Jane Hinckley explores the fan fiction genre inspired by Jane Austen.
Pride. Prejudice. Murder!? Jane Hinckley (18th-Century British Women Writers and Artists) explored how Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice inspired an impressive following of fans to write murder mystery novels in her Education Week presentation on August 23. Hinckley taught how Austen’s famous book enticed the minds of fan writers to expound upon her fictional world and how Austen’s mysterious life and death inspired many fan fiction (fanfic) mystery novels.
Despite her fame in the literary world, details about Austen’s personal life, such as what she looked like and how she died, remain a mystery to this day. Some theorize that Austen died from Addison’s disease; others think it may have been from a form of cancer; and some even speculate it may have been from poison, but none of these theories have been confirmed. This shroud of mystery inspired Austen’s most popular fanfic genre, murder mysteries.
Pride and Prejudice-inspired murder mystery novels have seen a surprising amount of success. Author Stephanie Barron wrote a long series of murder mysteries where Austen herself solves mysteries. Another author, P. D. James, received acclaim for her novel Death Comes to Pemberley, a fanfic pseudo-sequel to Pride and Prejudice optioned for film adaptation.
Mystery novels may be the most popular form of Jane Austen fan fiction, but fans of Pride and Prejudice like to explore the famous story in other genres, as well as in other forms of media, such as film and television. Hinckley shared multiple fan fiction projects from various genres (zombie movies, sci-fi adventures, horror, etc.) that adapted the original story of Pride and Prejudice. Hinckley demonstrated the wide variety of media fans use by sharing a trailer for a comedy film that combines the plot of Fight Club with the world of Pride and Prejudice.
Austen’s literature continues to inspire fans today, who not only want to explore the world she created, but expand upon it as well. As Hinckley stated, “There really is no mystery why Pride and Prejudice continues to delight us.”
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