The Jane Austen Season The Jane Austen Season The Jane Austen Season is a British television series of dramas based on novels by Jane Austen. The season began on ITV at 9:00 p.m. on Sunday 18 March 2007, with "Mansfield Park". The following week, "Northanger Abbey" was aired. The season ended with the airing of "Persuasion" on Sunday 1 April 2007. A repeat of the 1996 feature-length film "Emma" was broadcast on Friday 6 April 2007. The combined ITV and BBC series was shown in the United States by the PBS Masterpiece Theatre drama anthology television series from January through March 2008. The following
Jane Austen referred to Austen several times with approval and on one occasion ranked her with Shakespeare, Cervantes, and Henry Fielding as among "the fine painters of life". The publication of James Edward Austen-Leigh's "A Memoir of Jane Austen" in 1869 introduced Austen to a wider public as "dear aunt Jane", the respectable maiden aunt. Publication of the "Memoir" spurred the reissue of Austen's novels – the first popular editions were released in 1883 and fancy illustrated editions and collectors' sets quickly followed. Author and critic Leslie Stephen described the popular mania that started to develop for Austen in the 1880s as