At one time or another, readers, critics, and Janeites far and wide seem to focus on one of two aspects of Jane’s work.

Was she a Romantic? Or was she a Pragmatist?

What do you think?

Let’s take a look, first with a telescope, then a microscope.

Those who know very little about Jane Austen tend to think (often with disdain, and from a superficial distance of unfamiliarity) that she wrote the epitome of old-fashioned chick lit—priggish “romances.”

Those who’ve had Austen forcibly assigned in school and barely read one book with reluctance (yes, we all know there are such people, and the one book is usually Pride and Prejudice), think she writes long-winded and boring “mushy” love stories about ladies and gentlemen who talk about their feelings, and where nothing really happens.

As we start moving closer in, there are the casual audiences who have enjoyed a variety of Jane Austen films, swooned over Colin Firth’s Mr. Darcy, and enjoyed Pride and Prejudice the book, and possibly one more Austen novel of their own choice, as school reading material, but have retained memories only of delightful “women’s lit” romance with funny elements thrown in (Mr. Collins, Mrs. Bennet).

Then we come to the Janeites. Those of us—yes, I’m looking at you, gentle reader of this blog!—those of us who truly love Jane Austen enough to have read not only Pride and Prejudice but many or all of her other works, and seen all the movies, and read biographical materials, and visited the birthplace, and collected action figures—ahem! Those of us Janeites who have actually read her prose frequently and closely enough to notice that there is not merely “romance” in these pages but wit, clever acerbic remarks, humor and shrewd observation of psychology and human foibles, can say that Jane Austen was also a Satirist, a Pragmatist, a Humorist, and a True Sparkling Wit.

Sure, there are elements of lofty romantic tragedy when Marianne pines for Willoughby in Sense and Sensibility—but it is so deftly juxtaposed with the sensible down-to-earth endurance of reasonable Elinor whose own true love and emotional pain is hidden deeply and discreetly.

Sure, Emma tries her hand at match-making using a set of sentimental preconceptions about romantic love applied with a wide clueless brush of one-size-fits-all (class differences, personality, practical considerations, personal inclinations, and reality itself be damned). And look what a mess it makes when she tries to “raise” simple Harriet to the level of a dramatic heroine.

Fanny Price does not succumb to romantic temptation and neither does Edmund in the end—not only because of their high morals, but because Jane Austen ultimately wills them to be realist. And as for the romantic stereotypes of Henry Crawford and Mary Crawford? They are not so lofty after all, but tainted by the materialistic worldly vices of being rather ordinary. They never rise to the true Byronic heights of dark demonic passion, but instead show a lesser, and hence more pragmatic and human side to their shortcomings.

Anne Elliot is separated by enforced circumstances from her beloved Captain Wentworth, but genuine enduring love triumphs over high drama of romance, and Austen makes sure that the lovers are reunited through reasons of practicality also, as better status and fortune favor their union the second time around.

Yes, everyone knows the romantic individualism of Elizabeth Bennet and her refusal of Mr. Darcy. Yes, Darcy behaves honorably and wins her regard. But there is also the undeniable reality of all that is represented by Pemberley which Austen highlights with subtle skill, so that again, romance is tempered by practical realizations on a very visceral level. Pemberley is just as much of  a sex symbol as is the gentleman owner.

And then there’s the ultimate trip to satire land that is Northanger Abbey…

Catherine Morland is an ingénue with romantic pretensions. She is placed in ludicrous circumstances and tempted to play with Gothic Romance (with capital letters!) where there is absolutely none. In this one novel Jane Austen mocks High Romance so thoroughly that one cannot help but call her The Flaming Anti-Romantic—until we are given to remember that genuine love does triumph in the end, and all ends well, as is worthy of Happily Ever After, the HEA ending required by the modern definitions of romance.

So what does that make Jane Austen? A closeted romantic in spite of herself? A pragmatist in spite of recognition of the force of romance in real life?

How about both?

So… what the heck is the ultimate marriage of romance and practicality?

It’s Reality!

Jane Austen is the ultimate realist stuck in a dissonant, polarized pendulum cycle of shifting literary focus that “proves” that both extremes are necessary elements that define our lives.

And now, to celebrate Jane Austen’s fabulous wedding of Romance and Satire, I am offering my own take on this—my own “romantic satire of a romantic satire…”

Northanger Abbey and Angels and Dragons is available as a free Kindle Ebook that you can download absolutely free all week from Amazon (US, UK, DE, FR, ES, IT)!

But hurry, this 5-day free download period starts today, Monday, January 23, and ends at midnight on Friday, January 27.

 

And a bonus—for two days, you can also get a free download of a hilarious literary short story written by me, “Old Farts” (until midnight, January 25th).