I decided to learn things about Jane Austen because I don’t know things about Jane Austen and people seem to find issue with the fact that I don’t know things about Jane Austen—Let’s go!

So first I read Pride and Prejudice because that seemed like a thing I should do at some point in my life and now I can say I have. Then I read Emma and then Sense and Sensibility. I’m also pretty familiar with the large dearth of adaptations. I watched two separate Pride and Prejudices, Emma (2020), Sense and Sensibility (1995), and also Mansfield Park (1999). Then I looked up biographical things about Jane Austen, listened to a very nice antique bookseller who’s voice made me tired —so now I know things about Jane Austen for the people who said I should know things about Jane Austen.

Austen’s characters are likable for being unrealistic yet ringing true to certain archetypes. My least favorite character is likely Mrs. Bennett for that very reason.

Austen’s characters are awkward and often mistaken, making proud assumptions and then baffled when they find out they’re wrong. They’re very certain of their world view based in their regency propriety, and then often proven wrong—but not so wrong as to upend society. It’s a comfortable wrong that can be solved happily.

Ongoing themes of marriage and the importance of marriage and being pressured toward marriage and also marriage pervade the books which act satirically –especially considering that Jane Austen herself never married, made her own fortune, and was highly independent. Her heroines are often portrayed as witty, clever, kind spirited—arguably virtues which Austen felt she herself had or wished were more prominent.

Quick aside! I tried to watch Persuasion (2022). No.

Anyway, for the most part all of Austen’s characters are deeply embroiled in the values of their society despite that that would limit their independence. Acknowledging this is one of the ways which Austen stands apart from other romantic authors of the era who leaned in more heavily to the romantic aspect itself; while Austen is regarded as romance by many people it is important to note that the heroines are considered strong because they are not female characters who swoon. Many of Austen’s female characters, or at least her protagonists, are rational. This itself is groundbreaking. Sadly.

Austen’s books were, of course, initially published anonymously due to the very, very rampant sexism in the society. It’s important to note, Austen belonged to the social class and circles which she satirized.

I found surprisingly little about Ms. Austen herself. There are fictionalized versions her life, or course, but as for intimate details they are surprisingly harder to come by. Often, instead, there are fictional accounts of her which paint her as one of her heroines. They are mostly very romantic in nature while missing the ship on what Austen had done differently in romance as a genre. People seem to think love plus witty equals Austen, rather than logic plus culture.

My favorite character was of course Mr. Knightley who is the only character in any of the titles I became familiar with who at any point acknowledged classism as a bad thing. He still lives within and supports the class system, but he is consistently kind to people who could be seen as his lesser. He scolds Emma and rebukes her when she insults a spinster, he tries to protect the courtship between Mr. Martin and Harriet. He’s often considered the hardest working of Austen’s heroes, a prominent landowner but with little liquid asset, and in marrying Emma who has more money, their relationship is seen as one of the most egalitarian in Austen’s works.

Austen lasts and gets adapted again and again, I think, because of the parallels in story structure and archetypes to Shakespeare. Much like with Shakespeare, it can all be in the eye of the beholder.

…and now it can be said I know a decent amount about Jane Austen.