Okay, this really isn’t about cake at all. It’s just, well, we’ve seen lots of reports lately that the ship called Jane’s Popularity has sailed. Apparently, the well has run dry—we’re fresh out of original texts to adapt, reinterpretations and new ideas to build on, and embarrassing Colin Firth memorabilia to buy. So…I guess that’s it! We’re moving on! Who’s up for paintball? Pottery? Roller derby?
But hark! Who are these magical sisters called Bronte, sent to save us from our delusions about snappy dialogue and sexy Regency necklines?
Complete & Unabridged has some good things to say on the subject today, but this isn’t the first we’ve heard of the masses moving on to Bronte territory: with the coming of next year’s adaptations of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, rumor has it that Haworth and the moors are the new place to be, literarily speaking. Cue midnight Thornfield attic tours, Team Rochester t-shirts, and a sudden interest in that severe center part in five, four, three…
Trust us. We know how these literary fandom things go. If you need some pointers, Bronteites, we’d be happy to help.
Here’s the awesome thing about books, though: You don’t have to choose. This isn’t a competition, and it isn’t a comment on your character. You can love Austen and the Brontes! You’re allowed to love the sparkling wit and domestic wisdom of Austen even as you sweat over Jane Eyre’s impending homelessness in the north country! You can long for a ball while also pondering therapeutic options for the residents of Thrushcross Grange! The only one who cares is probably Charlotte Bronte, and—I do hate to be the bearer of bad news—she’s dead.
Furthermore, readership—even new readership—is not a zero-sum game. A rise in Bronte popularity does not equal an Austenian fall from grace. Even if nobody ever adapts another Austen novel (oh, IMDB rumor snap!), Jane probably has more fans—dedicated, passionate fans—at this point in history than ever before. Nobody here is in danger of losing much of anything, except maybe a bit of the spotlight and a puzzling spot on the chick lit shelf. Whatever happens, the work isn’t diminished; we can afford to be generous. After all, how amazing would it be if everybody read Austen and the Brontes? And Eliot and Dickens and Elizabeth Gaskell and all the rest of the greats, right down the line? Surely a revived reading culture, whether it begins with a truth universally acknowledged or with a little girl hiding in the library, is worth a little getting along?
Seriously, people. You should hear my “Kum ba ya.”
austenacious 
This whole affair is just silly. Do we really have any proof that Austen’s popularity is dwindling? All this hype is based on that quote that “lately, audiences have dwindled, as shown by lacklustre viewing figures for the BBC’s latest Emma last year.” Are we really basing this on the fact that a single adaptation wasn’t wildly popular?
I’m perfectly comfortable with it if it’s true, though; I feel like the film and book industries have squeezed Jane dry for the moment, and we could all do with a rest to recuperate and take a breather for a couple-a five years, so that when Austen rises again (because she will, when we’re all tired of the Next Big Thing), we’ll be excited to see all the new adaptations.
That said, the Brontes are not exactly fresh new material. I mean, another Jane Eyre, five years after the previous (and in my opinion, definitive) adaptation? Even Joe Wright had the sense to wait ten years to redo Pride and Prejudice. Why not someone else entirely? There are fantastic authors out there. The BBC is doing some of these authors–see their Dickens and Gaskell adaptations in recent years–but Hollywood ignores them altogether.
Now that I have all that out of my system, I agree with your post. We don’t have to assume that a rise in the Brontes’ popularity will cause a fall in Austen’s; it’s never been an either/or kind of thing. In fact, I’m pretty dang sure that a large number of P&P fans are already Jane Eyre fans and will welcome the new adaptation (as long as they don’t ruin it, because Mia Wasikowska did not wow me in Alice in Wonderland, and Michael Fassbender is a little goofy-looking to be Rochester, but maybe that’s just me).
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Only one comment? I loved this post. I agree, lets read ALL the great authors, not just Jane, Charlotte, and Emily.
For example, LETS READ SOME ANNE BRONTE PEOPLE! Any Austen fan will love Agnes Grey, IMO.
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