Persuasion - Perhaps Starting To Get It

Earlier this week I finished "Persuasion" meaning that I am 5/6ths through the Austen canon. I need to say that I have been struggling with my thinking about Jane Austen as a writer. I read "Sense and Sensibility" some time ago and thought it was a good book although I felt that one part of the ending was somewhat contrived. "Pride and Prejudice," which I have read twice, I think is a great book. However as I got into "Mansfield Park," "Emma," and now "Persuasion," I have been having a lot of difficulty with why so many people think that Austen is a great writer.

I have tried to be very careful about expressing these doubts both because so many people have such high opinions of Austen and because of a concern that there might be some gender issues here. That is as a man reading books written by a woman about women probably in large measure for women, I may be missing something or somethings. At the same time I can say with complete honesty that I think Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot) is a great writer so perhaps it is also a matter of taste.

Some of the things that bother me about Austen's writing include what I think are too frequent use of what seems like divine intervention (deux ex machina) to resolve her plots, other endings that are never adequately explained and endings where it seems like everyone gets what they deserve (very different than life itself). I was thinking about this last night while driving home from a church meeting and remembered something that Elaine from Random Jottings wrote about "Jane Eyre." While reading Charlotte Bronte's classic as a teenager, Elaine was moved by Jane's standing up and demanding equality with Rochester - an example I think of what might be lost on a male reader.

This led me to think about Austen's heroines and what they have in common. I think it is fair to say that in the five books I have read so far all of them have a high degree of integrity. At least three of them turn down marriage proposals that would have been advantageous to them financially for which they are criticized by other family members. This, of course, is reminiscent of Austen herself who made a similar decision which for her (unlike her fictional heroines) had a real cost financial and otherwise. Given how limited women's options were in those days, it may be that Austen's consistent message that women should live their lives with integrity is something that resonates today even though circumstances are different.

I still need and want to think about this some more especially after I read "Northanger Abbey" and "The Jane Austen Book Club." I mention the latter book because I hope it will give me some insights as why Jane Austen is so popular. In the meantime if there are any "Janeites" out there reading this who would like to have some dialogue about this, I would greatly appreciate it.