Despite her short earthly existence (she died on 18 July 1817 at the age of one-and-forty), Jane Austen completed and published six Regency romance novels, namely: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion, all of which have retained their worldwide acclaim, nearly two centuries after her death.
The characters in Jane Austen's novels jumped out -- from the pages of her books to the TV screens -- where we could almost touch them, as well as almost live their convoluted lives. This revival of Austen's novels, portrayed by animated characters, began in 1981 with the BBC series of Sense and Sensibility. But it was not until 1995 when Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy and Miss Elizabeth Bennet (Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle) really came alive -- vibrant with a gamut of emotions between two people suffering from repressed passion for each other -- in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. There was no turning back.
Although I loved watching the Pride and Prejudice DVD (2001) which starred Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle, my favourite novel of Jane Austen's in book form is Persuasion (her last finished novel, posthumously published). I agree with Jon Spence's opinion in his book, Becoming Jane Austen: a Life (2003): "The novel is often considered Austen's most romantic work ... In Persuasion Austen makes her hero the equal of her heroine in a new particular: she gives Wentworth a profession in which he has to risk his life." And the most moving love letter I've ever read in a novel, I am persuaded, was written by Jane Austen, through Captain Frederick Wentworth addressed to Miss Anne Elliot.
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| Jane Austen |
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| Northanger Abbey, Persuasion Photo credit: http://www.abebooks.com/ |
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