Remembering Jane Austen...

By Ruth Hemphill

The 200th anniversary of the death of world-renowned novelist Jane Austen is July 18, 2017. Author of only four novels published in her lifetime, her impact on Western culture is phenomenal.

The Tennessee Library for the Blind & Physically Handicapped (TLBPH) has all of Austen’s major works available in audio, braille and large print formats. TLBPH also has many of the lesser-known works in audio and braille format, some of which are incomplete and were found in her papers after her death.

Adaptations of Austen’s work continue into the 20th and 21st century, including popular movies, starring well-known names such as Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, Keira Knightly, Alan Rickman, Kate Winslet and Hugh Grant. In addition, the 1995 movie, “Clueless,” set in modern Beverly Hills, is loosely based on Austen’s book, “Emma.”

In 2009, a parody of Austen’s most famous novel, “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,” by Seth Grahame-Smith, was published, starting a trend of “mash-ups” of classical works or historical figures with horror, including “Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters,” by Ben H. Winters, and “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter,” also by Seth Grahame-Smith. TLBPH has these parodies available in audio format, plus “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” is also available in large print.

For a woman who only lived to be 31 years old and died 200 years ago, Austen’s work fulfills the definition of a classic that “withstands the test of time.”

For information on who can borrow audio, braille and large print books from TLBPH, see the library’s website at: http://sos.tn.gov/tsla/lbph.

The Tennessee State Library and Archives is a division of the Office of Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett