Elaine Jeremiah ~ Why I read Jane Austen ~ Guest Post

 Hello, my friends! It's my pleasure to have Elaine Jeremiah here today! Her topic is one I think we can all agree upon. Please give her a warm welcome! 

Why I Read Jane Austen

Why do we read Jane Austen’s novels? Why does anyone read Jane Austen’s novels? You might think these are daft questions to ask, but I think it bears thinking about if only because her novels are still immensely popular 200 years after her death.

I’ll tell you why I read her novels. I read them because they never get old – there’s always something new to discover in them, as I found when rereading Mansfield Park very recently. You can always find a new aspect to your favourite characters – and your least – even if you’ve read the novels many times before.

I think that one reason why we still read Jane Austen’s novels is because they all work on many levels. What do I mean? Well, take Northanger Abbey for example. I know it’s not most people’s favourite of her novels, but on one level it’s obviously a romance about a girl obsessed with Gothic fiction, who must learn to live in the real world and not fantasise about people and places being things that they are not.

But on another, cleverer level, Austen is using her story to playfully critique the Gothic romance novels that were popular at the time – like The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe (which I’ve read and actually really enjoyed!). Northanger Abbey is a pastiche of novels like that, with its heroine going to a castle-like house, whose mistress is long dead and whose master is aggressive and potentially a villain!

Of course, this relates to the first level as the heroine, Catherine Morland, is obsessed with reading Gothic fiction and fantasises that the people and places around her are just like the novels she’s reading.

On yet another level, Austen also takes the opportunity in Northanger Abbey to defend the medium of the novel against its detractors, saying that she will not join in with other novel writers in denouncing the novel, who do so even as they are adding their own to its numbers. ‘I cannot approve of it’ she says. Don’t you just love her?!

Northanger Abbey is just one example of Austen’s superlative talent in telling a story with many different facets to it. All of her novels demonstrate this ability she has to engage us and make us think more deeply in an entertaining way, as with her discussion of the worth of the novel as mentioned above.

So why do you read Jane Austen’s novels? What is it about them that makes you keep returning to them?

About Elaine Jeremiah

Elaine lives in Bristol, South West England with her husband. But she was privileged enough to grow up in Jane Austen country, in Hampshire. 

She’s always loved writing, but it’s only been in recent years that she’s been able to devote more time to it. She decided to self-publish with the help of her wonderful husband who’s very tech-savvy! In 2013 she self-published her first novel, but it was only with her fourth, her novel Love Without Time, that she felt she finally found her niche: Jane Austen Fan Fiction! 

She’s always loved Jane Austen’s writing and the Regency era, so this felt like a natural thing for her to do. Elizabeth and Darcy: Beginning Again is the first Pride and Prejudice variation she’s written. 

Connect with Elaine

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Books by Elaine Jeremiah

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Elizabeth & Darcy Beginning Again: A Pride and Prejudice Variation 

By Time Divided

Love without Time

Reunion of the Heart

Teaching Mr Leavis

The Inheritance

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Many thanks to Elaine for stopping to visit with us today! I must say Northanger Abbey is in my top three of Austen's books!

I'm going to end with the questions Elaine posed. Please leave a comment and let us know your thoughts! 

So why do you read Jane Austen’s novels? What is it about them that makes you keep returning to them?