Thank you to guest blogger, Opal Miyamoto, for this article on one of my most beloved authors, Jane Austen.
Jane Austen is arguably one of the most influential authors of her time. Her works continue to be a source of study and inspiration more than 150 years later. Many scholars have compared the value of her work with that of Shakespeare, so well-acclaimed is her body of work.
Austen wrote six completed novels, Pride and Prejudice, and Sense and Sensibility being the two best-known works. While Austen initially published her works anonymously, the recognition she received afterward was astounding.
The Jane Austen recipe
To understand what makes Jane Austen’s novels timeless you need to look at their ingredients. First, combine traveling to beautiful places with comedy and realistic, in-depth character creation. Austen’s characters remain unforgettable because of how she created them and went on to endear them to readers’ hearts. The level of detail she used in introducing each character, whether principal, secondary, or tertiary, allows readers to feel they truly know them.
One of the most remarkable characteristics of Austen’s novels is her abundant use of indirect discourse in the third-person narrative. It allows the character’s thoughts and feelings to become one with the narration. This is a style adopted by many authors after Austen and remains popular among modern writers. This alone makes it evident how groundbreaking Jane Austen’s work was and why some people believe she was ahead of her time.
The greatest of them all: Pride and Prejudice
Most Jane Austen fans will quote her two most famous books as their favorites: Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility. Scholars who have spent years studying Austen believe that Pride and Prejudice is her most influential novel. Indeed, it remains a popular choice for literature courses. Furthermore, it’s been adapted for cinematic purposes more than once.
The novel’s main characters, Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darby, remain iconic as they struggle to overcome the sins of pride and prejudice to fall in love and marry. Elizabeth learns that hasty judgments often leave one robbed of a chance to find the goodness in people, which almost happens with Mr. Darby.
Setting
In the novels, the 19th-century English countryside looks more imaginative than it actually is, but it remains one of the most important reasons for Jane Austen’s popularity as an author. Her intimate descriptions of her character’s surroundings and their interactions with others take the reader back in time to a golden era. More television dramas being made about this period indicate that it still fascinates modern readers and viewers.
As period pieces, Austen’s novels remain unrivaled. Readers remain intrigued by the characters’ lives and how disparate they are from modern reality. Indeed, the elements of gallantry, chivalry, and courtesy continue to resonate with many after finishing Austen’s books.
Lessons
As mentioned before, Elizabeth Bennet learns valuable lessons about herself and how the world around her works in Pride and Prejudice. Fitzwilliam Darby, for his part, undergoes a metamorphosis from a haughty, distant figure to an earnest young man in love.
In addition to the lessons, readers learn about society and how it worked in those early days, most of Austen’s novels present them with a moral lesson to carry with them. Many have to do with gender, something close to Austen’s heart. She lived when female authors were not taken seriously, hence the need to publish her novels anonymously. Jane Austen’s works also cover topics thought of as progressive at the time, including class distinctions and marriage.
Peeling back the layers
A superficial reading of Jane Austen’s novels will leave readers under the impression that she wrote about romance in a bygone era. However, a thorough examination of her works reveals why they remain timeless.
It was Austen’s willingness to use storytelling to address issues that confronted and continue to engage society today that sets her apart from her peers. Allowing her characters to develop and grow throughout the plot takes the reader on a path of self-awareness that is as valid in the 21st century as it was in the 19th.
Conclusion
Many authors have imitated Jane Austen’s style with varying degrees of success. Nevertheless, Pride and Prejudice continues to inspire a new generation of readers and writers. Some have even built on Austen’s works, including Sandra Lerner’s sequel, Second Impressions, and Jo Baker’s Longbourn, which delves into the lives of the servants in Austen’s novel.
Author Bio:
Opal Miyamoto is a freelancer and a blogger from the United States working for the most trusted dissertation writing service. She is very friendly, communicative and a goal-oriented person. Opal is always open to creating new professional connections. Her hobbies are cooking, painting, traveling to offbeat places, and writing.
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