I got the idea for my novel, The Jane Austen Project, in October 2007. I know this because in February 2006 I started keeping a Book Log. This happened after a friend gave a small but thick, unlined, red-suede notebook I thought was lovely but had no idea what to do with, and after a tragic experience involving a wonderful book of short stories I that borrowed from the library, read with pleasure and then, after a short interval, forgot both the author and the title of. This never happens anymore. An unexpected benefit is that the Book Log is a like a little red time capsule.
I knew I would have to do a lot of research to make The Jane Austen Project not stink, and I resolved to read exclusively — or as exclusively as seemed practicable — writing on the topic at hand. Which I defined as: work by Jane Austen herself or novelists of her era; nonfiction about Jane Austen or her age; historical fiction or pastiche that effectively captured the tone and spirit of the age (Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, the sea stories of Patrick O’ Brian, two of the most shining examples).
October 2007 marks the spot. What I read that month:
Treason’s Harbour by Patrick O’Brian (POB is really what inspired the Jane Austen Project)
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (I know! I know! My excuses are: I found it on the street, she was much in the news at the time , and I wondered if it would seem as trashy and yet full of ideas as when I read it in high school. It did.)
Exit Ghost by Philip Roth
The Far Side of the World by POB
That Old Ace in the Hole by Annie Proulx
then, suddenly:
Jane Austen, edited by Robert P. Irvine (Routledge Guides to Literature)
Jane Austen and Food by Maggie Lane
The Reverse of the Medal by POB
That is the last month, until quite recently, that there is any sort of balance between books written in the 20th or 21st century and having no connection and the other kind — the Jane Austeny kind.
In 2008 I read: (on the JA side)
The Thirteen-Gun Salute by POB
Jane Austen and Crime by Susannah Fullerton (fascinating)
Lady Susan, the Watsons and Sanditon by JA
Jane Austen in Context by Jane Todd
A Jane Austen Companion by F.B. Pinon
Jane Austen, a Collection of Critical Essays edited by Ian Watt
Becoming Jane Austen by Jon Spence
The Annotated Pride and Prejudice edited by David M. Shepard
Life in Regency England by R.J. White
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters (not quite of the era, but very well done)
English Society in the 18th Century by Roy Porter
Jane Austen and 18th Century Courtesy Books by Penelope Joan Frizter
Blood and Guts: A Short History of Medicine by Roy Porter (the medical stuff is important)
Wits, Wenches and Wantons: London’s Low Life, Convent Garden in the 18th Century by E.J. Buford
Emma, reread
The Nutmeg of Consolation by POB
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding
The Truelove by POB
Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler
How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman
The Wine-Dark Sea by POB
Northanger Abbey, reread
What Jane Austen Ate and What Charles Dickens Knew by Daniel Pool
Clarissa by Samuel Richardson
Jane Austen, the Parson’s Daughter by Irene Collins
Jane Austen and Food by Maggie Lane (again)
Jane Austen in Context by Jane Todd (again)
Possession by A.S. Byatt (another inspiration, though not strictly to topic)
Cassandra and Jane by Jill Pitkeathley
Sense and Sensibility, reread
The Language of Jane Austen by Myra Stokes
Some Words of Jane Austen by Stuart M. Tave
Jane Austen: The World of Her Novels by Deirdre Le Faye
Jane Austen and the Theatre by Paula Byrne
Mansfield Park, reread
The Commodore by POB
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Persuasion, reread….
I continued on in 2009 in much the same way. I pretty much stopped going to movies, because they seemed too modern and flickery. Even movies set in the Regency era, which ought to have been helpful, did not seem that way. I don’t own a TV.
At some point, I started to notice I was having trouble carrying on normal conversations. I had not seen a single episode of “Project Runway.” I had not read the latest important book: I was reading books like “Clarissa” that I would have been happy to talk about, if I could find someone else who had read them. I read the paper because I had to for my work (I am a newspaper copy editor) but even current events I was seeing through a prism of Regency England.
How long is it possible to live, mentally, in another century? How long is it practical?
The Jane Austen Project: A Novel 