The Jane Austen Discord

I am not a Jane Austen fan.

Don't get me wrong, the woman can write, and what she wrote was quite an achievement for her time. In fact, Austen was one of the inspirations of "Chick Lit," a genre that consists of the soap operas and tabloid reads of literature.

I find the concept of Austen's novels very fascinating. What she wrote was quite saucy for the time period; where the scandals of her novels could be equivalent of the Brad-Angelina-Jennifer triangle of today. I had read "Pride and Prejudice" and while it took me longer to read it, actually enjoyed the love story of Mr. Darcy.

I decided to tackle "Sense and Sensibility" with the same notion, hoping to understand more of Jane Austen's appeal. Some of it was actually fun, and I could enjoy the laughter of Marianne and the hatred of Fanny. Other times, I felt it drag on, hoping against all hope that in the next scene they just sold Elinor for slavery to keep things exciting.

There was one thing, however, that I took from the novel. The first was Fanny's temperment, her superiority complex made me loathe her as a character, but piqued my interest. From the first paragraph, I instantly saw Blair Waldorf from "Gossip Girl" emboding today's Fanny Dashwood. She represents the type of people I very much detest: those who feel they are better then everyone, but have nothing but scheming and manipulation to show for their honor. What's even more fascinating is that, almost 200 years after the novel was published, nothing has really changed. In that respect, Austen's novel really isn't dated after all, as it still shows the ugliness of people when money is involved.