Ever After

Author Anjali Joseph on the enduring appeal of Jane Austen, ahead of her 200th death anniversary this July

- Anjali Joseph

A few days ago, I was in a coffee shop in Malvern, a very pretty English town. It has a small but well-known boarding school, and an old monastery, now a church; it nestles amid forested green hills. A friend and I were talking about Jane Austen, and her enduring appeal, especially for a legion of erudite fans or ‘Janeites’, many of whom seem to feel, he said, that they know Ms Austen personally.

I’m not a Janeite. I have, though, read all of Ms Austen’s published work—the novels Northanger Abbey, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Persuasion, Mansfield Park, and even some of the novels she wrote for fun as a child (which are quite fun). Like most other affluent middle-class Anglophone sentient beings, I’ve seen a large number of film and television adaptations of her work. Mr Darcy played by Colin Firth; Elizabeth Bennet played by Jennifer Ehle; Emma Woodhouse played by Gwyneth Paltrow/Keira Knightley/Alicia Silverstone etc. All enjoyable, and comforting, in the way that well-prepared carbohydrates are, and exactly as soothing as sitting down for an evening with a good female friend, some starchy food, and a bottle of wine.