Jane Austen and the Price of Happiness

by Inger Sigrun Bredkjær Brodey

Do Jane Austen novels truly celebrate—or undermine—romance and happy endings?

How did Jane Austen become a cultural icon for fairy-tale endings when her own books end in ways that are rushed, ironic, and reluctant to satisfy readers' thirst for romance? In Jane Austen and the Price of Happiness, Austen scholar Inger Sigrun Bredkjær Brodey journeys through the iconic novelist's books in the first full-length study of Austen's endings. Through a careful exploration of Austen's own writings and those of the authors she read during her lifetime—as well as recent cultural reception and adaptations of her novels—Brodey examines the contradictions that surround this queen of romance.

Brodey argues that Austen's surprising choices in her endings are an essential aspect of the writer's own sense of the novel and its purpose. Austen's fiercely independent and deeply humanistic ideals led her to develop a style of ending all her own. Writing in a culture that set a monetary value on success in marriage and equated matrimony with happiness, Austen questions these cultural norms and makes her readers work for their comic conclusions, carefully anticipating and shaping her readers' emotional involvement in her novels.

Providing innovative and engaging readings of Austen's novels, Jane Austen and the Price of Happiness traces her development as an author and her convictions about authorship, novels, and the purpose of domestic fiction. In a review of modern film adaptions of Austen's work, the book also offers new interpretations while illustrating how contemporary ideas of marriage and happiness have shaped Austen's popular currency in the Anglophone world and beyond.

Genres: Nonfiction, Classics, Literary Criticism, Criticism, History

319 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 11, 2024

Reviews

[Kirk]

Only one PL in MA has a copy of this book.

I skimmed it there this am.

[Literary Redhead · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you love the romantic endings in Jane Austen-related film, TV, and fan variations, you will be brought up short by the author's eye-opening observations. A world renown Austen expert, Dr. Brodey posits that Jane's novels always rush at the end, leading to quick denouements without romantic sighs or whispers or heart-thumping scenes of HEAs.

📚 What does this mean to those of us who adore romance and only now see, through the author's insights, how wrong we've been about Jane? Perhaps, as the author contends in her announcement of the book:

"I'm delighted that I finally had a full sabbatical year and time to write a book solely on Austen. It is the first full-length study of Austen's endings - both in the novels and adaptations. It is also an extended rumination on her own relationship to the marriage plot."

📚 I now see that Jane had a more realistic view of marriage, not as the apotheosis of a woman's life, but another phase of life for many women with its unique challenges and changes. And Jane's own singlehood, lived in the happy bosom of family, expanded her view of other possibilities for women with enough funds to enjoy their independence.

All said, I rather prefer the happy filmic endings, so steeped in romance am I. But I thank Dr. Brodey for her grand scholarship and stellar writing as she adds greater depth to our understanding of Jane and her beloved novels. Janeites, put this one on your TBRs pronto!

[Lona Manning · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Jane Austen both spoofs and honours the traditional marriage plot.” Jane Austen and the Price of Happiness explores a question which I think preoccupies a lot of us Janeites--how does Austen write novels that manage to be romantic and ironic at the same time? Brodey recounts her teenage outrage when she first read Mansfield Park and got to the foreshortened, almost flippant ending. "Why? Why did she do this? Why develop everything so carefully only to rush the conclusion like that?"
While this is a deeply researched book, Brodey's language is free of impenetrable academic jargon, and is accessible to laypeople. She gives examples and explains the special narrative techniques Austen uses in the conclusions to her novels. I found the textual analysis--let's call it the "how" of Austen's technique--especially informative and interesting, but Brodey also looks at the "why."
Brodey compares Austen's handling of tragedy and comedy chiefly to Shakespeare, with some mentions of canonical authors from the period (Richardson, Fielding, Edgeworth and Burney), but not their proposal scenes. I think a book devoted to analyzing Austen's endings could include some comparative examples from typical sentimental novels of the period. Many novelists opted to omit the mushy stuff. The narrator in "Celia in Search of a Husband" (1809) wrote: “It is so uninteresting to describe love scenes, it is impossible to please all, I am actually timid in offering a scene of this sort to the eye of my readers;--and a love-letter! I would not venture on such a thing for the world.”
Each Austen novel gets its own chapter and Brodey includes an analysis of the most popular modern adaptations as well.
Recommended for Janeites who want to delve deeper into Austen with a knowledgeable guide.

