lou's library

It’s easy to dismiss Jane Austen’s work as trivial because a) she was a woman who b) wrote about women’s lives. I’ve heard that argument so many times and am so tired of it that I think it’s time to argue against it. So buckle up and let me tell you why Jane Austen, in my humble opinion, is one of the greatest writers ever.

I first read Austen’s six novels when I was a teenager. Back then, I hadn’t started reading in English yet, so I read them in German. For the past couple of years, I’ve slowly been making my way through them in English, and oh my goodness, they’re SO MUCH MORE DELIGHTFUL in the original. That being said, the German translation was still very good in that it conveyed Austen’s wit and sarcasm well. But back when I was 16, I don’t think I’d ever seen an adaptation of one of Austen’s novels (I was raised by a man, if that helps explain it), so I truly had no idea what her books were about. Around the time of my third Austen novel, I clocked onto the fact that they’re all variations on the same theme: marriage.

That revelation didn’t mean I no longer enjoyed reading these books. But I had unconsciously stumbled upon the main criticism Austen’s work receives until this day: That they’re all about the domestic sphere, the lives of unmarried women looking for husbands, and therefore surely cannot be considered proper literature or even be named in the same sentence as masterpieces like War And Peace (very heavy on the war aspect and quite tedious, if you ask me) or Oliver Twist (couldn’t make it past page 40 for the life of me, sorry Mr Dickens). And as a teenager, subconsciously, I was of the same opinion. It all seemed a little silly to me, though highly entertaining. Back then, I wasn’t familiar with Shakespeare’s comedies yet, otherwise I would have known that everyone gets married in those too, yet no one thinks to criticise the great bard for it (although, to be fair, some people seem to deem his tragedies, where everyone dies, to be far superior).

I’m not mad at my 16 year-old self for not clocking onto the misogyny at play here. But let’s just say, I’ve had a bit of a crash course in feminism since then (and gained a degree in literature, which sure does help) and upon rereading Austen, I have come to realise how important her work is. Instead of criticising her for writing about the day to day life of women in the early 19th century, we should applaud her for it. Because, while men were writing about the experiences of men in the Napoleonic Wars (and going on about them for FAR TOO LONG, looking at you, Tolstoi), Austen wrote about what she knew and what tended to receive so little attention: the life of women.

If we think about it, the same is true today. “Women’s literature” isn’t exactly praise, and romcom (or even romantasy) is being considered low-brow literature. Good enough for a beach read, but surely not something to brag about reading. Luckily, BookTok and other bookish communities seem to slowly be changing that, with (mostly female) readers raving about books by Emily Henry, for example. But while Austen’s novels have gained in esteem, partly through being old and therefore somehow more distinguished (maybe because its language has become dated and therefore harder to understand for modern readers?), the assumption that they are not to be taken seriously seems to linger.

What annoys me so much about this is the underlying notion that depictions of women’s lives do not matter, are not of interest and should be regarded as silly. But who gets to decide what matters? I think it’s about damn time we start taking women and their realities seriously. And particularly given that at the time Austen was writing women had very little rights and everything depended on who they were going to marry, I truly think it is a bit rich to suggest that telling the stories of women is trivial.

Yes, Austen for the most part focused on the lives of women of the upper classes (although a lot of them do face financial ruin should they fail to make a good match on the marriage market). I think it is also true that her feminism is a quiet one, that works within the societal boundaries at the time. She is not demanding a complete upheaval of the status quo. Her characters (mostly) act as would be expected of someone of their status. But it doesn’t take a lot of reading between the lines to detect the sarcasm and wit that is so prominent in these books. A lot of Austen’s characters are slightly ridiculous and she often makes fun of a society so focused on match-making. It’s like she was well aware of the absurdities of her time, but also understood the importance of them for ordinary women. They had to play the game in order to secure a livelihood for themselves and I think there is power in portraying that.

So while there may not be men on battlefields or conflicts of national importance in Austen’s work, that does not mean there is nothing of consequence in them. She understood the society she lived in better than any other writer I have come across and she was so damn good at creating characters you wanna shake your head at but also kind of love (looking at you, Mr Darcy). And I think she deserves more credit for what she did, because truly, what could be more revolutionary than writing about the seemingly mundane and taking it seriously?

So, there you go, my thoughts on why Austen is one of the greatest and deserves to be taken more seriously!! If you want to learn more about Austen’s work and love some in depth analysis, I would recommended listening to season four of the Hot And Bothered podcast! I’m currently making my way through it and it has given me so much food for thought already! Also, let me know your thoughts on Austen’s work, please, and tell me which one of her novels is your favourite (if it is Emma, I need you to send me a 500 word explanation, because, how???).