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- Helen Fielding, Jennifer Egan, Kevin Kwan and Vivian Gornick spoke in conversation with New Yorker writer Alexandra Schwartz at the Celebration of Jane Austen at the 92nd Street Y on March 27
- The panel spoke about Austen’s lasting influence on their writing and larger pop culture in celebrated of the novelist’s 250th birthday this year
- Fielding, whose novel Bridget Jones’s Diary is a retelling of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, called Austen her “hero”
A group of beloved writers came together to honor the legacy of Jane Austen.
In a discussion hosted by New Yorker writer Alexandra Schwartz at New York’s 92nd Street Y — and attended by PEOPLE — on Thursday, March 27, authors Jennifer Egan (A Visit from the Goon Squad), Kevin Kwan (Crazy Rich Asians), Helen Fielding (Bridget Jones’s Diary) and Vivian Gornick (Fierce Attachments) spoke of Austen’s work and influence, in celebration of her 250th birthday this year.
Kwan said that he came to Austen “late in life,” at age 15. He began “binging” her novels, starting with 1811’s Sense and Sensibility and 1814’s Mansfield Park.
“I felt this connection between her characters, this very real connection between, especially, the women of Jane Austen and my childhood and my family Singapore,” Kwan said. “So many of the women reminded me of the aunts I grew up with … I felt like I was reading about members of my family.” He also said that Austen’s work set the stage for Crazy Rich Asians, which also includes themes of family, romance and societal expectations.
Egan shared she’s working on a detective novel, and found current inspiration in Austen’s 1816 novel Emma, which incorporates elements of mystery. Gornick, who writes criticism, looked to Austen to see “different models” of writing men and women in society.
Perhaps most directly influenced by the novelist was Fielding, whose novel Bridget Jones’s Diary is a retelling of Austen’s seminal 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice.
“Pride and Prejudice was the first, if you like, intellectual novel that I read, the sort of novel you were given in school,” Fielding said. “I was completely startled by this emotional honesty about women and this female heroine who was funny, who was plucky, who stood up to men…yet, you still wanted to turn the page, just as much as you did with Jackie Collins.”
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Fielding also explained how she viewed Austen as feminist influence.
“All her heroines are unmarried, they’re all caught in that moment between being children, being girls,” Fielding said, adding, “They have no power except to refuse a proposal.” She also noted how Austen chose to be a novelist instead of getting married herself.
“She decided that she was just not going to settle and she was going to be a writer instead,” Fielding said. “She was pretty tough…instead of choosing stridency as her method of communicating, she chose humor and irony. So, she’s my hero. She’s my feminist hero.”
Austen, who was born in 1775, is widely considered to be one of the most important writers of the 18th century. Throughout her lifetime, she anonymously published her four beloved novels, along with two posthumous novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, in 1817.
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Centuries later, however, readers are still enamored with the author. Egan noted that Austen’s novels “feel so contemporary,” despite being written before modern technology, while Kwan said her work transcended cultures. But, as Fielding put it, Austen’s books may remain so popular, simply, “because she’s good.”
The Celebration of Jane Austen event also featured a dramatic reading from Pride and Prejudice by actors and couple Emily Mortimer and Alessandro Nivola.
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