In my last posting about a video recording of Proust's famous memory evoked by a madeleine scene, I speculated whether an agent or publisher would accept a Swann's manuscript if his name were removed and it were submitted for publication today.
David Lassman, director of the Jane Austen Festival in Bath, UK, decided to try a similar experiment. So using the name Alison Laydee, a version of Austen's pseudonym A Lady, he sent off slightly rewritten chapters of Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, and Pride and Prejudice to 18 British publishers. His version of Pride and Prejudice, now titled First Impressions which was Austen's early name for the book, even included her original opening line "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." He was rejected by all 18. Only one publisher spotted the deception.
"Only one person appeared to have spotted the deception, Alex Bowler, of Jonathan Cape. His reply read: "Thank-you for sending us the first two chapters of First Impressions; my first impression on reading these were ones of disbelief and mild annoyance, along, of course, with a moment's laughter.
"I suggest you reach for your copy of Pride and Prejudice, which I'd guess lives in close proximity to your typewriter, and make sure that your opening pages don't too closely mimic that book's opening.""
Here's the link to Steven Morris' article in The Guardian:
The author and the Austen plot that exposed publishers' pride and prejudice
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