Joining the club

Every author dreams of having her work spotlighted by a celebrity with a book club, an online following, and a guaranteed power to pump up sales. Reese Witherspoon, anyone? Barack Obama’s annual best-of list, maybe? Oprah Winfrey (oh, please, dear Lord)?

Jane Austen got the pre-Internet version of this boost when the Prince Regent asked/commanded her to dedicate Emma to him, and today she hardly needs the extra publicity—her books are still selling well, 250 years after her birth. Nevertheless, she’s getting another round of celeb treatment: Jenna Bush Hager, the Today show host and ex-Presidential daughter, has chosen Pride and Prejudice as this month’s Read With Jenna title.

As blog readers will recall, Hager has discussed her Austen-love before, crediting it to her grandmother, Barbara Bush. That former First Lady was such a fan that the minister officiating at her 2018 funeral imagined her in heaven, quizzing Jane Austen about the quality of the Darcy marriage.

Jenna and her grandmother “listened to Pride and Prejudice on tape,” Hager recalled in the press release announcing her book club choice. “It was in her bedroom, and I would come in every afternoon that I was staying with her in Maine. We would read it and then we'd watch the whole PBS miniseries.”

Hager said she hopes choosing P&P will encourage more young people to pick up the book, a goal with which I cannot quarrel. And, she added, “I love that Jane Austen was one of the first to teach me about romantic love, what it means to be a woman.” (Two lessons that are not at all the same thing, but hey--each Janeite gets to have her own Austen, so I’ll shut up now.)

Somewhere in the clouds—perhaps over tea with Barbara Bush?—Jane Austen must be smiling. Or else wondering what’s taking Oprah so long.