailing literary tastes, rendering her more romantic than matter-of-fact, accepting her humor with difficulty, and hence erasing some of her particular qualities.