[Chloe Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jane Austen and the Price of Happiness is an insightful and intellectually engaging read, particularly for those well-versed in Austen’s works. Rather than a traditional biography, this book leans heavily into literary analysis, with each chapter focusing on the endings of Austen’s novels and their various adaptations. The author’s approach is sharp and thoughtful, offering fresh interpretations of how Austen’s heroines navigate love, marriage, and personal fulfillment.

However, readers looking for a rich biographical account may find the book lacking in that regard. It reads more like a master’s thesis than a narrative-driven study, and without a strong background in Austen’s novels, some discussions may feel dense or risk revealing major plot points. That said, for devoted Austen readers and scholars, this book provides a fascinating exploration of how happiness is framed in her works—both in their original forms and through the lens of modern adaptations. A compelling read, best suited for those already immersed in Austen’s world.

[Holly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Frequently tedious and rarely insightful. I was going to give it three stars until the author claimed on page 243 that "Austen was a toddler when Thomas Jefferson wrote" the Declaration of Independence. WTF?! Austen was born December 16, 1775, so she was probably still a babe in arms when the Declaration of Independence was signed July 4, 1776; she sure as hell hadn't started walking. How could any decent Austen scholar who studied and/or taught in the US screw that up? It's a sloppy book with really big print so it looks more substantial than it is.

[Lexi Morey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really did take me forever to read this, but once I got into it I really enjoyed it! It was divided up into a chapter for each book chronologically and talked about how Austen’s lack of description in the endings and the narrator’s intrusion showed her uncomfortably with/skepticism of happy endings and the marriage stereotypes. It also looked at different film adaptations and how they deviated from the books to provide more typical happy endings. Learned a lot! It did feel like reading an academic paper, so took me a while to get into it

[Diane Jeske · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not a literary scholar of Jane Austen so it’s hard for me to really evaluate the author’s thesis that the pacing of the end of Austen’s novels shows her ambivalence to marriage. But I did find the thesis interesting, and also enjoyed the reading of the novels as showing the importance of realizing that the happy ending of the marriage plot is not a guarantee and so one must develop ‘resources for solitude.’ I find myself wanting to reread Austen, and that alone made this a worthwhile read.

[Suzanne Mccandless · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was like a college course in the literature of Jane Austen. I loved it. I have enjoyed reading and rereading Jane Austen books for many years, but now I have to start all over again. Each one holds so much more than I had found in it and i can't wait to read each again and appreciate the hidden in plain sight the thoughts that provide more moral growth in the thoughtful reader.

[Brooke Gerber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jack shall have Jill;
Brandon shall have Marianne,
Edward shall have Elinor again,
They shall all have better pasturage for their cows,
And all shall be well.

I feel like this book was written for me. An academic analysis of Austen’s endings, often through a comparative reading with Shakespeare, broken up text by text and compared with modern adaptations. Absolutely incredible.

[Joan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read the introduction and first chapter, skimmed the rest.

[Cara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic analysis of Austen's writing and a recommended read for Austen fans.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

absolutely so funny to have screenshots roasting bad movie adaption scenes as figures in your academic text

[Nikki · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a well-researched book, with new and interesting ideas that send you back to Austen’s novels.

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Respectfully, this should have been a Buzzfeed article.

[Roberta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting analyses here!

[Kristen (belles_bookshelves) · Rating 3 out of 5]

"We can miss the man in looking for the hero."

While this book was hella interesting, the most exciting this for me about the edition I have is that I got it in Bath England for the celebration of Jane Austen's 250th birthday.