
On Teaching, but Not Loving, Jane Austen
I used to adore the Pride and Prejudice author. But over the years I’ve grown more ambivalent toward her and the fervor for her work.
I used to adore the Pride and Prejudice author. But over the years I’ve grown more ambivalent toward her and the fervor for her work.
Two hundred years after the novelist’s death, people still bond over her works. Sometimes, costumes are involved.
Starting in the Victorian era, stage performers and writers have been subverting the novelist’s reputation as the go-to author for conventional, heterosexual love.
Her work has done more than any other author’s to influence what “happily ever after” means in culture.
The novelist had a soft spot for awkward talkers and stumbling lovers—which was an immense relief for me growing up as a shy person.
As a teen writing a draft of the book that would become Sense and Sensibility, the novelist poked fun at her older characters. By the time it was published, she was their age.
She died 200 years ago. But her writing fits perfectly into the culture of the current moment.