Juana Libedinsky and her new book 'Queremos Mucho a Jane '
It is fascinating to see how 250 years on from her birth, Jane Austen’s books still fly off the shelves today as they did during the regency period. She not only invented the narrative format, the idea of a third voice, a narrator, but she ended up inventing the novel as we know it today.
Juana Libedinsky has always had a fascination for the author so Jane Austen was the theme of her MA dissertation at college. It was not long before she realized she could develop it into a ‘little book’ as she likes to call it. She is currently a columnist for La Nacion newspaper, one of the mainstays of daily newspapers in the country and she’s also a cultural correspondent, based in New York for the Uruguayan newspaper El País. In Argentina, she graduated from the University of San Andrés, completed a Masters in Sociology & Culture at the National University of San Martin and later studied ‘Reporting and Cultural Criticism’ at the New York University. Her work has been published in Vanity Fair and Spain’s Condé Nast Traveler. She has also previously published ‘English Breakfast’, and ‘Cuesta Abajo’ which is a first-person testimony of the skiing accident suffered by her husband.
Libedinsky has analysed how the power of Jane Austen’s stories still resonates today, so many years later, and how they speak as much to the youth of today as they did in their own time. “Queremos mucho a Jane” is only available in Spanish (Seix Barral) at the moment, but hopefully this delightful book will be translated soon.
Juana Libedinsky (centre) with writer Marcela Mora de Araújo and Cultural Attachée Gonzalo Ortíz de Zárate
Jane Austen was born on the 16th December 1775. So, on December 16th 2025, the world celebrated the 250th anniversary of her birth. We all know there are no lack of books on her and her work, but Libedinsky has chosen a different route to the usual studies. With charm and wit of her own, she has explored the extraordinary legacy of fans that Jane Austen has engendered all around the world, that have grown into a massive ‘fandom’, with the rise of a plethora of Jane Austen Societies that flourish all over the world.
Libedinsky discovered that while there are around eight Jane Austen Society bases for fans in the UK, in the USA there are literally hundreds. She discovered Jane Austen Societies in the most unlikely places. There is no doubt that the fan-dom as Libedinsky likes to call it, is huge. There are many centres in New York alone, with gatherings and conventions to which fans flock in full 18th century attire. It naturally also followed that 'Bridgerton' the TV series, inspired by her books, would also be a huge success. It’s all a great example, Libedinsky feels, of the democratic aspects of the books. They are accessible to all and despite being stories that involve bonnets, marriages and happy endings (which Libedinsky loves) the stories are slow-burn and introduce every emotion that humans can feel, without being politically overt.
Marcela Mora de Araújo. Juana Libedinsky and Gonzálo Ortíz de Zárate at the Argentine Embassy
On one celebration of Jane Austen in the USA, the sponsor was Victoria’s Secret, Libedinsky explains how the whole world of Austen’s if brought right up to the present time: -
“As you arrive in your room on the bed, you find a black lace thong with a lovely handwritten note saying: Call me with a telephone number. It was signed [John] Willoughby. Willoughby is one of the greats of Jane Austen fiction. He was like the ‘Don Juan’ kind of guy who was very irresistible, not good, reputation wise. If you called the number, a very deep manly voice with a strong British accent (that trust me in the US has a good effect), would say: please don’t forget to write yourself down for next year’s Jane Austen meeting that will be held in Orlando Florida… This was symbolic-If you were someone who had never left your ivory tower or if were someone who had just watched 'Bridgerton' and wanted to wear the dresses … here you had the commercialism and the high culture mixed together- with people respecting each other.”
Libedinsky mentions other forms of influence over us today, with highly commercial adaptations of her works. The 1995 film directed by Amy Heckerling called ‘Clueless’ is a version of ‘Emma’ with the story transferred to a North American High school, later made into ‘Clueless- the Musical’ also a success. The reason is because all issues of human concern are contained in the stories as Libedinsky points out: -
“It is difficult to read Hamlet when sunbathing on a beach, it is much easier to read a marriage plot like ‘Emma’.”
Perhaps due to the quieter fan base in the Uk, even the actress Emma Thompson was amazed to find she had been awarded an Oscar in 1996 for Best Adapted Screenplay as well nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role for 'Sense & Sensibility'. But it did not amaze Libedinsky, who thoroughly understood the universal appeal of these stories
Libedinsky travelled far and wide to gather information on the English author's legacy. It amazed her to see how even in a city like Buenos Aires (Argentina) where Spanish is the spoken language, hundreds gathered in an area called’ Once,’ suitably dressed in their bonnets and 18th costumes to celebrate the birth 250 years ago of Jane Austen.
Austen's wit and critique of the landed gentry is still relevant today and underlies the popularity of the books, and the many adaptations of the novels for theatre, film and TV. How many versions are there now of Pride & Prejudice? And yet we yearn for more!
A voracious reader from a young age, Libedinsky initially discovered Jane Austen thanks to a relative with British connections. The stories delighted her and she fell in love with her books then and there. When Juana eventually learnt English, she realized that the translations she had previously devoured had not managed to translate the humour and, in particular the irony, with which Austen so deftly layers the dialogues in the original language. This was a Pandora’s box discovery for Libedinsky, who then realized how deep these elements were, with the beautifully observed comments on the social structures of her time and how her keen study of relationships led her to explore universal themes of class, gender and underlying hypocrisy of certain sectors of society. This book is Juana Libedinsky’s tribute to Austen, and to her having created the format now known as a novel. It is a fun read with humour and a suitable homage to the wit of Jane Austen herself.
“One of Austen’s secrets is that many books of the time talked about Princesses and Kings, or else abject poverty, the extremes of society- but Austen aimed her stories at the bulk of the population. The bourgeoise middle-classes who were also the most likely to be reading her books. It must have been somewhat revolutionary to read something about a life that most resembles yours, and more so of someone who is now 250 years old.”
There are Jane Austen Societies all over the world, but many have never had the chance to read them in the original language. Despite that, the popularity of these stories continues and not only because they have ‘happy endings’, but because they touch on so many issues that are much deeper. In her inimitable style and oblique dialogues, Austen makes powerful comments on almost every single aspect of life in her time and there is no doubt that much of it still resonates today.
‘QUEREMOS MUCHO A JANE’ is available on Amazon UK (kindle) and on AbeBooks.
With thanks to the Argentine Ambassador Mariana Plaza and the Cultural Attachée Gonzálo Ortíz de Zárate who kindly hosted the event.
