A day or two ago, I came across this quote from Virginia Woolf talking about Jane Austen: \u201cof all great writers she is the most difficult to catch in the act of greatness.\u201d<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s true, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n
Her plots were reasonably standard for her time. No innovations there. Her themes were comfortable and safe. There aren\u2019t many quotable quotes. Her social situations are strictly limited. Her descriptive writing is almost completely absent.<\/p>\n
She is, in many ways, one of the least adventurous writers you can find. Even her comedy is of the wry smile sort. No one has ever guffawed with laughter or found themselves snorting cornflakes out through their nose.<\/p>\n
And yet \u2013<\/p>\n
She\u2019s Jane Austen. She sits in the very top rank of British writers. Her reputation has just grown steadily since her death.<\/p>\n
The heart of that invisible greatness?<\/p>\n
Her precision.<\/p>\n
Each character talks precisely like themselves, reacts precisely like themselves. Here\u2019s a tiny moment from Mansfield Park. Fanny (the poor niece transplanted to the big house and prosperous family) has a ball thrown in her honour. Here is Fanny\u2019s reflection:<\/p>\n
She could hardly believe it. To be placed above so many elegant young women! The distinction was too great. It was treating her like her cousins! \u2026 The ball began. It was rather honour than happiness to Fanny, for the first dance at least: her partner was in excellent spirits, and tried to impart them to her; but she was a great deal too much frightened to have any enjoyment till she could suppose herself no longer looked at.<\/em><\/p>\n Here is her uncle\u2019s attitude to the same moment:<\/p>\n Thomas himself was watching her progress down the dance with much complacency; he was proud of his niece; and without attributing all her personal beauty, as Mrs. Norris seemed to do, to her transplantation to Mansfield, he was pleased with himself for having supplied everything else: education and manners she owed to him.<\/em><\/p>\n And here is her aunt\u2019s view:<\/p>\n \u201cYes, she does look very well,\u201d was Lady Bertram’s placid reply. \u201cChapman helped her to dress. I sent Chapman to her.\u201d Not but that she was really pleased to have Fanny admired; but she was so much more struck with her own kindness in sending Chapman to her, that she could not get it out of her head.<\/em><\/p>\n There\u2019s nothing so remarkable in the prose there. Yes, there\u2019s a big of comedy in the last snippet, but nothing beyond what you could write yourself. And the characters aren\u2019t so exotic either. You\u2019ll find no huge act of the imagination at play here.<\/p>\n Yet there\u2019s not a word awry. Jane Austen isn\u2019t about huge. She\u2019s all about tiny.<\/p>\n Take that last bit about Lady Bertram. Her reply is \u2018placid\u2019 \u2013 of course it is, because Lady Bertram has never been known to stir herself for anything. Her being \u2018struck with her own kindness\u2019 perfectly exposes the limits of her thoughts and imagination. And even that bit of dialogue is precisely right:<\/p>\n The childish simplicity of that 1-2-3 movement, and the sentences that carry the thoughts, give you an almost holographic insight into the good Lady B. It\u2019s as though you could unfold that tiny bit of text to give you a complete insight into Lady Bertram\u2019s every thought and feeling.<\/p>\n The moral for us, as workaday non-genius writers?<\/p>\n That genius doesn\u2019t always look like genius. That paying careful, repetitive attention to the tiny details may not build some big fat obvious mountain of greatness \u2013 but it builds greatness all the same.<\/p>\n And of course, you don\u2019t have to jump back to Georgian England to find writers like that. Anne Tyler has the same gift. So does Elizabeth Strout. So does Elena Ferrante.<\/p>\n And yes: I notice that I\u2019ve just name-checked four writers in this email, all of them female. I do think, as it happens, that this virtue of precision is most often exhibited by women, but there are male writers (eg: Colm Toibin) who show you that the possession of a Y-chromosome doesn\u2019t have to be crippling.<\/p>\n That\u2019s it from me, so it\u2019s back to that locked-down grindstone, folks. Test every sentence, every word, for its ring-true-ishness, because those tiny disciplines can unlock vast pools of emotional power. And once you get into the precision game, you\u2019ll find it absorbing, compelling and deeply rewarding \u2013 just how writing ought to be.<\/p>\n Keep writing. Keep editing. Keep smiling. And stay safe.<\/p>\n Hate Jane Austen? Adore her? Writing galaxy-destroying military sci-fi in the spirit of Jane Austen? Let me know what you’re thinking and let’s all have a Heated Debate.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A day or two ago, I came across this quote from Virginia Woolf talking about Jane Austen: \u201cof all great writers she is the most difficult to catch in the act of greatness.\u201d And that\u2019s true, isn\u2019t it? Her plots were reasonably standard for her time. No innovations there. Her themes were comfortable and safe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":6168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29292],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-harrys-friday-email"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n