"Rejecting Jane" is the title of an article by British author David Lassman

David Lassman

David Lassman is a British author, arts journalist and scriptwriter responsible for the 'Rejecting Jane' article, which became the 'literary story of 2007'.-Biography:...

, which became the 'literary story of 2007'

The article, which was published in Issue 28 of Jane Austen's Regency World magazine., is a critique of the publishing industry through their inadvertent rejection of Jane Austen

Jane Austen

Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.Austen lived...

. Using the pseudonym 'Alison Laydee' - a play on Austen's original nom de plume "A Lady" - Lassman sent out the opening chapters of Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice is a novel by Jane Austen, first published in 1813. The story follows the main character Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, morality, education and marriage in the society of the landed gentry of early 19th-century England...

, Northanger Abbey

Northanger Abbey

Northanger Abbey was the first of Jane Austen's novels to be completed for publication, though she had previously made a start on Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. According to Cassandra Austen's Memorandum, Susan was written approximately during 1798–99...

and Persuasion

Persuasion (novel)

Persuasion is Jane Austen's last completed novel. She began it soon after she had finished Emma, completing it in August 1816. She died, aged 41, in 1817; Persuasion was published in December that year ....

to several major publishers and literary agents, with different titles but only minor changes to the text, such as character names and locations. The resultant article chronicles the fact that all but one of the publishers and agents failed to recognise her works, including Penguin Books

Penguin Books

Penguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...

 and J. K. Rowling

J. K. Rowling

Joanne "Jo" Rowling, OBE , better known as J. K. Rowling, is the British author of the Harry Potter fantasy series...

's publisher Bloomsbury, with the vast majority rejecting out of hand this apparent attempt by one of the world’s greatest known authors to gain a publishing deal. This despite the fact that one of the most famous opening lines in English literature, Pride and Prejudice’s "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife" was left intact.

On its publication the article created worldwide media coverage , which saw its author appear on radio and television programmes across the globe, including American news programmes and TV talk shows such as Good Morning America

Good Morning America

Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...

.

External links

• 'Rejecting Jane' (pdf). Retrieved 3 April 2009