Issue10-p6

Tony Heyes
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In this essay, Tony Heyes reveals what for him makes a good novel, gay or otherwise; and with a wry twist shows us just how relevant Jane Austen still is to modern gay issues.

"A thoroughly satisfying novel, whatever its subject matter, ought to be equally as well-rounded. The “traditional” gay novel, if there is such a thing, deals in a similar fashion with self-realisation and the finding of a place in society. Coming out and coming of age are for the gay person equivalent to the marriage market treated of by Jane Austen. Each individual has to find him/herself and, despite any human weaknesses and societal obstacles, find a place in society and in relation to others. The need to be loved is and the search for love is common to all humanity and the thoroughly satisfying gay novel recognises that fact."

Some Day He’ll Come Along

[Jane Austen] even recognised the Christian Right when she saw it, putting into the mouth of Mr. Collins, a clergyman, the immortal words “You ought certainly forgive them as a christian, but never admit them in your sight, or allow their names to be mentioned in your hearing”. A sentiment with which many a gay person will be familiar.

Recently the BBC conducted a poll among its viewers to determine Britain’s one hundred favourite books. To nobody’s surprise, one author had three novels in the top ten. These were Pride and Prejudice, Emma and Persuasion, published in 1813, 1816 and 1818 respectively. Despite being nearly two hundred years old, all six of Jane Austen’s novels remain in print, can be found in any bookstore and sell steadily. Were she still alive she would no doubt be as rich as Croesus.

Of themselves the novels are not remarkable in their subject matter. In a letter to her niece written in 1814, advising her how to write a novel, she speaks of collecting people together into 3 or 4 families in a country village and making full use of them while they are so very favourably arranged. In another letter of 1816, written to the Prince of Wales’ secretary who was urging her to write a historical romance, she said that she was incapable of writing without laughing and had no alternative but to keep to her own style, having on a previous occasion protested that “I may boast myself to be, with all possible Vanity, the most unlearned, & uninformed Female who ever dared to be an Authoress”. Far from this being the case, she was an acute and wise observer of life. She even recognised the Christian Right when she saw it, putting into the mouth of Mr. Collins, a clergyman, the immortal words “You ought certainly forgive them as a christian, but never admit them in your sight, or allow their names to be mentioned in your hearing”. A sentiment with which many a gay person will be familiar.

Despite her modest aims and professions of ignorance, Miss Austen clearly had the ability to write novels of enduring appeal. The three novels to get into the top ten are all different from each other. “Pride and Prejudice” is full of the exuberance of youth. “Emma” was the work closest to her heart and is the most nearly perfect of her works, achieving her stated aim of delineating the relationships between 3 or 4 families and bringing them to a satisfactory resolution, whilst “Persuasion”, written when she was dying (and my personal favourite) is a story of hope abandoned and regained and has an elegiac beauty seldom matched.

Although they have their differences, these novels have much in common besides their beautiful prose and brilliantly ironic wit. Each is concerned about making a happy marriage to someone with a good income for, as the author said, a large income is the best recipe of happiness (that irony again!). In each story the goal is attained only after much misunderstanding, pride and prejudice and downright stupidity. The main characters undergo humiliating revelations through which they grow morally. They discover that nothing is as it seemed. Only after many trials and false steps do the scales fall from their eyes. Nuptial bliss is attained when they have thrown caution to the wind and admitted their true feelings. Purged of their illusions they take their place in society. The fascination of the stories lies in the unravelling of the misunderstandings and the realisation by the main characters of their true feelings. What more can anyone want from a novel? Very little if the BBC poll is to be believed, and there is no reason why it shouldn’t.

It can be argued that these novels are formulaic, that the ending is a foregone conclusion. I would argue that they are formulaic only in the sense that “He was born, he suffered, he died” is a summation of anyone’s life. Each life, while conforming to this bleak description consists of so much more; so do Miss Austen’s novels. Their attraction lies in their truthfulness to life, their peeling away of illusions and their emotionally satisfactory endings. Far from being formulaic, they can be regarded as ideal types of universal significance. We never tire of reading of rounded lives.

A thoroughly satisfying novel, whatever its subject matter, ought to be equally as well-rounded. The “traditional” gay novel, if there is such a thing, deals in a similar fashion with self-realisation and the finding of a place in society. Coming out and coming of age are for the gay person equivalent to the marriage market treated of by Jane Austen. Each individual has to find him/herself and, despite any human weaknesses and societal obstacles, find a place in society and in relation to others. The need to be loved is and the search for love is common to all humanity and the thoroughly satisfying gay novel recognises that fact. So many tend to stray so far off the beaten track that it is difficult to understand what the authors are about. Sex is not the be all and end all for a gay person any more than it is for a straight one, yet far too many “novels” suggest that predation is the sole human motivating factor, particularly of the gay man. Other gay novels, often very amusing, are set in what can only be described as gay ghettoes. The straight world for them is, at the very least, an irrelevance. Most gay people spend the greater part of their lives in the straight world, come from fully-functioning straight families, have straight friends and take their place in a predominantly heterosexual environment. Though they have problems and self-delusions, particularly in hostile communities, they too want to live happily ever after. Like Jane Austen, the good gay author will contextualise his/her characters within a real environment and deal with the problems inherent in being obliged to function in a less than ideal world where all is not as one would wish.

I hope publishers seek out more authors who are prepared to write novels that give the rest of us hope and hold out the possibility of fulfilling lives. Enough of hustling, despair and suicide. As Miss Austen said “let other pens dwell on guilt and misery”!