I hate Jane Austen

I hate Jane Austen.

Like most people I got swept along with the rather excellent 1995 BBC adaptation of Jane Austen ‘s Pride and Prejudice. I loved the humour, dresses and… Darcy.

Then something happened.

I changed my mind. Maybe I just got older. Maybe studying English at university altered my perspective. Maybe I just went off the style.

I am named after a Bronte and I feel that may have influenced my need for some darkness in my romance literature. I find it hard to imagine Jane Austen considering locking an estranged wife of her love interest in the attic.

As a child I preferred Maleficent to Aurora, the Queen to Snow White. I prefer flawed women and Jane Austen’s frivolous fairytale Georgians just don’t cut it.

Her airy-fairy romanticism leaves a sugary sweet taste in my mouth. I don’t find Austen’s heroines appealing. More like the popular girls at school who put looks and boys ahead of all else. I always think of the character of Mary in P&P, bookish and with no interest in boys, she is teased and humiliated constantly. Perhaps, Mary is what Austen hated about herself.

To give Austen her due, she was living in a man’s world, only receiving praise for her books post-humously. She has a witty turn of phrase and the opening line of P&P can be recited by most (even though I consider it a damning indictment of all which follows).

I don’t expect my views to change any one’s mind. Jane Austen is held close to many hearts and I certainly will not tell her fans they are wrong to do so. It is, after all, a matter of taste.

I have struggled for many years with this take on Austen, I am so often told I should love her. That she is a feminist and an inspiration.

My Bronte namesake seemingly shared my view, saying Austen lacked sentiment and poetry. Mark Twain agreed saying: “Everytime I read ‘Pride and Prejudice’ I want to dig her up and beat her over the head with her own shin bone.”

Well, quite.

I recently visited Winchester Cathedral. A beautiful place with many links to Saxon England but is also the burial place of Ms Austen. I stood over her grave, looked around to make sure no one was listening and whispered: “I’m glad you’re dead.”

Charlotte Wood is a feminist and writer of the macabre and sinister. She reads horror, fantasy, classic literature and historical fiction (with a preference for history from a woman’s perspective).

Charlotte’s debut novel Heather available for preorder now!
A compelling, frightening and heart-breaking tale of desperation, Heather is a ghost story spanning 100 years that will keep you guessing till the end.