"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." - Pride and Prejudice

Welcome to a site dedicated to the illumination and preservation of Jane Austen's vision. It is also a place where men are encouraged and women are welcomed. This is the home page and, as such, it contains the links to all the other features of the web site. If you are a Male Voices veteran, you may wish to link directly to the Message Board. Or, you may wish to link to the Table of Contents or to the Index and Archive. I have also prepared this introduction and explanation for you.

It is said that every male reader of Pride and Prejudice falls in love with Elizabeth Bennet. I believe that must be true. It is also said that Elizabeth Bennet is Jane Austen. I like to think that, but Elizabeth Bennet and Jane Austen do differ in at least one important respect. Elizabeth was raised in a household filled mostly with women - four sisters and no brothers. She was a daddy's girl to be sure, but the atmosphere in Elizabeth's home was decidedly female. And the Bennet household was dominated by a woman; mama ruled by badgering and by applying moral pressure and papa was left to his library or to his largely indelicate remarks as a last refuge. Jane Austen, on the other hand, was raised in a house full of young, vital males. She had six brothers, only one sister, and there were a number of resident, male students being tutored by her father. For the first three and a half years of her life, she was the baby in the family with six older siblings. This experience, combined with her highly and uniquely talented mind, made her one of the most accurate describers of the male character with which I am familiar. Her novels were very popular with the men of her own generation and we can hope for the same type of popularity in our generation as well.

Jane Austen could also approve of the male race, and her male characters (the good ones) are much like her brothers, I think. Those same brothers who supported the Austen women after the death of the father, so that neither Jane nor her sister would ever have to work a single day in her entire life. The brothers supplied homes, and protection, and entrées into society. They augmented the income of the women sufficiently to allow them to keep servants and to entertain visitors. Miss Jane Austen was no Miss Bates. In this way, the brothers supplied the independence and leisure that Jane Austen would exploit to write her novels. More importantly, the brothers and the father mightily encouraged Jane, first in her education and then in her writing. They read and applauded her manuscripts, and brother Henry took care of the negotiations with publishers and printers. She would stay with Henry in London when she was correcting galley proofs. It is said that he even invented the titles for Persuasion and Northanger Abbey when Jane died before she could perform that task for herself.

Jane was seventh in the birth order of her family but she would be the first to die. Her reverend brothers participated in her last rites with her and that is a heart-cracking thought, because those were the two brothers who may have understood and loved her best. Her "sailor" brothers were daring warriors in the protracted fight against Napoleon. Both performed deeds that would bring each fame and an Admiral's rank (and a fortune), and their exploits would cause Jane great concern, excitement, and pride. She was no less proud of their manly beauty. So it is that you must not be surprised when you learn that at the same time she was inventing some of the best novels ever written, she was also sewing and sending shirts "by the half dozen" to her baby brother, Charles. That very same Captain Charles Austen, who was at sea where he was - well - helping to cause the War of 1812: Jane wrote to a friend "Charles is in the North Atlantic exercising Britain's right to search". (JANE!)

The Strong, Beautiful, Austen-Family Features in a Silhouette of Jane's Sister, Cassandra

How do you do, I am pleased to meet you here. My name is Ashton Dennis, please refer to me as do my friends; call me "Ash" or "Dennis". I am offering this web site as a forum for those voices that may wish to congregate in order to explore Jane Austen's novels. I think of myself as the Bulletin-Board Meister, so you might also refer to me as "Board-Meister" or "Meister" but "Bull-Meister" is absolutely forbidden. I am a Jane-Austen devotee and my hope is that Jane Austen's vision will be continually restored, illuminated, and preserved. It is my view that the male voice is too little represented in these efforts and that is a shame. Two women, Sue Birtwistle and Deirdre Le Faye, have done so very much to preserve Jane Austen's vision and can serve as our models. And, who could hope to inspire new readers to the same extent as have Doran Godwin, Jennifer Ehle, or Amanda Root. However, a few men also have contributed to the illumination of Jane Austen's novels, men like Denis Constanduros, Nick Dear, and - above all - Andrew Davies.

There are other points of view at work; Jane Murfin, Emma Thompson, and Patricia Rozema have made egregious errors and that must be confronted and undone. There are failing marks against some of our sex as well; Lawrence Olivier and Aldus Huxley have something to answer for I think.

It would be foolish to organize a forum to celebrate one woman's vision while excluding the views and opinions of all others. I selected the title for the bulletin board merely to indicate its affirmative-action nature - an affirmative action for the maligned and under-represented. Like all places that adopt an affirmative action, it is intended as a venue for conciliation. So, while this forum is organized primarily to encourage men, women are most welcome to join us as full and equal partners, - of course, by all means, please contribute. Women will find the male perspective quite a bit different than that displayed at the other Jane-Austen forums on the web; however, I am certain that many will feel quite comfortable at our place. Perhaps, some women will feel more comfortable here.

