It is a truth universally acknowledged that every year on 16 December, lit majors worldwide celebrate the birth of their beloved, Jane Austen. For those of us who spent our childhood not daydreaming about 19th-century tea parties, Austen was a novelist known primarily for her six novels on the English landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Her works include Pride and Prejudice (no, Colin Firth did not invent Mr Darcy), Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion.
In 2024, Netflix announced the upcoming serial adaptation of her Pride and Prejudice, almost 30 years after the BBC and Colin Firth adaptation of the same text. But why? Why, after 250 years, are her works still relevant? Why are we still simping over Mr Darcy? And why do all our mothers collectively embody Mrs Bennett?
The why
Austen, who was born in 1775 in the quaint English village of Steventon, never travelled the world, but her words sure did. Her writing is simple but direct; she delves into the complex issues of femininity, class differences and sexism with such ease that most authors take years of practice to reach.
Her dry wit, subtle (or not so) irony and psychologically rich portraits of ordinary life shaped generations of writers. Her works are the perfect example of a “comedy of manners.”
Maybe it’s the clarity with which she wrote or her sarcasm, or maybe it’s that she wrote universal truths about everyday life—that all families are crazy in one shape or form, that it’s a Sisyphean task to get to the altar and that rich people are major weirdos.
At least for some of her works, there seems to be somewhat of a consensus (on social media). Most fans online agree that the reason Elizabeth Bennett (whom most of us wanted to be at one point) knew that there was no point in trying to fix a man, and that if he knew better, he would fix himself, which is exactly what Mr Darcy did!
And yes, Elizabeth could be a pain, but as Emma makes perfectly clear, sometimes one can be unlikeable but have inherently good intentions.
Or that one family can have such drastically opposite members, such as Lydia and Mary.
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Persuasion (2022 one starring Dakota Johnson), Aishwarya Rai’s Bride and Prejudice (also known as Balle Balle Amritsar to LA), the Bridget Jones’s series (books and film), Soonam Kapoor’s Aisha, or BBC’s many, many adaptations including the 2024 Miss Austen and the upcoming series The Other Bennet Sister, are just some of the examples of adaptations her works in recent years, not including the Instagram-based series titled Austen University.
Screenwriter Sarah Quintrell said in an interview with the BBC that it is easy to engage with Austen’s fictional worlds, as she has. “You will find so much that’s recognisable.”
And it is true, her works are calling the shots simply because they remain relatable. Mrs Bennett wants her daughters to marry, and so does my mother! Catherine Morland of Northanger Abbey thinks a rich family must be harbouring secrets because they’re rich, and honestly, that’s a valid reason. Sense and Sensibility’s Elinor Dashwood thinks she’s the smartest simply because she is the eldest daughter, and her sister Marianne would totally risk COVID for her boyfriend. And yes, who doesn’t want to abandon their family and go live in an up-and-coming Sanditon for their health, apparently it is just what the doctor recommended!
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(Edited by Ratan Priya)