Jane Austen: The Queen of Chick Lit

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Born in 1775 in Hampshire, England and daughter of a clergyman, Jane Austen wrote her first story after a failed romance in 1799. The story, ‘First Impressions’ would eventually become one of the most beloved novels of many women, Pride and Prejudice.

Jane Austen is probably one  of the best-loved women authors of all time. She has been studied and analyzed. But perhaps we know her best by her novels and the movies they inspired.

The life of Austen is portrayed in the movie Becoming Jane, starring Anne Hathaway and James McAvoy. In Becoming Jane, Hathaway show us the  young, love-struck Jane Austen in the untold romance that inspired Pride and Prejudice. The handsome Scotsman, James McAvoy plays Tom Lefroy, young penniless law student sparks  a passionate romance with Jane. It is a must see for true Jane Austen fans.

The Austen Novels

From 1811 until her death in 1816, Jane Austen wrote her best known works;  Sense And Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1816), and , Northanger Abbey and Persuasion which were published posthumously.  Talk a about a string of hits.

In five short years, Jane Austen wrote some of the most enduring love stories of all time and became the crowned Queen of Chick Lit.

The Jane Austen Collection: Read the Works of Jane Austen on Your Kindle

The Austen Movies

Jane Austen’s other books have been made into movies as well.  Gwyneth Paltrow starred in Emma with Jeremy Nothham and Toni Collette. Gwyneth seems to have stepped right off the pages of a Jane Austen novel. She is perfect as the meddling, matchmaking young Emma Woodhouse

Ang Lee directs Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet in  Sense & Sensibility , the story about the on again and off again romances of the Dashwood sisters. Alan Rickman and Hugh Grant star as their love interests.

I first watched Frances O’Connor, Jonny Lee Miller in Mansfield Park at a slumber party. I loved the story of  the smart and an independent Fanny Price, who is sent to live with her rich cousins. They are supposed to teach her how to be a proper lady, but she teaches them a thing or two as well.

There is even a mini-series called Lost in Austen, about a real Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice fan who finds herself back in 19th century England, entangled in the lives loves of her favorite characters.  Amanda Price (Jemima Rooper) is bored with  the modern world’s and her boyfriend’s  lack of romance. She longs for the romance she finds in Austen’s novels. But she gets more than she bargained for when she finds herself living in the home of the Bennets, where she ignites new romantic twists and turns and almost ruins the love the story between Darcy and Lizzie.

Pride and Prejudice

The love story between the arrogant and proud Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy and the high-spirited Miss Elizabeth (Lizzie )Bennett. Not only a classic love story, study of the social and moral values of her day. Jane Austen’s story of two passionate people who has touched the hearts of women for more than two hundred years. Can yo believe that? How many times have we read the book and loved it? How many times have we watched the movie?

There are several versions of Pride and Prejudice. Greer Garson and Laurance Olivier stared in the 1940 version of Pride and Prejudice. Keira Knightly, Matthew MacFadyen, Brenda Blethyn and Donald Sutherland starred in a recent 2005 movie version of Pride & Prejudice.

There is also a Bollywood version called Bride and Prejudice, which I really like. However, if you really want to get the full sense of Jane Austen’s book, you should see the five-hour BBC version of Miss Austen’s most-famous work. In this lavash mini-series, Colin Firth plays Darcy and Jennifer Ehle plays the role of Lizzie.

What is your favorite Jane Austen novel or movie?