It would be very un-Jane-like of us if we were completely serious - about anything. But, for the same reason, we must be somewhat serious about everything. My own tendency is to be too serious. I depend upon you to help me strike the proper balance. I mean, I think of Jane Austen as a basically serious person who just happened to have a superior and irrepressible sense of humor. To me, she wrote only one "comedy" and that was Northanger Abbey. I also think of her as a teacher who has much to say to us. There - you see! - I am too serious.

This is not a university or a coffee house - nothing so orderly or so conventional as those places. You are required to show respect, but you won't need to display the credentials and the acceptable opinions demanded at those places. Instead, I imagine a bit of a locker-room atmosphere at this site - raucous and incautious at times if always gentlemanly. At least, I very much hope so because I always found that kind of place to be conducive to unfettered and useful discourse.

I am looking forward to a great deal of interesting and animated debate. I will review every one of your submissions and post them in a very few days. I hope we can avoid flaming or gender warfare; surely there can no need for those things. Perhaps some guidelines can help us to complete our purpose. It seems to me that the issue is what did Jane Austen intend, what was her vision? This is a guideline and not a hard and fast rule, but it is the reason-for-being of the bulletin board. Secondly, try to use references that the rest of us can easily find in the library or on the web, and quote enough to convince us that it is worth our time and effort to do the library or browser-aided research. Again, this is a guideline and not a hard and fast rule.

Your postings might be quite short, a simple question, comment, or a correction to those postings already on the board. Perhaps you simply want to make some sort of contact. Click here when you are ready to make a submission or read the bulletin board messages.

The Jane Austen Message
Board For Men's Voices

To get things started - for that reason only - I am making postings of my own. You can link to one of those here.

• Brass, Winter Thunder, and a Polar Bear (What some men have said about Jane Austen)
• On the Dais and Under the Canopy (More of what men have said about Jane Austen)
• What Some Women Should Not Have Said About Jane Austen
• The Passionate Passages (A new perspective on the novels!)
• We Neither of Us Perform to Strangers (Darcy and Jane Austen)
• Jane Austen's Golden Loom (Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet)
• "Children of the Same Family, the Same Blood" (Mansfield Park)
• The Crawfords at Mansfield Park
• Love, Vanity, and "Education" at Mansfield Park
• The Best Country Dancer in a Filmed Version of a Jane Austen Novel (Films based upon Jane Austen's novels)
• Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley and Other Contemporaries of Jane Austen
• Women Writers and Other Influences (More on Jane Austen's time - the Regency Period)
• Annotated References and Links

I would rather that my postings be evocative; but, I am afraid that these might prove provocative at certain places. Ah well, that is the second-best result. Probably all of my postings have an evanescent value. I mean they will be revised, trashed, or replaced by your own. All that will be a result of your responses. I suggest you start with Brass, Winter Thunder, and a Polar Bear and then We Neither of Us Perform to Strangers. If the films are of interest to you, you might look at The Best Country Dancer. My more controversial postings are my film reviews of Patricia Rozema's Mansfield Park and Emma Thompson's Sense and Sensibility, and the posting on Mary Wollstonecraft - are you sure you are ready for those?

As was indicated, our domain name, "truth-acknowledged" is taken from the opening to Pride and Prejudice. The sentence prepares us for the amusing mood in the Meryton community at the arrival there of Mr. Bingley - just such a man! However, that doesn't mean that the Meryton folks were wrong. Even Mr. Bennet understood that; for, in spite of his teasing, he was one of the first to present his card to Bingley.

It is also interesting to notice that the sentence nicely summarizes the view of Thomas Malthus, who published about a decade before Jane Austen. This was the view that the middle class would marry whenever they had the resources, but not until. It was not Jane Austen's intent to summarize Malthus, but it suits me just fine.

How often will I update? I have no idea. My wife has committed to posting to Men's Voices, but only if I buy her dinner. OK, so I will be reviewing and updating at least once or twice a year. Currently, I am updating three or four times a week. The frequency of the update will be adjusted up or down to accommodate the traffic level - I don't anticipate much traffic. In any case, thanks for stopping by. Oh - before you go - I am obligated to say one last thing about brother Charles Austen. In 1823, he was ordered back on station in the West Indies where he was to serve a new King with new policies. His specific assignment was to direct his forces toward the suppression of the slave trade. Knowing of the family as I do, I imagine that he performed admirably and with courage, ingenuity, and enthusiasm.