Whenever I read an Austen novel, I get lost in her world. She creates beautiful landscapes with vivid, sensory details. I'd probably die in that world; I don't have impeccable manners and frequently suffer from foot-in-mouth. But I adore the wit and humor. Austen communicates that women can have it all-beauty, intelligence, domesticity, romance, eloquence, and happiness-and if I'm honest, I suffer from wanting it all... almost all of the time.
Even though the plot lines in her novels are predictable, I enjoy every Austen book I pick up. Sometimes the characters are annoying as hell and flighty (no wonder why some people doubted women!), but come one, when you have that much estrogen in one small town in the countryside, drama's bound to come calling. Aside from creating major catastrophes over nothing, my only complaint in Austen stories is the total idealization. I struggle with setting high expectations, but her leading men and women experience "perfect" romances, and let's be real... the world of love is not quite that neat and pretty. Come on, didn't these women ever suffer from a bad break-out or eat their feelings?! Hello! Oh wait... that's the real purpose of a corset? Wanting it all can be real problematic.
The Victorian era of literature intrigues me with it's earliest beginnings of the feminism we know today. If not for great minds like Jane Austen, George Eliot, and Christina Rossetti, we might not be where we are today. So go soak up some drama and put on a tight dress, and get lost in Austen.
-Ash
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