The Jane Austen Book Club

The following article was written for the Naples Consulate.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the work of Jane Austen unites readers of all nations. Nothing affirms this truth better than the fact that on January 16 the Google page featured a Regency man and woman strolling, arm in arm, in a park. The image was a tribute to the 235th anniversary of Austen’s birthday.
High school students of Matera, Italy, paid their own tribute to the writer they had studied and loved with Fulbright grantee Lauren-Claire Kelley. Kelley is a participant in the English Teaching Assistantship program, organized by the Fulbright Commission to foster appreciation of American language and culture. American Jane Austen is not, but she has a special significance for Kelley and the students of the licei E. Duni and Dante Alighieri. After studying Pride and Prejudice, the students were inspired to start a book club, in which they read the work not only of Austen, but of American and Italian writers. Thanks to Jane Austen, the students frequently practice their English-speaking skills outside of the classroom.

On the evening of the 16th, the book club convened for tea. The table for 20 barely provided enough space: students clustered around tea, butter sandwiches, muffins, fruit platters, ladyfingers (known in Italy as savoiardi, that staple of tiramisù), and at least four varieties of scones. The spread was inspired by Lizzy Bennet’s visit to Pemberley, one of the most important scenes in Pride and Prejudice.

As for books, there were as many versions of Pride and Prejudice as there were of scones, the students having brought both English and Italian copies of the classic. Throughout the evening, the students read aloud favorite passages, challenging their classmates to identify the chapters. Two students, one from the liceo E. Duni and the other from the liceo Alighieri, performed the famous scene in which Mr. Darcy appears. Often the performance was interrupted by some objection to the word or phrase chosen by the translator, the students by now being experts of the original text. Kelley and two of her students performed the book club’s rite: after intoning the celebrated first line (“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”) they compared Austen’s words with the various translations.

Lucrezia, our hostess, read aloud the passage that had inspired the evening’s menu. Recounting Lizzy’s visit to Pemberley, Austen writes: “The next variation which their visit afforded was produced by the entrance of servants with cold meat, cake, and a variety of all the finest fruit of the season...There was now employment for the whole party; for though they could not talk, they could all eat; and the beautiful pyramids of grapes, nectarines, and peaches soon collected them round the table” (Ch. 45, p. 218 Guinti Classics, 2001).

With two languages from which to choose, there was little danger that our party would resort to the food for conversation. The students spoke English as they nibbled savoiardi, Italian as they sipped tea. The discussion of translations yielded many new words, and even more idiomatic phrases, which were quickly adopted and inserted into the evening’s conversation. 235 years after Austen’s birth, her language is no longer that of nineteenth-century England; it is a universal language that fosters the exchange of other languages and cultures.