A typical image of Jane Austen

I watched this really interesting documentary on Sunday (still available at SBS on demand) about Jane Austen biographer and HarperCollins author Dr Paula Byrne’s investigation to verify and authenticate a newly discovered portrait of Jane Austen – one which flies in the face of the one previously accepted portrait of the author. Paula believes the standard image we see of Jane Austen, an artist’s interpretation of a rough sketch by her sister, fits the historically convenient stereotype of a sweet, retiring, and rather dull spinster. It got us thinking about how important the image of an author is to the way we perceive a book, particularly when the book is the utterly fabulous Pride and Prejudice on the bicentenary of its publication.

The Real Jane Austen by Dr Paula Bryne

In her new biography of Jane, The Real Jane Austen, Paula explores the forces that shaped the interior life of Britain’s most beloved novelist: her father’s religious faith, her mother’s aristocratic pedigree, her eldest brother’s adoption, her other brothers’ naval and military experiences, her relatives in the East and West Indies, her cousin who lived through the trauma of the French Revolution, the family’s amateur theatricals, the female novelists she admired, her residence in Bath, her love of the seaside, her travels around England and her long struggle to become a published author. The woman who emerges is far tougher, more socially and politically aware, and altogether more modern than the conventional picture of ‘dear Aunt Jane’ would allow. So perhaps we should makeover the ‘good old Jane’ and bring Jane Austen dazzlingly into the twenty-first century.

Sarah and I recently discovered this comic post about the five most baffling (depending on your perspective at least) genres of the romance novel. In light of new mass-market popularity of erotica, from S&M to thrillers such as our own Destined to Play by the fabulous Indigo Bloome, it got us thinking about what themes might trend next? Or alternatively what other great subgenres have been hiding in the closet and deserve to be outed?

As we were feeling whimsical, we brainstormed a list of our favourite topics that we would love read more of. We hope you’ll enjoy this and come up with a few of your own.

• The fabulous fifties, complete with fashion detail and Don Draper charm

• Men with a penchant for extreme ironing – or perhaps methodical dishwashing

• Romance with your favourite film star –a choose your own adventure with Ryan Gosling or Javier Bardem in the starring role

• More choose your own adventure with Ryan Gosling – can there ever be enough?

found on http://favim.com/image/358584/