Howard Jacobson's Live a Little: The Jewish Jane Austen's 21st century novel of manners

Vol.47,No.1(2021)

Petr Anténe

https://doi.org/10.5817/BSE2021-1-7

Stable URL (handle):
http://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/144297

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Abstract
As the British Jewish novelist Howard Jacobson has called himself the "Jewish Jane Austen," this essay aims to examine the relevance of this characterization by arguing that Jacobson may be seen as continuing in the tradition of the English novel of manners, as exemplified by Austen. In particular, the plot of Jacobson's sixteenth novel Live a Little (2019) resembles Austen's Pride and Prejudice (1813), as it features a development of a romantic relationship between two characters who first show little interest in each other. However, as Jacobson's couple of protagonists are in their nineties, another text that provides a useful frame of reference is Austen's last novel Persuasion (1818), which deals with the themes of aging and the passage of time. In turn, this essay approaches Live a Little as a novel of manners reminiscent of Austen, but updated for the early 21st century.

Keywords:
Howard Jacobson; Live a Little; contemporary British novel; novel of manners; Jane Austen

Pages:
129–143
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