Novelist Will Explore Jane Austen’s England

It’s not that Joan Overfield is jealous of Jane Austen. She has too much respect for the late author’s skills, not to mention her novels.

Still, when you’ve seen 18 of your own novels in print, it’s hard not to begrudge the continuing popularity of a writer who has been dead for 179 years.

“Four hit movies, a Golden Globe, an Oscar, People magazine voted her one of the most influential people of 1995,” Overfield says. “I mean, who is this woman’s publicity agent? My agent pointed out that if I was willing to be dead…”

No need to finish that sentence. One of Spokane’s most prolific novelists, Overfield is alive enough to have sold her 19th novel and be well on her way to completing her 20th - all of which she has accomplished in just the last eight years.

Her latest, “Time’s Tapestry,” is dedicated to her late friend, Marie Van Slate, who was gunned down last February in the Ridpath Hotel’s Silver Grille.

In terms of Austen, Overfield will prove her admiration for the English novelist by giving a lecture at Auntie’s Bookstore at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. The title: “The England of Jane Austen.”

Overfield, whose own field bridges the various forms of the romance novel, has done a professorial job of research on Austen and her era.

Among other things, she will speak on the general history of the years between 1810-1820, on the English society of that decade and of Austen’s influential novels.

Those novels include the recent movie adaptations “Sense and Sensibility,” “Pride and Prejudice,” “Persuasion” and “Emma.”

“What most people don’t realize is that she wrote the first real novels that actually focused on the lives of ordinary people,” Overfield says of Austen. “She was the first writer to show that you could take ordinary people and ordinary lives and really make them reflect the society and what was going on.”

And why does she think that Austen continues to be so popular nearly two centuries after her death? Well, part of it may be part of a backlash against the graphic violence and profanity prevalent in today’s popular culture.

“But I think it more has to do with Austen’s characters themselves,” Overfield says. “Because even though the most important thing in their lives is ‘Am I going to get a husband?’ or ‘How does my gown look?’ that might sound trivial, but it strikes a chord in people because these people had a very clear sense of honor and duty.”

Such a sense is a marvelous attitude to those of us living in this modern age.

“In a world where nothing is black and white, where everything is gray, it’s kind of nice to know that there was a time and a place where things were very, very well defined, and you knew what your duty was,” Overfield says.

For information about the Auntie’s Bookstore reading series, call 838-0206.

From the northern climes

Memory is a tricky thing. And it gets only worse as we age.

Alaska author Audrey Leighton tackles the dual subjects of memory and family in her new novel “A Window of Time” (Nadja Publishing, 32 pages, $15.95). Leighton, a 1958 graduate of Whitworth College, writes a story based on her own grandfather who, approaching his 90th year, would occasionally believe that he was still living on the farm where he was raised as a boy.

Kirkus reviews praised the book for its “sweetly philosophical look at time, memory and the connection between old and young.”

“A Window of Time” is on the order list at the Children’s Corner Bookshop and, says co-owner Susan Durrie, copies should be forthcoming. For information, call 624-4820.

The reader board

Barbara J. Scott, author of “Prairie Reunion,” will read from her memoir at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington.

Joan Overfield, author of “Time’s Tapestry,” will give a talk titled “The England of Jane Austen” at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Auntie’s Bookstore.

Poet Roberta Hill Whiteman will read from her works at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the University of Idaho Law School Courtroom.

Jack Whyte, author of “The Singing Sword,” will read from his book at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Auntie’s Bookstore. “Singing Sword” is the second installment in Whyte’s “Camulod Chronicles,” an adaptation of the King Arthur tales.

Author/activist Morris Dees, chief trial counsel of the Southern Poverty Law Center and author of “Gathering Storm: America’s Militia Threat,” will deliver this year’s Luvera Lecture at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the lobby of the Davenport Hotel. Dees’ lecture is titled “A Passion for Justice.” The lecture is free and open to the public, but seats are limited. To reserve a spot, call 328-4220, ext. 3759.

, DataTimes