After last week’s lecture, I made it my personal mission to uncover the strangest item boasting Jane Austen’s image. I was intrigued by the idea of ‘Austenmania’, and wanted to know how far people were willing to go, or what they would voluntarily shell out money for, in order to acquire a piece of ‘their beloved Jane’.

During my search, I came across a lot of standard memorabilia: badges and buttons, magnets, bumper stickers, mousepads, gift cards, writing sets, jewellery and items of clothing. Initially, I was unimpressed with my search results, but I managed to locate a few unexpected items.

Jane Austen finger-puppet from the Unemployed Philosophers Guild
Their website warns buyers that “her biting social satire will reveal the underlying truths of her finger puppet society!”

Jane Austen beanie doll, also from Unemployed Philosophers Guild
Another odd-looking Austen toy. I think the Jane Austen action figure has to be the winner in the Austen doll stakes. This thing, I think, more closely resembles a muppet.

In the Pride and Prejudice board game, one needs to “be the first to collect all game tokens, then race to the Parish Church to marry and win the game! Funnily enough, the artwork, rules and object of the game are not disimilar to the Sweet Valley High board game.

If you wanted to Austenify your house, you could always go for this glow-in-the-dark Jane Austen light switch plate! From Amazon.com

I must admit, I actually kind of like this bag. It’s not really an obscure item and Cafepress.com has thousands of Austen-related clothing and accessories, but this made me laugh.

By far, I think the strangest find in terms of Austenmania oddities was definetely the item below:

Jane Austen underwear!
Again, cafepress.com has an alarmingly large collection of underwear with various Austenisms. Declare your love for Darcy, support Team Brandon or quote your favourite passage from Pride and Prejudice. Cafepress Austen undies
Hmm, I feel it tends a tad more towards the creepy end of the scale. Though I can’t decide what suprised me more: the vast range of Austen designs available, or that there are people out there wearing Jane on their jocks.

The other item I wanted to include was a Jane Austen cookie jar. It was on Ebay and the sale ended last night, so someone else now owns a ceramic cookie jar displaying what looks like a baboon in a bonnet (I mean this in no offence to Jane Austen, it was just a truly hideous item and really had no resemblance at all to any pictures we have seen of Austen, just that it depicted a brunette woman with a bonnet. I suppose this shows how some people will buy anything even loosely related to Austen).

I must admit, I was sort of hoping to find some really obscure Austen related items, like toilet-seat covers, or something as equally kitsch. If anyone else has found particularly amusing objects of Austenmania though, please add them!